Finally, some fish n’ chips!

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I started things off pretty slow this morning - my feet/legs are still in pain from climbing the Eiffel Tower haha. Of course by slow, I just mean I took the tube everywhere I went, but I still saw a lot.

I started at King Cross Station to go hunting for Platform 9 and ¾, (Yes, I’m a Harry Potter nerd =)!) and then headed off to Buckingham Palace. The plan was to see the Changing of the Guard, but by the time I got there the crowd was already thick, so I wandered around Green Park and grabbed some lunch (ham, cheese, and apparently “pickle” sandwich… it was good, but def not the “pickles” we have in Canada). I ate my sandwich while sitting on a lawn chair - there were a good couple dozen of them opened up for passerbys to have a seat. (And they weren’t crappy lawn chairs, they were actual chair chairs)

After my quick lunch I headed back towards Buckingham and admired the large golden gate near the palace - I then realized it was a “Canadian” gate - covered in the provinces’ coat of arms and such. Yay Canada! Buckingham itself from the outside is nothing special, but the fountain in the square is lovely, and it was just fun to watch the police try to maintain the crowds.

I headed back to the hostel to confirm my extra night (long story short, I had to wait for the guy to come back b/c he had quoted me half price for the twin since the single was already booked). The two desk staff guys started teasing me about traveling alone lol, and offered to send me a family to be my roomates. I laughed - I don’t think that would work too well w/ the single bunk bed.

Obv I’m still alone in the twin room. Unless you count the two frogs that are my décor haha.

Afternoon was spent in central London once again. I decided to check out the National History Museum (essentially, like our Nature Museum). It was free, so you can never go wrong with that. It was actually really interesting though - one of the better museums I’ve been too.

From there I headed back to Big Ben and Parliament… I love their secure parking area - you could literally step over the “wall” that separates all the cars from the public. I think some of the MPs were about to leave for the day b/c there was a wall of journalists and cameras, but I didn’t stick around long enough to find out. I passed by Westminster Abbey (since when do you pay to enter a church?!), the UK Supreme Court, and then headed off to London Bridge.

I ended my day with a well deserved fish n’ chips and beer. Ahhhh, very nice. One little surprise - much like the so called “pickles” in my sandwich, London vinegar is also quite different from our version. It’s a good thing I only put a little b/c the stench (and I mean stench) along with the strong flavor was slightly overpowering haha.

Also, as per usual, I had about 5 conversations with randoms who started talking to me in the streets. At least in London it mostly seems to be tourists (4 of the 5) and the other was a Tube worker doing customer satisfaction surveys. See, this I can deal with - I have no problem chatting with other travelers, as long as they’re not drunk.

(Sidenote: speaking of drunk - totally random, but I just remembered. When I was in Paris these two Russian guys showed up in line for the Eiffel Tower Stairs totally wasted, with a bottle of vodka. I had to laugh. Needless to say, security didn’t let them through)

Tomorrow I’m going to try and find Abbey Road (yay, Beatles), and possibly head back to the Museum as I didn’t see the last exhibit since the museum closed early. It’s then off to Berlin overnight on the bus… maybe this time I can get a good shot of the Cliffs of Dover since I'm leaving a little earlier in the evening. (HA! This time I won't be caught getting up at 3am. Pfft)

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