Apparently London closes shop pretty early. Alcohol is not served after 11pm every day and most restaurants close their kitchens at 10pm. Needless to say that JJ and I, as the night owls we are, found it difficult to survive the first early night. We had not yet eaten dinner at 11:30 pm and I had not placed my first legal order of the wine. JJ was hungry and I was far more disappointed than hungry when we left our hostel to wander the streets of London in search of food and signs of the distilled spirit.
As we walked we found ourselves comparing and contrasting the feel of London to that of New York City. They both have a similar atmosphere and mix of people. The streets of London are easily just as crowded as New York during the day and the variety, quality, and spread of the shops and restaurants is staggering. The architecture is where we found the starkest contrast between the two cities. The buildings lining both sides of the street in London are only a few stories high and the streets were generally more narrow. This smaller space made the city feel more cozy and personal than the towering buildings and wide thoroughfares found in New York.
Walking the streets of London at night felt safe to both JJ and myself, unfortunately we did not find any open restraunts or pubs as such we’ve decided that New York is clearly more welcoming to the late night community. We eventually opted to walk back to our hostel and eat something there.
We are both eagerly awaiting breakfast! (And the pub!)
We’ve removed Prague, Czech Republic from our trip and added Bern, Switzerland. Additionally, we have added a short trip to Naples, Italy in order to visit Pompeii.
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Disoriented and confused would be the words best suited to explain our reaction after arriving in London. We walked for nearly a mile in order to find customs after stepping foot off the air plane at London’s Heathrow Airport. After customs we had all of our cash exchanged for British Sterling which didn’t account for all that much.
We found ourselves lacking sufficient transportation to our accommodations at YHA London Central Hostel. At first we thought that it would just be easiest to take a taxi even though I had been warned to forego the taxis in London and take the much cheaper subway. 70 pounds ($112) was the estimated taxi fare to our hostel. We found other means.
We wandered back into the air port and down into the subway terminal. There we found a few map pamphlets with time tables which we unsuccessfully managed to stare at for about 15 minutes. We continued downward until we found an information desk where we finally found some help. We spent 22 quid ($35) on two tickets that would put us “somewhere” around our hostel.
There were two different trains that led us to our destination terminal on Great Portland St. The first train from the airport to Paddington station felt like a luxury liner with a smooth ride, comfortable seats, and even a bathroom. The second train was more like a New York subway being overly crowded and dirty.
After we arrived and emerged from the terminal to the surface, we found ourselves at a very strange intersection with cars driving every-which-way and no road signs. We had passed a small convenience store on our way out of the tube station and I decided to go back and grab a map of central London and ask for directions to Bolsover Street where our hostel was located. The guy at the stand was very nice and pointed us in the right direction.
Unfortunately the the doors on the buildings of the street were marked with two different road names, Bolsover and Great Portland St. The two roads were parallel to each other and we were unsure which street we were actually on. Finally, while standing at an intersection debating which road was which we found that the Brits had been hiding all of their road signs on the second floor of the street corner buildings. After that revelation we knew that we were on the right road and continued to the hostel unabated.
This was quite an eye opening experience.
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