Travel Europe | #6 Postcards from UK

Travel Europe | #6 Postcards from UK

I’m not sure if my first trip to London can be considered a visit given I had only half a day to see the city.

I didn’t remember anything except for the arrival at the busy Victoria train station. Then I hauled my over-packed backpack from street to street around the station looking for accommodation. Everything was booked out. The available ones were too expensive for a student who had just return from an internship in … Eastern Europe. I had vague images of the Thames and the London Eye. I might even ride it without remembering anything. I remembered joining a group of Malaysian businesspeople to walk around the red-light district and then ditching them later not having enough energy and mood to socialize with complete strangers.

It was dizzying as I tried to sample as many highlights of London as possible during the span of one evening.  I was completely tired from the flight, the train ride, the bus connection and then the walk not to mention a previous day doing the same thing in Vienna, Austria. In Vienna the day before, I only slept for a few interrupted hours at the train station. Thus, I overslept and missed my flight home from London to San Francisco.

My exhaustion and the crowdedness of London left a less favorable view of London. I didn’t want to return if it wasn’t for my friends who visited the city and brought me a tech gadget from the US.

What I saw seven years ago in a flash was nothing comparable to what awaited me. London was way beyond my expectation, having a great deal of things to do. I discovered another side of the city, quirky and funky Camden town and Portobello market beside the typical London-on-postcard Westminster Abbey, the London towel, etc.

It is no wonder that “if you are bored of London, you’re bored of life.”

9/2004

Read up my London mini-guide for travel ideas and tips.

Photos from London

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