I got off the plane and made my way to the tube heading down to my hostel near Kings Cross Station. The tube got pretty packed out by the time I arrived, surprisingly more packed than trains even in Tokyo!
I checked into the hostel, Clink78, orientated for a little before heading across the road for a kebab for dinner. Bar the Rusty Keyhole ribs in Kampot, Cambodia, it was the most meat I'd had in a single meal in the last six months...
I had a beer at the bar with a friend from back home who happened to be around for one night in London at the same time before crashing out for the next twelve hours.
The hostel was pretty cool, situated in an old court house. It was, however, the biggest hostel I've ever stayed in, apparently housing some 700 guests!
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Mum and dad were flying out to meet me the next day - they planned a four week trip through south of England and France - so I decided to wait at their hotel for them and surprise them.
While waiting I went for a venture through Kensington Park, nearby their hotel. It featured a bunch of statues paying tribute to different figures, fountains, water features and the like.
After waiting a good two hours they rocked up ... immigration at Heathrow apparently can get busy. We went out for a steak (more meat!) before they crashed out from the long journey over.
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The next day I caught up with my parents again to check out the Westminster area, doing the touristy sight-seeing stuff, checking out the London eye and Big Ben. There was some bicycle race on at the same time so the area was totally packed out; walking the bridge was a mission!
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I had two guided tours organised by my parents to join them for - Windsor Castle and Buckingham Palace. Unfortunately inside both you cannot take photos so I don't have a lot to add here.
Windsor Castle was interesting, overlooking London from atop a hill 20 miles west of the centre. The idea was that they would see any potential attackers coming from a distance and the hill is more difficult to scale than flat land.
Buckingham Palace was very impressive inside. The ball room featured forty metre high ceilings adorned with great detail and design. Everything is extremely grandiose as you would expect from a long running monarchy.
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I did not really feel like I did much in London, more just wanting to relax in a Western city for a little while. I plan on heading back there after some time in Europe so do not feel as though I was missing out!
My opinion of the city is not that great though. It is a massive, busy city with a very large number of foreigners. It might have been because of the area that I spent most of my time, but more people I saw were tourists or other ethnicities rather than actual English people!
The public transport system in London is great, when it works. The night bus network is excellent, if not expensive. However, the tube in my short experience was not the most reliable service getting around! For two days the one line connecting my hostel and my parents hotel was out of commission, and the day that I had to leave London, the employees for the tube had gone on strike making my early journey to the airport that little bit more painful!
I still will go back and check out the more trendy areas and see if I can get a better sense of the city to improve my perception! Or maybe I'm just not a big city kind of guy...
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