London trip

In this article I am going to talk about our amazing trip to London. When I was considering where to go for my Erasmus programme, Lille seemed to me really attractive city because of its location. You can easily travel almost everywhere from Lille. It is really close to Belgium which is convenient because Ryanair offers the best deals from the airport Charleroi near Brussels. You can get quickly to the United Kingdom, Belgium, The Netherlands, Spain, Portugal, Italy, Denmark, etc. Actually, I did not expect me to travel so much but during this semester we found a lot of cheap plane/bus tickets and it would be a shame not to use it. One of my plans was visiting London because it was the most amazing European city for me.

For the first time I visited London during summer 2013 (two years ago) when I was an au-pair in Norwich (small city close to London). After visiting London I totally fell in love with this beautiful city. Although my perception changes all the time and two years is a quite long period so I wanted to check if I was still convinced that London is so amazing (maybe I exaggerated). In addition, I really liked Paris as well.

Since I already visited London I did not expect anything new and I was just looking forward to seeing my Czech friend – Lucy. I met Lucy at high school in the Czech Republic and she was supposed to visit me during this semester. We agreed that it would be a good idea to meet together in London and spend few days there because there are plenty of things to do. After we wanted to continue to Lille. We started planning our trip quite early so we found really cheap tickets! I bought the one way ticket for 15 pounds by bus. Of course I could have flown by plane but the journey by bus took me only 5 hours and in fact I did not mind travelling by bus. Everything went well with our tickets and surprisingly, we quickly agreed on which weekend we were going in the beginning of my semester. However, with the accommodation it was not so easy.

After my perfect experience with couchsurfing in Dublin I wanted to try it again in London. Although after sending lots of requests we ended up with only two options. One guy wanted one of us to sleep with him in his bed and the second guy called himself “naturist” which meant he liked being naked in his apartment. We did not feel comfortable with these two guys so Lucy contacted her Czech friend - Zuzka who studies in London and we were so happy to spend two nights there. It was really nice! Zuzka lives in the part of London called Camden townwhich is not so far from the city centre. In addition, we had many advantages as cooking our dinner there. Thank you again!

We began our trip at Victoria coach station on Friday. Lucy came from the Czech Republic and I came from Lille. Finding each other at Victoria coach station was not an easiest task since Victoria London station is really confusing place. Never mind, when we found each other we bought our Oyster cards for the London transportation and we went directly to Zuzka´s place. It was already dark. After travelling we both felt tired so we decided to stay at home that night. Nevertheless, we had a lot of fun! We were cooking some delicious pasta food and after we were drinking cider and wine with Zuzka and another friend of her. Oh! I totally forgot to mention that before going to London I was sick. It was not surprising at all since I have been sick during my staying in France at least three times. It went same way as always. I could not even swallow because it hurt. But actually I did not think about cancelling the trip at all. This situation was not an exception. Fortunately, my landlord gave me some miracle homeopathics, herbes and pills that I took before London and the second day there I felt hundred percent better!

The second day there we had a lot of things to explore! Firstly, we decided to see famous skyscraper the Sky Garden from where we saw whole London. Normally, the entrance is for free at certain hours. We decided to go up and even though there was a foggy weather the view was nice. After, we started our long-day tour at the Tower Bridge. I think we were totally lucky because the weather in London was amazing! It was even warmer than in Lille. Sometimes we did not even need the jacket. That´s why we managed to do a bunch of nice pictures with sunglasses in front of the Tower Bridge. With that weather I felt happy and I immediately forgot about my illness. Actually I really felt better and in the end of our staying I was almost cured. After one hour of walking there I got again convinced that London is the city I would like to live once. Not for a long time period, but one year of studying or working there would be nice.

