First and foremost, this trip is very different than last year. Now that we're full-time-hard-working-American-professionals (in other words, we have very little vacation time), we can't possibly stay away for as long. Which seems to be working out, as we're out of shape and the tendinitis and shin splints set in pretty quickly on this trip :P So anyway, the itinerary is 3 nights in London, 3 nights in Stockholm and 3 nights scooting around in Norway from Bergen to Balestrand and back to Bergen. Also, my parents are with us, as we're visiting my Auntie (dad's sister, Maria) the UK and my other Auntie (dad's sister, Gloria) in Stockholm. My parents are staying with family, while Andy and I had decided to continue the hostel tradition and stay in the cities.
We packed in the same blue backpacks as last year... believe it or not, I actually brought MORE clothes this year! Last year we packed ultra light and I only had enough clothes for about 5 or 6 days. We did laundry multiple times on that trip... either by hand in the sink or at a laundromat in town. This time we had no intentions of doing laundry... so 10 days worth of clothes were shoved into our backpacks. Not much room for souvenirs!!
So we landed in London at noon on Thursday June 26th and the first thing that happens to us is that we overpaid for a fancy express train to Paddington Station. I think we could have just taken the Tube but it would have taken a bit longer. Our hostel is on Westminster Ave called Horse and Stables. It's super close to the Westminster Bridge, Big Ben and Parliament; also, it's a short distance from Westminster abbey, Trafalgar square and all that good stuff. The hostel is laid out on three levels: the first is full pub with drinks, tvs, full menus, etc... the second and third floors are for the hostel and apartment for one of the guys who works at the hostel and lives there. We're sharing a room with two girls from Slovania and two guys from Vancouver
We soon found out that there wasn't enough bathrooms for the amount of people staying there... plus they were SO SMALL that they ended up getting pretty gross being shared by so many people... even though they were cleaned every day. So this isn't the nicest hostel we've been in... but we don't care too much at first because we're just excited to be in London.
The next day, my parents, Auntie Maria, Uncle Mario, and cousin Lauren, tell us to "meet them at Victoria Memorial at 11am for the changing of the guard at Buckingham Palace". We wander over there in typical fashion around 11:10... only to realize that there are 100's, maybe 1000's, of people flooded this entire area... and the Victoria Memorial is basically an island in the middle of the streets that police have since blocked off because of incoming marching bands (so no one can get to or leave the island memorial at this point). It's beginning to drizzle as we start to fight through the crowds trying not to get pickpocketed (meanwhile, we barely see any of the changing of the guard... I'm pretty sure they were wearing some cool hats). Finally, just as we were about to give up all hope of finding them, the police let us go to the memorial and we met up with them away from all the crowd (they couldn't see any of the guard either, lol).
The rest of the day was jam packed with phenomenal site seeing. My parents were to head back to Wales with my family, so we were really doing a "London in One Day" style tour. Honestly, I loved that. The thing about London is that it's humongous and all the sites cost an arm and a leg to get into. So just moseying along the outside of sites like Westminster Abbey (£18 entry), St Paul's Cathedral (£15 entry), Tower of London (£21+ entry - forgot the exact price), etc, was good enough for me. There is so much to do in London that it's completely overwhelming... but we do decide that we want to see the Tower Bridge and do that "DIY" guided tour... it only cost £9, so it sounds like a bargain to me :P keep in mind the exchange rate is about 1.8:1 USD to Pound - practically 2 to 1. The tour of the bridge takes you through a museum about how the bridge was lifted when it was first designed (talk about old school hydraulic valves). Then you get to go up to the top of the bridge, read about other famous bridges in the world, take a green screen photo that costs like £50 to buy, you know... all the good tourist stuff.
We had some lunch at a pub called Sherlock Holmes... fish n' chips = delicious. Andy had some bangers and yorkshire pudding. All over London, you can find "real ale" or cask ale - this particular type of beer is brewed using traditional methods. I'm no expert, but it has something to do with the yeast not actually being dead (the beer is alive when you drink it!) and it's naturally carbonated (no added nitrogen for bubbles). The flavor is good, but the low carbonation and the fact that it's served close to room temperature takes some getting used to. Don't worry, the lagers are still bubbly and cold.
Later, after we split from the family, Andy and I wandered around and had dinner in a Spanish style cafe (leave it to me to not have Paella until I'm in London... sorry Barcelona, but my bad Ramblas eating experience made me not actually eat Spanish food at all last year). That night, we had quite a few drinks and made some new friends at the sister hostel down the street from us. Their pub was a lot more lively! We met a couple from the Liverpool area that were just having a getaway in the big city. We also met some Americans from St. Louis and Carbondale area just travelling around the UK for vacation. All in all, this is why I love hostels - you never know who you're going to meet and who you'll get along with so well that you'll be buying each other rounds (until you've had a few rounds too many) until last call.
Finally, around 2am, we clamored into our hostel bunks... it was a very successful first real night back in Europe :)
The Blog lives! Nice job, Becca...an interesting read, as always.
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