London Days 0, 1

5-17 December 2013

Overview:

London is the sort of place one really needs to stay in for at least a month in order to finish doing enough things, and even so I don't think you'd still be able to enjoy the entire experience the city can bring. We stayed for 12 days, and there were so many more markets and museums to see, plays and musicals to watch, shopping places to visit.

We went in winter so daylight hours were short (it got fully dark by about 4pm) but since most of our time was spent indoors, it didn't matter that much.

Marks & Spencers in London is glorious. It's actually cheaper there. And it's huge. They have a wide array of cold prepacked sandwiches, salad and wraps, some stores sell hot sandwiches, and there's also pre-prepared food like pasta which one can just go home and heat up, along with the usual supermarket food one cooks oneself. I'm merely talking about the food sections. Of course there are the clothes, toiletries, etc. Not to mention the fact that it's almost everywhere. I wish M&S existed in Singapore on a similar scale.

The tube is really useful. It's older but the trains come more frequently, journeys are faster, and space is generally less cramped (except during peak hours).

The buskers in London are also really cool and talented. They play everything from the electric guitar to the cello to the flute. My personal favourite was this man playing My Heart Will Go On on the harp; it was so beautiful:)

I half expected to see at least one British celebrity like Tom Hiddleston walking down the streets or something like that, but that didn't happen at all. (I now read that Tom Hiddleston starting acting in a London play the day after I left London, so he must have been in London at the same time anyway). Katy Perry went to Les Mis 2 days after I went. No luck bumping into these people haha oh well.

Interestingly, theatres there seem to be a little less formal than in Singapore. Eating is allowed during the show and they sell snacks and ice cream during the interval (overpriced of course).

Weather-wise, London admittedly isn't great. While I greatly appreciate cold weather, I can now understand why the Brits may hate their own weather. It's too rainy, foggy, and can get a bit temperamental. I generally enjoy any kind of cooler weather that takes me away from the heat and humidity of Singapore, but I think Austria has the most pleasant of European weathers I've experienced so far. Wherever I went, Londoners who found out I was from Singapore would jokingly ask if I wanted to switch weathers. The grass is always greener on the other side.

Anyway, there's so much to do in London, one can't possibly say that one is bored. Within the bustling streets, enormous shops, extensive museums, magnificent buildings, Michelin star restaurants or cosy pubs, I'll bet there's something for everyone there:) It's a very happening place. 

Useful things to note:

Thursday is late night shopping day, so you might want to choose to watch a show on another day instead.

Right now, most of the museums are free (Mum said that when she went as a child, they weren't free). I hope they remain free, but anyway, check out the museums. They all have extremely fascinating and extensive exhibits, and it takes more than a day to finish each of them.

If you'd like to see churches like Westminster Abbey or St Paul's Cathedral without needing to closely scrutinize everything, go for a service. Services are free. Otherwise, there is an entrance fee. Anyway, it's an experience, going for a super traditional church service. They'll probably chase you out immediately after the service though, so don't hope to linger around.

Certain places like Tower of London include voluntary donations as part of their entrance fee. Such donations help them maintain the place but you can choose to opt out of these voluntary donations by telling the person at the ticket booth. Otherwise, they automatically charge you an entrance fee inclusive of the voluntary donation. It's not a large donation but I suppose if you're running really low on money, stuff like this helps.

If you want to get a London SIM card, (we needed wifi cos we relied heavily on Google Maps to get us around), ensure the service provider you get works well in the right places. We bought a SIM card from a vending machine at the airport before going to a proper local telephone shop and later discovered that the particular service provider worked everywhere except the very area we happened to stay at (Hampstead). Mum got another SIM from a local telephone shop that worked everywhere but it had only 2GB which ran out really fast, whereas mine had unlimited wifi, so we used Mum's one in Hampstead and mine everywhere else.

Day 0

We flew on SQ. Mum had previously checked ticket prices for different airlines and they were all the same, but SQ had the shortest flights so she picked that. This proved to be a good thing, cos SQ has changed their maximum baggage weight per person from 20kg to 30kg, which would be very useful on our flight back.

I'd been sick and really busy the previous week so I fell asleep for most of the flight, and this would be the first time that's ever happened (I'm usually the stay up all night and watch movies on the plane sort of person).

Day 1

We touched down at 7.30am London Time and it was 2 degrees Celcius, which left my spine tingling from the sudden chill and the excitement of finally being in a city I'd been dreaming of visiting for a long time now.

I don't know what exactly I was expecting of this city. I'd formed different images in my head from a conglomeration of British stories and films, and more recently, my impressions of one of the best theatre scenes in the world, and yet I still felt I knew little of the city that was unfurling before me.

The taxi ride from Heathrow to Aunty LK's home took about 1.5h so on the way we were chatting with the driver about things like NHS. He seemed to like it, despite the long waiting time for treatment. NHS is free for taxpayers, so you just pay for the prescription.

Aunty LK took us for lunch at a pub near her place called The Wells.

Pigeon breast, parsnip rosti, spinach with morello cherry & pomegranate sauce

It was my first time tasting pigeon. It tastes similar to duck, albeit tougher.

Seared scallops, shallot puree, crispy bacon, samphire & rocket sauce

Earl Grey tea

(with a sugar cube at the side which got me all excited thinking about Mollie from Animal Farm)

Dark chocolate pot with clotted cream and cantuccini biscuits

Sticky toffee pudding with vanilla ice cream

May I just add that this was absolutely gorgeous and I'm dying to eat it again?

There's something lovely about fallen leaves and (almost) barren trees.

After that, we walked out again so Aunty LK could show us where the tube was, and also to go to the nearby supermarket, whereupon Mum immediately bought 10 tins of steak and kidney pies. (She would later buy 6 more, making a total of 16 tins, which made up about 8kg in our luggage, hence the usefulness of having 30kg baggage weight per person now.)

Rain began to pour extremely heavily, accompanied by those annoyingly strong winds that flip your umbrellas inside out (I now understand this Mary Poppins scene).

The pies got too heavy and the plastic bag split so the tins rolled all over the wet, muddy floor and we had to stoop to pick them up. Thankfully that didn't happen too far from home.

We ate dinner at home - fresh pasta Aunty LK had bought from the supermarket stuffed with Rocket, Ricotta and Marscarpone, and it was wonderful:)