London
On Friday 22nd June I was woken by my multiple alarms going off at 4:45am and at that point I wanted to go to sleep for another three or four hours because I’d only been asleep for four hours because I couldn’t seem to fall asleep the night before. But no matter how much I wanted to go back to sleep I had to get up because I was going to London and had a taxi booked at 7:50am to take me to the train station. So I dragged myself out of bed and went downstairs to go and get some breakfast. Then once breakfast was over I spent the next couple of hours showering and getting ready and making sure I had everything packed, my dad brought my luggage downstairs and then there was a knock on the door – the taxi was here so it was a mad rush to get everything together. We got in the taxi and were heading towards the train station when I realized I’d left all my tickets at home (basically £1000 worth of tickets including train tickets, London Eye Tickets, Bon Jovi Concert Tickets and Hotel Confirmation) so got the taxi to take us back home. It was actually a good job we set off a little earlier because we might have missed the train if we hadn’t booked the taxi earlier. One we collected the tickets we made our way back to the train station and made our way up to the platform and had a ten minute wait for the train to arrive. It was nice actually being somewhere early for once instead of having to rush around and almost make it.
Lucky was dropped off to stay at a friend’s house at 7am on that morning by my dad; we obviously couldn’t take him with us and couldn’t let him stay at my mums because my mum’s dog chases him around trying to mate with him so it wouldn’t have been fair on him.
We arrived in Preston and found the platform where the London train leaves from and then I made a quick trip to the toilet, making it back as the train pulled into the station. I was relieved to have front facing seats because I can’t travel backwards. I’d booked the train tickets two months in advance and asked for front facing seats and was very lucky to have gotten them. The train was soon setting off and I was happy to be finally getting away for a long weekend although I had heard it was going to rain all the time I wasn’t going to let that ruin my first time in London. After about 40 minutes into the journey a bunch of school kids on a school trip got on the train and were seated in our section which I wasn’t happy about. The children were loud and annoying and their teachers were letting them get away with being annoying and loud. I put my MP3 player on loud and could still hear them and my dad fell asleep. It was quite funny because my dad shouts out in his sleep at times and he did it on the train and everyone laughed at him. I just listened to music all the way down until about ten minutes before we were due to get into London when I started to pack everything back into my bag and get ready to get off the train. When the train stopped I basically rushed off it because I didn’t want to get caught behind all the children getting off the train.
We had arrived in London!!
As soon as we got off the train we went to find a toilet. 20p each to use the toilet but when you need it badly you don’t care how much it costs. Once we’d been to the toilet we went to find something to eat and ended up in Burger King at the train station. I had a Angus Meal and so did my dad. Once we’d eaten we thought it was time to tackle the underground so found it and made our way down stopping once to check which line we needed. We then traveled to Waterloo and set off to find a taxi to take us to where we were staying – International House. We got in a massive queue for a taxi and were soon on our way to International House, it cost £6 and my dad gave him a £2 tip (we soon found out later that he’d taken us the long way round and it was only a 5-10 minute walk but I wasn’t in the mood to walk with my luggage. Also another Underground station was 3-5 minutes from where we were staying but I’d forgotten the name of it (now know its Lambeth North) so we had no choice to get the taxi there). Anyway we were there and we could finally dump our bags. It was a warm day and I was sweating and wanted to get rid of my luggage. WE checked in and were told we couldn’t go to our rooms because they were still being cleaned but as we were stood there filling in forms the cleaners came down and said they were finished so we were allowed to our rooms which was a big relief for me. Then we were told we were going to be in different floors which I found very strange because normally when you book two rooms together, anyway there was nothing we could do about it so we got the keys and went to see which room we wanted. One was on the 4th floor and the other was on the 6th floor. We checked out the one on the 4th floor first and before seeing the second room I said I’d have it but my dad still made me go and look at the one on the 6th floor. I went up and was glad I wanted the 6th floor because his had a big desk chair in his under the desk which made it impossible to walk along his bed. The only good thing was you could see the London Eye from his window and you couldn’t’ from mine even though my room was two floors down because there was a big building across the road from the building and from my room that’s all you could see but two floors up (from my dad’s window) you could see above the building and see the London Eye.
I went back to my room and unpacked a couple of essentials. My room wasn’t nice at all but what more could I ask for, for £15 a night?!! It is student accommodation in term time and I’ve stayed in two lots of student accommodation in the past at university’s which was always nice but that was probably because it was on campus and this wasn’t. The carpet was dirty and had stains all over it and was thread-bare and the furniture was thin and old and falling to pieces. The bed….omg!! What can I say about the bed? It was a wooden frame single bed with an old mattress on (more about that later), the duvet was so thin that it was like a sheet and the pillow was just as thin. The window didn’t shut properly and the only good thing I can say about the room is it didn’t have a big desk chair blocking my way. I’ve never stayed in a room that isn’t en-suite before but I had a low budget for accommodation because I spent £600 on concert tickets so I had to find something for under £20 a night each and this was perfect as it was near a underground station and close to the London Eye and was cheap too (under budget). If I ‘d not spent so much on the tickets I would of paid £40 a night each or maybe more depending on where the accommodation was. Anyway I checked out the toilet which was small and clean which was something and then went and looked at the shower room which was dirty. On each floor there was a shower room and toilet on each side and just one kitchen. Where my room was, were right outside where the lift was and right next door to the flight of stairs. The rest of the rooms were on other sides of glass door. On the right was a door you went through to get to the bedrooms and a bathroom and a shower room and on my left (closer for me) was another door and through there, there was bedrooms and the bathroom and shower room so I was out away from the other bedrooms – had a bad room there and no wonder they saved it for the last to arrive. My dad basically had to the same set up as me as his room was in the same place but two floors up.
Anyway I quickly refreshed myself with some body spray and a touch up of my make up and we headed out. We soon found the Lambeth North underground and made our way down to the track. I had decided that I wanted to go and do some serious sight seeing seen as the weather was nicer than expected. I wanted to go to Buckingham Palace and Harrods and Trafalgar Square. My dad knew which stop we needed to get off for Trafalgar Square because he was in London for the marathon a couple of months before. We did get off one stop earlier than needed but that was OK because it gave me the chance to walk and have a little look around and pick up some post cards. Once I got some post cards we walked past some of the theatres (the ones with STOMP on etc) and my dad went in to see how much tickets were because we were meant to be meeting my friend Caroline the next day and we were thinking of things we could do as well as go for a meal. We even walked past one of the places Caroline suggested we go for a meal. Then as we were walking down towards Trafalgar Square I noticed my favorite shop (NEXT) and decided I needed some sunglasses and a jacket because I had neither with me expect for a hooded zip up sports type jackets so we headed across the road and went into Next. It wasn’t very big and I had most of the items they were selling expects for the ones they didn’t have and you wouldn’t believe this but they didn’t have one jacket in there but they had some really nice sunglasses. I got a pair of sunglasses and was about to go and pay when I walked past the bag section and spotted the most amazing bag. I hadn’t seen this bag before and I wanted it, it was a brown hobo style bad with the most amazing beaded detail on the front of it and it was a nice big size so I thought it was perfect for the rest of the trip although I’d brought two new bags with me. We paid and my dad wanted to go down to the men’s section because he also wanted a jacket because he hadn’t brought one either. We get down the stairs and no jackets for men either, in fact there wasn’t much of anything at all but then I spotted something nice. A sleeveless zip up top thing in green with a white t-shirt underneath and I knew my dad would look good in that so w got that.
We left there and looked down the road and could see Trafalgar Square so we headed down there and then it started to rain a little. I was trying to have my picture taken and it was raining and my dad was taking ages (the pictures aren’t that good) and then my umbrella went up and the best picture of me for the whole trip (other than one on the water feature at Buck Palace) was taken there. I took some of my dad but with people walking around all the time in front of you it was almost impossible to get any decent pictures. Next I decided it was time to go to Harrods or Buck Palace and right next to us was the underground so we went down and they had a machine that had mini maps in so I got one of them and right now I can tell you it was the best thing I bought the whole trip, it was very handy and useful so if you are ever in London and need help to find where things are then get one because they are £2 but worth every single penny. We didn’t use it that much after the first day but it was very handy when trying to find where things are and where undergrounds are etc.
