DAY 1: LONDON SIGHTS
And so it began on Monday morning. My travel buddies Anu and Mina and I found ourselves at the Stockholm airport ready to leave for London. Our choices for breakfast were interesting to say the least. Anu opted for a Magnum ice cream, Mina - some Maltesers and a bag of chips, and me - a ham and cheese roll, cup of juice and some tea. Needless to say, I take breakfast rather seriously and I apparently am one thirsty individual. Waiting at the boarding gate, Anu and I decided to play with our SLR cameras and it was very interesting to see the differences between the Nikon I sported and the Canon that Anu used. Obviously, mine was by far superior! Haha
Arriving in London, it was such a breath of fresh air to be able to understand signs again! It's funny how much we take it for granted, living in a country where we can speak the language. In Sweden, I live constantly on the edge, unsure of what anything says and just making assumptions and hoping for the best. Is this actually normal yoghurt? I dunno, I hope so! Did the train conductor say that the train's are running on time? I hope so! Is this chicken? It looks like chicken so probably.... (turned out it was actually pork ham steak when I later was cooking it and asked a Swedish guy in the kitchen...) Apparently when it comes to meat, I fail. In London though, I felt like I had come back home. Everything was familiar and yet different. In the train station, the signage and maps were similar to the Cityrail ones back in Australia and the advertisements were readable. I could even take the newspapers from the people handing them out and actually read them! AMAZING! Our hostel was situated well and we took the metro to London Bridge.
The metro is a very interesting place! It reminded me of all the dystopic novels and films I've seen where everyone becomes robots shuffling forward in lines. Especially in peak hour, the amount of people in suits spilling in and out of the subway was pretty incredible. Even though a train would come every 2 minutes, it arrived full and only maybe 3-4 people came out and 3-4 shuffled in before the train shot off again. This made it pretty hard for a group of us 14 people in the class to actually stay together whilst shooting all over London to various meeting spots for our lectures and tours. During the peak time, it was impossible to get a photo but here is an escalator with some impressive metal poles which I felt reflected the dystopic feel of the metro.
As we emerged from the metro, we were greeted with a most fantastic sight. SUN! Oh boy - after a long and dreary winter, it was a welcome change - and so after meeting Mina's mate, the four of us took a quick walk around the city making our well to the hostel Anu and I would be staying in.
After checking into the hostel, armed with our cameras - Anu and I went for a quick tour of the sights of London together! Mind, I know nothing about London and we had arrived 30 minutes after the tour our class had taken started so we were on our own but I think we did an alright job!
Big Ben and the pretty cathedral thingy next to it
Yeah it is just on the side of the street. What a crazy sight!
The Big Ben, The London Eye, and The London Tree
I love how you press the button to cross and the WAIT sign appears!
Pretty flowers in a park that is not Hyde Park
OMG A squirrel! I can't believe how close it came to me!
Buckingham Palace - the fluffy head guards must have been sick today
The famous Red London Double Decker Bus
London looks so awesome by night!
Piccadilly Circus - really awesome area by night
Trafalgar Square
London lamp posts are pretty
London seems to be going crazy about a little something called the Olympics! So much construction!
As we headed back to the hostel after our big day of exploring the city, we bump into most of our class mates who were all staying in the same hostel and we decided to go check out Camden. So after a brief rest at a pub and the obligatory beer, we were back on the metro armed with our "Oyster Cards" (weird name, right?) - and we found ourselves in another pub, followed by a jazz club with a live band! Shweet!
Metro hugs rock!
Anu Allison and I celebrate with a beer!
They were actually quite good!
On the metro, you feel obligated to read a newspaper. Everyone does it. Here is some of my class doing this.
DAY 2: OXFORD
We were to meet at Paddington Station where we would take the hour long train ride to Oxford to visit the Internet Institute, listen to some lectures and check out the prestigious area. It was a pretty fun train ride getting to know my class mates! Oxford itself proved to be a pretty fantastic place - so beautiful! I loved the buildings and the streets and later on, the place just turned so Harry Potter and old buildings it was pretty incredible!
Oxford gave us tea and biscuits... we were pretty happy. The lectures were quite intelligent and deep.
Oxford gardens are so English and so green
After the lectures and a walk around the garden, all of us were starving so we went to a pub for Fish & Chips (which everybody was totally fascinated about because it is so "English"). Everyone in the class had Fish and Chips pretty much for most meals! I ended up deciding to follow the crowd and got a plate for myself too, I do love a good "chippy." But I also decided to try something called a Scotch Egg! I had never really known what one was and the bartender explained: "It's a boiled egg, coated in meat and then breadcrumbs and deep-fried. It's really good with Oxford Sauce!" Well then, you know what they say - When In Oxford...
Look how big it was!
Actually, it looks pretty good right? And it tasted DELICIOUS! I could go for one right now.
The pub itself was quite nice. Here is us being very English
Alright, so after that, it was time to explore the crazy buildings of Oxford and it definitely did not disappoint. I really loved it here in Oxford. Everywhere was just amazing buildings and sights. It was quite crazy and people likened it to Rome.
