Déjà Vu

---

12/07/13 - 18/07/13

So as I left off in the last post I had got back to Barcelona airport and was after a flight back to London. Not an issue to find but I wasn't expecting it to cost me almost €200. So I took what I could get and soon found myself back in the land of the queen and warm beer at Gatwick Airport. My main issue was I had no accommodation booked for this night, I had it starting the following night. I assumed I'd be able to just get a bed in the hostel I was booked into the next night, but I didn't count on one thing, the Rolling Stones were playing in Hyde Park. So a bed was much harder to come by then I thought. I tried the hostel I was booked in the next day. No good. I tried the Generator. No good. The girl behind the counter at the Generator was nice enough to give me a wifi password so I could get on the internet and find one that way, but to no avail. By this time it was 10pm and I was truly beginning to think I was about to spend the night out in the weather, in one of the parks around London. And really I'm not afraid to admit that didn't appeal to me very much, but my mum became my saviour sending me a message to say she had managed to find me a room in a hotel across town. So thanks mum for saving my arse.

A £40 cab ride across town I had never been so happy to check into a place. Being 11pm or so by now after a shower I climbed into bed, and turned on TV a luxury I really hadn't missed. Hostel probably wasn't the best movie to watch days out from beginning what would be an amazing couple months throughout Europe.

The next morning came, I got up and checked out. With a few hours to spare before I could check into my hostel, I decided to walk across town. The last of my time in London, until a couple of days before I was to return home would be spent at the Smart Hostel near Russell Square. Conveniently located just down the street from where I was to leave on my Contiki. This was probably the worst place I stayed in on my trip. I was in a 12 bed dorm, in the basement of the building. It was barely three beds long and approximately two and a half beds wide meant it was hard to move around without disturbing someone trying to sleep. Not only this there was one window about a foot square, but being below street level there was very little airflow and during a English summer of superb weather, it was like a sauna. I spent the afternoon of the 13th at the Walkabout Pub in Temple an Aussie bar where I found myself watching the ashes test with new friends BJ, Georgette, Andrew, Karly and Luke. What was to be a quiet afternoon, went pear shaped when we discovered we could order fishbowls of Bundy Rum, Kahlua and Coke. We discovered this after BJ and I had been drinking double bundys most of the afternoon. Then after a while everyone had to go their own ways and drunkenly set up to catch up with Karly again on Wednesday for the State of Origin decider over at the Walkabout Pub in Shepherds Bush. I can't say as stumbling in drunk I was able to keep the noise down too much in my hostel room, but that's something one must get used to when sharing a room with so many people with so many different plans.

The next day, I was planning on doing laundry, so another rocking day in the laundry was on the cards, keeping up with the score of the cricket on the internet. I got halfway through my laundry and Australia was in with a chance so I nicked off to the pub behind where I was staying, only to have us lose our last wicket about 10 minutes after I got there. A mere 14 runs short. Much closer than I expected us to get in any test of that ashes series. And by this stage I had lunch ordered and a beer in front of me so it appeared like the washing wasn't going to get finished today. So after a couple more beers I went back to the hostel and spent the rest of the day catching up on things back home and uploading some photos before an early night as I was still wrecked from the night before.

I pretty well spent the next day in bed as I was still struggling to fight a bit of a virus I had picked up in Pamplona, and this was the worst I had felt, so there isn't much really I can write about, as the only time I was out of bed was to wander outside and find the closest thing I could to eat and then it was straight back to bed. One plus of staying in a sauna was there was every chance I was going to sweat out whatever was making me sick.