We then went to Oxford Circus even though we wanted Piccadilly Circus but we got off there not knowing it was the wrong one, it was my dads fault but never mind. By now the rain was pouring down so many pictures weren’t taken at this point and the one I wanted the most turned out to be a video because my dad accidentally filmed me instead of taking a picture. He then looked at a map and decided he knew the route to Harrods so we set off walking and were walking for ages and ages until the rain stopped and my dad looked at the map again and after a little argument between us he realized we were stood right next to Green Park which is the part next to Buck Palace so we decided to go to the palace before we went to Harrods. We walked through Green Park and everything was green and that’s no joke, for all around me all I could see green. Green trees and green grass and not much else, there were lots of people out running through the park and walking their dogs and it wasn’t that big and we soon had the palace in our sites and soon we were across the road looking at the palace which looks the same as it does on TV. Well I’d be worried if it didn’t look the same as it did on TV hehe. It was big and maybe bigger than I thought because you can only see a certain amount of it on the TV. The changing over of the guards that are stood there was happening and they read these things out to each other and stamped their feet a lot and it was just so silly to change one guard over and I don’t even know why they bother and it must be so annoying for them to do that and then the standing there all day looking straight ahead – now that must be a really boring job. As we were there post man pat in his van came and was allowed in and I thought it was a little late in the day for the Queen to be getting her mail as it was after 2pm at this point.
Had a little look through the railings and then had my picture taken in front of the palace and then went across to the fountain type thing and had my picture taken there too and then went up to the top of it and took some pictures before sitting on the wall to write my post cards.
Then I wanted to go to Harrods so my dad got the map out and decided we weren’t far from it and it was probably a ten minute walk away so we headed off walking down the side of the palace which seemed to go on forever, walking down the length of the palace took five minutes alone. We got to the end and it started raining again so up went my umbrella whilst my dad looked at the map once more. We set off walking and I am not joking when I say we were walking for about 45 minutes before we got to Harrods and I wasn’t one bit pleased about that because he said we were 10 minutes walk away but we weren’t and just kept on walking and I was very annoyed at him and wasn’t going to trust his map reading again after that. It was very nice to see Harrods in site and soon noticed there was a underground station right next door so we could of gone on the Underground and got there in five minutes.
We walked into Harrods and straight into the handbag section and normally I would be in heaven because I love bags and I would of loved one but the credit card was at home which was maybe good otherwise I would of ended up spending at least £500 on a bag but it would have been a bag I would of used for like forever and I would of loved to have gone there and bought an amazing designer bag. But I couldn’t so we walked through that section fast but it seemed to go on forever. We eventually came out into the main area and went up on the escalators but each floor we came to looked expensive so we didn’t look at any expect the kitchen one which had lots and lots of things on and there were this cute pink set but items were sold separately and one cup for £45 and the matching saucer was £30 so I put that down quickly. We had a walk around that whole floor and saw some really nice and expensive things and were heading out to find the gift section when we passed a chocolate café and yeah you read that right. Dianna would of loved that because almost everything on the menu had chocolate in it and chocolate was being made fresh there. But the price list put me off and the fact my dad didn’t want to go in. The chocolate milkshake was £6 and I wanted one because it looked amazing and so did the hot chocolate and the chocolate cake but my dad was saying it was too much money so we didn’t go in. Instead we made our way down all the escalators down to the bottom floor were we find the gift section. They had all kinds of things down there and by far it was the cheapest section in the whole shop. They had journals and diary’s and things like that and I ended up getting a lovely journal, it is so beautiful and my dad was looking at pens and a sales man went and started to talk to my dad and my dad put his fake posh voice on which he does a lot on the phone and I just walked around the shop trying to ignore him. He then announced that he was going to buy a pen and I thought ‘oh no’ because I thought he was looking at expensive pens because I didn’t think Harrods would sell cheap pens, so I gave my dad a look to say ‘don’t be stupid’ and walked over to find they were under £10. They are by a brand called Lamy and I saw a nice pink one and I was going to get it and the sales man told my dad that pink was the in colour and he said that he was going to buy it and I said it was the one I wanted so he decided to go for another one (thank god). That’s all we got there, my journal was £10 but it is very nice, other than a Harrods card. Oh and of course I got a Harrods carrier bag which is what I wanted.
We left there and I decided that I needed a drink and saw a Starbucks across the road so headed across there for my first visit to a Starbucks. I didn’t want a coffee or anything like that because I don’t like coffee. I then saw a nice drink called a mango passion fruit so I got one of those and my dad got a coffee. My drink was so refreshing; I can’t remember when I last had a drink so it was a very welcome drink on a warm day like that day. We then crossed back over and went on the underground and made our way back to where we were staying so I could get changed before going out to the London Eye. We had tickets for 8:30 and it was about 6:30 when we got back. We were going to go and eat before but we didn’t want to rush it so decided to eat afterwards. I got changed into a cooler outfit because I’d been too warm all day even though it had been raining. I then went and got my dad who was shocked it only took me around ten minutes to get completely changed.
We then set off walking because we knew it wasn’t far from we were staying (that’s why I picked the place in the first place) and we were walking about 5 minutes or so when we came across a Starbucks and I sent my dad in for another Mango Passion Fruit and then I saw Ned’s Noodle House and decided that I wanted noodles for my dinner but my dad didn’t want them so I said I would have some as a snack and would still eat a meal after we had been on the London Eye. I then looked at the menu through the window and decided on Hong Kong Chicken Noodles, you then have to decide what type of noodles you’d like so I picked Udon noodles. I’ve never tried them before but I have heard lots about them on TV so I went with them. My dad went in and ordered and I found a table to sit on outside. We waited around ten minutes for them to arrive and I was given chop sticks. I can’t use chop sticks but I had no choice so I had to open them and use them. At first it was so difficult but after a couple of minutes I was able to use them and the more I used them the better I got at using them which was amazing. The noodles were amazing, well they were better than amazing if I am honest, I think they were one of the best things I’d ever tasted and I would love to have them again. There were massive pieces of chicken in it and they were just so tasty and I decided there and then that if I ever go to London again I will get those noodles from that place because they are just so tasty and I love them.
We then carried onto the London Eye which was a 2 minutes walk, we turned a corner and there is was right in front of me bigger than I imagined. It was then it decided to start to rain so up went my umbrella again but the rain just got heavier and heavier and I wasn’t happy because I didn’t want to be up with and not see much because of the stupid rain. The rain got so bad that everyone started to run inside the ticket office/café building area so of course I went in but it was a good chance for me to use the toilet a couple of times.
On the tickets it tells you to start queuing 30 minutes before you are due on but it was still raining (not as bad) and was getting dark outside and we didn’t want to queue but we also didn’t want to miss our flight (they are called flights) so about 8:15 we went out to the queue, had our tickets checked and we were at the front of the queue 60 seconds later. Everyone has to have their bags checked and also everyone has to be scanned with one of those hand held scanners. When you get to the security guy (who was totally hot and cute but with a ‘don’t mess with me’ look) he asks you if you have any sharp objects in your bad like scissors. Then he puts his scanner in your bag before scanning the back of you with it. Then once that was over we moved forward and we were behind a gated area waiting to go on one of the pods. It then starts to approach with no one in (they get out 10 seconds before) and we are told to go in but it keeps on moving along the platform because it obviously can’t stop so you basically have to go into it as it is moving but you have to be quick. Then we are in and the doors shut. Everyone sat down on the benches at first because there was nothing to see because if was just going along the platform and starting to go up. People weren’t sat down for long. I did feel a little nervous because I don’t like heights that much so I was a little cautious on there at first. We were then looking and seeing amazing things, it goes really slow (it takes 30 minutes in total) but it makes sure you get to see everything. It was still raining at this point so I don’t really have any good pictures of anything up there. I did take a lot of pictures but no good ones came out, there is some OK ones but nothing special to shout home about.
It was amazing being up there, I kind of felt like I should be nervous but I wasn’t and was totally fine with everything around me. When we got to the highest point my dad told me and I wanted to feel scared but I didn’t (I felt strange but not scared) and it was just so nice looking down on everything from that height. The 30 minutes seemed to fly by, on the decent about 5 minutes before we have to get off there was an announcement in our pod saying that there would be a picture taken in our pod in the next minute and it told us where the camera was. Well my dad and I just happened to be stood by that side of the pod where the picture is taken so what did my dad do? He stood there and posed. I am stood next to him trying to get him to stop posing but as you can see from the picture I didn’t succeed lol.
