Off the Couch and On the Road

Though it was still overcast and cold, the rain had let up on my second day in London, and I woke early to go for a walk in Regent’s Park. The lake, rose gardens, statues and beautiful greenery mre than made up for weather and by the time I got to the other side of the park and lined up for tickets fto Madame Taussaud’s Wax Museum, London was officially, if not begrudgingly, forgiven.

The Wax Museum was expensive – as in ‘I almost decided to leave’ expensive – but considering I was halfway around the world, $65 doesn’t sounds that bad, I suppose. And I’m glad I didn’t, it was so much fun. I had my photos taken with Johnny Depp and stood staring a Jamie Oliver’s freckles for ages (ok, and becauuse I love Jamie).

There was a room on how they made the figures, as well as rooms and rooms filled with heroes from Elizabeth I to Beyonce, George Bush and the Pope, and sporting stars through the ages.

I walked throgh the house of horrors with live actors jumping out in prison garb, scaring the group half to death, and saw how Madame Taussaud began her career – making death masks for prisoner’s that were hanged or decapitated in the early 19th century (the most famous murderers were also depicted beind bars).

There was a ride, like a tram but with London’s mini black cabs, which described Britain through the ages – passing wax figures illustrating every major event from the plague and great fire of London onwards, and all in all was well worth the price, a few hours well spent.

Westminster Abbey was next on the list, which was second only to St Peter’s in Rome as the most amazing church I have seen. It took several hours and a map to navigate my way through the tombs, effigies and memorials of hundreds of royals, artists, poets and other icons, the architechture of some of the original monastery still standing despite many reconstructions following wars over the centuries.

I left Westminster Abbey and strolled past BigBen and the houses of parliment, who weren’t sitting that day (‘It’s not too interesting unless they’re sitting,’ the security officer said), and decided to visit the Natural History Museum for the rest of the afternoon.

The Natural History Museum was great, in that is was free, though more for kids than anything, and my aching feet begged me to rest after only about an hour. I made my way back to Leiscester Square for a chinese dinner, which was great in that it was cheap. And travelling with the Australian dollar makes the workds ‘cheap’ and ‘free’ light up my eyes like a Justin Timberlake film clip anyday.

-Sarah

I could not for the life of me figure out why the whole of Australia (it seemed) wanted to work in London. In my post-French Riviera bad mood, I arrived to a windy, wet and bitterly cold ‘summer’ day in London, and declared them all to be mad. Bonkers. This bad mood was exacerbated by the security measures at the airport, which I expected to be very thorough, holding up suspect travellers, I just didn’t think I would be one of them.

It went something like this – I showed my passport to passport control, he looked at me dubiously when I said I would be in the UK for a month, and then suddenly I found myself being interrogated for an hour by fat, angry men. Why didn’t I need a job? Why did I want to come to the UK? How did I know I had enough money? How could I prove I had any money at all?

After a while, I was beginning to think they were onto something. Maybe I didn’t have enough money? Maybe I was stupid to quit my job to go travelling? I had shown them flight tickets, itineraries, booking  details and my budget, and was just about to stand up and scream ‘YES! I AM GUILTY! I AM AUSTRALIAN AND I DON’T WANT TO WORK IN LONDON!’, when they decided to stamp my passport and let me in the country. Lucky me.

I found my hostel and made my way to the warm, and free, National Portrait Gallery, which was amazing, some of the paintings so lifelike it was scary. I wandered around Leicester Square before seeing a movie and grabbing a slice of pizza, heading back to Camden Town and bed.

-Sarah

I can understand why so many Aussies want to work in London – the quaint terrace houses, perfectly polite sales staff and everything so neat and clean – add to that it was a warm, brilliantly sunny day, and I fully expected to see Hugh Grant from Notting Hill stumble around the corner.

I switched the cargoes and fleece for skinny jeans and ballet flats, and decided to venture into the city on the tube to replace some clothes destroyed by all that fresh mountain dirt (read: no showers) in nepal, walking a half-length of Oxford street and ending up with armfuls of clothes (they were a bargain, I promise).

I grabbed lunch, which I took to Hyde Park, joining hundreds of Londonders with their dogs, kids and footballs enjoying the sun – and finally felt like I was on holiday. Until I freaked out about how much I was spending on my two days in London, and ran back to the internet cafe to re-do the budget, move some money around and pay a few bills, deciding I might survive without working until October. Fingers crossed.

I ate at an Italian restaurant across the road to prepare for my Italian journey beginning tomorrow, watched some TV (Adam Levine from Maroon 5 said ‘quaint, and clean, and so polite!’ when asked what he thought about London. Ah, my thoughts exactly. So maybe we are meant to be after all) and booked a taxi for 4.30am to the train station the following morning. Yikes. Another early night.

-Sarah

The flight was long, but I ended up sitting next to Catriona from my Everest group, and another Aussie guy who had the same respect for arm space as I did, so it wasn’t too bad, as far as 12hr economy class flights go.

Navigating the tube was easy (a £3 trip instead of a £50 taxi) and finding the hostel in Earl’s Court even easier. Tree lined sidewalks, organised traffic, a main road with everything from a post office to a McDonald’s, and an ATM every 10m. It was lovely. I found a Boots Pharmacy and stocked up on fake tan and other summer essentials, before hitting Burger King for a sugar hit to keep me awake until at least the early evening.

It was such a nice little suburb, exactly what I imagined, and I chilled out for the day with some cheap internet time, a magazine and Starbucks Coffee before the jet lag hit and I crashed before the sun had even set.

-Sarah