Getting to London was fun....
We arrived at London Stansted airport at 10:45pm and had booked a bus from the airport to the city for 12am with Easybus (we were advised we should allow an hour to clear customs). When we got to the immigration area we were met with long lines and did not get though to the bus area until 11:55pm only to find the bus had already left! After heading back up to the bus company stand we managed to get seats on the 12:20am bus.
The 12:20am bus arrived and we all piled in. Shortly after we were on board the bus driver, who had been sleeping on the back seat in his break, noticed his phone that he accidentally left on the back seat was missing. He tried to call it and found it was turned off. At this stage he got quite frustrated and at first handled the issue well by telling us all that if someone gave it back to him he would not ask any questions. After this did not eventuate he rambled about how his phone is never off and despite his accusatory tone, kept saying he was not accusing one of us! After some time the bus driver contacted a co-worker who went and got the police involved. At this stage is was about 12:40am and we were very over it! The bus driver started to get quite angry and swore at some of the people who were at the back of the bus. After getting searched by the police the bus driver found his switched off phone stuffed between seats at the back of the bus. By this stage Bec and I had transferred onto the 12:40 bus, but the driver from the first one came onto our bus and swore at everyone saying he knew someone had it.
At about 1:10am we finally got on our way, over an hour after we should have left. So note to self... use one of the other companies, not Easybus as despite me contacting the company it seems there are no repercussions for a bus driver treating the paying customers like crap.
We finally got into the city at 2am in the rain and managed to get a taxi, who was off duty but felt sorry for us, to our nearby hostel. By this stage it was about 13 degrees and raining and we were still wearing shorts and singlets from the 37 degree weather we left in Fez! Our hostel was called the Smart Camden Inn and we booked it purely due to the fact that it was the cheapest one we could find in London as we had arrived on a weekend. For once we were the ones disturbing people in our room by getting in about 2am! The Camden Inn was relatively clean but had small corridors, toilets and bathrooms and felt quite claustrophobic!
After a few hours sleep we got up again and headed to to the Camden Markets for a look around, but ended up not buying anything expect some fruit from a stall on the side of the road. After an exhausting night we had a quick rest after lunch before heading into the city centre to meet up with Brook and Sara for a beer. Brook's cousin took us to a nice pub which was enormous and had 4 bars over multiple levels. We had a nice dinner and a few ciders here before heading to Westend to see the Lion King Musical.
I had already seen the Lion King before in Sydney a few years ago, but I was definitely keen to see it again. We managed to get some decent seats roughly in the middle of the theatre for about $90 each. The cheapest seats were about $80 and the most expensive were about $250 but we did fairly well with the seats except for the guy in front of us who could not sit still! The show went for about 3 hours and was incredible, just like I had remembered it to be! There were some definite differences between the show I saw back home and the one that I saw in London, but both were good. The costumes in the Lion King are incredible and the stage setup is amazing. The only disappointing part of this show was the fact that the man they had cast as Simba when he is older had a very feminine voice (more feminine that Nala) which did detract from the overall effect a bit!
After another night in the Smart Camden Inn we headed into the city for the day and visited the Big Ben and while walking along the Thames stumbled upon a Spanish tapas and wine festival where we got a beautiful lunch including cured ham, cheese and paella. From here we met up with Sara and Brook again and headed to a Whetherspoons pub (a chain of pubs all around the UK which do a pint of beer and an amazing chicken burger for about $8). Here we had a beer before catching the metro back out to Camden to get our bags, before heading back to the pub where Sara and Brook had waited for us. After a nice dinner we headed to the train station together to catch the train down to Eastbourne for a few days.
During our two days in London we had decided that after a bit of time around the UK we would head back there for a few more days sight seeing before leaving the UK. There was so much so see there, the transport was easy and food and drinks seemed to be very reasonable. Only the accommodation was EXPENSIVE!
We arrived at London Stansted airport at 10:45pm and had booked a bus from the airport to the city for 12am with Easybus (we were advised we should allow an hour to clear customs). When we got to the immigration area we were met with long lines and did not get though to the bus area until 11:55pm only to find the bus had already left! After heading back up to the bus company stand we managed to get seats on the 12:20am bus.
