London in Three Days...Over Three Months

Today's Disclaimer:  This is a really long, really boring, not well-written blog that is more of a list with pictures.  I worked on this over six different sittings so... Not my best.  Maybe I'll come back to this later.

I am not as well-travelled as you are, possibly, and certainly not as seasoned as your friend who just got back from some village I can't begin to pronounce.  As a general rule-of-thumb, I hate backtracking.  I mean, given the choice between Anywhere New or Someplace Cool But I've Been Before, well, Anywhere usually sounds great this time of the year.  The exceptions, of course, are Japan where I would have to put some effort into counting how many times I have been (as a tourist, student, or employee) and London.

"We can drink beer??? Let's!
...oh God, gross!"

My God, I love London.

I love all of the U.K., really.  Having spent a smidgeon of time in Scotland, Wales, Ireland, and England, I think I can say I love the U.K. and not feel like an asshat about it.  I did a semester at London Metropolitan University back in, gosh, 2006, and just connected to that place.  There are some places you instantly feel at home in. I wasn't HOME in London.  No, this was something even different, sorry family, than HOME.  This was an ideal.

View from my dorm in Islington

When I left London, I never thought I'd go back.  Again, why go
back to a place you've been to before?  As it happened, though, I ended up in the odd position of landing not one, not two, but three rather long layovers ("rolllllll credits") from London going to Istanbul, leaving Dublin to Las Vegas, and then between Las Vegas and Malaga.  Each layover came in at around 18 hours, which gave me time to go from the airport to a hotel (because there was always an evening involved) and have a few hours, depending on biological urges for sleep, to do London Stuff.  Whatever that means.

So.  London stuff for me means...

Day One/September

For the past year or so, I have been a bit... I like... I have a slight... um.  I like the BBC.  And there is this little show, it's only got, like, 9 episodes out, called Sherlock.  Heard of it?  Well, I like it.

A lot.

One of the best things about living in Japan when I was there was that the entire country and I were fingerling together.  Every month there were new magazines and other merchandise to buy.  Well, on my way from Las Vegas to a school I was going to attend in Istanbul, I had a layover from 3:30pm-7:00am on a Thursday in September.  And, wouldn't you know it, Martin Freeman (John Watson in Sherlock, Arthur Dent in Hitchhiker's Guide, Bilbo in The Hobbit...) was doing a production of Richard III that day, one of the days the play was NOT sold out!!! Snagged my ticket before leaving Vegas and didn't let myself get too hopeful but... apparently... somedays... Martin signed playbills at the stage door...

Anyway, flights are flights.  Las Vegas to Heathrow, Heathrow to Paddington Station (using the stupidly expensive Heathrow Express 'cause I didn't know any better), and Paddington Station to Essex Garden, right down the street, to a cute little hotel.  Which was a room in a box.

Now, since my flight was a bit late to the gate, it was already 5:30 by the time I got to my hotel and dropped off my backpack.  Not a lot of time for sight-seeing.  I was able to snag photos of a few things that made me happy...

Woot!

If you don't take a picture of a double-decker bus in London,
I think they make you pay a fine at the airport when you leave.

How to Look Pretty in Photographs?

Fountain.  

 Again, my main goal in life, however, was this.

Did a practice run going from the
front of the theater
to the stage door.

I got to plop my butt in third-row, center seats and was amazed by both how close that really meant I was to the actors (the literal "splash zone" where they passed out over shirts so we didn't get bloody) and how good the play was.  I will forever be disappointed I don't own this on DVD and can't let my siblings watch.

Stage blood on my program

He stayed and signed for everyone!
(I now have a video of Martin Freeman telling me he just got out of the shower)

Life is good.

And Jimmy Carr on TV when I got back?  Fantastic!  

So, "see a play."  That's something to do in London, right?

Day Two/October

Woke up in London with a few hours to kill.  Today's goal was to "go to a museum" while keeping true to my nerdy, dorky heart.  I've been to all the major ones way back when, so today I decided to do the full BBC Sherlock tour.  First, from my hotel, it was only a mile or two to Baker Street!  I got to the Sherlock Holmes Museum just before it opened.  There was a small crowd of people already queuing.  I did brief wandering of the neighborhood before getting in line.

The museum was small, but luckily for me, no one else did the start-from-the-top-and-work-your-way-down method, so even though a lot of people showed up, I was able to take a lot of pictures alone.

Now, I know I just dumped more photos than you really wanted to see, but as you can sense, I took a lot of pictures.  A ridiculous amount of pictures.  

'cause I am awesome.
And have a surprisingly large head.

Leaving the museum, I got to freak out over how long the line to go in was now.  My next goal was Speedy's Cafe, maybe another mile down the way. It was during this stretch that the blister that began to form in Ireland the day before really got snippy with me.


Let me save myself some time writing dull stuff that you don't need to read 'cause I have pictures.

I found the cafe.

I had breakfast which was surprisingly cheap and delicious!!! Ended up talking to a couple who lived in the area and where on their way to the airport themselves.  I was trying so hard to control my Fangirl that I didn't take many pics inside. I was trying to Pass as Normal.

At this point, I had time for one more location stop.  St. Bart's it was!  This was another 2 mile walk which resulted in me making many grumpy faces because I don't handle slight discomfort well.  Walking...

 Walking....

 Wallking... Found it!  Now where did they film him jumping from... AH!!!!

Yep.  That looks familiar!

 There was more to St. Bart's than just the asphalt where Sherlock jumped and somehow survived from.  There was The Phone Booth the fandom has adopted as a sort of shine much to the annoyance to the people who have to work here, I'm sure.

And something about William Wallace.  Okay.

I didn't learn anything or do anything of merit.  I spent my time collecting nerdy pictures.

Andrew Scott!  Yay!

Madam Tussauds was $40 or something and had a three-hour line.
This works.  Look!  Benedict Cumberbatch!

Had I had a little more time, would have loved to have wandered around Regent's Park again. In the evening..


Day Three/November

My scarf turned into a wall.

Round Three!

And last week I passed through London again.  Long story short, I had a free return ticket to the U.K. but finically I was kinda hard-pressed to excuse this trip since I had just done a month in Scandinavia.  But... ticket back to the U.K.!  I ended up buying a ticket from Heathrow to Magala, which meant I had a few hours in the evening and a few hours in the morning in London again! Once again, it was a Heathrow to Paddington, but I decided to just catch the Tube. ($20 savings right there).  Also, I was trying a hostel this time instead of my usual cheap business hotel.  ($75 savings). Hey, at this rate, I saved $100!  So, somehow, crazy math, this wasn't so irresponsible!  And rather than doing anything that require any sort of significant funding, I threw some money on my Oyster and headed to Westminster Station.  It was fantastic!  In case you don't know what bridges and things look like...

The National Theatre!

This photo prefers Whittard of Chelsea over PG Tips, thank you
 

Look!  I found filters on my phone.

London Bridge...

Tower Bridge... Yay bridges!

 The only other thing I really kind of regretted not seeing in October was the WWI poppy exhibit at the Tower of London... Which was still up when I came back!

And finally, day three/four, was a wander through Hyde Park, past Buckingham Palace, and to Victoria Station which sent me to Gatwick Airport.

So, there we go.  A full three/four days in London, just over the course of three months.  The most amusing part of all of this is, again, I never thought I would be back in London.  I assumed in '03 when I got on that plane, I would never be back.  Well, there we go.  Ya never know.