It was a good experience being on the London Eye and I will go on it again next time I am in London and hopefully next time it won’t be raining and the skies won’t be as dark, well that’s what I hope for anyway.
When we left there my dad wanted to eat but of course I wasn’t hungry because of those amazing noodles that I’d eaten so we started to walk back towards where we were staying. There was a couple of restaurants there and I didn’t want to eat and my dad basically made me go in a Chinese place with him. It looked dodgy when we went in and we ordered and they brought me a pint of diet coke with nasty lemon in that was horrible. I then went for a salad and the chicken looked like rubber and was horrible and I didn’t think my dad liked his meal. They then kept trying to bring us a dessert menu and didn’t seem to want us to pay and leave. We eventually left there £25 lighter which was a rip off for the little food we had, and made our way back to where we were staying. Well I did, my dad went to the pub across the road. I was too tired for that as I’d had less than 4 hours sleep the night before and done more walking than I normally do in a month lol. So I went and chilled out in my room with my MP3 player on but it was so noisy with police cars going past with their sirens on (the police station was 30 seconds away) and there was a drunken group of girls across the road. One of the girls kept singing a certain 4 non blondes song for at least an hour which drove me round the bend. Then the doors on the stair case, on various floors, were being opened and then slamming shut and it was just too loud.
Then my bed….what can I say about my bed? Well I can’t say anything good about it that’s for sure. It was like a rock. Actually I think a rock would have been more comfy to lie on. I’ve never led on something so uncomfortable in my life, ever. My pillow, my pillow was like a piece of cotton wool. It was so thin that even folding it in half didn’t make it even half the thickness of a normal pillow. The duvet, well that was slightly thicker than the pillow but thinner than a blanket. I managed to fall asleep at one point but woke up with a stiff neck about half an hour later, I then put two towels under my pillow and folded my pillow in half and fell asleep for a little while and woke up again. I then put my duvet under my head and had no cover on my basically but the first night was so warm. That still wasn’t enough but it was better, I did wake up cold in the middle of the night so I put my dressing gown on and my hooded zip up top on too.
I woke up in the morning in pain all over my body, my back and neck were stiff and I was sore everywhere and not a happy bunny.
I don’t think I slept much the night before; I was just being woken up all the time. If it wasn’t the police with their sirens it was the staircase next to where I was sleeping with people opening and doors and letting them bang shut. Then there was the issue of the stupid bed, OMG!! I am still in pain from that bed, I think I would have been a lot more comfortable if I’d slept on the floor or something. I didn’t know what a bed could be so uncomfortable and I didn’t know pillows or duvets could be so thin either. As soon as my alarm went off I was up and out of bed and grabbing my things and rushing for the shower, I had a shower and rushed back to my room to get dressed and ready for the day ahead.
I then went up to my dad’s room to meet him but he wasn’t there. OMG! I was banging on the door and was wondering how the hell he could sleep through that. I then rung his mobile which went straight to the answering service and I was texting and getting mad whilst I sat on the stairway. He eventually text me back and said that he’d been in the shower and I then went back up to his room.
We decided to go and have breakfast in London so we made our way to the underground station and get a all day ticket before making our way down to the platform. It wasn’t long until the train was arriving and we were making our way into to Piccadilly Circus for breakfast. We decided to have McDonalds for breakfast that morning and just as we walked in they were turning over the breakfast boards so of course we couldn’t have breakfast so I ended up with a quarter pounder meal with a banana milkshake. When we left there we walked around for a little bit as it wasn’t raining at this point, little did we know at the time but 4 days later there would be a bomb scare right were we where walking and we wouldn’t of been allowed to go around there then if we were around then so it was a good job we were there then and not the following week. We just walked around for a bit trying to decide what to do before heading for a Underground station because we decided to go on a Themes boat ride and we had to make our way there. We got there and walked across a really nice bridge and had a look in a couple of the shops and had a drink before making our way to the pier and getting tickets at half price. At this point the sun didn’t know if it wanted to be in or out so it went behind the dark clouds and it rained a little as we waited for the boat to arrive. I think we waited for about ten minutes and it finally appeared which I was very happy about because I was getting cold. We got on the boat and got window seats and we were soon on our way for a nice long cruise down the Themes. It was nice, we stopped a couple of more times so people could get on and off and we got to the bottom of the route and the boat turned round and we went and sat at the front of the boat. On the way back up the river the captain decided to do a tour guide thing and he had everyone on the boat laughing so much. OMG!! He was soooo funny; he had me in tears of laugher with his adapted history. I took loads of pictures on our way back up and just before the end the captain sent the “captains ice bucket” round by one of his crew so we could show our appreciation. I enjoyed his commentary so much I put a couple of £’s in, giving him all my change. The boat stopped at Westminster and we got off there and decided to go and find somewhere to have some food. So we got off and started to walk down the houses of parliament and were looking through the fence watching cars in and watching the security checks they have to go through before making our way round to the other side so we could cross over the read and go to Westminster Abbey. It was massive when I saw it, I couldn’t quite believe how big it was, yes I’ve seen it on TV but you can’t really have any idea of just how big it is until you are that close. It was so nice, details of it was amazing, the type of details that you can’t see on TV because they never get that close. We stood in the area around the church looking and taking pictures and my dad wanted to go in but it was closed at that point so he said he’d like to come back on Monday and go in and have a look. We walked through the grounds and came out by the gift shop and just looked around us in amazement at all the buildings in that area. It was then I decided I needed to go to the toilet so we found some public toilets. OMG! I have NEVER been in toilets as nice as the public toilets at Westminster, they are 50p to get in but trust me they are worth every penny. They are nice and clean and they smell wonderful and there was a man working there all day making sure they are clean and tidy. It smelt amazing, everything was shiny and clean and the music was amazing. There were even heaters on it there so it was the right temperature, it was just amazing. I must have been in there ten minutes because I was enjoying the facilities so much, if your even in Westminster go in the public toilets across the road opposite the back of Westminster Abbey.
When we eventually left there we decided to make our way back into central London so we went to find the Underground and got a train back into the centre of London. We didn’t really know what we wanted to do at that point, I was waiting to hear back from my friend who I was meant to be meeting that evening. So we went into Planet Hollywood to eat, we went and booked a table and got directed to the bar while we waiting for our table. My dad ended up moaning almost straight away because I ordered a diet coke and the guy filled my glass with ice so there was barely any coke in the glass and he said I wanted ice but not a drink of ice, anyway he got him to just put a couple of pieces of ice in my drink. Then he found something else to moan about, his pint. He got another pint and he was sat moaning which was annoying me. I got so annoyed at him moaning that I told him to go and cancel out table because I wasn’t staying there with him being a moaning idiot. So he went and cancelled the table and the guy who he’d been moaning to gave me a free diet coke and put another pint on the bar for my dad. He came back and of course didn’t moan about it because it’s a free pint.
As I was sat there the guys behind the bar were making lots of cocktails and I loved the look of the frozen ones so I asked for a cocktail menu and the frozen cocktails were £7 each but I decided to treat myself to one so I got a Legally Blonde. Can I just say I had the best tasting drink ever in my life that day!! OMG!! Not only was the drink so big it was practically in a pint glass but OMG it was amazing, I’ve never tasted anything like it in my whole life and would live off those if I had to. It was amazing and it took ages to drink because it was so big but as soon as I finished it I had another one. I didn’t care it was £14 for two drinks because of how good it tasted, it was truly amazing and I wish there was a Planet Hollywood in Blackburn because if there was I’d been down there every weekend drinking Legally Blondes.
We used the toilets before we went and I had to queue up for ages but when I got in they are those fancy toilets with an attendant with hand wash that she puts on your hands for you and then she passes you a paper towel to dry your hands. I’ve never been in one like that before but I loved it, it’s a shame I didn’t have any change left otherwise I’d have put some in the bowl where you can leave money for the service.
Once we left there I was a little tipsy but you can’t blame me after the amount of alcohol they put in those cocktails plus I don’t drink much. We left there and were looking around for somewhere to do the lottery.
Oh and when I was in Planet Hollywood I’d heard from my friend, she had a headache and backache and didn’t know if she’d make it so I said she should just relax and we can meet up another time. I was a little disappointed as I’d looked forward to it for a few weeks but she wasn’t up to it so nothing could be done about it.
We then went and put the lottery on and passed YO! SUSHI which is one of the places I wanted to go when I was in London so we went in. OMG! It was amazing and just like I’d seen on the TV with the various plates of Sushi going round the seating around so you can just take one off as and when you want.
