A Spot of Tea, Anyone?

London, England. The capital of the founding nation of every Anglophone colony/country in the world was to be our next destination. We caught our train at 6h18 in St. Étienne to catch our flight out of Lyon. Landing at Gatwick Airport, we were shocked to see the sun. there was only one cloud in the sky! It completely blew our expectations out of the water. We had brought our heavy duty umbrellas with us and we didn’t even need them. Then we took a shuttle the 26 miles into the city (there was English on the radio! ).

First things first : food – they have real muffins !! and then transportation. We bought ‘oyster’ passes. It was relatively cheap – it was 25 pounds for the week on all metros, buses and trains. Sweet! so off we went in search of our hostel – somewhere in Greenwich (pronounced : grenidge). We took the long way around, which we didn’t figure out until the guy at the hostel told us. It took almost 45 mins and the other train was 16 mins. Weird. Eventually finding the correct street, we started searching for the hostel. Well, after getting confused by a native speaking non-English, we walked past a pub. We made a mental note of it; it looked like a great place to grab a pint. Then round the corner we found the hostel, St. Christopher’s Inn, and walked in – low and behold it was the pub! Sweet! It had a great atmosphere, just hang out and relax after an intense day of touristing.

We brought the eurobrick with us – Lonely Planet’s backpackers guide to cheap traveling (it weighs a kilo). It described the Borough Market on Southwark. An outdoor market that offered all kinds of food, it supplied dinner. We shared a bratwurst, a bowl of fish soup, and a slice of ‘New York’ cheesecake. So good. mmmm…. There was even a guy that imported boerenkaas from the motherland! After a taste test we confirmed that it was authentic, but at 22 pound a kilo, it was a little out of our price range. Then we wandered around, ending up on the Millennium Walkway – a pedestrian bridge over the River Thames connecting the Tate Museum and St. Paul’s Cathedral. Shakespeare’s Globe Theatre was also right there. It’s a replica of where his plays were performed. We went inside, but only the gift shop was open, and we even got kicked out of there. There was a Starbucks across the street. Coffee! Yes, I’m an addict, I openly admit it. So inside we went, un café in France in nice, but it’s only an espresso shot in a shot glass sized mug. We both ordered grandes and sat and planned what we were going to do the next day.

Saturday morning, we had breakfast at the hostel (free if you’re staying there) of instant coffee and toast – another phenomenon that doesn’t happen in France. We took the train out and resurfaced at Trafalgar Square, in front of the National Museum. We walked around the square, finding the Canadian Embassy !! national pride! And a souvenir shop, where I purchased a London bag (I didn’t have a purse). In our wandering towards the biggest, awesomest stationary store, we found an art shop that was having a clear out sale on sketch books. The street was lined with used book shops. Being complete book lovers, we headed inside. The novelty of finding something that we could read from front to back with having to have a dictionary within reach was amazing. I purchased a copy of War and Peace by Leo Tolstoy, a classic. In the paper the day before there was a stat that it’s the most lied about book in the UK. Well, I’ll show them !

We made it to Paperchase – the sweetest store ever! It was three stories high and was full of agendas, pens, pencil tins, art supplies, file-a-faxes, and cards. I found the perfect birthday card for Mama and a sweet pencil case for me. Just amazing. We then went for a walk and made it to Buckingham Palace. There is a huge green space to the one side, - with grass and flowers and other nature-like living things. There were so many people standing around, taking photos, it felt like I had just joined the masses, becoming one of the many faceless tourists. We wandered down the street and saw just how big the palace actually is – it covers acres. In the gift shop, we found all the cheesy British things – expensive tea pots and postcards of the royal family, Queen Elizabeth’s favourite soap and perfume scent, all very affordable for your local millionaire.

We then headed over to King’s Cross Station – they put a Platform 9 ¾ in for all Harry Potter fans. It was awesome! It’s the only platform that gets moved with signage during construction. Off to Hogwarts! We hit up a grocery store, as it was Saturday evening, to avoid purchasing on Sunday.

We had dinner back at the hostel pub – bangers and mash and a chicken Caesar salad. Normal lettuce is a rare thing in France and nowhere can you find mashed potatoes. It was really good, even better when you wash it down with a pint. We sat on the couch, watched the cricket game with some gold (mars bars) and another pint. We slept really good that night.