Completely under the spell of such an amazing place, a couple of us decided to hang around Oxford for the rest of the day while the rest of the class took the train home to go shopping at "Primark" - apparently the best shop in the world. We figured we could do that another day - we had all week after all. Instead, we went shopping in Oxford! It was quite fruitful! I found a store I really loved. Why? They had wooden textured sunglasses! Now, you guys all know how much I love wood :P
After that, we had an English afternoon tea or more correctly a Devonshire Tea, with Scones and English Breakfast Tea. I also got a Ginger Beer....man I love that stuff - Scandinavians don't know what this is. Neither did my friends. Crazy! They Loved It!
DAY 3: OXFORD ST - BBC - WICKED!
It was Wednesday now and our class navigated our way to Oxford Circus on the metro bright and early ready to meet our teacher in order to head to the BBC.
Some of our class at Oxford Circus Station
Me trying to be "professional" with my BBC lanyard, also look at my new bright clothes!
I took this photo for Erin and Rachael... apparently it's something about Doctor Who? Lol
On a set in the BBC
Learning how weather women work...my classmate in front of a green screen
In a dressing room where famous people have been
Learning to be a news reader - we made a news program
A game show!
After the BBC, we had a bit of time for lunch and Anu was super keen for some Korean BBQ which was really tasty! I had not had AZN food in a long time!
On our way to Kings Cross Station - the next group meeting spot, Anu, Allison and I decided to go see a musical that night and set about looking for tickets. Wouldn't you believe it! WICKED was showing - the musical I have been wanting to see for ages because everyone has been raving about it. It was, unfortunately, too expensive in Australia but here in London - we were able to get discounted priority seating tickets right near the front for $60! Considering those tickets were worth like $300 - we didn't hesitate! And boy, was it worth it!
But I am jumping ahead, we were meeting at Kings Cross Station in London in order to go to the Guardian Newspaper to listen to a journalist talk about the bugging scandal from Rupert Mudoch's News of the World. This also meant the obligatory touristic photo at Platform Nine and 3/4!
The newly renovated ceiling of King's Cross Station
Dammit Dobby! Entrance Denied!
After the Guardian, my classmates dragged us back to Primark insisting it was a must to shop there. I didn't know what to expect except that it was apparently meant to be like heaven. Haha! Well. It was huge! Filled with everything - clothes, makeup, socks, lingerie, bags, shoes, linen, house things etc - and all for super cheap! London was the place I had decided I would go crazy with shopping. And crazy I did! I might have bought quite a bit. But seriously, everything was really cheap. We are talking $3 for a shirt, $2 stockings, 7 pairs of socks for $2.50 and $8 for really cool shorts with belts! Here is a photo I took back home of all the clothes I got in London. Wooo...... it reminds me of Melbourne! SHOPPING WOOT!
After that, it was a mad rush getting out of the store in time for WICKED! But we made it just in time and seriously, it was the most magical night. The show was just breath taking. Our seats could not have been better. We were stoked beyond words! We were not allowed to take photos but I snuck a few in the break and one at the end... AMAZING THOUGH! HIGHLY RECOMMENDED!
You'd think after this, the day would be over right? You wish it would be because this blog is getting rather long. Don't worry - I'm getting tired too! But really - there is more! Sure, it was 10:30pm but we had made the resolution to go and see the Tower Bridge by night and get some nice photos! After navigating there on the metro, we took our photos and then ended up walking back home. Just as a side note: the metro is bloody expensive!
DAY 4: REUTERS, SBS AND LAST NIGHT IN LONDON
Thursday began with a classic hot English Breakky! Boy, was I excited. The one thing I was not so pleased about was the "black pudding" - which we discovered was a blood sausage... a sausage made purely of blood. EW EW EW! No thank you! I tried a little bit and yeah, NO.
The black thing on the plate is the blood sausage...
Arriving at Canary Wharf for our next class lecture, Anu being Finnish, felt like a beer. So we joined her - it was 10am. Good Morning Beers are pretty awesome!
At Thomson Reuters, I got my own personalised badge! Shame they didn't let me keep it
This is where the news footage gets collected! So many screens!
Sushi for lunch!
The sushi place had all of them individually wrapped so we could pick what we wanted. This was cool but then made it a little annoying to eat because we had to unwrap them all. I tipped my soy sauce by accident which made for a messy lunch. I also can't help but think of the poor environment!
At SBS, this guy's job is to watch the shows before it airs and make sure everything is OK. Lucky guy!
So we are now down to our final night in London... a lot of our class had already left by now but the remaining ones of us went to a pub for dinner. I had some Bangers and Mash! Mmmm... the others tried such things as a Pie Floater and a Pig's Cheek. After that, we went back to the hostel bar for a chill out.
And that is that! The next morning - I met up with Mina and we took the plane to Copenhagen to meet my mates Kelsey and Manon for a big weekend in Copenhagen! But more on that later. London was a great week! I think it was great because of the company but also because of the weather! It was perfect weather the entire week. And I now stand corrected, London is a great place to go! I will definitely hit that again!
