Currently sitting at Heathrow airport awaiting for this board to tell me which gate to go to for my flight to helsinki. I’m not too sure what all the fuss is about when people say its a terrible airport. I think things ran quite smoothly. So with the past 3 or 4 days, I’ve travelled from Brusells to London.
Brussels was our last day of the trip together – hostel was quite good, reception / common room / computers locks out from 1 to 4 in the afternoon which is a bit annoying. Brussels was somewhat different to the other towns we were in in Belgium. It just seemed a whole lot busier. The squares here were quite nice, the churches look amazing. Beers, mussels, vietnamese food and waffles was the diet for the last day. In my opinion, Belgium seems like a boring town – maybe because we weren’t at the best hostels who knew where we needed to go to have a good time. It was relaxing and quiet. Then again, sunday, monday and tuesday aren’t really party days.
I left for London on the Eurostar from Brussels. It was a pretty quick journey. I found my way pretty easily to my counsins place. Turned up, tried calling, but he was in a meeting – so was then… homeless for another 5 hours or so. I asked around for lockers or a place to store my bag for a few hours – everyone turned me down in the area – found my way to Victoria station where there are lockers – most major train stations will have a place to leave your bags. Went for a walk to Westminster, the Clock Tower, the Parliament and the London Eye. For dinner – thai food – properly cooked rice for the first time in 6 weeks… Next day – travelled out to London Tower before walking all the way back along the river thames and checking out the Tate Museum and Shakespeare Globe. I saw St Paul’s Cathedral, but it was closed by the time I got there. Dinner – steak – medium-rare came out a bit rare for my liking. Walked around Piccadilly Circus, Leicester Square and Convent Garden after dinner.
Yesterday I headed off to the national gallery before Buckingham Palace and did the tour for the 14 or so rooms they have open to the public. The one way system is a bit stupid. You end up about 700 metres or so at the other end of the palace at the end of it – 600 or so metres of checking out the garden, a bit ridiculous, especially since I didn’t take any photos of the front of the palace before I went in.. so I had to walk all the way back. Then had lunch before walking up regents st and then walking up and down oxford st. Dinner – Vietnamese place – with a decent serving of food. The weather wasn’t too good for the first time here in London. I escaped the weather by going into the museums and what not.
This morning – tired as anything – packed everything last night. My gate just appeared so I should head off. Next stop helsinki – stop over for about 2 hours – then flight into tokyo – 12 hour stop over – i calculated id be awake and walking around tokyo during normal hours of the day there, but my body will think its midnight to 6am…
Written by Milton Lai