Where do I even begin? Okay, first of all, if you hadn’t realized, I’m in London. If you’d like to skip ahead to the exciting stuff, like me being detained and searched outside Buckingham Palace on suspicion of terrorist activities, that’s day two. I should probably cut down on the excruciating detail anyway, since it’s costing me £1.50 to use the internet at the hostel for an hour. Anyway, to begin, I got in yesterday and checked in to the incredibly small, four-bed, dorm-style room (i.e. smaller than my single-person dorm room at Bretton) at the Ace Hotel in Kensington. It’s actually a pretty clean place, not to mention dirt cheap (about $42 for two nights), but sharing a tiny, tiny room with other people really blows; more on that later. After I checked in, I headed straight out, got myself a combination padlock for my locker at the hostel and a sandwich from a Tesco supermarket. Backpack secured and hunger satiated, I went downtown on the Picadilly line, got off at Leicester Square, and started walking. I spent an hour or two in the National Portait Gallery, which was interesting, but it’s pretty big, and looking at portraits and historical summaries of various lords and ladies can get old. I enjoyed one portrait in particular, though, of Sarah Siddon, who was — I believe — a 17th century actress and the top dramatic actress of her time. It’s just a very striking painting, of her apparently in a midnight glade with a drama mask in one hand and a dagger in the other. After leaving the Gallery, I discovered I was in Trafalgar Square, so I went ahead and took a load of photos. Walking up another street, I found myself at Picadilly Circus, which really doesn’t seem to have anything do with circuses at all, unless you’re talking about the loads of stores and people. It really reminds me a great deal of Times Square in New York; it’s incredibly similar. Like Times Square, it has a bunch of big, floodlight bright, multistory, animated ads. Also like Times Square, it has a big Virgin Megastore, a bunch of important theatres nearby, and a branch of a big fast food chain overlooking the whole thing (except it’s Burger King instead of McDonald’s).
After I’d gotten my fill of Picadilly Circus and paid through the nose (seriously, it was ridiculous) for a Pizza Hut individual pizza, I headed back to the hostel because I was pretty pooped from travelling and walking around all day. Getting around is seriously tiring, mainly on my feet and lower back, and I actually think I must have spent at least half of the past two days moving from place to place just because of the distance I’ve covered and because of Underground station closures. The two other people in my room happen to also be Americans, who are on the last leg of an around-the-world trip, mainly by cruise ship. They seem nice enough, but are also a little strange, and trying to sleep last night was hell. First of all, the one guy, David, a radiology doctor in his residency in Manhattan, kept saying he was “still on Hong Kong time,” and so went to bed really early. I tried to be quiet and keep the lights down so as not to disturb him, but he had a sleeping mask and earplugs anyway, which (note to self!) are a really damn good idea for making staying at a hostel more bearable. I went to bed early myself, since I was flat-out exhausted, but was woken up an hour or two later when his “travelling companion,” Cassandra, a woman from (I think) Philadelphia who just passed her bar exam, came in. After that, I was woken up a few hours later again, dripping with sweat, because the room felt like a damn sauna, even though I had turned down the heat before I went to bed because it was already warm. Next, I was woken up about 4:30am by David fumbling about and then asking me if I thought the room was hot, and saying that I must have turned up the heat by accident. Cassandra spoke up from her bunk and said that, no, it had been her who turned up the heat and that he should apologize for accusing me, which he did. Finally, I was woken up about 8am by the two of them getting up and going to breakfast, which I did as well. I also felt like complete crap because of course I had barely had two continuous hours of sleep the night before (and only slept about four hours Thursday night). Thankfully, after breakfast I was able to go back and crash for about three hours uninterrupted.
That brings me to today, which was a very full and rather exciting day, to say the least. I headed out with the intention of going to Camden Market, as quite a few people have said it’s worth visiting. Getting there proved to be quite something, though, as the two Underground stations nearest the hostel were both closed for maintenance for the entire day. The first one directed me to walk to the next one, which then directed me to walk to another one, which I finally found. I took the tube as close as I could get to Camden, but couldn’t go all the way because the entire Northern line is closed. Finally, after some more walking and a bus ride, I made it to Camden and Camden Market. Which is a complete zoo. Truly a circus of humanity, there hordes and hordes of people and stalls and shops crammed up against each other. I’ll post photos when I get back to Bretton, but I’m sure they won’t do it justice. At any rate, it is completely overwhelming, and the multitudes of people don’t really make it easy to window shop. If it’s drugs you’re looking for, though, that’s a piece of cake — walking along the main road, I was approached literally continuously, about every two minutes, by people quietly asking if I wanted to score or wanted marijuana or skunk or whatever. I’m not entirely sure how they can get away with it, but with the masses of people and the fact that I didn’t see any police around, I guess they’re not too worried.
After a couple hours and some decent fish and chips, I’d had my fill of Camden Market for the day, and headed downtown (Camden is to the north of downtown London). I got off at the corner of Green Park, which contains or is adjacent to Buckingham Palace. I walked through it and arrived at Buckingham Palace, which is really wholely unimpressive. It’s like a bunch of big rectangular blocks of granite, not really that exciting. I took a bunch of pictures anyway, and then wandered around to try and see if there was a view of the other side. There wasn’t, but I took a few pictures of the incredible large spikes and hoops of barbed wire topping the walls around the palace, and that’s where the day gets even more interesting. On my back from the walled-up side of the palace, three police officers walked towards me on the sidewalk, told me I’d been observed on security cameras taking suspicious photos and that they’d like to ask me some questions, see the photos, and search me. Wow. Being stopped, questioned, and searched on suspicion of terrorist activities by police outside of Buckingham Palace while on your own in the middle of a foreign city is pretty damn freaky, let me tell you. They were really quite nice, which is something I have to say that I’ve noticed about police here in Britain, but they were armed, which is unusual based on the ones I’ve seen around Yorkshire, and they took down all my information, searched my bag, and asked about the photos.
Well damn, so much for brevity — I have two minutes left, so I need to wrap up now. I did a few more things today, but those were the most exciting. I’ll finish up when I get home tomorrow, which I’m really looking forward to. Travelling on your own and on the cheap is exhausting.