Thursday 18 July 2013

London day 2 - Going all over town! (and more on what happened on day 1)

I was so excited after the Studio Tourlast night that I completely forgot to write about getting here and then some stuff happened after that blog post too.

Anyway, same day we were going we packed our stuff and on our way to the bus I realise that I've forgotten my printed booking confirmation that I was supposed to bring to the Studio Tour and exchanged for tickets. Had to run all the way back and then all the way to the bus (almost), but we made it. Making room for margins is a really good thing! At the airport we realised that we couldn't check in ourselves before-hand without the booking reference - which was on Toni's mail. Since the airport was in Copenhagen (which is abroad but still the closest one) we couldn't have the mobile's own internet on so I had to pay for the airport's Wi-Fi so we could find the booking reference number, check-in and drop off the bag without having to wait for the check-in desks to open. Kind of annoying :/ Then we spent some time in the tax free shop, had some food and hung around waiting for our gate to be announced. That's when it turned out that our flight was delayed and I had to mail our hostel telling them that we might be later than our previously stated arrival time. When the flight finally arrived and we could board we all sat there waiting, cause for some reason the workers couldn't load the plane's cargo properly (summer workers?!) and our flight ended thusly up being 2 hours late. Arriving at Heathrow we picked up our bag got Oyster cards and got on the tube for Hammersmith. The hostel was placed really close to the tube station and after only one wrong turn we found our way :) Once again I was asked for a booking reference that I didn't have cause it was on the phone and I had no internet (recurring theme), but by saying what name the booking was in we could check-in and get to our room. Well there I changed from jeans into shorts cause London was hot even after dark, then we went outside again to look around and maybe find a Tesco to buy breakfast for the next day. We found a Tesco right next to the tube station inside the mall that surrounded it. In one of the shops I also found this sign which I found really funny:

The next day was The Studio Tour.

After the Studio Tour we met up with Tiffany at Piccadilly Circus and had dinner at a small Japanese restaurant. I could eat tonkatsu again for the first time in over three years!!!! :D:D:D:D After dinner we split up again and Toni and I decided to have a walk around nearby. In an Asian shop right next to the restaurant I bought some lovely Calpis Water and four different flavours of Puccho :D

Then we picked a direction and started walking. Turned out we walked along Regent Street and gawked at all the fancy shops until I caught a glimpse of Hamley's and decided to go inside. Inside Hamley's I always turn 7 years old again. All the toys flying through the air does that to you :P I immediately found the Harry Potter department, but since I had already bought lots of stuff at the Studio Tour I decided against buying anything. That is until we found a Doctor Who 1000 piece jigsaw puzzle and decided to get it. Just cause it would look great in a frame. We also found this Power Ranger made out of Power Ranger action figures. After that we looked up the closest tube station and went back to the hostel. On the way we bought breakfast at Tesco.

The next day we woke up early to shower and then we took the tube to Camden Town and walked all over the place. I love the decorations on the house walls at that place! Why can't they be like that everywhere?!

I finally bought a pocket watch there since the salesman offered me half-price (=£5) We also found a fun comic book store but didn't buy anything since the prices were about the same as in Sweden :) After Camden we went to King's Cross. I had already been there to take a picture at Platform 9 3/4, but since the store opened they had made a big thing out of it and people queued to have their picture taken. You could buy it later but there was no need to since you were allowed to have someone on the side taking a picture of you :) After it was my turn we had a look in the store, which was miniscule.

 After having another Harry Potter moment on this trip we went to 221b Baker Street. Didn't Baker Street tube station use to look all steampunk-ish? Or which station was that on the Metropolitan line? Anyway the queue to the Sherlock Holmes museum was huge! So we decided to only take pictures of the front and then we had a quick look in a rock store opposite.

We had sushi for lunch and then we went to see Big Ben. After taking pictures we decided to go and see Tower Bridge and doing that by walking along River Thames all the way there. It's a really long way especially if it's 30 degrees out xD But the walks along the Thames are all filled with fun people and street performers and amazing buildings so at least I had a lot of fun on the way there.

On the way we also walked past Shakespeare's Globe. Last time I didn't really care but this time it holds a special place due to the Doctor Who episode with Shakespeare :)

After seeing Tower Bridge we got on the tube and went back to Hammersmith. We bought alcohol at Tesco and then we sat on the porch of the hostel and had drinks out of mugs :P We only had mugs given to us at the rooms, the kitchens didn't have any glasses and we forgot to buy plastic cups xD

Good night! :)

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