Hey all! Sorry for taking so long to get this post together. I’m doing a lot of traveling over the coming weeks (and consequentially not having much time to spend on school stuff), so I have been busy working to get myself caught up/ahead in my classes so that I am not freaking out come the end of February when the traveling pauses (until I book another few trips, haha). So without further ado, here is my rundown of my time in London. Check out my album on Facebook if you want to follow along with this chronological account.
Day 1
My journey began at 08:12 (yes, I planned down to the minute) in the morning on 4 Feb 15. I left my room with my handy traveling backpack (which is just a backpacking backpack that is slightly larger than a typical school backpack; in hindsight, I probably didn’t need to buy it, but whatever, I own it now, so I’m going to enjoy the hell out of it) on my back, ready for adventure. I got my tickets for insanely cheap ($22 roundtrip!), so naturally they weren’t going to be through easy-to-access airports. So instead of taking the 20-ish minute airport express train to the main Oslo airport, I had to take a regional train to Rygge Airport, located about an hour south of Oslo. This didn’t prove to be that big of a deal, and I managed to get some reading done on the train, helping me feel better about going to London in the middle of the week, haha.
The flight was uneventful and also super empty, so I had an entire row to myself, which is not a bad thing when you’re two meters (6ft, 7in) tall! I arrived at “London” Standsted Airport on time—London is in quotes because the airport is essentially two hours away from Central London, which proved to be a giant time suck; oh, well, I got a super good deal, so I’ll stop whining now. After spending an entire hour in the passport control line, I waited for my bus to Central London for another 45 minutes or so. After an hour and 45 minutes on a bus, I was finally in Central London (and also very annoyed with how much time I had spent waiting and traveling). I found my way to the London Underground (my inner public transit enthusiast was freaking out) and headed to my hostel for check-in.
After checking in, I decided to get some food and drink at the hostel bar. Having not eaten anything since breakfast—airport food is too expensive—I quickly became quite buzzed in the bar, which was unintended… Oops! I had more fun at the bar than I expected (blame it on the cider), meeting fellow travelers and talking to the bartender about London. I headed back to my room and made an attack plan for the next day, when I would actually be out and about in the city. Lucking out as the only person in my 4-bed hostel room, I slept excellently.
(As I’m writing this, I am realizing that I am providing way too much detail. Having other stuff to get done yet tonight, I don’t have time for this; the accounts of Days 2-4 are going to be shorter, probably.)
Day 2
I started out my day with a free walking tour by Undiscovered London, some group that organizes events for travelers that I found out about through my hostel. I went into the tour with really low expectations, but I am happy to say that the tour was excellent. The tour guide really knew what she was talking about and I was able to a lot of the main sites in a compact amount of time. It was definitely worth more than free, so I had no qualms in tipping the tour guide when we finished it.
The tour started out near Buckingham Palace. The changing of the guards was happening as we walked by on the tour, so I got to see some of that. I thought that it was kinda cool, but I wouldn’t have gone out of my way to see it. I got to see people wearing weird traditional uniforms on horses with swords though, so the novelty factor was pretty high, haha. The tour went through several important/significant areas of London’s history, which were cool to learn about. The tour ended at the Houses of Parliament, so I decided to walk around the riverfront of the River Thames for a while.
From the riverfront, I went to the Tube (subway) and headed to the Tower of London. Having a small budget for this entire trip, I decided against going inside the actual fortress/castle, because it was equivalent to like 25USD (and I could see enough of it from the outside to be satisfied). I decided to get some fish ‘n chips for lunch to have some true English food. As I sat down to take a picture of my meal (and then obviously eat it), a bird immediately proceeded to shit on me. Thankfully it was a small amount that narrowly missed my food and that I was able to clean up with napkins. But either way, I was very annoyed. Damn birds!
