My 3 Day London Experience (I saw alot)

Hi All, I know it’s been a really long time since I posted.  I have been going through a lot, divorce, moving to a new city, starting a new job and getting some travel in where I can.

Last month I up and took a 5 day trip to London (2 of days was just flying).  Sometimes you just need and want to get away to clear your head.  So, that’s what I did.  It was a grueling all day and all night travel agenda.  I left Memphis on an early morning flight to Atlanta.  I had a 5 hour wait to catch my 7 hour overnight flight to London Heathrow airport.  The overnight flight was nice on British Airways.  I did awake to some serious turbulence. I hate turbulence!  Scares the bejebbies out of me!  The turbulence eventually subsided and I caught a few more Zzzzzzzs again.  All in all the flight was good.

When I got to London, I checked into the Thistle Barbican Shoreditch Hotel London.  It was only a couple of blocks from a very Trendy popping area and the Tube (Subway) was only a couple of blocks away as well.  The Subway was hard to navigate for me and I got lost several times but hey life is an adventure and I was tickled at myself for trying.

Since this was my first time in London, it reminded me a lot of New York.  The abundance of cute little black cabs vs. New York’s yellow cabs, crowds and crowds of people walking everywhere, the shopping, the little bars everywhere and the underground subways look and feel very similar to me as well.  I love NY and I think I fell in love with London as well.

I visited Buckingham Palace – It was great and very lovely.  It was just like I imagined it.

Big Ben – I didn’t get to truly see it.  It looked like it was under construction and there was some barricades near it, but I did get a couple of faraway shots.

The Horse Guard’s Parade – A Large Parade area and one of largest open areas in London.  It was interesting to see.  I even got to touch a horse.

The Mall London – It’s not an actual mall.  It is a road in the city, a square area where everyone was taking pictures.  It was in walking distance of Westminster in Central London. There are a lot of statues and very old, old architecture that is very interesting to see.

Trafalgar Square – It’s a huge square where today people get to protest and rally for various reasons like religion or some other cause.  It has huge Lion Statues and others that have rich history.  Today the square can be rented out for various events.

Jubilee Gardens – Headed to the London Bridge, I walked through this park area.  The area was live with people and near the next area called South Bank.  There were performances from people working for tips.  It was cool to see.  I was thoroughly entertained.  I remember in one day in London I got 37,000 steps.  Ha ha! That’s a lot for me in a day.

 South Bank – Very cultural area, it is full of restaurants, gorgeous historic pubs, and many landmarks can be seen such as the London Eye Ferris Wheel.

 Waterloo – This is a bridge in London near the South Bank area.  People were walking across it and could drive across it.  It was cool.

 

London Bridge – I made it to the Bridge and got a few pictures.  By the time, I got there I was exhausted and wasn’t even excited anymore.  Because of my limited 3 full days in the UK.  I had to draw the line before I passed out.

On my third night there I got out and went to a night club called Club Nomad.  It was extremely tiny and it got crowded too.  They played a mixture of American hip hop, a lot of Rhianna and reggae music.  I am not sure why but unlike America, they served no specialty drinks.  The bar only had premium liquor with your choice of a juice chaser.  So much for my apple martini or Manhattan I normally get when I am in drinking mode.  It was a little weird for me and that was my 2^nd time experiencing not being able to get a specialty drink while there.  I am not a big drinker anyway, so oh well, whatever.

The food was just ok for me.  I guess I am use to good ole American, Southern food, overly seasoned.  I met a guy there and he took me to a couple of food places that he thought I would like.  They were ok the food was not seasoned like we over do in the US.  The chicken tasted different as well.  Maybe their food isn’t processed like it is in the US.  To me, everything was a little bland.  Also, I must note that the portion sizes were much smaller than what I see in my country.

For breakfast one morning my new friend Henry told me that I needed to try a proper English breakfast.  So, I thought hmmm why not.  Yeah, let me try it. I walked not too far from my hotel into a small little place (very small) called Fast Break. I sat down and I ordered a proper English breakfast.  I did not eat all of it but I wanted the experience.  To me, it was rather weird that they eat French fries for breakfast.  They also eat pork and beans for breakfast.  The bacon looks more like ham and they serve sliced tomatoes and mushrooms on the plate as well.  Oh and let’s not forget about the tea.  Everywhere I ate, tea was served.

Overall, my London experience was great.  Three days was not long but hey you see how much I did.  It was great.  I love going new places and meeting new people.  I love seeing the culture differences and just seeing and understanding how other people live in other parts of the world.  I cannot wait to go back.

My trip home was exhausting I was flying a whole day.  The flying was my downside of the whole trip.  I would do it again to get a new experience any day!
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