The 12:20am bus arrived and we all piled in. Shortly after we were on board the bus driver, who had been sleeping on the back seat in his break, noticed his phone that he accidentally left on the back seat was missing. He tried to call it and found it was turned off. At this stage he got quite frustrated and at first handled the issue well by telling us all that if someone gave it back to him he would not ask any questions. After this did not eventuate he rambled about how his phone is never off and despite his accusatory tone, kept saying he was not accusing one of us! After some time the bus driver contacted a co-worker who went and got the police involved. At this stage is was about 12:40am and we were very over it! The bus driver started to get quite angry and swore at some of the people who were at the back of the bus. After getting searched by the police the bus driver found his switched off phone stuffed between seats at the back of the bus. By this stage Bec and I had transferred onto the 12:40 bus, but the driver from the first one came onto our bus and swore at everyone saying he knew someone had it.
At about 1:10am we finally got on our way, over an hour after we should have left. So note to self... use one of the other companies, not Easybus as despite me contacting the company it seems there are no repercussions for a bus driver treating the paying customers like crap.
We finally got into the city at 2am in the rain and managed to get a taxi, who was off duty but felt sorry for us, to our nearby hostel. By this stage it was about 13 degrees and raining and we were still wearing shorts and singlets from the 37 degree weather we left in Fez! Our hostel was called the Smart Camden Inn and we booked it purely due to the fact that it was the cheapest one we could find in London as we had arrived on a weekend. For once we were the ones disturbing people in our room by getting in about 2am! The Camden Inn was relatively clean but had small corridors, toilets and bathrooms and felt quite claustrophobic!
After a few hours sleep we got up again and headed to to the Camden Markets for a look around, but ended up not buying anything expect some fruit from a stall on the side of the road. After an exhausting night we had a quick rest after lunch before heading into the city centre to meet up with Brook and Sara for a beer. Brook's cousin took us to a nice pub which was enormous and had 4 bars over multiple levels. We had a nice dinner and a few ciders here before heading to Westend to see the Lion King Musical.
I had already seen the Lion King before in Sydney a few years ago, but I was definitely keen to see it again. We managed to get some decent seats roughly in the middle of the theatre for about $90 each. The cheapest seats were about $80 and the most expensive were about $250 but we did fairly well with the seats except for the guy in front of us who could not sit still! The show went for about 3 hours and was incredible, just like I had remembered it to be! There were some definite differences between the show I saw back home and the one that I saw in London, but both were good. The costumes in the Lion King are incredible and the stage setup is amazing. The only disappointing part of this show was the fact that the man they had cast as Simba when he is older had a very feminine voice (more feminine that Nala) which did detract from the overall effect a bit!
After another night in the Smart Camden Inn we headed into the city for the day and visited the Big Ben and while walking along the Thames stumbled upon a Spanish tapas and wine festival where we got a beautiful lunch including cured ham, cheese and paella. From here we met up with Sara and Brook again and headed to a Whetherspoons pub (a chain of pubs all around the UK which do a pint of beer and an amazing chicken burger for about $8). Here we had a beer before catching the metro back out to Camden to get our bags, before heading back to the pub where Sara and Brook had waited for us. After a nice dinner we headed to the train station together to catch the train down to Eastbourne for a few days.
During our two days in London we had decided that after a bit of time around the UK we would head back there for a few more days sight seeing before leaving the UK. There was so much so see there, the transport was easy and food and drinks seemed to be very reasonable. Only the accommodation was EXPENSIVE!
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| The London Eye |
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| Big Ben |
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| Me and the Big Ben |
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| A lovely London Day - the River Thames |
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| Parliament House |
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| Us and Parliament House |
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| The London Bridge |
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| Us and the Tower Bridge... ready for the Olympics |
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| Spanish Tapas festival |
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| Bruschetta and cured ham |
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| Us and one of the guards |
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