Advertisement
Published: January 29th 2007
Edit Blog Post
"Look Left"
I always had to look down first before I could figure out where the traffic was coming from. So confusing! Hey Everyone,
So, I've had definitly my worst travel experience yet. I took off on January 25th for what was supposed to be amazing 12 day travel and vacation experience in London and Scotland. I had high hopes, but definitly was a little nervous before I left, and for good reason I would soon find out. London, most definitly, is one of the hardest of hard cities to be a tourist in. Especially for a small town, country lovin, city hatin girl as myself. Its big, its noisy, the people are not very nice, nobody smiles or laughs, its expensive, you feel constantly in danger for your belongings and yourself, its filled with mixed messages, and finally it traps you in with expensive train and bus fare to anywhere else so you can't escape!... obviously, I didn't like it much. I can understand why some would, and I'm not saying you shouldn't go there. Or that its a "bad place". Its just a bad place for me. Anyway... I'll stop pretending that I have an objective view of it and get on with the story.
I arrived around 7pm at the Luton Airport, which I found out is about
Stephie, Anya, and Ooli
My german tour guides! Great girls! a 50 minute drive from actual London area, so right away they ding you 7 pounds (over 15$) just to get to the city. Once there, to get to my hostel was another 12$ for a Subway ticket. That I really don't understand. 12$ for a day subway/bus pass. How can you call it public transport when a large portion of the public can't even afford it?? Anyway, so after getting to my hostel, I was tired, and just hung out with some nice German girls who were in my room at the hostel bar. The hostel was decent... cheap for London which was a treat, and clean so I couldn't complain.
The next day, I spent the morning with the German girls, hitting up Buckingham palace for the changing of the guards. It was, well, overrun by tourists first of all. As the parades came down the street people were running every which way trying to get their perfect photo, and then to get to the gates to be able to see inside. You can see in the picture, a lot of people, and this is OFF SEASON. I can't even imaging what its like mid-summer. It was
Changing of the Guards
Unfortunately we got there late and so this was our view for a lot of it
neat to see such an old tradition take place, but it all seems a little formal, passe, and really done only for tourism's sake now.
Next we went on to Westminister Abbey, which we found out cost a whopping 14pounds to get in. That's like, over 30$. For a church. Needless to say, we didn't go in. Took a picture of the outside and kept on our way. We walked a bit around parliament after that, and Big Ben, until finally heading up to Picadilly Circus for a bite to eat. Now, Picadilly Circus, I was not aware, is not some kind of a circus, or a market, or even a cool square to hang out in. No... its basically like the London version of Times Square: noisy, cars going every which way, huge electical billboards and the same old big name commercial shops that are in every big city. Yuck.
After lunch, I left the girls to hit up the Soho district and hang out there for a bit. Soho is neat... very funky shops and bars, lots of vintage clothing and antiques in the shop windows, and very colorfully decorated and painted buildings. I hung out
there for most of the afternoon just shopping a little and glad to have finally found something I liked in London.
That night, unfortunately, I got sick with a migrain headache, and could not go to all the Australia Day festivities that were going on. Another part contributing to my frustration with London that really had nothing to do with the city (well, maybe it did... all the traffic noise and being so frustrated with how much money i had to spend there didn't help the headache!)
So, the next day I decided to take it easy and spend the whole morning wandering through Kensington and Hyde Park, then on to Green Park and St. James Park. Its actually really nice you can walk for quite a long time and barely see road because the parks are all connected to each other. Hyde and Kensington were great... quiet, not to many tourists but a ton of morning joggers, and even though there were no leaves on the trees still beautiful and still some roses left in the gardens. By the time you get to St. James Park, however, its fairly overrun with tourists on their way to Buckingham
Marching Band
An old man made us stop and watch while the band went by! So Patriotic! palace.
After that, I took the tube (that's what they call the Subway mom... hehe) to central London to see the Tower Bridge and hang out by the Thames River for the afternoon. I came across a HUGE old pub and decided to go in, and quickly found myself the only tourist in a bar full older men discussing the last football game over a pint. So great, and to top it off a lunch of fish and chips just really gave me a truely "British" experience, if there is such a thing!
Even though I had had a good day, I had it looming in my mind that tomorrow was a travel day and I still did not have bus or train tickets to get myself up to Scotland. So, that night I spent probably 2 and a half hours (and 10$) on the internet trying to find something for under 200$. Well, no luck. The one bus line that had cheap busses, the online reservation wouldn't take either of my credit cards. So, after a great deal of frustration and tears from feeling stuck in a city that I really didn't like, and after all the
signs that I shouldn't be there, I decided that the next morning, I would go to the bus station, and if I couldn't get on a bus, then I would go home. So I went to the bus station, tried, cried, and then decided it was time to go home. It just wasn't worth it. I was there for the wrong reasons (perhaps no reason at all?), I was frustrated and at a serious low point in self confidence, and God just clearly did not want me there.
So, now, I'm home in Ljubljana. And it feels great to be home. And as much as I wish I could have seen the Scotland highlands, I'm sure there will be another and better time in my life for it!
Godbless you all, love
Mel.
Advertisement
Tot: 0.041s; Tpl: 0.012s; cc: 10; qc: 18; dbt: 0.0206s; 1; m:domysql w:travelblog (10.17.0.13); sld: 1;
; mem: 1.1mb
Christy
non-member comment
so sorry
I'm so sorry you had such a dreadful time in the UK - that's not what it should be like! It's truly wonderful, especially when you get out of crazy London. I think you would have fallen in love with Scotland a little bit. Hope you are well. Love me