The next day still not feeling the greatest, I dragged my arse out of bed to go and get my tourist on again. Not sure of what to do I decided to just go for another walk this time along the north side of the river and then decided when I got there to go into the Tower of London. So I paid my £19 I think it was and grabbed a booklet to take myself around as I was a tight arse and didn't want to fork out extra to go with a guide. It was a pretty cool place to walk around and see the different displays they have of armours, the crown jewels and other stuff dating back to the early days in London. And walking around the Tower of London I finally learnt the reason why there are Lions on the English Logo, because of the Lions that used to be used to guard the Tower. I even learnt that there was once a Polar Bear live at the Tower of London given by the king of Norway as a gift and it was kept on a tether long enough so it could go fishing in the Thames. I walked home via Trafalgar Square as I had only been there on Canada Day so I figured I should go and see it in its natural state. After this I walked through Leister Square where I stumbled across the London premier of Wolverine. I hung out at the red carpet for a bit, caught a glimpse of Hugh Jackman then continued on my way back to my hostel. Another early night was on the cards as the next day was an early start to get to Shepherds Bush for the Origin decider. On top of this I had been invited to the launch of a beer by the Canadian brew student I had met at Canada day and also there was a bit of a contiki gathering in the evening after origin.

I was up relatively early to catch the tube across town to Shepherds Bush to the Walkabout Pub for the state of origin decider. I got there a bit after 8.30 which was good as the doors opened at nine and if my memory serves me correctly kick off was at 10am. Things were destined to get messy again, which was becoming a trend for this week in London as they were selling Tooheys Extra Dray's three for £10. I remember it being a great game of footy, and made better by Queensland sealing it late while watching it with a couple of NSW fans I had made friends with as Karly had been tied up at a job interview. She made it I think for about the last four minutes. By this stage I was fairly rotten because at halftime the TEDs became Smirnoff for the same deal. So we hung out for a bit before I retired back to my hostel to try and sleep the damage I had done off before the events of the night. Needless to say that didn't happen and I woke up about 10pm and thought bed was probably my safest option so I stayed there, missing out on both of the things I was supposed to attend.

The next morning I planned on heading down to Buckingham Palace for the changing of the guard. Got down there a little bit early to try and get a decent spot. Standing around waiting in the crowd waiting for things to kick off and the gates opened and the queen drove out in her range rover not 5 metres from where I was standing, giving off her little royal wave as she was going. I thought it may have been to do with the royal baby but turned out it was just so she could go to the cricket. The changing of the guard ceremony was pretty good and I think it's something everyone should check out. Was another pretty quiet afternoon after this I think getting laundry finished before my contiki left the next day, for which we had a meeting for that night.

So I wandered down and found the meeting for my contiki where we got all the last minute information we needed before we left. I was standing in line waiting to check in and I was standing next to this guy whose face I recognised but couldn't think of where from, then it clicked to me, it was Byron from the last night in Pamplona. It was kind of refreshing to see a familiar face on my trip. After we all checked in, our tour manager Peps, said we should all go and have a beer at the bar as a kind of get to know each other thing. So down to the bar we went and started to get to know the people that would be on my trip with Peps final words ringing in my ears, 'don't make it too late, we leave at 6am.' Good advice but we weren't going to take it. It came time for the bar to close at midnight where most people called it a night except for 7 of us. Digga, Matt, Byron and I and the three Canadian girls Emily, Lauren and Julia decided to keep the party going, so went for a walk till we found a small place still open. At about 2.30 we decided to call it a night and I walked back to the Royal National where they were all (apart from Byron, he'd left earlier to go back to where he was staying) staying and it was at this stage I kind of realised the 7 of us had started something a little bit special. Then it was definitely confirmed when Julia and I shared a parting chest bump.

Before setting out on a 5 week tour around Europe most people would try to get some sleep, but I decided to pack my things and head upstairs. The last thing I wanted to do was miss the bus. So I pulled an all nighter. If I realised how little sleep I was going to get over the next 37 days, I may have treasured the couple of hours I could have got then.

Feel free to subscribe if you enjoy my blog!

---

Photos

Walkabout Temple
BJ and I with our fishbowls

Walkabout Shepherds Bush
Origin at the Walky

Comments

[Carmel]

Adventure
Another great adventure,

[victorian67]

A very warm welcome to you from Luxembourg !
Enjoy your travels ! Karim