London: a mixture of feelings

11 June to 16 June 2015 

We've officially left London behind in the dust so that means I can reflect on the 5 days we spent in the world's centre of civilization. I was here for a few hours last summer during a layover from Johannesburg to Vancouver, and we covered all the main sights then. I wasn't terribly interested because I was exhausted and knew I'd be back the next summer, so this time around I really got to see London more closely. The bold and italics indicate captions for the photos! I haven't figured out how to caption them properly on the app yet...

First, what I liked.

I really liked seeing the sights of central London (the London Eye, Westminster Abbey, Houses of Parliament, Big Ben) at night. We saw them around 9:45pm and they were aglow with LED lights projected upwards onto them. Against the night sky, they looked amazing, perhaps even showcasing the very pride, joy, and meaning of what it means and has meant to be British throughout the ages. London is certainly rich in history, both within the city walls and beyond into the world it colonized, from reigning kings and queens to colonial triumphs in Africa, Asia, and the Pacific Islands. None of this is lost on me and because I am very much interested in colonialism and its injustices, I feel very torn about Europe in general. But anyways, not the time for a history lesson and one of my never-ending tirades.

The London Eye as seen from Westminster Bridge. Excuse the photos, they're all from the iPhone 4S haha.

Next up on the "like" list: Sprinkles Gelato. Listen up, Heather, I know you're reading this. This place was about 2 minutes from our hostel on Finchley Road and had about 50 different flavours of gelato! They were open until midnight every night so you can guess where we wandered off to in the night if we got a craving for sugar. The only flavour I had was the passion fruit, which I give an A+. The other thing I had was a twisted hot chocolate, who had a nice scoop of vanilla gelato in it, making it one of the creamiest hot chocolates I've ever had! Megan was over the moon about this place and I think she's quite sad there isn't one outside of the UK. 

The twisted hot chocolate!

The Tube. When we first saw a map of the Tube system back home, Megan and I both thought we'd get lost for sure. The network is crazy! Way bigger than anything we have in Vancouver. But to our surprise, we didn't get lost ONCE! One night, after a particularly long sightseeing walk, we missed the last train on the usual line we took to get to our hostel. But we managed to reroute and figure out that another line dropped us off at another station an equal distance from the hostel, so that was cool! And so, so, SO easy to use. 

Last but not least, HARRY POTTER. A lot of things on this trip so far has somehow involved Harry Potter. In Edinburgh we visited the Elephant House where JK Rowling wrote the series, or at least part of it. I think the café has become somewhat of a pilgrimage destination for Potterheads the world over, which is a heartwarming thought, knowing that Harry Potter has touched so many lives. Then, in London, we visited the Millenium Bridge which featured in the movies. We decided against doing a walking tour that took you to different filming locations in the city, but we did have tickets to go to the Harry Potter Studio Tour just outside of London.

Dumbledore's collection of memories for the pensieve. All of these bottles have handmade and handwritten labels. All of them.

The Studio tour, while obviously crowded with many, many fans, was pretty amazing. We got to see the very same sets where the movies were filmed as well as the stories behind how they turned from paper into film. By that I mean the massive contribution of crew members involved in production, set design, visual and special effects, costumes, etc etc etc...the list is terribly long! I was so amazed by all of this and had never thought about the movies that way. Every detail, every tiny little thing was carefully calculated. The thing I was most amazed and grateful to learn about was the level of craftsmanship and dedication to quality that went into the set and prop designs. For example, in the scene where the trio steal the Hufflepuff cup from Bellatrix's vault in Gringotts and they multiply? Not CGI. At least not all of it - they LITERALLY made 7000 cups, a least 4 of which had gold leaf. SEVEN THOUSAND. For the scene in the department of mysteries in the 5th movie, they made 15,000 of the prophecy balls. Also, almost ALL the magical creatures, like Buckbeak and the dragons from the 4th movie, were first very realistic robots  that they used to film simple movements (eg. When Buckbeak is lying down in the field awaiting his death), but then CGI was used to create the more complicated movements like flying or running. We got to see the Buckbeak robot and it looks HELLA realistic, movements and all. Very impressed. Ever notice the telescope in the back of Dumbledore's office? It's a huge, spherical thing with astrological symbols on it. It was the most expensive and detailed prop they made for the whole series, and it was only seen in background shots! Crazy. Okay, last thing: the butterbeer was amazing. That is all. 

Butterbeer! 

What I did NOT like. 

The crowds. This is what drove us to seek out the more obvious attractions by evening and nightfall. I am a person who hates crowds and especially when said crowds are made up of idiot tourists with no awareness of who is around them or of any sense of manners. Why are you crowding the sidewalk?! Why are you shoving me forward when there is clearly a fence and there is nothing to see anyways because we are SO FAR AWAY from Buckingham Palace to see the actual changing of the guard anyway?!?!?!? Why is your phone in my face, what are you taking a picture of?! This was honestly and probably the biggest peeve off about London, none of which is really London's fault. Like my sister said, I hate tourists, even though I am one haha. But a polite one, right?! 

The exchange rate. Again, not really the fault of London (or maybe it is, exchange rates and economics have never been my strong suit), but hot damn is the British pound strong! I keep remembering that everything actually costs double and then I cry a little inside. For example, today in Brighton we paid £35 for lunch. It wasn't a cheap lunch, mind you, but nothing fancy either, and it included a jug of Pimm's. That means it was nearly $70 Canadian. You see where my tears come from, yeah? Anyways, we are set to be more budget friendly for the remainder of our UK trip, which ends in 2 days, then we'll be on the much more agreeable Euro! 

The hostel. Man, I was so excited for the hostel. We stayed at Palmer's Lodge in Swiss Cottage, and from the site and interwebs it looks awesome, like something from the Victorian era (is that right? Honestly I don't know my architectural eras very well either...). But it was certainly lacklustre, at least for me. The room itself was fine, sort of musty when you walk in but the building's old so that's expected I guess. The curtains on my bunk were stained with I don't even want to guess what, so that was pretty gross and unsettling. The noise level in the room was surprisingly fine for having 28 beds. Even the music from the bar DIRECTLY BELOW was tolerable. But the most intolerable thing was the EDM/rave/club music that the male staff (and ONLY the male staff, believe me I walked past the front desk while women were working it and the music was much more appropriate for receiving guests) insisted on blasting at unnecessary decibels late into the night (although once it stopped at midnight). The desk was several walls and doors away on the same level and I could STILL hear the bass through my ear plugs. I didn't get a good night's rest a single night I stayed there. No amount of free tea or shoddy wifi can change my mind on this one haha. Or amount of stolen food from the common kitchen, which also happened to us. It's too bad because I really wanted to like London but in the end, the crowds and the poor etiquette of the hostel staff were enough to make me think otherwise.

I know that was a super depressingly negative ending to this post but I had to vent! I don't HATE London, but I think it served its purpose and I saw what we I wanted to see, so now I have no reason to really go there again anytime in the near future. Half a day in Brighton and I am already happier and maybe healthier too! 

Next post will be about Brighton, so in 3ish days!