There were colour coded plates which started at £1.99 and went up to £4.99. We sat down and got a drink each and then started our Yo! Sushi experience trying different things we’d never normally have. I loved it, it was so tasty and so fresh and it was a nice experience. I think I and my dad had five different plates each and the bill came to around £35 which I thought was good value for money because it was tasty and was an amazing experience.
There was a couple say across from us who must have had at least 30 empty plates stacked up so there bill was probably well over £100 and as we were leaving the guy was still eating things so I’d hate to get their bill at the end of their meal. I enjoyed it there and would go back there anytime I was in London, there is two in London so next time I’m down there I am definitely going there.
We left there and it must have been around 8pm, we went into the Trocadera and was going to watch a film until we found out how much it cost, also there wasn’t anything on or due to start that we’d want to watch. So we went up to the Arcade section and were playing on the 2p machines and I found a prize and we played the air hockey game a couple of times but at £2 a game we didn’t want to play more than two games. We then went round to the bowling place and wanted to play a game so we had to book because it was so busy, we were then given a pager and told we’d be paged in 30 minutes so we went and played on more games but then got bored and went and sat waiting for our pager to be paged.
I also needed to sit down at this point because my feet were pure agony and getting more painful the more I stood up. My heels were the worst and standing on them was causing shooting pains up my legs. Eventually the balls of my feet got as painful so I wanted to sit down a lot of the time because of the pain in my feet and legs.
We must of waiting well over an hour for our bowling session when my dad went to find out why we’d not been paged and it turns out they some how missed us on the list so we got our money back and left because we didn’t want to wait any longer. We went to the Underground and made our way back to the Underground station near where we were staying. The walk back to the hotel was painful; I wanted my dad to carry me at one point because I was just in way too much pain in my legs and feet and hoped a good night’s sleep would help. It felt like I was walking on glass to be honest and the pain up my legs were just as bad. I went and sat on my bed for a while and when I put my feet on the floor to stand up the pain in my feet was excruciating and I basically fell back onto the bed because of the pure pain running through my feet. I had to get up and go to the bathroom but the second time standing up wasn’t as painful as the first. All during the night every time I got up to the toilet it was painful and by morning the extreme pain had eased but it was still very painful to walk on which was upsetting because the concert was that night and I didn’t know how I was going to cope with standing for around 3-5 hours when standing for ten minutes was agony.
After waking the next morning in pain all over from the bed I went and showered and met my dad. We decided that I should sit down as much as possible over the day and try and save my feet for later at the concert. We made our way into London and had breakfast at Burger King (again). I did want to have cereal and fruit but try and find somewhere you can get that sort of stuff, you will be very unlucky. We decided to go and have a couple games of bowling in the Tropidera which ended up costing me £32 as it was £8 per game per person and I was paying. It was fun though and when we finished we went on some of the arcade games before looking at the time and rushing to get the Underground. I did want to be back for 2pm so I could have a couple of hours to get ready but it was now 3pm and I wasn’t get back until 3:30pm. My feet were very sore so I sat down as much as I could, even during the bowling I would sit down in between goes and try to save my legs as much as possible as they were very sore and I’d be standing up for a long time in the evening.
We got back to where we were staying and I said I’d be ready for 4:30, well I hoped I would, and rushed for a shower. When I got out the shower it was almost 4pm and I knew I wouldn’t be ready for 4:30 with all I had left to do so I thought I’d be ready for 4:45pm. I rushed around drying my hair, then putting my outfit on and doing my make up before doing the finishing touches to my hair and adding my jewelry. I then grabbed everything I needed and packed it into the bag I was taking before rushing up to my dad’s room. It was about 4:50pm at this point and I was rushed because I needed to get there and find something to eat.
Details about my trip to the Arena and the actual concert can be found in the Bon Jovi concert blog I posted back in July.
Monday morning I was tired from the night before and still had sore feet. I had to get up and showered and finish packing and leave before 10am. I got ready and then went up to my dad’s room to get him and we came and got my things before signing out. We had decided to leave our luggage at the train station we were getting the train home from so we went across London on the Underground and left my big suitcase and my dads bag but at £7 a item we weren’t leaving my heavy backpack so my dad said he’d carry it round London all day on his back and didn’t seem to mind it was pink. We then went and had Burger King for breakfast, at this rate I was going to turn into a Angus meal from having so many, before deciding to make our way to Westminster so my dad could look round Westminster Abbey. It was pouring down with rain so as soon as we came out of the under ground up went the umbrella, we walked down to the Abbey and my dad decided not to go in because it was £10 per person or £7 if you are a OAP or Student so we could of got in for £14 but thought it was a lot of money and because of my aching legs I wouldn’t want to stand around looking at things so we decided against it but said next time we’d look. I did want to go to St Paul’s Cathedral but it was nowhere near and we’d need to go and three different trains to get there and with the pain my legs were in I didn’t want to have to bother with all that so we decided to go and bowl again seen as it was raining and there wasn’t much you could do when it was raining. We played three games as it was only £5 per game per person during the week, we hung around in the arcade section playing on the 2p machines and I won my third prize of the week. I even got chatted up by a guy when I was there, he kept coming and watching me when I was bowling and finally came and talked to me when I was playing on the 2p machines which was brave of him seen as my dad was feet away. He totally wasn’t my type because he seemed the type to spend his days in there chatting up girls and I basically couldn’t get out there quick enough. We then went to Burger King again haha. I had another Angus Meal and had a cookies and cream ice cream which is very nice. Once we left there we made our way back to the train station and picked up our luggage and got some snacks. I got a hummus snack thing with fresh pieces o veg and a couple of bottles of diet coke and a packet of apple crisps. I’d actually got one of those hummus snack pots that morning to snack on and it was lovely, me and my dad ended up eating it at a underground station and there was lots of it and it was the first time I’d tried hummus and I really liked it.
We eventually got on the train and found someone in my seat. It was funny because we had seat number 2 and 4 so weren’t next to each other and there was someone in 1 and 2 and they had tickets 1 and 3 and we together so we let them stay together and we sat together. It was so strange how we ended up like that.
Soon the train was on it’s way back to Preston and I was listening to music whilst snacking on food. We passed Wembley Stadium which we didn’t pass on the way down and it was massive, it was really nice to get to see it because it was one of the places I’d planned on seeing but with it raining all the time I never got the chance to go and see it. About 90 minutes into the journey the train kept slowing down and going at walking pace and then would speed up a little and then slow right down again and it was getting annoying. It went on for ages and it turns out there was a fault on the lines at Coventry and they were waiting for them to be fixed and couldn’t go through Coventry because of the fault. I know someone who lives in Coventry so I blamed them for the faulty line haha. Anyway we got in at Preston 15 minutes late so of course missed our connecting train to Blackburn and found out the next one wasn’t coming for an hour so of course we weren’t happy about that. We went and sat in the waiting room and were basically bored senseless for an hour. As we were sat there, there was a guy led opposite us who wasn’t moving and we couldn’t even see him breathing and I told my dad and he thought nothing of it but after about thirty minutes of no sign of breathing even my dad got worried and was going to go and get someone because the guy looked dead. I was even starting to get freaked out about it until all of a sudden the guy raised his head and then put it back down. It was so freaky because I was watching him for signs of breathing and there was none all that time and then he moved so he wasn’t dead but it looked that way.
Eventually the train for Blackburn came and we seemed to be on it forever. It was dark and cold and I just wanted to get home and get changed into someone more comfy and get the heating on. We got to Blackburn and phoned a taxi and that took forever to arrive which was annoying also. We got home and the taxi guy was so helpful with the bags that he got a nice tip and it was finally nice to walk into the house although everything felt strange and looked different it was just so nice to finally be home after a long journey home. I was soon changed and online with Dianna, see some things never change lol. I was up late and soon after I got up my dad brought Lucky home who was so excited to see me he was crying and all over me for an hour which was nice.
It was a nice trip; I saw lots on the first day because the weather was nice. The other days were good but not as good as I’d like because of the rain pouring down for a lot of the time I was there. Of course the highlight, and the reason behind my visit to London, of the whole trip was the concert (which can be read about in the concert blog). I loved my whole time there even when my legs were in so much pain. The pain went fully by the end of the following day. I can’t wait to go back to London, I am thinking of going down in December for a weekend and staying in a nice hotel in central London and doing some Christmas shopping there.
