Bollocks Stephy- We're Fecked!

Stephy returned to London on her way back to D.C., and I went along for the ride.

Saturday night I took Stephy out dancing in Temple Bar. At 2:30 I asked if she wanted to go home so we could get some sleep before our 8 o'clock flight. We made the astoundingly fabulous life choice to stay out and not sleep. This would have worked if the flight from Dublin to London were longer than 45 minutes- we could have slept then. So not the case.

We were waiting for the bus to the airport at about 6:30 and it was freezing. We were late getting to the bus stop in the first place, then the bus was late getting to the bus stop. It's about an hour ride from the bus stop nearest my apartment to the airport, so by 6:30 we were getting a little anxious about missing our plane. Stephy'd been quizzing me on Irish-ism so she'd have some cool new words to take home with her, and in our over-tired-we-haven't-slept-since-Friday-and-now-it's-Sunday stupor we started yelling "Bollocks! We're fecked!" at each other at the bus stop. Then we decided to act like grown ups and just take a cab.

We made it to the plane in time and slept the whole way there. I think I was asleep before the plane even took off, and I didn't wake up until people were already getting off. We ran to get the bus that goes from Stansted airport to central London. We slept the whole hour and twenty minute bus ride as well. We took the "tube" from Baker Street on the Jubilee line to Green Park, then the Picadilly line to South Kensington. Two of our friends are studying abroad there and they have an apartment in South Kensington. When we got to their apartment I took a nap. Later Stephy and I made dinner and then went out on the town. We were still exhausted, so we didn't see much. We did take a ride on the London Eye though. It was dark when we got up there and the city looked so beautiful all lit up.

I was a little overwhelmed by London at first. My exhaustion, combined with the fact that I'm so used to Dublin at this point made London seem huge. I can walk from one end of the important part of Dublin to the other in less than 40 minutes. London is about 50 million times bigger than that. But, Monday was much better. Stephy left early to catch her plane back to DC, and I headed out on my own to see as much of London as I could before my plane left at 9:45pm.

I walked from Tony and Tor's apartment up Exhibition Street. I passes the Natural History Museum and the Victoria and Albert Museum. I walked through Hyde Park, past Kensington Palace and the Diana Memorial Playground. I followed Bayswater Road along the north side of the park. I walked down Park Lane to Wellington Arch, then followed Constitution Hill along the Palace Gardens and came out in front of Buckingham Palace.

The palace is not nearly as spectacular as you'd expect. I thought the cool looking guards were outside the palace, but apparently they are at the Tower of London. The Victoria Memorial across the street from the Palace is actually a lot more interesting than the palace itself. I followed Birdcage Walk to Westminster Abbey. The architecture of the Abbey is gorgeous, but the inside is very crowded, not with tourist, but with dead royals and rich people. There are tombs and sarcophagi all over the place. Stephy had tried to go there a few days earlier, but she couldn't get in because the Queen was in there celebrating her 60th wedding anniversary. She did manage to see her and snap a photo though.

After the Abbey, I walked down to the Parliament building and saw Big Ben. By that point is was pretty much time for me to get back to Tony and Tor's apartment to pick up my things and head to the airport.

Follow the red arrows on the map so see where I walked:



Check out the Photos:

36 Hours in London- Part I
36 Hours in London- Part II
36 Hours in London- Part III