After the match at Manchester, we rushed back to the hotel which we stayed the previous night to retrieve our backpacks, and took a cab from the hotel to Manchester Airport. It was 10 pounds for a 10-15 minute ride to the airport, and it would seem like a great bargain compared to walking our way from the airport to the hotel when we first arrived.
At the Manchester Airport, we waited approximately half an hour for our coach to arrive. There we met this very nice Indian guy who has been working in Manchester for a few years now, and chatted for around 20 minutes. Its really quite amazing how Europeans, or people here in Europe can be such friendly strangers.
The bus from Manchester Airport to the Picadilly Central station was around 30 minutes. We alighted the bus and had around 2 hours to wait at the station, before the next bus which travels from this central station to London will reach. The bad thing about travelling by bus in Europe is the waiting times for transit, and how you can never really sleep in peace, for fear that you will oversleep and miss the stop to transit. Its quite horrible really. We walked around, met another Australian couple which we stopped to chat at a traffic light junction, as well as drunkards, gays and lesbians along the way. We were apparently in their party district at the time we were waiting for our bus!
We had our first taste of Subway in England, the first of 4-5. The sandwich alone is pretty cheap at 2 pounds, but unknowingly my first meal came up to about 6.50 pounds, which translates to about S$15, since a drink + cookie is 1.50 pounds, making your sandwich 1 foot long is another 2 pounds, so yeah they all add up! But well I was too hungry to complain about the expensive price tag, just eat!
The bus to London was delayed by almost 2 hours, no thanks to a drunkard who was eventually threw off the bus after we boarded it. Seriously, bus drivers in the UK are some respectable people! They are truly professional in helping us feel comfortable on those long bus journeys, driving at night and yet not falling asleep behind the wheel, handling difficult/un-cooperative passengers, it made me feel that they have a much tougher job as compared to our SBS drivers! But then again, everyone has their own challenges at work!
We arrived in London on sunday at around 7am, where we stoned at the coach station for a good 2 hours before making our way to the tube station, bought our ez-link equivalent, or something known as the Oyster in London, and met up with Viona, who would be touring with us for the following day.
Other than visiting the touristy places like Buckingham Palace, Big Ben, Trafalgar Square, London Eye, the city area Picadilly Circus and Oxford Circus, River Thames, Tower Bridge and Tower of London, we really didn't do alot in London! It wasn't helped by the fact that attractions cost money to go in, and while the pound has been at its weakest in these times, its still expensive!
Stonehenge was quite a lovely place. Loved the fields and the quiet town of Salisbury (the town where Stonehenge is located), pretty much a place tucked away in a corner of its own.
The best photo of the lot me thinks.
Later the same evening, we got back to London and I was really hoping to catch this play, Oliver which stars Rowan Atkinson! Yes the same guy who is better known as Mr Bean. It would have been awesome to see him live in person. Sad to say, tickets were sold out and I didn't manage to get a return ticket, unlike Viona! The culture here about return ticket is that if you can't make it for a show which you already bought tickets for, you could go back to the threatre before the show and sell your ticket to someone who will buy it from you. This is especially good for those popular shows like this one! And yes London is full of plays, so much so that movies are like an inferior alternative. Should I go back to London again before I fly back, I'll make watching Oliver something on the top of my list!
The next two days basically involved more sightseeing, and I think we each bought some cheap shoes, pullovers, I also got my craving for chinese food satisfied when I went into some Chinese restaurant serving buffet with dishes just like my mum's stall varieties. It felt like I was back at home! Sadly the wallet felt otherwise.
On the last day of the trip, we spent the morning at Chancery Lane, where we waited to meet weiliang's friend who is studying at LSE. Somehow we managed to walk our way to LSE, and met his friend there instead of the scheduled meeting place which was at the tube station. Proceeded to put our bags there before making our way to St. Paul's cathedral, which offered free entry instead of paying 10 pounds since it was Ash Wednesday! They had some church service and we just followed everyone else into the cathedral to see how they started the festivities for Easter.
Towards the end of the night, we had a mad rush to get onto the bus back from London to Manchester, since the guy at the Tube station was uber slow at helping us with our Oyster card refunds. Buses here depart as scheduled, 1159 and it was really departure on the dot! Before we knew it, it was back to Manchester Airport, where we caught the flight back to Brussels, and then the train back to Amsterdam. Unfortunately, I was already feeling terribly sore in the shoulders and arms and legs, coupled with a brewing headache and a runny nose, the whole trip just kinda ended on a bad note.
Oh well, yes that's about all that happened in my London trip, there has been alot of things which happened and were all interesting, but somehow my thoughts have abandoned me, or are temporarily frozen no thanks to the cold which I just recovered from. Its already day 35 and I just finished talking about my trip! I will try to refresh bits and pieces subsequently.
Will talk about my spacecake experience really soon!
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