Weekend trip to London

Welcome back! This will be my last post about my university exchange to the UK for now. Meanwhile, whilst writing these last few blogs, I've been working on a bigger multiple parts blog about my month of traveling through Guatemala and Belize. I can't wait to share it with you people!

In this last one, I want to show you some things about my trip to London. Honestly, a visit to London cannot be skipped if you're visiting the UK for a longer period.

Tower bridge by night

Tower bridge by night from the other side

The semester was almost coming to an end and we still wanted to do a weekend trip to London. Since London is just around 170 kilometers away from Coventry, we figured out the cheapest way was with some low budget bus company. Also, we booked the cheapest hostel we could find in London since we were only planning to sleep there anyway. Our bus was leaving early in the morning from some unknown shopping centre. To get there we grabbed a cab near the train station and hopped on the bus. A few hours later we arrived in London, the biggest city you will find in the UK.

Since just 1 of us had ever visited the city before, we wanted to try and see everything of the city during our weekend. So we walked and we walked and looked: Buckingham Palace, Big Ben, Palace of Westminster, London Eye, Tower of London, Tower Bridge, Piccadilly Circus etc. etc. I guess all these places speak for themselves so I can better show you some of the pics I shot.

Palace of Westminster

Tower of London

Big Ben	The Shard

After a good meal and some beers, we looked for the hostel. It was somewhere in Kensington, but the description on the website was really shit. After walking around a bit we finally found the hostel and it matched the description like a glove. Cheap and there is always a party. As was the case when we stayed there. Supposedly someone was throwing a birthday party no one seemed to know who was the birthday boy/girl. Anyway, the room was shit as well, some bunk beds with really bad mattresses and to top it off, a portable shower cabin in the middle of the room. I mean.. really! Anyway, we weren't complaining, I mean what can you expect for just 10 Pounds a night right!

London Eye

Millenium Bridge with St Paul's Cathedral in the background

The next morning we grabbed the shitty breakfast and took a second one at Starbucks. We had the crazy idea to check out Harrods, which is a major warehouse in London. Since it was the beginning of December and Harrods just launched the Christmas collection, there was an enormous queue of people waiting for the place to open up. We took another coffee on the opposite of the street and watched to queue grow even bigger.

After our visit (together with a few thousands of others) to Harrods, we checked out Park and the Financial District. Since it was weekend the Financial District was pretty deserted but nevertheless pretty nice if you're into architecture.

In the Financial District, you will also find some older buildings

Buckingham Palace

At the end of our second day, we grabbed the bus back to Coventry and, of course, closed it off with some beers in the local pub.

Hope you enjoyed reading this as much as I did writing it. London is a really beautiful city with so many things to see. Although we walked everything, I do suggest taking an underground now and then isn't such a bad thing for your feet! And if you don't mind sleeping on a mattress from the year 1900 mixed with some loud party noises, I've got a cheap address for you to spend the night.

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Cheers, Stephan

If you’re interested in any of my previous work, feel free to check it out:

• https://steemit.com/travel/@steef-05/relaxing-and-shopping-in-the-uk-leamington-spa-and-birmingham-in-a-nutshell
• Old castles and Shakespeare's birthplace. The UK at its best
• My personal experience with studying abroad in the UK for a semester
• Massive snowdump in the Alpes in Europe and I went snowboarding
• Malaysia: visiting the Mossy Forest and Tea plantations in the Cameron Highlands!
• Visiting the ancient temples of Ayutthaya in Thailand
• Long exposure photography. What settings and gear I use. Multiple photos inside!
• Vietnam backpackers route for 4 weeks (part 2 of 2)
• Vietnam backpackers route for 4 weeks (part 1 of 2)

!steemitworldmap 51.512146 lat -0.101605 long London d3scr