After walking around the Tower of London, I walked across the Tower Bridge (which is really cool-looking and pretty iconic of London). From there, I headed back to the Tube again (I spent a lot of time riding the London Underground everywhere during my visit), this time heading for the British Museum. The British Museum is really cool! There is an insane amount of items on their collection—you could be there for days and you still wouldn’t see everything. I only had an hour and a half, so I was able to see very little of the collection, which was lame, but I still saw a lot of cool things and learned a lot in my time there, so it’s all good.
After the British Museum I headed back to the hostel to charge my phone and to get ready for the night. I signed up for a pub crawl (organized through the same organization that did the walking tour) with some of the people I met on the walking tour earlier that day. We went to five different pubs throughout London’s Camden area. In general, I was a little disappointed with the pubs that we went to. I had experienced better nightlife in both Minnesota and Norway, which really surprised me. But I still managed to have a great time with the great people whom I had met that day, so I’m really glad that I decided to do it! I’m also really glad that I left when I did, because I made the last train of the night that connected with another train that I needed to take with seconds to spare (it was at the platform with open doors when I got down to the platform!). Lots of stressful running took place, and I ended up making my connecting train with 3 minutes to spare. In retrospect, it was comical, but only because I made both trains. If I would have missed those trains, I would have had to spend like 100USD on a taxi, which would have not been comical at all!
Day 3
Day 3 was basically my last day in London. I had made a plan to attend several (free) museums (and one art gallery), so I spent the day executing that plan. I started the day at the Natural History Museum. They have an awesome collection of dinosaur fossils that was really cool to see. Overall, I think that this was my favorite museum of the trip, despite the groups of screaming schoolchildren that I kept trying to get away from. After the Natural History Museum, I went to the Science Museum. My favorite part of the Science Museum was their “Information Age” exhibit, which looked at the progression of modern information technology. I was excited to see some computers from Control Data Corporation, a company for which my dad used to work! The museum map indicated that they had an exhibit on agriculture, but I was unable to find it, as it appeared a temporary art show going on had closed that part of the museum. Not cool. But overall it was a really interesting place to go! After the Science Museum, I took a series of trains (I got really good at navigating the trains during my time in London) to the National Maritime Museum. I enjoyed learning about British colonization and the role that the sea had in that colonization. I especially liked learning about the ridiculous amount of money that people in the 1700s spend on common spices like pepper. Very cool! After the Maritime Museum, I went to the National Gallery. I’m not the biggest fan of art galleries, but they have a really diverse collection from many different time periods, so I ended up spending more time there than I had planned. After that, I walked around Central London near the river for a while to take in some views of the city at night. I finally headed back to the hostel, exhausted from a long day of exploring!
Day 4
Day 4 was pretty much a reverse of Day 1. Got up early, woke everyone up in my hostel room packing my stuff up (sorry!), took the subway to the bus station, bus to the airport, etc. Nothing hugely significant, except a got a cold, which sucks. But oh, well. I’m getting better now, so it’s not a huge deal.
So that was my London trip; I had a great time, and I am excited for my future travels here in Europe! Speaking of which, my sister Laura is currently waiting at the Newark Airport to board a flight to Oslo to visit me! We have a lot planned and also a lot not planned (which is actually pretty fun for traveling, I’ve discovered). Over the next two weeks, we will be exploring Oslo, going on a fjord cruise, going to Copenhagen, and going to Berlin! Oh, and I’m managing to fit all of my classes in there too (not skipping a single one)!
On a much more serious note: I’m really glad that Laura is coming to visit right now, because my uncle and godfather passed away early this morning after fighting cancer for several years. He was a great person; incredibly kind and full of life. I have been blessed to have known him. Rest in peace, Uncle Jim. I’m certainly going to miss you! While I am sad to be unable to attend the funeral, I’m glad that my sister will be here in Norway with me. Being with family makes sorrowful situations like these much more bearable. Thinking about and praying for you, Jim! Sincere condolences to my Aunt Sheila and the Eickman family.
Another post to come before I leave for Copenhagen on Tuesday morning…
Thank you for reading.
-TJS
Tim's Semester Abroad in Norway 