Our London trip was mixed by three ingredients… Cheap flight ticket from Bratislava during weekend and not missing any working day, my girlfriend Maria who has never been to London and lots of common friends living there. In just 1 and a half day in London we had a lot to do, see and talk about. The flight Bratislava-London was shorter than getting from Stansted airport to the south London. Being aware of the fact that we are not getting any refreshments on board, before boarding we grabbed a bottle of Slivovica from duty free to start off the Friday night at Bratislava airport.
Once we got picked up by our friends Chelo and her boyfriend Ari we went to their house to get some sleep to be ready to explore the city next morning. On the way there we saw a lot of foxes just walking around the neighbourhood just like cats. In the morning there was no such thing like a nice bird singing, instead ravens had a metal concert on the roof… To make up for the crazy ravens waking us up, our friend from Seville Chelo, prepared an amazing English breakfast. That plate was consisting of so much calories, fat and food itself that we didn’t need lunch that day. A big thing everybody was waiting for was to meet with even more Spanish people and when I say people I mean girls. So after a tiring bus ride and a bit crowded-metro ride we finally met in Camden town.
I don’t have to describe the loud screaming of all four girls Chelo, Carmen, Kristina and Maria from the same city (Seville) meeting after more than one year in London. I was also happy to see them, but happier for my girlfriend to be with her friends. I have never been in Camden town and its market before my trips to London. A place full of shops, some strange, some interesting and some totally different than what you are used to, for example a techno/disco/party shop called Cyberdog where 2 dancers were dancing in entrance just having fun and the whole shop just looked like a big dance club. The whole area of Camden town was pretty alternative place where you could meet some cool people. Time was flying so we moved to Borough market or let’s call it a food heaven. I know I wrote that after a fat English breakfast we didn’t need lunch, well the Spanish lunch at 3:30pm we had to have.
The Borough market was just food wherever you looked. There were Vegan foods, fresh vegetables and fruits, sandwiches, burgers, fresh fish to buy, I even saw an English man selling Spanish Paella and much more. Our choice was obvious, an amazingly smelling and great looking Classic burger with English Cheddar cheese and onions. After packing myself with more carbs and fat from the burger we headed towards Tower Bridge. When we finally wanted to get on the bridge from the pedestrian zone under it I couldn’t believe what was happening. There was a bigger crowd waiting to get to the stairs than in Justin Bieber’s concert. But still it could be worse and could start raining. Not too much time after saying this it had started to rain and rain and rain until next morning.
On the way to get some beer, we stopped by M&M shop. I have been to one on Times Square but this one was like a shopping mall and at that time held probably more people than my grandmother’s entire village. No wonder we met there an employee speaking Spanish who gave us some free samples 🙂 Actually during my whole weekend in London I thought I was in Madrid but sometimes people spoke also English. I was really surprised how many people in London where from Spanish speaking countries. In the night NO party-hardly was taking place after seeing a receipt for 2 beers for 10 Pounds…How can people live there? Obviously for a guy from Slovakia where you can get a 0,5l beer for less than a Euro it was a shocker. But it didn’t matter because we didn’t go there to spend all money for beer but to meet with friends.
Our second but also last day in London turned out to be a beautiful sunny and even warm day to enjoy. Before going to Hyde Park we met with our Erasmus friend from Madrid Marta. We haven’t seen her for more than 2 years. So there I was walking in London streets with 5 women from Spain enjoying the sunny Sunday. Everything just got better and more delicious once we started eating our lunch in front of the Buckingham Palace. In my case it was a sandwich and the best cookie in my life. All would be just perfect except for the hungry pigeons bothering us all the time.
After just 40 hours spent in London we had to say goodbye to this nice but over crowded city on Thames River and more sadly to our friends Chelo, Carmen, Kristina and Marta who we thank for making our visit so unique.