On Friday 22nd June I was woken by my multiple alarms going off at 4:45am and at that point I wanted to go to sleep for another three or four hours because I’d only been asleep for four hours because I couldn’t seem to fall asleep the night before. But no matter how much I wanted to go back to sleep I had to get up because I was going to London and had a taxi booked at 7:50am to take me to the train station. So I dragged myself out of bed and went downstairs to go and get some breakfast. Then once breakfast was over I spent the next couple of hours showering and getting ready and making sure I had everything packed, my dad brought my luggage downstairs and then there was a knock on the door – the taxi was here so it was a mad rush to get everything together. We got in the taxi and were heading towards the train station when I realized I’d left all my tickets at home (basically £1000 worth of tickets including train tickets, London Eye Tickets, Bon Jovi Concert Tickets and Hotel Confirmation) so got the taxi to take us back home. It was actually a good job we set off a little earlier because we might have missed the train if we hadn’t booked the taxi earlier. One we collected the tickets we made our way back to the train station and made our way up to the platform and had a ten minute wait for the train to arrive. It was nice actually being somewhere early for once instead of having to rush around and almost make it.
Lucky was dropped off to stay at a friend’s house at 7am on that morning by my dad; we obviously couldn’t take him with us and couldn’t let him stay at my mums because my mum’s dog chases him around trying to mate with him so it wouldn’t have been fair on him.
We arrived in Preston and found the platform where the London train leaves from and then I made a quick trip to the toilet, making it back as the train pulled into the station. I was relieved to have front facing seats because I can’t travel backwards. I’d booked the train tickets two months in advance and asked for front facing seats and was very lucky to have gotten them. The train was soon setting off and I was happy to be finally getting away for a long weekend although I had heard it was going to rain all the time I wasn’t going to let that ruin my first time in London. After about 40 minutes into the journey a bunch of school kids on a school trip got on the train and were seated in our section which I wasn’t happy about. The children were loud and annoying and their teachers were letting them get away with being annoying and loud. I put my MP3 player on loud and could still hear them and my dad fell asleep. It was quite funny because my dad shouts out in his sleep at times and he did it on the train and everyone laughed at him. I just listened to music all the way down until about ten minutes before we were due to get into London when I started to pack everything back into my bag and get ready to get off the train. When the train stopped I basically rushed off it because I didn’t want to get caught behind all the children getting off the train.
We had arrived in London!!
As soon as we got off the train we went to find a toilet. 20p each to use the toilet but when you need it badly you don’t care how much it costs. Once we’d been to the toilet we went to find something to eat and ended up in Burger King at the train station. I had a Angus Meal and so did my dad. Once we’d eaten we thought it was time to tackle the underground so found it and made our way down stopping once to check which line we needed. We then traveled to Waterloo and set off to find a taxi to take us to where we were staying – International House. We got in a massive queue for a taxi and were soon on our way to International House, it cost £6 and my dad gave him a £2 tip (we soon found out later that he’d taken us the long way round and it was only a 5-10 minute walk but I wasn’t in the mood to walk with my luggage. Also another Underground station was 3-5 minutes from where we were staying but I’d forgotten the name of it (now know its Lambeth North) so we had no choice to get the taxi there). Anyway we were there and we could finally dump our bags. It was a warm day and I was sweating and wanted to get rid of my luggage. WE checked in and were told we couldn’t go to our rooms because they were still being cleaned but as we were stood there filling in forms the cleaners came down and said they were finished so we were allowed to our rooms which was a big relief for me. Then we were told we were going to be in different floors which I found very strange because normally when you book two rooms together, anyway there was nothing we could do about it so we got the keys and went to see which room we wanted. One was on the 4th floor and the other was on the 6th floor. We checked out the one on the 4th floor first and before seeing the second room I said I’d have it but my dad still made me go and look at the one on the 6th floor. I went up and was glad I wanted the 6th floor because his had a big desk chair in his under the desk which made it impossible to walk along his bed. The only good thing was you could see the London Eye from his window and you couldn’t’ from mine even though my room was two floors down because there was a big building across the road from the building and from my room that’s all you could see but two floors up (from my dad’s window) you could see above the building and see the London Eye.
I went back to my room and unpacked a couple of essentials. My room wasn’t nice at all but what more could I ask for, for £15 a night?!! It is student accommodation in term time and I’ve stayed in two lots of student accommodation in the past at university’s which was always nice but that was probably because it was on campus and this wasn’t. The carpet was dirty and had stains all over it and was thread-bare and the furniture was thin and old and falling to pieces. The bed….omg!! What can I say about the bed? It was a wooden frame single bed with an old mattress on (more about that later), the duvet was so thin that it was like a sheet and the pillow was just as thin. The window didn’t shut properly and the only good thing I can say about the room is it didn’t have a big desk chair blocking my way. I’ve never stayed in a room that isn’t en-suite before but I had a low budget for accommodation because I spent £600 on concert tickets so I had to find something for under £20 a night each and this was perfect as it was near a underground station and close to the London Eye and was cheap too (under budget). If I ‘d not spent so much on the tickets I would of paid £40 a night each or maybe more depending on where the accommodation was. Anyway I checked out the toilet which was small and clean which was something and then went and looked at the shower room which was dirty. On each floor there was a shower room and toilet on each side and just one kitchen. Where my room was, were right outside where the lift was and right next door to the flight of stairs. The rest of the rooms were on other sides of glass door. On the right was a door you went through to get to the bedrooms and a bathroom and a shower room and on my left (closer for me) was another door and through there, there was bedrooms and the bathroom and shower room so I was out away from the other bedrooms – had a bad room there and no wonder they saved it for the last to arrive. My dad basically had to the same set up as me as his room was in the same place but two floors up.
Anyway I quickly refreshed myself with some body spray and a touch up of my make up and we headed out. We soon found the Lambeth North underground and made our way down to the track. I had decided that I wanted to go and do some serious sight seeing seen as the weather was nicer than expected. I wanted to go to Buckingham Palace and Harrods and Trafalgar Square. My dad knew which stop we needed to get off for Trafalgar Square because he was in London for the marathon a couple of months before. We did get off one stop earlier than needed but that was OK because it gave me the chance to walk and have a little look around and pick up some post cards. Once I got some post cards we walked past some of the theatres (the ones with STOMP on etc) and my dad went in to see how much tickets were because we were meant to be meeting my friend Caroline the next day and we were thinking of things we could do as well as go for a meal. We even walked past one of the places Caroline suggested we go for a meal. Then as we were walking down towards Trafalgar Square I noticed my favorite shop (NEXT) and decided I needed some sunglasses and a jacket because I had neither with me expect for a hooded zip up sports type jackets so we headed across the road and went into Next. It wasn’t very big and I had most of the items they were selling expects for the ones they didn’t have and you wouldn’t believe this but they didn’t have one jacket in there but they had some really nice sunglasses. I got a pair of sunglasses and was about to go and pay when I walked past the bag section and spotted the most amazing bag. I hadn’t seen this bag before and I wanted it, it was a brown hobo style bad with the most amazing beaded detail on the front of it and it was a nice big size so I thought it was perfect for the rest of the trip although I’d brought two new bags with me. We paid and my dad wanted to go down to the men’s section because he also wanted a jacket because he hadn’t brought one either. We get down the stairs and no jackets for men either, in fact there wasn’t much of anything at all but then I spotted something nice. A sleeveless zip up top thing in green with a white t-shirt underneath and I knew my dad would look good in that so w got that.
We left there and looked down the road and could see Trafalgar Square so we headed down there and then it started to rain a little. I was trying to have my picture taken and it was raining and my dad was taking ages (the pictures aren’t that good) and then my umbrella went up and the best picture of me for the whole trip (other than one on the water feature at Buck Palace) was taken there. I took some of my dad but with people walking around all the time in front of you it was almost impossible to get any decent pictures. Next I decided it was time to go to Harrods or Buck Palace and right next to us was the underground so we went down and they had a machine that had mini maps in so I got one of them and right now I can tell you it was the best thing I bought the whole trip, it was very handy and useful so if you are ever in London and need help to find where things are then get one because they are £2 but worth every single penny. We didn’t use it that much after the first day but it was very handy when trying to find where things are and where undergrounds are etc.