We continued walking along the river and we saw the main attractions as the Big Ben, the Westminster Abbey, the London Eye and so on. Everything was so beautiful. I really liked the architecture of the buildings and the atmosphere. Before coming to London we agreed that we did not want to spend a lot of money in London since the value of pound is quite big in comparison to the value of euro. Besides if we had gone to the restaurant for the lunch and for the dinner as well it would have cost us a lot. Therefore, we bought something for breakfast in the supermarket and during the day we were eating some fruits or biscuits. Although, I could not resist Argentinian specialty called "empanadas" near the London Eye because my Argentinean friend Juan was talking about it many times and when I saw it I just wanted to taste it. I wrote the whole story about "empanadas" dinner which we had in Lille (check it). Empanadas in London were delicious even though the specialty comes from the South America. Later on, we had something for lunch and we had a rest at the fountain right next to the Buckingham Palace. I enjoyed the atmosphere there and the weather.

From the very beginning we were also planning on doing the shopping in Primark because we do not have this shop in the Czech Republic. I had worries that it could finish same way as always – 4 hours trying different types of clothes, waiting hours in the line and going crazy. First hour I felt totally exhausted and I was not even able to walk. I was just thinking of the idea to have coffee. Suddenly, it changed. I started to be interested in the shopping. Four hours went quickly and we both left the shop with one big bag full of everything. That’s the advantage of Primark. Every time I go I buy shoes, jackets, sweaters, tops, jeans, bags and something for my hair. In addition, we provoked ourselves to go home by foot! We did not mind walking 50 minutes after such a nice day. We came “home” at 10 pm and we realized that except for one break at the Buckingham palace we did not rest at all. In my bed it was such a nice feeling to be totally exhausted and just fell asleep.

Next day our adventure continued. Firstly, we went to the King's Cross Station to check famous place where the Harry Potter movie was made. There was well-known 9 and ¾ station and the Harry Potter shop as well. Later, we went to the free city tour but the group was too big that we left them in the street of Harry Potter. That day we wanted to explore the parks in London. It is great that in such a big city there are many parks to relax. I liked the Hyde Park and the Regent´s Park a lot.

The weather was even way better than the previous day. We were talking a lot and we went again home by foot. Suddenly, our crazy story with departure started. I do not know how it was possible but we did not check the time properly and we had only 20 minutes for packing our things. Normally, we would have enough time to get to the bus station. Nevertheless, we found out that it was impossible to take the same train we took on our way to the accommodation because it was Sunday. On Sundays there are no trains. Therefore, we jumped into the nearest coach. It was super slow and we were so worried of our departure. Moreover, in the metro we found out that we were supposed to be at the Victoria coach station one hour before the departure. At that time we sit in the metro.

After chaotic running towards the bus station, fortunately, we managed to catch our megabus back to Lille! However, we did not have enough time to return our oyster card. Hopefully, I hope to find someone going to London in following weeks. We ended up tired in the bus and I slept. After a while the driver woke us up and we had to leave the bus and use the ferry. It was my first time using the ferry! It was little bit exciting but I felt angry that I could not sleep. Moreover, I was totally hungry. On our way back we had some problems with the bus. With little delay we managed to get to Lille at 4 am. We quickly walked to my house in Lille and I fell asleep the second after when I was in my bed!

Next day I showed Lucy the city a little bit but I also went to school. When we were walking through Lille I realized that French people are not so cleanly. We saw many rubbish at the street. But I hope Lucy like it anyway. Firstly, we wanted to have the coffee and some cake in Paul but after we preferred trying the new typical French café. We were choosing a long time but it was definitely worth it! We found an amazing café called Elizabeth´s. I had a delicious Oreo cheesecake and Lucy tried the raspberry crumble. I would definitely recommend this place to everybody! In the evening we had the cooking contest organized by International club. Fortunately, this session we were not supposed to cook but only taste the food. It was so delicious! Even though we were not so hungry we ate the butter chicken surrounded by rice and the apple pie with strawberry with satisfaction! I will write whole article about the cooking contest later because I was so happy participate in this event organized by International club.

We had a blast that weekend!