Days 1-2, A Rush of London to the Head

My first night abroad was spent in a quiet upstairs dining room of an old London pub. My guide wanted to take me to her favorite American restaurant, but I swiftly vetoed that idea.

“But English food is so bad!” She exclaimed. English food is famously bad and I am aware of this. I don’t care. Better yet, I’m excited. Now is a good time to tell you my approach to traveling - I’m an immersionist. I don’t much care for museums, guided tours and hotels. I eat in native restaurants and drink the national beer, sleep on couches and hostels and make friends with the locals. I seek out and validate stereotypes. If I hear that the London food is terrible I’m going to seek out the worst, nastiest food in town and it better be disgusting.



For dinner I had Curled Sausage, Meat Pie and warm beer. When I asked the waitress why the beer was warm she explained that it helps combat the frigid London weather. It’s 65 degrees and it’s summer. The meat pie was watery, but the curled sausage was not bad. A little dry. I expected worse, but we can’t have everything.


After dinner we walked by Piccadilly Square, London’s answer to Times Square, before settling onto a park bench in Trafalgar Square. It had been 4 years since I last saw my guide and much had happened. She had married and moved to London and was starting a masters program. I had gone to Law School and started a music website. We had a lot to talk about.

London is a huge city and with only a day to explore I knew I would barely scratch the surface. Small cities are often more enjoyable on quick trips because you get the whole story. With big cities you have two choices – pick a slice and enjoy it thoroughly or blast through town shooting pictures first and asking questions later. I opted for the latter.

London runs along the Thames River and offers spectacular views along the South Bank. If you limit your stops and power walk, you can see many of London’s famous landmarks in a day by taking the Queen's Walk.

We set out early and headed to the London Bridge. Maybe you remember the song “London Bridge is Falling Down”? I doubt anybody would notice if it did, because it’s completely underwhelming. The two-towered iconic London landmark that comes to mind is actually called Tower Bridge. Everybody knows that…




After snapping 42 pictures of London Bridge, Tower Bridge, and the walkway in between, we headed towards Borough market. This place was awesome – an outdoor bazaar with meats, cheeses, fruits, deserts, street food and vendors. I liked it so much we stayed for 15 minutes.



Next stop was the Shakespeare Globe, a reconstruction of the 17th century Elizabethan playhouse where Shakespeare started his career as an actor. We didn’t have time to go in, but I took some great pictures of the outside!



Further up we came across the London Book Fair where I set out to find a classic English spy novel. Instead I bought a King Arthur novel. Adjacent to the stands was a graffiti museum (OK, it was just a skate park). I didn't have any spray paint, but I had the next best thing - a Bic pen! Now London will never forget me.

I was prepared to continue documenting the famous sights along the Queen's Walk but I’m starting to ramble and if I couldn’t commit enough time to visit London properly, I sure as hell won’t commit enough time to write about it properly. So I'm going to wrap this up and get on my way to Ireland.

I also saw the London Eye, Big Ben, Buckingham Palace, Chinatown, Hyde Park, lots of bikes, pubs, theatres, bridges, alleys, phone booths, double decker red buses, banks, old school cabs driving the wrong way and random, sideways rain that appears and disappears without warning. London is your full service city and a great place to live; try to do it in a day and your head will spin.

Sorry London, it's time to go.


Check out more pictures from London here