Meeting "Old Friends"

The excitement of meeting my German friend

The next day I had to get up a bit earlier than the days before because a friend from university would come from Oxford to meet me. We would meet at about 11 next to Marble Arch in the Hyde Park. So, I got up, found out that there was still no warm water (what a surprise! ) and had to shower more than ice cold. After that my head hurt, but I was completely awake. I had some sweets and an apple for breakfast (living in London would make me fat! ) and left the house.

While I was walking to the train station, I studied the Metro Plan to find out how I would get to Marble Arch. I had never been to Hyde Park but I knew where it was, so it wasn't too complicated to find the right metro stop (it's called Marble Arch anyway) and I spent the rest of the time in the train with looking out of the window and writing with my friend - she told me that they would arrive delayed, but it was too late for me, because I was already in the train. So, I would just have something more for breakfast, as the apple and the sweets hadn't been really sufficient.

So, after my daily "metro marathon" I finally arrived at Marble Arch - and, of course, I was too early. So, I went to the supermarket that was just next to the bus station and bought a coffee and something from the bakery. In the metro station I had gotten a free yogurt to try - it looked really delicious and it was just the right present for that morning. The weather was good, sun was shining, so I sat down at a bench next to Marble Arch and had breakfast. I was in a very good mood - I was looking forward to meeting my friend after almost 5 months and exchanging our experiences abroad.

I had to wait for about one more hour that I spent watching people, listening to the music of the busker next to me and enjoying the sunshine. Then I could see her coming towards me and we hugged each other. We decided to walk through Hyde Park to talk a bit and enjoy the weather - she had been sitting in the bus for 1, 5 hours. We walked, I was impressed by the beauty of that park, and we were talking about almost everything. Her studies, my studies, our problems, our new friends and what we wanted to do here in London that day while she was here.

Hyde Park and Oxford Street - a perfect day in London

At first, we arrived at Kensington Palace - the home of Prince Charles and Princess Charlotte. As my friend was crazy about the Royal Family, she knew everything and wanted to visit all the important places - even if she had already been there before. Our next stop was the Diana Memorial Fountain some minutes away from Kensington Palace. It was a beautiful fountain and I would have loved to put my feet into the cold water - it was really warm that day. But we just sat down a bit and relaxed. Then, we decided to get back and find a supermarket or something to eat because we were both hungry, but we would go to a restaurant in the evening, so we didn't want to spend too much money for food.

We went to the same supermarket where I had already bought my breakfast that morning and had some fruit salad, bread and cold noodles. In regard to finished food, supermarkets in UK are really good, you can almost buy everything that is ready to eat without having to heat it! I really loved the fruit salads, even if they were quite expensive. But I didn't have a kitchen, so I had to buy fruits ready to eat. We sat down in the grass and made our little picnic while we were talking and watching other people. We wanted to walk along Oxford Street, which was just the street starting next to Marble Arch and see where our feet would take us to. As both of us had already seen the most important parts of London and I had spent two full days with walking around, we weren't too enthusiastic about seeing all the sights again.

So, we finished our little lunch and started our way to Oxford Street. We didn't want to go shopping (I had already bought something in Disney Store during the time I had been waiting for her), so we just watched the shops from outside and went into some of them that looked very interesting to us, but just for having fun. Finally, we arrived at Leicester Square - we had really walked a lot, and took some pictures, had a coffee from Starbucks and relaxed. We wanted to meet our friend in the evening when he would have finished work to have something to eat - she would also sleep in his room, because I couldn't have any visitors as I was already the visitor and I didn't even have warm water.

Study Colleague Meeting in The City

So, we sat there and finally received a message that he had finished work. We agreed on a meeting point and went there by Metro because it was far from Leicester Square to The City. We arrived and he was already waiting for us - it was 2 minutes by foot for him while we had been in the metro for 25 minutes. We said hello to each other, talked a bit and looked for a restaurant that was not too expensive to have dinner together. We found a pizza restaurant and after some discussion we decided that it was a good one, so we went in and had some amazing (and also expensive) pizza. Afterwards, we went to a Pub our friend knew from some evenings with his colleagues and had a Guinness there. It was a really nice evening and I enjoyed spending time together with friends from my university in Germany, even if it felt a bit strange to me.

But after a while we were all tired, I had to get back by train and didn't want to spend too much time in the metro during night. I also had to take another cold shower because I hadn't received a SMS yet that it was working again. So, I took the metro home, was a bit scared by almost everyone and finally arrived at home. My friend would stay with the other one and we would meet the next day in the morning, because he had to work, and she would leave at 2 p. m. I took an incredibly cold shower and was happy to be able to go into my cosy bed. I was so tired, and I would call the owner of the apartment the next day to ask him to give me back the money for one night and look for a hotel room - another cold shower was impossible for me!

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