Big Ben’s Down :'(

Oh yeah, I forgot to add about the weather here. So I went in late May, and the weather’s still pretty spring-ish. It’s about 15-20 degree celsius in the day, which can dip to low 10s in the evening/night.

Begun the day with their in-house breakfast (you have to pay a quid for it). Pretty basic stuff with cereal, toast, coffee, and some fruits. Good enough to get you by the morning!

Our plan was to go on a route backwards all the way up back to our hostel (the oval part is not where our hostel is, our hostel is further up northeast. I’ll explain more later, somewhat). Got off at Westminster station and head up these steps expecting to see the Big Ben smack right in our face, but we didn’t see anything…

Photo by me, taken on the Nikon D3300 with the NIKKOR 35mm f1.8G

UNTIL… we reached where tourists would flock to get shots of the London Eye. I was just casually looking around until I saw this huge clock surrounded with obvious construction like structures.

Bummer. But it’s all good, still managed to get a picture of the London Eye, which unlike its landmark counterpart, appears untouched.

Photo take by me, on the Nikon D3300, with the NIKKOR 35mm f1.8g

Just a random thought, but I swear when memory fails you, just take a look at the pictures you took, and they come back in an instant (yes, it just happened to me).

Right, so after hanging about the very beautiful River Thames in between the Westminster and Hungerford Bridge, we headed towards Buckingham Palace.

Managed to get this along the way:

There was the Guard changing parade going on so we managed to go at the right time, which means… CROWDS… A. WHOLE. LOT. OF. PEOPLE.

I swear it’s like a multicultural tourist infestation right there.

Anyways, it was something I had to experience at least once in my life, yeah?

At Trafalgar Square, I got hit up by a guy who said he was an immigrant and had no money and needed to provide for his family back home (yeah if you’re not used to it, you’ll see a lot of them here). I rejected. But man his persistence is crazy. I gave him 5 pounds but he asked for more. At that point I was just annoyed and I said, “take it or leave it. You’ve got money from me, if you don’t want it, give it back.” Later on, I found out from Eugene that he’s a twin and I looked over and saw him with his brother, clearly arguing with each other. Con or not? I can’t be sure, but I have an inkling I submitted too easily…

Headed up to SoHo next to grab some steak at Flat Iron. Yes, it’s good. Like, really good. Hands down one of the best I ever had. Get it in Medium Rare, as per their recommendation. It costs 11 pounds for your steak, plus you get a salad! You even get to buy the knife for 15 pounds! Oh, and I don’t think they accept reservations here, so find out the nearest one, make your way there and get queueing! It would take about 15-20 minutes for you to get in, depending on your pax size.

The next few hours after that were spent shopping around SoHo area, so I’ll just share some of my shots, though my DSLR died halfway so thank God for my handy dandy iPhone 8 Plus!! But still, the following are all from my Nikon D3300.

Okay so, we wanted to hit the night scene out in London but we went to take a nap back at our hostel and, you know what happens after a long day touring a city… 😴

Living out a dream

“It’s actually happening, it’s actually happening, omg omg omg.”

These were the exact thoughts pacing through my head as my Norwegian 787 Dreamliner took off (despite the 2 hour + delay, which was terribly annoying as the plane became pretty humid and warm inside. Tried applying for a claim through AirHelp but turns out it’s only valid if the delay is 3 hours or more).

I had to go on a budget for this so a direct, 14-hour, no layover, flight made perfect sense to me. And at the cost of 750SGD to-and-fro? Sign me up man!

You can check the airlines out here: http://www.norwegian.com

So besides the delay, everything else went pretty smooth. Flying past Afghanistan, Iran, Austria (and many more countries (which I would love to go one day), I arrived to the gloom and showers of Gatwick.

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I prepaid for a ticket from Gatwick Airport to London St. Pancras, but when I inserted my card into the reader, it said that I couldn’t use that card to collect my ticket. In a rush to meet up with my friends, I didn’t really want to figure out what was going on and I just went a bought a new ticket. There wasn’t much of a difference, but I guess if you want cheaper rates you should buy your ticket way ahead in advance (probably 3 months or earlier), and you have to figure out how to collect your ticket just in case something like the reader fails on you.

So I hopped on my Thameslink train and arrived in 45 minutes at London St. Pancras. Do note that this is not the tube! It’s another service that runs across different parts of the U.K. Which means, for example, you can get from London to Liverpool through it.

 

Photos taken by me, on the iPhone 8 Plus

And here I was, in London, rain ceasing, cars honking, people hustling, surrounded by both quaint and modern architecture all over.

Photo taken by me, on the Nikon D3300, with the 35mm f1.8g

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Met up with Eugene and Norman, two of my friends who are on a much longer trip across Europe, and I’ll just be following them through U.K., Belgium and Netherlands. Had some good ol’ meat and chips for dinner at Greene King before heading to our hostel.

We stayed at the Clink261 hostel, in a bunk consisting of about 16 beds. Trust me guys, if you ever go on a trip alone or with your friends, go to a hostel! You’re bound to meet people from all over the world, it’s truly amazing. There were people from France, Australia, and China in our room.

You can find the property’s page on Hostelworld here: https://www.hostelworld.com/hosteldetails.php/Clink261/London/516

Photo courtesy of TripAdvisor

Anyways, if you guys are concerned about smoking, you can practically smoke anywhere in the U.K., except indoors. And DON’T purchase your tobacco in U.K., it’s way too pricey (about 8-10 pounds for a pack). Go get them at duty-free at the airport where you’re departing from.

So for the rest of the night, we headed off to Clink78 (it’s another subsidiary hostel with Clink 261) for some drinks. Alcohol here is pretty decently priced. You can get a pint for about 4 quid? And sometimes you can get cheaper rates at supermarkets. And for hard liquor, you could probably get a bottle of Vodka or Whisket for about 19 pounds. Oh, and a bottle of Evian there costs a quid (sorry, in Singpore they cost like 3.50SGD. I’m in disbelief).

Of the two hostels, I would suggest making your stay at Clink78, as there are a bit more facilities inside there:

• Bar (pool table, cheap booze, daily activities – from movie screenings to beer pong)
• Dining Area
• Breakfast (you have to pay a pound for it if I’m not mistaken)
• More rooms

Oh and the architecture inside is pretty awesome at the entrance.

 

Pictures courtesy of getaroom.com.au

You can find the property’s page on Hostelworld here: https://www.hostelworld.com/hosteldetails.php/Clink78/London/21954

But then again, both hostels are sort of the same. You can have access to both if you have your proof of stay – which is essentially your room card.

Back.

Haven’t been here in a reeeeeaaaalllllyyyy long time. Quite a bit has happened while I was away, but the definite highlight was my Europe trip which I am still in absolute disbelief that it actually happened. Will be definitely be sharing more about it here. But for now, here’s a narcissistic shot of me at the British Museum..