Trip to London!

We went to London on Thursday July 27 for 5 days. Because of the recent events, we decided to arrive at the airport 2 hours before our 7pm scheduled flight. We went through security without any problems and boarded the Aerlingus plane (though there was a 20 minute delay for no apparent reason) The flight from Dublin to London took only 50 minutes. We arrived in the Heathrow airport at around 8:30pm and took the tube to our Hostel. Some of the lines in the tube was out of service, due to some unfortunate events, so our tube ride took a tad bit longer (1.5 hrs) It was a short 10 minutes walk to our Hostel. By the time we arrived it was close to 11am. The reception was closed and we were checked in by the security guard, which was on his cell phone for the majority of the check-in duration. Even when he was taking us to our room, he still chatted away. We stayed at the IFor Evans Hall, in a dorm room for the University College London students. We booked a twin room, but ended up with 2 single rooms. The rooms are decent, clean and about the size of my room in Calgary. Except that this one has a sink. Each section of floor shares two toilets, a shower and a tub. Both sexes shares this same facility! The kitchen area is also shared but though there was a stove, there's no pots or pans and the sink had a pile of dirty dishes... We ate out quite a bit so the lack of kitchen utensils didn't affect us much.

London is a very beautiful city. The city gave me quite a positive first impression. Surprisingly, London turned out to be a bit cheaper than Dublin. Especially when it comes to eating out. The service is better and the food tastes awesome! London Rocks!


Friday was a busy day. I was so tired from all the walking. Our first stop was at Trafalgal Square. There were many grand statues on each corner of the square with several water fountains in the middle. I sat on the bench where I can see the statue of Kind George IV on his horse, overlooking the square. On the other side of the square, there were several lion statuses that kind of reminded Bo and I of the lion on the Hong Kong dollars. Trafalgal Square is a great place to sit down, relax and have your lunch or snack. Occasionally, bands would play music in the square. Today, there was a band that played jazz. The fountains were turned off when the band was there, so I guess they schedule these groups. Across from the square, I can see the Canadian flag. It must be the Canadian Embassy. We went into the Embassy and they had an exhibition of the cooperation of how the Canadian and the British soldiers fought in World War II. They also provided internet service and a lounge area for visiting Canadians to relax. So we hung out here for a bit. Then we search and found Chinatown. I felt so at home with so many Cantonese speaking Asians here. Finally, we can enjoy a real Hong Kong meal.

After lunch, we went to the National Gallery, and took the guided tour. There was much to see and so little time. I'm sure one can easily spend several days in each of the museums. But we moved on after the guided tour and did a quick walk through the National Portrait Gallery, before heading over to the British Museum where we spent the majority of time in. Words cannot describe the grandness of the British Museum. We got back to our Hostel at around 7:30pm and I just crashed and slept.


On Saturday we walked around our Hostel area. We walked through the Camdon Market. There were many different things for sale, from clothes to food. It reminded us of the outdoor street shops in Hong Kong. Today we watched Stomp. I always wanted to watch Stomp, ever since it was in Calgary. This show consists of people making music with ordinary stuff from around the house. They used brooms, garbage cans, sinks and a bunch of other stuff. An excellent show, I would definitely recommend it. Later, we went over to the Westminster area, where we saw the Houses of Parliament, Big Ben, and London eye. Shortly after arriving, rain started to pour on us heavily for about 1.5 hours. Luckily, we packed our Helly Tech jackets. We were one of the few that was still walking around on the streets during the heavy rain. We stopped by a Japanese restaurant for dinner. We haven't had any sushi for months, the last time we went to a sushi restaurant was back in Calgary!


On Sunday, we went to Victoria and Albert Museum and joined the guided tour. Then we went to the Science museum for a short show before going for lunch at another Japanese restaurant. Then we went back to the Westminster area to take more pictures of Big Ben and the London Eye. Close by there was an exhibition of the Nanjing Massacre, also known as the Rape of Nanjing. It's about the Japanese occupation of China in the second world war. There was very graphic and disturbing images and information. I felt sick. It was horrifying to know that a human being can do such things to another human being. I think this was many times worse then the Holocaust. You would be lucky if you were simply killed! For more info, check out this site: http://www.gendercide.org/case_nanking.html

From Westminster, we went to look for a bus that could take us over to Buckingham Palace. After walking 10 minutes, we realized that it would probably be easier if we just walked there. We passed through Green Park and Hyde Park on our way there. They look like nice places to sit down and have a picnic.

After a long walk, we arrived in front of Buckingham Palace. There was a nice fountain in front of the gates and more huge statuses of lions. They're similar to the ones in Trafalgal Square except that these ones has someone on them. We took some pictures by the fountain and of the palace. Eventually, I made my way on top of a lion and sat on it's back for a picture. I'll try to have some pictures posted soon.

We're flying out today, Monday, so we had to pack our backpacks and carry them with us as we visited the Tower of London and the Science Museum. We were on a tight schedule today. Our flight leaves at 7pm but since we need to check in 2 hrs before and it takes us 1 hr to get to the airport, it means that we must leave for Heathrow at 4pm. From our hostel we took the tube to the Tower of London, and took some pictures of the London Bridge. We opted not to go into the Tower and decided to go for a good lunch. We made our way to Chinatown and I had an excellent bowl of rice noodles with roasted duck. I haven't had such tasty roasted duck since I was in Calgary. After fulfilling our stomach, we went to the science museum. I think I can spend at least a few days in here. There's so many interesting things to learn about. Today was pretty tiring cause we were walking around with our backpacks all day. Next time, I’ll pack much lighter! In fact, who needs a change of clothes? =)

Today when we flew back to Dublin. I decided to not take any drugs (motion sickness pills) cause it was only a 50 minutes flight. Luckily, I didn't puke or anything... it's a good first step, but I dare not to go without it on an international flight.

I'll try to have the pictures posted soon. It should be up there since I have no job and obviously should have time to write up the blog and post the pictures... but I had no idea that I could be so occupied with nothing! Well, I’m looking for another job, learning to make new dishes, reading up on ASP.NET, learning to write Chinese… keeping myself busy. Still homesick though.

Observations of London:
- People seem to look nicer and wear nicer clothes
- All museums do bag searches
- We didn't get searched when we had our bags with us on the tube
- Very much like Calgary with the multicultural faces
- Very tasty Chinese food, comparable to Calgary
- All museums had no admission fee, but had a donation box
- Every corner we turned, there was a theatre
- Tube is very very very convenient
- People are nice
- Taxi's look funny. They have 2 fold down seats attached to the back of the driver and front passenger seats. So 4 people can sit comfortably in the back