After sadly leaving the UK roughly five months ago,
I'm back!
On Thursday morning, at roughly 5:30am, Dad and I
painfully made our way to the airport so I could catch my 9:30am flight to
Singapore. After feeling like absolute crap due to the early hour the entire
way to the airport, once aboard the aeroplane everything was fine. It was empty
for the most part too, which meant spreading out and getting comfortable. This
flight was largely uneventful. The food was, as expected, inedible. The
television was much smaller than previous flights. But I was fine with all of
that given the extra space.
The flight arrived in Singapore and I was happy to
be back on land. I had a seven-hour stopover so one of the first things I did
was make my way to a restaurant to eat some decent food. I had prawn dumplings
and noodles in soup, and it was hot and delicious. Exactly what I needed after
not touching the food during the flight. I didn't do much else for the rest of
the stopover except walk around, use the wifi, shower (best decision ever), and
then eat some more (chicken rice this time...mmm).
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| The last little part of Australia before the Indian Ocean |
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| It doesn't look particularly appetising from this photo, but it was. Mmm dumplings. |
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| Weirdest hairdryer I've ever seen. One of the cruddiest too. |
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Chicken Rice. Don't know what that soup thing is though.
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After having only about two hours sleep in the past
38 hours I was quite glad that I fell asleep almost as soon as the aeroplane
from Singapore took off, and had a largely undisturbed sleep for the next eight
hours (even if I was unlucky to be sitting in the middle seat between two very
tall men who took up all the arm rest space).
Okay so now that that's over with - London time!
After finally making it through a very busy customs I made my way to my
'hotel'. I'm not really staying in many hotels this time. Given I'm travelling
solo for the majority of the next three-ish weeks, I'm staying in university
accommodation and hostels (don't cry for me, I'm already dead). In London I
stayed at Marylebone Hall at the University of Westminster, which is directly
over the road from Madame Tussaud's, and a one minute walk from Baker Street
Station. It was incredibly convenient, and my room on the 20th floor had a view
of most of London. Lovely.
My first day, Friday June 13th, was uneventful and
just saw me visit Regent Street until I was able to check into my
accommodation.
On the second day before meeting up with pals Laura
and James, I moseyed on down to Buckingham Palace after hearing about a parade
on TV. I'd like to point out here that I don't really care for monarchy as a
concept, but it just seemed like the thing to do. There was plenty of pomp and
plenty of ceremony. It was quite amusing, and totally, utterly ridiculous and
over the top. But, intriguing all the same. Yes, I saw the Queen (see photos
below) ride past in her carriage, and some other royals. There was plenty of posh
people around saying 'Oh my gosh, it's the Queen! Oh gosh!' and then waving
frantically. So posh.
Then it was onto Victoria station to meet up with
James and Laura (yay!). We first went to the Museum of London. It's a great
museum, although I have to admit I struggle to find pre-historic and ancient
Britain interesting in the way I do Egypt and elsewhere, but the modern section
of the museum was great. I particularly enjoyed the Victorian section.
We then went to Regent Street to visit Hamley's.
For those of you who don't know Hamley's is an amazing toyshop. Yes I'm twenty.
But when you go there you feel five years old again. It's magical. I
particularly like the Lego section - super impressive.
And finally, we went to Harrods. I'd never actually
been to Harrods before, despite going to London many times. It didn't
disappoint. The place is mental. £35,000 televisions, £75,000 diamond encrusted
iPhones, £10,000 stuffed elephants. One of the best things I saw there was
three photo frames which together contained the signatures of all the U.S.
presidents from George Washington to Obama. If my memory serves correctly, the
third frame, which contained the signatures of the 44 presidents from Taft to
Obama, was worth £140,000. Only a touch out of my price range I'm afraid! The
others didn't have price tags on them - I assume having the signature of George
Washington, Thomas Jefferson, Abraham Lincoln, Theodore Roosevelt and the like
is priceless.
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London!
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| Hmm. Is that a 'Maori' kicking an Australian football? |
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Digging the hats.
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Horsies!
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I don't like her.
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| One is not amused. |
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| Queenie again |
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| Obligatory Big Ben photo. |
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| The inside of a prison cell from the 18th Century at the Museum of London |
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| I actually rotated this photo but it didn't work when I put it on here. |
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| Same with this one. |
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Only the most amazing dollhouse ever.
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Nando's time!
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Omg sharks!
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| I can't believe I saw the Queen twice in one days! |
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| Our new friend, Mr. Lego Man. |
The final day of my first London leg (back again in
July), saw a visit to the Churchill War Rooms. I've been there before - about
five years ago - but at that time I don't think I really took in my
surroundings. So this time it was different! I really enjoyed it - it was
fascinating. I recommend a visit. I later went to visit the Victoria and Albert
Museum, which is probably my favourite museum in London. It was great as usual.
I can't really describe it in words, so I have some photos.
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| A cute little cottage in St. James's Park |
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| Churchill's coat |
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| See below |
Then it was onto Oxford! I'd only briefly visited
Oxford once about five years ago. We were only there for an hour or so and it
bucketed down with rain. Typically British weather I guess. Given that, I was
glad to see that upon arrival it was sunny and warm! I didn't feel like walking
too much around a place I didn't know, because I was bound to get lost. I
decided a bus tour was probably the best way to get a feel for the place before
I took to it on foot. I was right. There are lots of windy streets in this
place. It's lovely though. It looks pretty and feels important. Exactly how I
like my cities. After getting off the bus I walked around the main city centre
area and took some photos because it was hard to resist. I also did a little
bit of shopping in Cath Kidston, because that shop is also hard to resist.
Today I awoke at 6:30am (ouch I know. My sleeping
pattern has done a total 180 since I've arrived here), to get going early. I
first visited the Ashmolean Museum. Wikipedia and the various brochures lying
around the place tell me that this museum is the oldest public museum in
Britain - hooray! It was great. Quite large. Not British Museum style large,
but large in comparison to the Melbourne Museum. I particularly liked the
Japanese section.
Then it was onto Blenheim Palace, which is the
birthplace of Winston Churchill and posh central. Both the palace and the
gardens were incredibly beautiful. In the Winston Churchill Early Life section
I overheard an older posh lady say, 'He wasn't very close to his mother. Of
course, he had a nanny, as we all did.' Yes as we all did! Spit spot alert the
corgis. If you didn't have a nanny you're probably a peasant! At one point I
was taking a photo, and then an old man behind me also wanted to take a photo
but clearly wanted me out of the way so said quite sternly 'Will you be long?'
Oosh passive aggression.
The other tour in the palace was a 'self-guided
audio tour', which is code for terror chamber. It was actually a series of rooms,
which contained creepily lifelike talking, and moving, robot people.
Terrifying. And only made more so by the fact that the rooms were dark, I was
alone, and the doors only opened when that section was over. Not exactly a fun
experience. I couldn't focus on the story because I was so freaked out by the
robots.
My favourite part of Blenheim Palace was the rose
garden in the grounds. So pretty. I took way too many photos.
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| Oxford! |
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| Sheldonian Theatre |
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| Radcliffe Camera |
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| Ashmolean Museum |
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| Oooh a mummy! |
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| Blenheim Palace |
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| The room where Winston Churchill was born |
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| Cake and tea in the gardens |
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| Where Winston Churchill proposed to his wife |
And that's it for now. I arrived to York today. It's absolutely lovely. The sun is shining, and the sky is clear. After a little bit in York, I'm off to Edinburgh. Then after that it's elsewhere in Europe.
Until next time.
