2014.12.03-06 Trip to London

12月 07, 2014

Gonna be off to the races

Amber and I went to London for four days from Wed to Sat. It’s about one and an half hour by plane.

I was so looking forward to this trip! London has been my dream place now it came true. London is way too modern, so many races, skyscrapers and cars. When we arrived at the airport and tried to find our coach, a Chinese girl suddenly came to us, asking for help. At first I thought it was a scam, but she was crying all her face and said she lost her flight, her friend took the plane back while she didn’t, what’s worse, and her cell phone was in her friend’s bag so she couldn’t call anyone in her contact. That was the last plane to go back to Scotland. I lend her my phone so that she could use Wechat to contact her friend. She still needed to stay overnight at the airport, it took us one hour to help her out. I really hope she is safe now. Although it would be engraved on my heart, I hope it won't even happen on me. So we came to our hostel late, didn’t go out but take shower then chat with our one day roommate. He is from South Korea and his English is so poor that he didn’t even know how to count from one to ten… he was doing self-travelling I really admired that. He was very nice to us anyway. The next morning, we had breakfast at the hostel and I found many Koreans were travelers, they didn’t seem to know each other, I could just say Koreans were everywhere during our trip.

We bought the Oyster card, it’s a kind of the card we use in Taiwan to take bus or MRT. We walked along the famous Thames River and visited the London Bridge, London eye, St. Paul’s church and the Big Ben.

Bad weather, so foggy

London Bridge falling down!

That was really dream-come-true, I only learned from books and now have the chance to see in person!

Paddington Bear

London Eye

The Big Ben

In the afternoon, her friend who studies in England also came here and with us for 2 days. Later on we went to the china town. When we walked down the underground station, a stranger stopped me and gave me an one-day ticket, I was too shocked at the moment, later Amber’s friend explained that I could use it for all the transport in London, thanks to that guy, what goes around comes around, I helped the Chinese girl at the airport and now I got this ticket for free! The china town was amazing! About 90% were Asians there, and so many Hong Kong dim sum restaurants.

I also found a bubble milk tea shop! No matter how much it costs, I bought one right after I saw it. It costs me ₤3.45 for only small size.

How I miss bubble milk tea

道地‧時尚‧台灣味

We had our dinner there, it was an all-you-can-eat place, I pretended to be a guy who didn’t speak Mandarin, but still understood everything they said, it was so funny yo.

We also visited M&M museum as it was just next to the china town,

there were so many interesting stuffs in the china town, I found the black bubble in the super market!

After china town, we went to the ice wonderland and found it similar to German’s festival. This year features Bavaria in Germany so I felt like still in Nuremberg!

So many sausage stands but those weren’t what we wanted to see, we had booked the ticket to go to an ice bar, it was all made from ice, even the cup. It was so cold inside but they offered us a coat to wear on.

After we came back to hostel and checked in, we met new roommate, Marcos. He is from Spain and quite talkative. He and I talked for almost 2 hours when the girls were outside using wifi. He was here for business and the next day he could have time to visit London. Next morning after saying goodbye to him, we went to the Borough Market and found some interesting foods like mushroom jam.

Poon Hui Ton (right)

The Borough Market

Post only

Did my eye deceive me? Taiwan !!

Somehow I didn’t buy anything there, then we went to a vintage market, there I found some vinyl which Anabel may like. Also, I realized that The Beatle’s album which they walked on the street, the street’s name is called “Abbey St”, that’s the street we had passed by the day before!

In the Vintage Market

And girls like shopping, so we separated, I went to Oxford by train myself, hoping to the uni. Oxford university is not only famous for its excel education but Harry Potter was filmed here.

Unfortunately, the oxford uni was closed to visitors on Thu. and the faculties are split in the whole city, unlike Taiwan. So I couldn’t find any faculties and even when I reached to famous St. Christ church, it was also closed. The sun went down the hill so soon that I only spent there for 1 hour. The train tickets cost me 48 pounds! That was hella expensive. We made a deal to meet in the hostel at 9pm and after I came back to the Paddinton station, I took the underground to the shopping street directly.

The shopping streets were very famous around the world, so many people there, I bought Clarks casual shoes and it cost me 22 pounds which is 1070 NTD. In Taiwan it’s always around 4000…

it was amazing that I bumped into the girls in the store! Because I knew they wouldn’t be at the hostel at 9, they still needed time to buy accessories but they didn’t know how to contact me. Together we went to Primark, the cheap store. Her friend left for Denmark with her other friends, so good to have her be our tour guide! Our last-day roommate was a couple, when we came in, they were sleeping in the same bed and the girl was naked… well, just left them alone. The last day morning, I still woke up quite earlier to visit the Buckingham Palace where the England queen lives in.