We then went to Oxford Circus even though we wanted Piccadilly Circus but we got off there not knowing it was the wrong one, it was my dads fault but never mind. By now the rain was pouring down so many pictures weren’t taken at this point and the one I wanted the most turned out to be a video because my dad accidentally filmed me instead of taking a picture. He then looked at a map and decided he knew the route to Harrods so we set off walking and were walking for ages and ages until the rain stopped and my dad looked at the map again and after a little argument between us he realized we were stood right next to Green Park which is the part next to Buck Palace so we decided to go to the palace before we went to Harrods. We walked through Green Park and everything was green and that’s no joke, for all around me all I could see green. Green trees and green grass and not much else, there were lots of people out running through the park and walking their dogs and it wasn’t that big and we soon had the palace in our sites and soon we were across the road looking at the palace which looks the same as it does on TV. Well I’d be worried if it didn’t look the same as it did on TV hehe. It was big and maybe bigger than I thought because you can only see a certain amount of it on the TV. The changing over of the guards that are stood there was happening and they read these things out to each other and stamped their feet a lot and it was just so silly to change one guard over and I don’t even know why they bother and it must be so annoying for them to do that and then the standing there all day looking straight ahead – now that must be a really boring job. As we were there post man pat in his van came and was allowed in and I thought it was a little late in the day for the Queen to be getting her mail as it was after 2pm at this point.
Had a little look through the railings and then had my picture taken in front of the palace and then went across to the fountain type thing and had my picture taken there too and then went up to the top of it and took some pictures before sitting on the wall to write my post cards.
Then I wanted to go to Harrods so my dad got the map out and decided we weren’t far from it and it was probably a ten minute walk away so we headed off walking down the side of the palace which seemed to go on forever, walking down the length of the palace took five minutes alone. We got to the end and it started raining again so up went my umbrella whilst my dad looked at the map once more. We set off walking and I am not joking when I say we were walking for about 45 minutes before we got to Harrods and I wasn’t one bit pleased about that because he said we were 10 minutes walk away but we weren’t and just kept on walking and I was very annoyed at him and wasn’t going to trust his map reading again after that. It was very nice to see Harrods in site and soon noticed there was a underground station right next door so we could of gone on the Underground and got there in five minutes.
We walked into Harrods and straight into the handbag section and normally I would be in heaven because I love bags and I would of loved one but the credit card was at home which was maybe good otherwise I would of ended up spending at least £500 on a bag but it would have been a bag I would of used for like forever and I would of loved to have gone there and bought an amazing designer bag. But I couldn’t so we walked through that section fast but it seemed to go on forever. We eventually came out into the main area and went up on the escalators but each floor we came to looked expensive so we didn’t look at any expect the kitchen one which had lots and lots of things on and there were this cute pink set but items were sold separately and one cup for £45 and the matching saucer was £30 so I put that down quickly. We had a walk around that whole floor and saw some really nice and expensive things and were heading out to find the gift section when we passed a chocolate café and yeah you read that right. Dianna would of loved that because almost everything on the menu had chocolate in it and chocolate was being made fresh there. But the price list put me off and the fact my dad didn’t want to go in. The chocolate milkshake was £6 and I wanted one because it looked amazing and so did the hot chocolate and the chocolate cake but my dad was saying it was too much money so we didn’t go in. Instead we made our way down all the escalators down to the bottom floor were we find the gift section. They had all kinds of things down there and by far it was the cheapest section in the whole shop. They had journals and diary’s and things like that and I ended up getting a lovely journal, it is so beautiful and my dad was looking at pens and a sales man went and started to talk to my dad and my dad put his fake posh voice on which he does a lot on the phone and I just walked around the shop trying to ignore him. He then announced that he was going to buy a pen and I thought ‘oh no’ because I thought he was looking at expensive pens because I didn’t think Harrods would sell cheap pens, so I gave my dad a look to say ‘don’t be stupid’ and walked over to find they were under £10. They are by a brand called Lamy and I saw a nice pink one and I was going to get it and the sales man told my dad that pink was the in colour and he said that he was going to buy it and I said it was the one I wanted so he decided to go for another one (thank god). That’s all we got there, my journal was £10 but it is very nice, other than a Harrods card. Oh and of course I got a Harrods carrier bag which is what I wanted.
We left there and I decided that I needed a drink and saw a Starbucks across the road so headed across there for my first visit to a Starbucks. I didn’t want a coffee or anything like that because I don’t like coffee. I then saw a nice drink called a mango passion fruit so I got one of those and my dad got a coffee. My drink was so refreshing; I can’t remember when I last had a drink so it was a very welcome drink on a warm day like that day. We then crossed back over and went on the underground and made our way back to where we were staying so I could get changed before going out to the London Eye. We had tickets for 8:30 and it was about 6:30 when we got back. We were going to go and eat before but we didn’t want to rush it so decided to eat afterwards. I got changed into a cooler outfit because I’d been too warm all day even though it had been raining. I then went and got my dad who was shocked it only took me around ten minutes to get completely changed.
We then set off walking because we knew it wasn’t far from we were staying (that’s why I picked the place in the first place) and we were walking about 5 minutes or so when we came across a Starbucks and I sent my dad in for another Mango Passion Fruit and then I saw Ned’s Noodle House and decided that I wanted noodles for my dinner but my dad didn’t want them so I said I would have some as a snack and would still eat a meal after we had been on the London Eye. I then looked at the menu through the window and decided on Hong Kong Chicken Noodles, you then have to decide what type of noodles you’d like so I picked Udon noodles. I’ve never tried them before but I have heard lots about them on TV so I went with them. My dad went in and ordered and I found a table to sit on outside. We waited around ten minutes for them to arrive and I was given chop sticks. I can’t use chop sticks but I had no choice so I had to open them and use them. At first it was so difficult but after a couple of minutes I was able to use them and the more I used them the better I got at using them which was amazing. The noodles were amazing, well they were better than amazing if I am honest, I think they were one of the best things I’d ever tasted and I would love to have them again. There were massive pieces of chicken in it and they were just so tasty and I decided there and then that if I ever go to London again I will get those noodles from that place because they are just so tasty and I love them.
We then carried onto the London Eye which was a 2 minutes walk, we turned a corner and there is was right in front of me bigger than I imagined. It was then it decided to start to rain so up went my umbrella again but the rain just got heavier and heavier and I wasn’t happy because I didn’t want to be up with and not see much because of the stupid rain. The rain got so bad that everyone started to run inside the ticket office/café building area so of course I went in but it was a good chance for me to use the toilet a couple of times.
On the tickets it tells you to start queuing 30 minutes before you are due on but it was still raining (not as bad) and was getting dark outside and we didn’t want to queue but we also didn’t want to miss our flight (they are called flights) so about 8:15 we went out to the queue, had our tickets checked and we were at the front of the queue 60 seconds later. Everyone has to have their bags checked and also everyone has to be scanned with one of those hand held scanners. When you get to the security guy (who was totally hot and cute but with a ‘don’t mess with me’ look) he asks you if you have any sharp objects in your bad like scissors. Then he puts his scanner in your bag before scanning the back of you with it. Then once that was over we moved forward and we were behind a gated area waiting to go on one of the pods. It then starts to approach with no one in (they get out 10 seconds before) and we are told to go in but it keeps on moving along the platform because it obviously can’t stop so you basically have to go into it as it is moving but you have to be quick. Then we are in and the doors shut. Everyone sat down on the benches at first because there was nothing to see because if was just going along the platform and starting to go up. People weren’t sat down for long. I did feel a little nervous because I don’t like heights that much so I was a little cautious on there at first. We were then looking and seeing amazing things, it goes really slow (it takes 30 minutes in total) but it makes sure you get to see everything. It was still raining at this point so I don’t really have any good pictures of anything up there. I did take a lot of pictures but no good ones came out, there is some OK ones but nothing special to shout home about.
It was amazing being up there, I kind of felt like I should be nervous but I wasn’t and was totally fine with everything around me. When we got to the highest point my dad told me and I wanted to feel scared but I didn’t (I felt strange but not scared) and it was just so nice looking down on everything from that height. The 30 minutes seemed to fly by, on the decent about 5 minutes before we have to get off there was an announcement in our pod saying that there would be a picture taken in our pod in the next minute and it told us where the camera was. Well my dad and I just happened to be stood by that side of the pod where the picture is taken so what did my dad do? He stood there and posed. I am stood next to him trying to get him to stop posing but as you can see from the picture I didn’t succeed lol.
