Europe Trip 2011 London (Day 1 to Day 3)

     I flew from Phoenix and arrived at London Heathrow Airport at eight o'clock in the morning with a jet lag. I took me about forty minutes to get out of the custom, and I could not go through the shorter EU line with my BN(O) (the (O) part automatically disqualifies me from getting into the EU line). Most of the people that were waiting at the non-EU lines were South Indians.

     After I met up with Jeffrey and Frederick, we took the Piccadilly Line to Belgrove Hotel near King's Cross Station and checked in our belongings. We were given a tiny room and we are okay as long as there was a place to hang clothes and sleep (one of the nice things of travelling with guys). Space is super precious in Inner London and Fred took a lot of effort to find the cheapest rooms that are at convenient locations. Belgrove is really closed to Easton/San Pancreas Kings Cross, and it is walkable to University to London in Bloomsbury.

Bee sits on a camera strap

     The first stop we went for was the British Museum and we have not planned on where to go in the evening but I suggested that Victoria and Albert Museum in the West End has an extended opening hour at night. It turned out to be a huge mistake and I think we should have chosen something more relaxing on the day after the long flights.

     The British Museum is located in the Bloomsbury area of Camden, not far away from King's Cross Station. We walked through some part of the main campus of University of London and Russell Square, then into the British Museum.

The Greek-style facade of British Museum

     London is easily one of the most expensive cities in the world. However, the city decides to showcase their cultural, historical, science, and art knowledge to the general public by not charging admission fees to the top museums, and the British Museum happens to be one of them. After six hours of visit, I felt that Britain had collected (or plundered) every corner of the world and brought their treasure collection in London. Ironically, many those anthropological treasures would have been destroyed if they were not plundered by the British Empires during the course of time.

One of the many chambers inside the British Museum

     We decided to take a double decker bus to Hyde Park after we got out of the British Museum, it was a very short distance but very congestive ride. We were frustrated and decided to walk to Hyde Park from Green Park stop. Jeffrey and Frederick were not very interesting in walking so we through the park quickly, and they wanted to grab some cheap bites from Prat a Manger but I had no interest in cold sandwiches and chain restaurants. We kept walking west to Knightsbridge and Brompton Road, passing by Harrods and entered the Victoria and Albert Museum. Victoria and Albert Museum (named after some queen and her husband) is next to Museum of Natural History, Science Museum, and Imperial College and has a fine collection on art and designs but we were already developed museum-fatigue so we wandered our way out half-consciously within an hour. We took the Tube back to Belgrove Hotel and called that a night.

     We got up and had a pretty decent breakfast at the hotel (the breakfast ladies were French). One

The Tower Bridge in the morning

 thing I like about hotels/hostels in Europe is that breakfasts are often included and they are in buffet style. After the breakfast, we took the Tube to see the Tower Bridge. We paid 8 pounds to get to see the views of The Thames, East Dockland, ahd City of London. Jeffrey and Frederick were too much into photography. After seeing the amazing machinery of the bridge and see how Norman Foster and Co. boast themselves with the various projects that they were involved in.

     We walked along the South Bank toward the London Eye crossing more bridges like a zig zag direction. I saw protesters (Occupy London), teenager skateboarders, and casual tourists on the Queen Walk (the pedestrian trail on the South Bank). It was a gorgeous afternoon and the weather condition was just perfect. We passed by Saint Paul Cathedral, the Monument of the Great Fire of London, The Parliament, and Westminster Abbey.

     For dinner, we went to tried a Mediterranean restaurant called Bistro1. It was the least expensive restaurant we found in London and unlike in the US, Europeans don't drink tap water and water ordered there are mostly spring water. It was a very decent meal and we walked around the Chinatown, several block away from Bistro1. Jeffrey and Frederick were commenting how bad these ducks looked, and I shook my head and said I don't eat that stuff. Chinatown was not that exciting for us so we walked to Leicester Square station and took the tube back to our hotel.

The most well-known clock tower in the world

The old facade of the Highbury Apartment

     The third day was the day that I got to watch ARSENAL!!! Frederick arranged to buy some grossly overpriced home game tickets against Stoke City two months before the trip. We got up early, hoping to get to visit the British Library nearby and found out that it would not open until 11AM. We took the Tube to the Arsenal stadium. It was still two hours before the game started so we walked toward the old Highbury Stadium, which was turned into an upscale apartment by the Arsenal Financial group. After that we walked to the Arsenal shop and I bought a polo shirt.

Per Mertesacker, Mikel Arteta, and Wojciech Szczesny on the pitch

     The game started at 1:30. The captain of Arsenal Robin van Persie was on the bench. Arsenal had the majority of the possession but they could not pull themselves past the fierce defense of Stoke City. Gervino over-dribbled the ball and lost many of possession (even though he scored the first goal of the game at 27th minute. Peter Crouch scored the equalizer at 33rd minute and the game was a dreadlock until van Persie came in for Chamakh. He changed the pace of the game as he was able to hold the ball up front, allowing attacks to be more fluid. He also contributed two goals and I was assured that Arsenal was going to win after the 80th minute as the players of Stoke City looked exhausted.

     After the game, we decided to go to the usually Sunday hangout - Covent Garden. It was very crowded on a Sunday afternoon there and I found it boring. We walked to the Parliament building and took more pictures of the Big Ben. They were entertaining themselves while we headed back to the Belgrove for our early train to Paris.