"If you get tired of London, then you are tired of life"

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I started out this trip in London. After collecting luggage and calling home to let the parents know I made it, Alex and I set off in search of our hostel. Along the way we managed to meet an Australian girl who needed a place to stay and decided to tag along with us to see if our hostel had any room for her. When we stepped out of the tube station, it was pouring. Alex and I covered our backpacks, pulled up our hoods, and stepped out into the downpour. Our new Australian friend had a very large rolling suitcase and decided to remain in the dryness of the overhang for a while. At the hostel, we put our luggage into storage, grabbed our umbrellas, cameras and other necessary rain gear and made our way towards Wimbledon. We weren't sure what stop to actually get off on, so we asked someone on the train. However, the person we asked wasn't really sure so we decided to keep going. It turned out that the person was right and we should have listened to him. Oh well. A few stops later, and we eventually made it to our destination.

After Wimbledon, we made our way to Greenwich (I wanted to see the prime meridian). We walked around the Naval Academy for a bit then braved the rain and umbrella breaking wind to climb up to the top of the hill where the observatory and meridian were located. We took the requisite, one leg on each side of the meridian, pictures then headed back towards the train station, stopping off at a little market to look around and buy half price food items for dinner.

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We got a fairly early start this morning, and began by walking from our hostel to the bus stop where we will be catching the bus to the airport very early tomorrow morning. We continued walking from there, and managed to end up at Buckingham Palace. The crowd was already gathered to see the changing of the guard. Alex had no desire to see it, and I had seen it the first time I was in London so we took a few pictures and headed off through a park towards Big Ben. From there, we walked along the river on our way to the Globe Theater. It was not a short walk but at least it wasn’t raining. Plus, we were entertained along the way by a speedboat that made its way up the Thames, while someone in the boat waved, followed by three helicopters. We were convinced it was Prince Charles and Camilla.

From the Globe, we caught the tube to the Tower Bridge where we asked two Asian tourists to take a picture of Alex and me. They then proceeded to take turns taking pictures along with us. Slightly awkward. We hopped back on the tube and got off at Piccadilly Circus, then walked to Trafalgar Square (one of my favorite places in London). We climbed to the top step of Nelson’s column and people watched for a bit before we caught a double decker bus, then the tube to Hyde Park where we searched for the Peter Pan statue (eventually we found it). We ended our last day in London by getting fish and chips for dinner, then heading back to Trafalgar where we spent more time people watching before heading back to the hostel.

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After maybe two hours of sleep, Alex and I woke up, gathered our stuff, put on all of our rain gear and stepped out the front door of the hostel. As luck would have it, it was pouring with thunder and bursts of lightening erupting every few minutes. We managed to make it to the bus station in about 10 minutes (fairly quickly); however, it wasn’t quite fast enough to escape being drenched by the rain. We waited under an overhang for a while longer before our 3:00am bus arrived to take us to the airport. After even more waiting at the airport, we eventually boarded our plane to Tallinn.

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Photos

Prime Meridian
In Greenwich. Yes I know I am a huge nerd.

Greenwich
View of the city

Comments

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I love reading all about your travels. Always great photos too. London is a fun "town"