Our first day in London was spent in the lovely and green Kensington Park. We were staying at a hostel called Astor Quest (considered to be in the Bayswater/Queensway part of the Underground). We got there rather early since our flight landed at 10am so we grabbed some food at the Tesco Market nearby and had a picnic in the park. I was so impressed with how affordable the prices were for groceries in London. I got a pasta salad, some grapes, and a drink for about 3pounds. Once it became time to check in, I started to get a heavy dose of jet lag. I remember standing at the front desk and thinking there was an earthquake happening but then I quickly realized that I was no longer in San Francisco and London didn’t get earthquakes. Once in our room (a co-ed room with six bunk beds) I didn’t feel any better. Laying down only made it worse so Melody and I took to the streets for a walk. We went out for a mission to find me some lotion for my incredibly dry hands that developed overnight from the plane ride and some cute British clothes for Melody.
This is the first thing I did in London… I laid down in Kensington Park!
Astor Quest Hostel – (http://www.hostelworld.com/hosteldetails.php/Astor-Quest/London/523 )
That night I made friends with some people from Canada, Australia and Scotland while down in the hostel kitchen. After my dinner I made my way back up to my room to tell Melody about new people for us to hang out with. I opened the door to find Melody sitting on her bottom bunk talking with four young men from Spanish who apparently were our room mates for the next two nights. They were all quite nice to talk to and quite nice to look at, especially since two of them were topless. It definitely made my anxiety over who I would be sharing a room with go away. Haha! Too bad that first night they went out and ended up missing the train back, so Melody and I actually got the whole room to ourselves that night! I didn’t sleep as well as I figured I would, since I hadn’t been solidly asleep for about 40 hours at that point. But whatever, I was in London! I could sleep when I got back to America!
The next day was Tuesday and Melody and I wanted to go shopping. We were on a mission to the store Vivien of Holloway and ended up getting lost thanks to Google but ended up at a cute pub called Metro Bar and Canteen. ( http://www.viewlondon.co.uk/pubsandbars/metro-bar-and-canteen-info-16030.html )
My delicious meal!
I ordered my first cider – Kingstone Press Cider and my first order of chips. Cheesy chips! Nom! Just like home! Except way better since the cheese was actual cheese instead of some melted oils and a little bit of cheese! Haha ! The people there were super helpful and gave us directions. Next we wandered down the street for Vivien of Halloway, a store with 1950’s style clothing. After trying on an assortment of cute clothes and dresses, Melody made a grand purchase and we slowly made out way back to the hostel to get ready for the Camden Pub Crawl.
In the night we went on the “Camden Pub Crawl” with my new hostel friend named Alex, a nice young man from Canada. It was pretty fun – we definitely could have saved the 15 pounds and walked on our own to the bars though. We did end up in a really cool pub called “Bar Fly”. I really enjoyed it because they served Sailor Jerry rum and also had Mario Kart and Streetfighter games going on the big screens that the bar patrons could play!
Bar Fly – http://www.barflyclub.com/camden/whatson/WhatsOn.aspx
Club Proud – http://www.proudcamden.com/
Kicking some ass!
I utilized my Streetfighter skills and managed to kick the asses of a few young men and only lost to two – an American and Alex, my Canadian friend who came with us. It was pretty awesome! We also went to Club Proud which was a refurbished equestrian (horse) veterinary hospital. They had many separate rooms with stripper poles inside with benches. It made for a fun very environment! Melody and I had fun playing on the poles with the other German girls we had met. It hurt my arms! Strippers have to be strong!
I got to ride the double decker bus on the way home from the bar back to our hostel and met this eighteen year old guy from Australia who blatantly asked us out of nowhere if we did coke.. We laughed and were like “Um.. no…” and commented on how quick he was to ask if we did! I guess he knew we were slightly drunk so surely we must partake in other harder drugs… It was pretty random but also quite funny because of his accent and that we were swerving through the streets of London while this was all going on. There were also two hot Italian men on the bus with us chatting it up. It was a DAMN awesome night. The men are SO hot in London. Nom.
I also decided that those double decker buses would be an ideal place to turn into a recycled/refurbished home.
We got back to our hostel around 2am and creeped back into our shared room with the hot Spanish boys… They were sound asleep as I went up my ladder on my bunk bed, squeaking and all. I passed out pretty quick since it was such an exhausting day. 🙂
The Travel Shark 