As I have mentioned in my writing and if you've spent time with me you know I mention it often; I lived in London for 9 months in 2010. It was a very exciting time for me as I got to experience London as a Londoner instead of a vacationer. Living in "The City" of London which would be considered downtown or the financial districts in most American cities gave me ample opportunity to wander the streets, hop on the tube, and see the sights. Plus London has 4 international airports along with major rail lines to take travelers to Scotland, Wales, France and Belgium.
However, when I arrived at Heathrow Airport from Switzerland, I knew very little of this. I knew that my flat was at 19 Leman St and I had no idea how I was supposed to get there. This is where it came in handy that I was traveling 'on business' because the cab fare from Heathrow Airport to my flat was 90 quid (slang term for Pounds) which was the equivalent of $150. First London Lesson: if possible take the tube.
It was early afternoon on Sunday and my cab had taken me past Buckingham Palace, St. Paul's Cathedral, and unknown to me stopped just a few blocks from the Tower Bridge, which is where my flat was. I was living with another guy from the training program who coincidentally went to my high school for a year before moving out East to attend a prep school. We arrived at essentially the same time and thinking we were staying at an extended stay hotel we were expecting a front desk to check-in. Well, instead we had a furnished apartment but because of this we had no clue how to get into our flat, or even the building.
After searching through emails and trying to find someone to call on Sunday afternoon we found the directions in an excel file explaining the code to the door and the code to get to our keys. Now that we were finally in, we dropped our bags and got to relax. For me the relaxing only lasted a few minutes because I was in freaking London and wanted to explore! It was mid-January but the sun was out and I was in a brand new place.
I wandered around on foot and found my way to the train station that I would need to be at the following morning to take me to work in Tilbury, which is about 20 miles east of London on the River Thames.
Because I was in London for such an extended period, I can't remember every detail but I want to remember some of the great things that I did and some of the mundane daily tasks as well.
I would take the C2C train from Fenchurch Street Station in London to the Tilbury Town stop which took about 40 minutes. Fenchurch Street Station was about a 5-7 minute walk from my flat and then I had about a 5-10 minute walk from the Tilbury Town station into the port and all the way to the tiny office that housed 7 people, Scott, Gary, Richard, Thomas, Peter, and Tim. I used to bring my lunch on most days many times I would purchase breakfast and lunch from Pret a Manger in London before getting on the train. Most days I would work out a gym in Tilbury with Richard or Scott. There was a shower in the office that allowed me to clean up after working out. On Fridays, I would usually walk to the Asda (Wal-Mart) or McDonalds and find lunch there.
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| Parliament |
Some of the memories I have were going on runs throughout London. I would often run down The Strand all the way to Buckingham Palace or Parliament. I did tours of Westminster Abbey, St. Paul's Cathedral, Parliament, the Tower of London, visited Tate Modern, British Museum, Portrait Gallery, Natural History Museum, Imperial War Museum, Greenwich Observatory and the Prime Meridian and witnessed the Queen's Birthday celebration.
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| Tower of London |
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| St. Paul's Cathedral |
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| Another of St. Paul |
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| Parade during the Queen's Birthday Celebration |
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| The Queen |
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| Prime Meridian |
I went to a Tottenham match at White Hart Lane where they beat Everton 2-1. I visited Platform 9 3/4 at Kings Cross Station. I saw a cricket match at the Oval and a rugby match at Twickenham.
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| Tottenham 2 - Everton 1 |
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| Platform 9 3/4 |
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| Cricket Match |
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| Rugby Match |
My tube station was Aldgate East, which is on the District Line (green) and Hammersmith & City Line (pink). I remember many nights having to walk from the Liverpool Street Station which was about 10 minutes because the Central Line (red) ran later into the night than other lines.
My flat was in the area known as Whitechapel which is best known for it's famous murderer, Jack the Ripper. It is also known for Brick Lane and the many Indian and Pakistani restaurants. A semi-joke that I was told was that Britons might be known for fish and chips but their national dish is curry. My favorite place to frequent was Tayyabs, which was incredible Pakistani food. It was also only about 5 minutes from my flat, which means that I went probably 8 times during my stay. I also stopped at Clifton's which is an Indian restaurant that was just around the corner from my place. I also would love to get kebabs, chips, and a coke from one of the many places along Brick Lane.
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| Tower Bridge |
On the weekends I would almost every free Saturday or Sunday I would visit a market while out exploring. My favorite was Borough Market which had two delicious places to eat one sandwich place that was cooking their meats right in front of you and another seafood place that made incredible shrimp taco/burrito things. I would also visit Brick Lane market and Spitalfields. On one occasion I made the journey to the West End and Portobello Market.
While in London I tried to enjoy the theatre scene as well. I saw the play Enron, which was about the fall of the giant energy company. I also saw The Secret Life of Sherlock Holmes, which started my love of the detective. I also saw Les Mis as it geared up for its massive 25th anniversary show at the O2 arena. I also stood outside Leicester Square as Bradley Cooper and other stars made their way into the premiere of the A-Team movie.
Near the end of my time in London I got to witness the raising of the Tower Bridge to let a boat through, which is said to be a lucky event. I went on a Monopoly Bar crawl with a few friends, which lasted until the wee hours of the morning because the Chicago Blackhawks were playing in the Stanley Cup finals back in the USA and we needed to stay up and watch. The Vancouver Winter Olympics took place while I was there which was fun because the ensuing summer Olympics were going to be in London so the attention was already starting to focus on London. The World Cup took place in South Africa during the summer I was in London which was even more fun as England and America were in the same group. I watched the game at a giant bar with about 10 American and 1,000 English. When America tied it at 1 on a goalie mistake it was almost sad how distraught all the English fans were. When the game ended in a 1-1 draw, the fans were mostly angry and we hustled out of the bar to try to find a safer venue.
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| Big Ben, Trafalgar Square, Winter Olympics |
During the Super Bowl, I was returning from a weekend trip to Rome and flew in late on Sunday night. I remember watching the score on my phone as I took the train back to my flat. When I got home I was planning on watching the Colts play the Saints on my computer but was very happily surprised when the big game was on British TV. The announcers talked about Reggie Bush pretty much all the time and whenever he touched the ball they were expecting him to score a touchdown. The weekend prior during the AFC and NFC championship games I watched the Colts play at the American Sports Cafe.
While in London I did a few day trips to Eton and Windsor Castle which was a short train ride away and also out to Stonehenge and the town of Bath. The later trip was with Megan on her visit.
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| Windsor Castle |
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| Stonehenge |
I made a few friends, mostly people that I had been acquaintances with back in the US and we were all living in the London. Mollie a friend from IU was studying there and we would have some drinking nights out with her friends. The place I remember visiting was called The Court and it had something like 6 shots for 10 pounds which was the reason the college students wanted to go to that bar.
If I remember more stories or things, I will just add them to end of this post.