It was a good experience being on the London Eye and I will go on it again next time I am in London and hopefully next time it won’t be raining and the skies won’t be as dark, well that’s what I hope for anyway.
When we left there my dad wanted to eat but of course I wasn’t hungry because of those amazing noodles that I’d eaten so we started to walk back towards where we were staying. There was a couple of restaurants there and I didn’t want to eat and my dad basically made me go in a Chinese place with him. It looked dodgy when we went in and we ordered and they brought me a pint of diet coke with nasty lemon in that was horrible. I then went for a salad and the chicken looked like rubber and was horrible and I didn’t think my dad liked his meal. They then kept trying to bring us a dessert menu and didn’t seem to want us to pay and leave. We eventually left there £25 lighter which was a rip off for the little food we had, and made our way back to where we were staying. Well I did, my dad went to the pub across the road. I was too tired for that as I’d had less than 4 hours sleep the night before and done more walking than I normally do in a month lol. So I went and chilled out in my room with my MP3 player on but it was so noisy with police cars going past with their sirens on (the police station was 30 seconds away) and there was a drunken group of girls across the road. One of the girls kept singing a certain 4 non blondes song for at least an hour which drove me round the bend. Then the doors on the stair case, on various floors, were being opened and then slamming shut and it was just too loud.
Then my bed….what can I say about my bed? Well I can’t say anything good about it that’s for sure. It was like a rock. Actually I think a rock would have been more comfy to lie on. I’ve never led on something so uncomfortable in my life, ever. My pillow, my pillow was like a piece of cotton wool. It was so thin that even folding it in half didn’t make it even half the thickness of a normal pillow. The duvet, well that was slightly thicker than the pillow but thinner than a blanket. I managed to fall asleep at one point but woke up with a stiff neck about half an hour later, I then put two towels under my pillow and folded my pillow in half and fell asleep for a little while and woke up again. I then put my duvet under my head and had no cover on my basically but the first night was so warm. That still wasn’t enough but it was better, I did wake up cold in the middle of the night so I put my dressing gown on and my hooded zip up top on too.
I woke up in the morning in pain all over my body, my back and neck were stiff and I was sore everywhere and not a happy bunny.
I don’t think I slept much the night before; I was just being woken up all the time. If it wasn’t the police with their sirens it was the staircase next to where I was sleeping with people opening and doors and letting them bang shut. Then there was the issue of the stupid bed, OMG!! I am still in pain from that bed, I think I would have been a lot more comfortable if I’d slept on the floor or something. I didn’t know what a bed could be so uncomfortable and I didn’t know pillows or duvets could be so thin either. As soon as my alarm went off I was up and out of bed and grabbing my things and rushing for the shower, I had a shower and rushed back to my room to get dressed and ready for the day ahead.
I then went up to my dad’s room to meet him but he wasn’t there. OMG! I was banging on the door and was wondering how the hell he could sleep through that. I then rung his mobile which went straight to the answering service and I was texting and getting mad whilst I sat on the stairway. He eventually text me back and said that he’d been in the shower and I then went back up to his room.
We decided to go and have breakfast in London so we made our way to the underground station and get a all day ticket before making our way down to the platform. It wasn’t long until the train was arriving and we were making our way into to Piccadilly Circus for breakfast. We decided to have McDonalds for breakfast that morning and just as we walked in they were turning over the breakfast boards so of course we couldn’t have breakfast so I ended up with a quarter pounder meal with a banana milkshake. When we left there we walked around for a little bit as it wasn’t raining at this point, little did we know at the time but 4 days later there would be a bomb scare right were we where walking and we wouldn’t of been allowed to go around there then if we were around then so it was a good job we were there then and not the following week. We just walked around for a bit trying to decide what to do before heading for a Underground station because we decided to go on a Themes boat ride and we had to make our way there. We got there and walked across a really nice bridge and had a look in a couple of the shops and had a drink before making our way to the pier and getting tickets at half price. At this point the sun didn’t know if it wanted to be in or out so it went behind the dark clouds and it rained a little as we waited for the boat to arrive. I think we waited for about ten minutes and it finally appeared which I was very happy about because I was getting cold. We got on the boat and got window seats and we were soon on our way for a nice long cruise down the Themes. It was nice, we stopped a couple of more times so people could get on and off and we got to the bottom of the route and the boat turned round and we went and sat at the front of the boat. On the way back up the river the captain decided to do a tour guide thing and he had everyone on the boat laughing so much. OMG!! He was soooo funny; he had me in tears of laugher with his adapted history. I took loads of pictures on our way back up and just before the end the captain sent the “captains ice bucket” round by one of his crew so we could show our appreciation. I enjoyed his commentary so much I put a couple of £’s in, giving him all my change. The boat stopped at Westminster and we got off there and decided to go and find somewhere to have some food. So we got off and started to walk down the houses of parliament and were looking through the fence watching cars in and watching the security checks they have to go through before making our way round to the other side so we could cross over the read and go to Westminster Abbey. It was massive when I saw it, I couldn’t quite believe how big it was, yes I’ve seen it on TV but you can’t really have any idea of just how big it is until you are that close. It was so nice, details of it was amazing, the type of details that you can’t see on TV because they never get that close. We stood in the area around the church looking and taking pictures and my dad wanted to go in but it was closed at that point so he said he’d like to come back on Monday and go in and have a look. We walked through the grounds and came out by the gift shop and just looked around us in amazement at all the buildings in that area. It was then I decided I needed to go to the toilet so we found some public toilets. OMG! I have NEVER been in toilets as nice as the public toilets at Westminster, they are 50p to get in but trust me they are worth every penny. They are nice and clean and they smell wonderful and there was a man working there all day making sure they are clean and tidy. It smelt amazing, everything was shiny and clean and the music was amazing. There were even heaters on it there so it was the right temperature, it was just amazing. I must have been in there ten minutes because I was enjoying the facilities so much, if your even in Westminster go in the public toilets across the road opposite the back of Westminster Abbey.
When we eventually left there we decided to make our way back into central London so we went to find the Underground and got a train back into the centre of London. We didn’t really know what we wanted to do at that point, I was waiting to hear back from my friend who I was meant to be meeting that evening. So we went into Planet Hollywood to eat, we went and booked a table and got directed to the bar while we waiting for our table. My dad ended up moaning almost straight away because I ordered a diet coke and the guy filled my glass with ice so there was barely any coke in the glass and he said I wanted ice but not a drink of ice, anyway he got him to just put a couple of pieces of ice in my drink. Then he found something else to moan about, his pint. He got another pint and he was sat moaning which was annoying me. I got so annoyed at him moaning that I told him to go and cancel out table because I wasn’t staying there with him being a moaning idiot. So he went and cancelled the table and the guy who he’d been moaning to gave me a free diet coke and put another pint on the bar for my dad. He came back and of course didn’t moan about it because it’s a free pint.
As I was sat there the guys behind the bar were making lots of cocktails and I loved the look of the frozen ones so I asked for a cocktail menu and the frozen cocktails were £7 each but I decided to treat myself to one so I got a Legally Blonde. Can I just say I had the best tasting drink ever in my life that day!! OMG!! Not only was the drink so big it was practically in a pint glass but OMG it was amazing, I’ve never tasted anything like it in my whole life and would live off those if I had to. It was amazing and it took ages to drink because it was so big but as soon as I finished it I had another one. I didn’t care it was £14 for two drinks because of how good it tasted, it was truly amazing and I wish there was a Planet Hollywood in Blackburn because if there was I’d been down there every weekend drinking Legally Blondes.
We used the toilets before we went and I had to queue up for ages but when I got in they are those fancy toilets with an attendant with hand wash that she puts on your hands for you and then she passes you a paper towel to dry your hands. I’ve never been in one like that before but I loved it, it’s a shame I didn’t have any change left otherwise I’d have put some in the bowl where you can leave money for the service.
Once we left there I was a little tipsy but you can’t blame me after the amount of alcohol they put in those cocktails plus I don’t drink much. We left there and were looking around for somewhere to do the lottery.
Oh and when I was in Planet Hollywood I’d heard from my friend, she had a headache and backache and didn’t know if she’d make it so I said she should just relax and we can meet up another time. I was a little disappointed as I’d looked forward to it for a few weeks but she wasn’t up to it so nothing could be done about it.
We then went and put the lottery on and passed YO! SUSHI which is one of the places I wanted to go when I was in London so we went in. OMG! It was amazing and just like I’d seen on the TV with the various plates of Sushi going round the seating around so you can just take one off as and when you want.
