London 2015
In mid-April 2015, my mom found an incredible offer for a trip on the May 1st long weekend, and decided to take it. Destination: London! We went just me and my mom, and we decided to not tell anything to anyone, to not jinx ourselves. Just a couple of days before, I mentioned my trip to 2 YouTubers, to meet them: Aaron “Yamimash” Ash and Derek “ScottishGeeks” McEwan. Derek replied, but he couldn’t travel from Glasgow to London, and then I asked him if I would’ve found the bidet in the hotel’s bathroom. You know, the washbasin for your private parts… He said it was unlikely… He was right…
We went to London on April 30th. Train from Oristano to Elmas Airport, flight to London Gatwick at 1.10 P.M., train (at 4 P.M.) from London Gatwick to London (don’t remember which station) and taxi from the train station to our hotel, the King’s Cross Inn, right in front of the King’s Cross station, at Crestfield Street (or 9-11 Euston Road, according to Google). The room was fantastic, but we hit 2 technical snags: we had to use earplugs to sleep at night, ‘cause the underground subway works 24/7, and we had to buy an electrical plug converter for the phone chargers from Italian to British. So, snags with the plugs!
The hotel, in front of the King’s Cross Square and Platform 9 3/4 (which I didn’t see, but went close to), is connected to an Italian restaurant, the Altonapoli, where we went for a couple of dinners, and which served the breakfast inside the hotel!
The receptionist suggested us an “Hop-On-Hop-Off” tourist bus service, the Golden Tours, but besides that, mom organized the entire trip and I was her translator.
We took the Red Route of Golden Tours, and, in 3 days, we saw the British Museum, St. Paul’s Cathedral, the Tower of London, the Tower Bridge, Madame Tussauds, Harrods, and we passed in front of Trafalgar Square (and Nelson’s Column), the London Eye, Big Ben & the House of Parliament, Westminster Abbey, the Buckingham Palace, Paddington’s Station and St. Mary’s Hospital (on May 2nd, the exact same day Princess Catherine of Wales gave birth to Princess Charlotte of Wales).
The British Museum was astounding. We were able to see good part of the Museum and I have 2 anecdotes from that visit. We’re Sardinians, and we know there are some Sardinian artifacts in there. We asked one of the staff members where they kept those artifacts, but she was dumbfounded by our question, so our quest hit a dead end. Later, at lunch, we took sandwiches and bottled water, but my mother accidentally took sparkling water instead of natural. She went on her own to ask for it, and I saw her, in the distance, stumble her way to the sentence (she was trying to ask for non-sparkling water). Suddenly, they start laughing and I think: “She must’ve found an Italian…”. She comes back with natural water and tells me the guy was speaking Italian, but waited to tell her, to see if she could speak English!
While we were in London, we found lots of Italians (there were 97 thousands at the time), so we weren’t lost, in case. Many tourist guides speak Italian, anyway. We even found a Sardinian sandwich shop!
We explored St. Paul’s Cathedral and went on its balcony. It’s very beautiful: I can’t understand why a random nun would destroy a statue while searching for musical clues for a circus treasure (Paddington 2)!
Madame Tussauds was incredible. Beyond all the celebrities, politicians, sports players, scientists, fictional characters and historical people wax statues, there was a ride dedicated to the history of London (“The Spirit of London”), where they took a picture of us (got it on 2 keychains and a portrait), and a 4D movie theatre, where we saw an episode of a Marvel cartoon set in London. What is a 4D movie theatre? A funny theatre staff member gave us 3D glasses to enhance the vision, the chairs move around and punch you in the back (in time with Wolverine’s claws), and a sprinkler system sprays you with smells, or even water, if there is a wave or a splash. I highly recommend Madame Tussauds to everyone who can handle it.
I almost lost myself in the absolute wonder of Harrods. There are the usual floors dedicated to expensive clothes and apparel, but there are also 2 absolutely amazing floors: the toys and the sweets! Paradise on Earth! Tons of plushies (I got a little Paddington), toys and an entire corner dedicated to Harry Potter! A shop full of candies and cakes and ton of chocolate sweets!
The last evening, we almost got lost near a park and we had no way of going back to our hotel. Fortunately, we found a bus still going around, and the driver was kind enough to bring us to our hotel. We then had our flight at 5 or 6 A.M. in London Heathrow, so we took a nap, fully dressed to get out and travel, for a couple of hours, and took a taxi at 3 A.M. (it was May 3rd).
At the airport, we found a person we befriended during the departure journey. I recognized him and approached him. He was pleasantly surprised!
As usual, flight to Elmas, train to Oristano, and by lunch time we were home. 10/10 Would do it again!
P.S. Like I did in Rome 2008 and my parents did in Madrid 2009 (2 months after my school trip), I got a crystal cube with 2 London’s monuments inside.