Sunday morning we attended the sung Eucharist at St. Paul’s Cathedral. It was a unique service, heavily laden with traditions. An hour and fifteen minutes we exited in search of a lavatory. The security guard lady pointed us in the other direction, all the way on the other side of the church. We finally found it and discovered that in the basement of the cathedral, by the crypt entrance, there was a fully functioning café and a huge gift shop. There was also a couple benches a little further down, where Mélissa and I passed the afternoon to avoid being caught in the rain. We both had brought our books and journals with us, so we were fully entertained.

At the appropriate time, we made our way to the West Minster Abbey. There was a short organ concert being put on by some famous guy before the service. We were late because of the construction on the tube. We had to go the long way round and were wet by the time we got there. But the music was indeed incredible. I love well played hymns on the organ. Then we stayed for the service, there were monks pointing towards the sanctuary and asking people to leave if they didn’t want to stay. There was an older French couple standing line behind us and was completely confused as to what was happening. Well with our continually improving French we were able to help them out. Yep, that added a notch in the belt. Sister Judith talked about perseverance. It was good. We then headed back to the hostel just to chill. We hung out with some of the other girls in the room, but declined the invite to the toga party.

Ingrid, an Australian girl, told us about finding cheap musical tickets in Leicester Square, so on Monday we were on the hunt. We found good tickets for Les Misérables, by Victor Hugo, at the Queen’s Theatre. We bought the tickets then headed to the National Museum. It has free entrance and is full on all kinds of paintings; some were even by famous people! When we could no longer bear all of the people running about and our feet were screaming, we went to the Camden Market, but it was sadly disappointing. So we found a little British coffee shop and enjoyed tea and scones. We found some snacks at the grocery store and then went to dinner. We were going cheap and in need of a burger, so we hit up Burger King. It is a low, but it was great.

The musical was amazing! We were in the nosebleeds of the theatre, but we could see everything clearly. The only distraction was the two American couples in front of us with their cellophane bags of chips and candy. The performance was good. The music amazing. The story followed the original text well. It was a good investment; a good night.

Tuesday morning we went to Harrod’s Department Store. It was huge. Everything was outrageously expensive and overwhelmingly fancy. Have you ever seen an 899euro hat, I ask you? Nope, bet you haven’t. It was crazy. We then hit up the British Museum. It was filled with objects instead of art, I think they called it an archaeology museum. There was some serious old stuff in there, dating back to before the Egyptians and Greeks, it was interesting when Melissa could even read off the stones what was written. We split up then, just for some time apart. I went in search of an internet café. I wanted to call home and talk to Mom before she and Jason flew out for their Europe trip. And check my email to see if there was any news on the end of the strike. Well, other than just general confusion among the foreign kids, there was nothing new. I found another Starbucks and enjoyed the afternoon with my book, again out of the rain. The London we expected had arrived. We met up again at the hostel for dinner. There was a two for one deal on, so being proud of our dutchness, we were there. We hung out with another Australian girl and talked with the new bar tendered while watching the game and just chillin’.

Wednesday morning we were off, we went up to the Prime Meridian located in Greenwich. We climbed up the hill, took some photos, stood in two places at once, generally just enjoying life. Then we headed to the Parliament Buildings. It’s kind of creepy just how similar the Canadian Parliament resembles the British. It makes sense, but their went our somewhat distinctive identity. We also trekked across the city to see the Tower Bridge, the other famous bridge in London. It definitely is more decorated than the London Bridge. We explored another area of the city en route to it. We then headed to the mall where we were to pick up our shuttle to get us back to Gatwick. We spent all the rest of our pounds and pence at Salisbury grocery store for lunch, only left with 25pence at the end.

After arguing with the EasyJet guy, we got our big bags through and made it to security where, they stole Mélissa’s brolly and moisturizer. The old guy was really good about it. We all parted ways chuckling. And back to St. Étienne. We met a girl Manu on the plane who lives in Grenoble and works in London and comes home every other weekend. We exchanged info and are probably going to stay in touch. Overall, it was a great trip. Saw lots, got confused by English, and had a blast.