There were colour coded plates which started at £1.99 and went up to £4.99. We sat down and got a drink each and then started our Yo! Sushi experience trying different things we’d never normally have. I loved it, it was so tasty and so fresh and it was a nice experience. I think I and my dad had five different plates each and the bill came to around £35 which I thought was good value for money because it was tasty and was an amazing experience.
There was a couple say across from us who must have had at least 30 empty plates stacked up so there bill was probably well over £100 and as we were leaving the guy was still eating things so I’d hate to get their bill at the end of their meal. I enjoyed it there and would go back there anytime I was in London, there is two in London so next time I’m down there I am definitely going there.
We left there and it must have been around 8pm, we went into the Trocadera and was going to watch a film until we found out how much it cost, also there wasn’t anything on or due to start that we’d want to watch. So we went up to the Arcade section and were playing on the 2p machines and I found a prize and we played the air hockey game a couple of times but at £2 a game we didn’t want to play more than two games. We then went round to the bowling place and wanted to play a game so we had to book because it was so busy, we were then given a pager and told we’d be paged in 30 minutes so we went and played on more games but then got bored and went and sat waiting for our pager to be paged.
I also needed to sit down at this point because my feet were pure agony and getting more painful the more I stood up. My heels were the worst and standing on them was causing shooting pains up my legs. Eventually the balls of my feet got as painful so I wanted to sit down a lot of the time because of the pain in my feet and legs.
We must of waiting well over an hour for our bowling session when my dad went to find out why we’d not been paged and it turns out they some how missed us on the list so we got our money back and left because we didn’t want to wait any longer. We went to the Underground and made our way back to the Underground station near where we were staying. The walk back to the hotel was painful; I wanted my dad to carry me at one point because I was just in way too much pain in my legs and feet and hoped a good night’s sleep would help. It felt like I was walking on glass to be honest and the pain up my legs were just as bad. I went and sat on my bed for a while and when I put my feet on the floor to stand up the pain in my feet was excruciating and I basically fell back onto the bed because of the pure pain running through my feet. I had to get up and go to the bathroom but the second time standing up wasn’t as painful as the first. All during the night every time I got up to the toilet it was painful and by morning the extreme pain had eased but it was still very painful to walk on which was upsetting because the concert was that night and I didn’t know how I was going to cope with standing for around 3-5 hours when standing for ten minutes was agony.
After waking the next morning in pain all over from the bed I went and showered and met my dad. We decided that I should sit down as much as possible over the day and try and save my feet for later at the concert. We made our way into London and had breakfast at Burger King (again). I did want to have cereal and fruit but try and find somewhere you can get that sort of stuff, you will be very unlucky. We decided to go and have a couple games of bowling in the Tropidera which ended up costing me £32 as it was £8 per game per person and I was paying. It was fun though and when we finished we went on some of the arcade games before looking at the time and rushing to get the Underground. I did want to be back for 2pm so I could have a couple of hours to get ready but it was now 3pm and I wasn’t get back until 3:30pm. My feet were very sore so I sat down as much as I could, even during the bowling I would sit down in between goes and try to save my legs as much as possible as they were very sore and I’d be standing up for a long time in the evening.
We got back to where we were staying and I said I’d be ready for 4:30, well I hoped I would, and rushed for a shower. When I got out the shower it was almost 4pm and I knew I wouldn’t be ready for 4:30 with all I had left to do so I thought I’d be ready for 4:45pm. I rushed around drying my hair, then putting my outfit on and doing my make up before doing the finishing touches to my hair and adding my jewelry. I then grabbed everything I needed and packed it into the bag I was taking before rushing up to my dad’s room. It was about 4:50pm at this point and I was rushed because I needed to get there and find something to eat.
Details about my trip to the Arena and the actual concert can be found in the Bon Jovi concert blog I posted back in July.
Monday morning I was tired from the night before and still had sore feet. I had to get up and showered and finish packing and leave before 10am. I got ready and then went up to my dad’s room to get him and we came and got my things before signing out. We had decided to leave our luggage at the train station we were getting the train home from so we went across London on the Underground and left my big suitcase and my dads bag but at £7 a item we weren’t leaving my heavy backpack so my dad said he’d carry it round London all day on his back and didn’t seem to mind it was pink. We then went and had Burger King for breakfast, at this rate I was going to turn into a Angus meal from having so many, before deciding to make our way to Westminster so my dad could look round Westminster Abbey. It was pouring down with rain so as soon as we came out of the under ground up went the umbrella, we walked down to the Abbey and my dad decided not to go in because it was £10 per person or £7 if you are a OAP or Student so we could of got in for £14 but thought it was a lot of money and because of my aching legs I wouldn’t want to stand around looking at things so we decided against it but said next time we’d look. I did want to go to St Paul’s Cathedral but it was nowhere near and we’d need to go and three different trains to get there and with the pain my legs were in I didn’t want to have to bother with all that so we decided to go and bowl again seen as it was raining and there wasn’t much you could do when it was raining. We played three games as it was only £5 per game per person during the week, we hung around in the arcade section playing on the 2p machines and I won my third prize of the week. I even got chatted up by a guy when I was there, he kept coming and watching me when I was bowling and finally came and talked to me when I was playing on the 2p machines which was brave of him seen as my dad was feet away. He totally wasn’t my type because he seemed the type to spend his days in there chatting up girls and I basically couldn’t get out there quick enough. We then went to Burger King again haha. I had another Angus Meal and had a cookies and cream ice cream which is very nice. Once we left there we made our way back to the train station and picked up our luggage and got some snacks. I got a hummus snack thing with fresh pieces o veg and a couple of bottles of diet coke and a packet of apple crisps. I’d actually got one of those hummus snack pots that morning to snack on and it was lovely, me and my dad ended up eating it at a underground station and there was lots of it and it was the first time I’d tried hummus and I really liked it.
We eventually got on the train and found someone in my seat. It was funny because we had seat number 2 and 4 so weren’t next to each other and there was someone in 1 and 2 and they had tickets 1 and 3 and we together so we let them stay together and we sat together. It was so strange how we ended up like that.
Soon the train was on it’s way back to Preston and I was listening to music whilst snacking on food. We passed Wembley Stadium which we didn’t pass on the way down and it was massive, it was really nice to get to see it because it was one of the places I’d planned on seeing but with it raining all the time I never got the chance to go and see it. About 90 minutes into the journey the train kept slowing down and going at walking pace and then would speed up a little and then slow right down again and it was getting annoying. It went on for ages and it turns out there was a fault on the lines at Coventry and they were waiting for them to be fixed and couldn’t go through Coventry because of the fault. I know someone who lives in Coventry so I blamed them for the faulty line haha. Anyway we got in at Preston 15 minutes late so of course missed our connecting train to Blackburn and found out the next one wasn’t coming for an hour so of course we weren’t happy about that. We went and sat in the waiting room and were basically bored senseless for an hour. As we were sat there, there was a guy led opposite us who wasn’t moving and we couldn’t even see him breathing and I told my dad and he thought nothing of it but after about thirty minutes of no sign of breathing even my dad got worried and was going to go and get someone because the guy looked dead. I was even starting to get freaked out about it until all of a sudden the guy raised his head and then put it back down. It was so freaky because I was watching him for signs of breathing and there was none all that time and then he moved so he wasn’t dead but it looked that way.
Eventually the train for Blackburn came and we seemed to be on it forever. It was dark and cold and I just wanted to get home and get changed into someone more comfy and get the heating on. We got to Blackburn and phoned a taxi and that took forever to arrive which was annoying also. We got home and the taxi guy was so helpful with the bags that he got a nice tip and it was finally nice to walk into the house although everything felt strange and looked different it was just so nice to finally be home after a long journey home. I was soon changed and online with Dianna, see some things never change lol. I was up late and soon after I got up my dad brought Lucky home who was so excited to see me he was crying and all over me for an hour which was nice.
It was a nice trip; I saw lots on the first day because the weather was nice. The other days were good but not as good as I’d like because of the rain pouring down for a lot of the time I was there. Of course the highlight, and the reason behind my visit to London, of the whole trip was the concert (which can be read about in the concert blog). I loved my whole time there even when my legs were in so much pain. The pain went fully by the end of the following day. I can’t wait to go back to London, I am thinking of going down in December for a weekend and staying in a nice hotel in central London and doing some Christmas shopping there.
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