The tale of an American duder and a British duderess. Part 2
By duskvamp 96 Comments
Carrying on from Part 1, which you can find here.
London.
We drove down to London, left my car and our extra luggage at my brothers and took the tube into the center, where our hotel was. My friend bought me an app for the tube as a gift, which was a god send. We would have never been able to navigate the underground by ourselves without it.
Our hotel was 4 stars, looked fancy and was right next to Hyde Park... our room was half the size of my, already small bedroom. Small double was shoved into the corner of the room next to the window, with about a foot of space at one side and the end of the bed. I guess you can't expect too much for the center of London, but it was liveable.
We had a lot of plans crammed into our 2 days in London. Unfortunately missing out some things, like the Science and Natural History museums, but we've planned to go to them next time.
On the first day, we took the underground to the South Bank and explored a bit before going on the London Eye after sunset and after the groups of annoying school kids had gone. I'm quite afraid of heights, but I loved it on The Eye. London looks so gorgeous at night, all lit up.
After The Eye, we explored some more, finding a small games arcade, where we found Dance Dance Revolutions most dedicated fan. Then eating at Wagamamas, which was delicious.
The next day we got up early after a couple hours sleep, to try get as much done as we could and headed to the London Dungeons. We weren't expecting it to be scary, but we weren't expecting to be surrounded by about 2 groups of school girls screaming constantly at things that weren't even supposed to be scary. So we spent most of the tour looking at each other annoyed that they wouldn't shut up. During the tour I was picked out of the crowd to get up and be “trialled” and had everyone sent to the gallows for being Welsh.
After the Dungeons, we had a walk around the area and found an open market called the Borough Market, practically having a free lunch by walking around having samples from most of the stalls. But a fish and chip shop caught our eye, as that was another British dish that he had to try. We both aren't fans of fish, but we got the cod and was enjoying it until he noticed some fish skin and was put off. So fish and chips weren't as much as a success as the Full English.
We took the tube back to the South Bank and went to the Sea Life Aquarium. They had a new penguin exhibit that we were really excited to see. We had a great time in the aquarium and bought tickets for a behind the scenes tour, it was just the 2 of us on the tour and we were hoping to get more up close with the animals. Unfortunately it was more a tour of the filtering systems and where they store the animals food.
After walking around, taking in the sites, we followed some street signs to the Tate Art Museum, had fun laughing at the contemporary section and got some dirty looks from the artsy people for not fully realising the brilliance of a glass of water on a shelf. We met up with a friend of mine that now lived in London and looked for somewhere to eat, but all that was on my mind were the Chicken Gyoza side dish that we ate the night before at Wagamamas. This time I'd be getting a plate of them for myself, they were so good.
We had planned to take our luggage around London with us the next day so that we could explore some more. But quickly realised that that would be an absolute nightmare, so instead we checked out and drove to Wiltshire, to our next hotel.
Longleat Safari Park - Wiltshire.
All the travelling was stressful and exhausting, so we took the rest of the day to just relax and laze around in our room. We tried hooking up the xbox, but the hotel had locked their TVs, so we couldn't, annoyingly.
On the Sunday we got up early and drove to Longleat Safari Park. I'm a big animal lover, so had always wanted to go there. Unfortunately because of the snow, a lot of the animals were kept indoors. But the monkeys and the big cats were still out, which is what we were looking forward to most. As soon as we entered the “Monkey Drive Thru”, they had jumped up on our car. Riding the wing mirrors and tearing bits off my radio aerial. Nothing too damaging luckily.
Out of the big cats, we saw the tigers first. I love tigers, so it was amazing to see them so close. The cars had queued up a bit by the time we got to the lions, but it was a big pride and the cubs were adorable, chasing each other and jumping on the lionesses.
We also drove through the wolves area, and had a wolf walking along side our car as we drove.
It ended with a bird show, with owls and vultures flying over the crowds heads, one man being swept by a vultures wing. It really is a great place that we're hopefully going to visit again one summer, when all the animals will be out.
Our last couple days together.
For the last 2 days we drove back to my house in Wales, but stayed in a hotel. I had fun showing him around where I live and where I went to school.
The last day was Valentines day, and we had the most amazing day. It was so hard having to get up at 6am the next morning for him to leave. But it was an amazing and perfect night to end our holiday.
We caught the train to London, so that we could talk properly the way there instead of me driving. But ended up sleeping most of the way.
The airport was heartbreaking, it was the worst feeling. We had an amazing time and neither of us wanted it to end. I couldn't look back as I walked away, I knew it would be too hard. On the tube back, I was sat directly opposite a loved up, kissy couple. I cried the whole way and I knew people on the tube were looking at me. I exchanged at Paddington to catch my train home, playing some games on my DS to try and take my mind off things, but every time I stopped playing I'd start crying again. Getting in the car at the train station back home was the hardest of the journey back, I'd been so used to him sitting next to me and now it was empty.
As soon as I got home, I was straight on my computer looking at plane tickets to Chicago. It's been so hard not to just buy them straight away. But I need to save up.
The plan for me, is to go to Chicago in June for 5 or 6 weeks, and I can't wait :)
Thank you Giant Bomb.
Thanks to everyone that has read our story and been really supportive, this really is a great community! I can't say how nervous I was at first, posting our story, thinking we might be made fun of. But everyone has been really sweet, so thank you :)
96 Comments