21 in London

Had you asked me a year ago how I would spend my 21st birthday, wandering around London would not have been my first guess. Nevertheless, that is what I did last weekend, making for one of the more interesting birthdays I've ever had. Travelling down to meet one of my fraternity brothers who is studying in London, my primary focus for the trip wasn't exactly of the sightseeing variety. Still, I was determined to use what free time I found myself with to catch a few of the more notable landmarks in one of the most important cities in the world, and for having no map or itinerary I think I did a pretty good job just wandering about. Here's how it went down...

My sleeping schedule here in the UK is all kinds of messed up. I never have class until 3pm, making it all too easy to stay up late and sleep in with relatively few adverse consequences. In fact one positive consequence was how easy it was to catch a 4am Megabus from downtown Edinburgh to London on Thursday night, arriving at about 3pm (it is a looong bus ride). With the night's festivities not kicking off until later, and a few hours to kill, my brother and I had a look around the British Museum. If you aren't familiar with it, it's massive and would take a couple of days in its own right to properly tour. With only hours at most, we limited ourselves to an abbreviated version comprising the Rosetta Stone, some ancient Egyptian artifacts, European swords, clocks, and some Renaissance sketches. 

Some debauchery and a good night's sleep later, I showed up in downtown London armed only with my camera and half-charged phone to see what I could cram in before sunset. Lucky for me, most of the top-priority, postcard plastered, world-famous, 'look, I was in London!' sites are clustered within a few square miles of the Thames River near the London Eye Ferris wheel/monstrosity, so I made quick work of a few places straight away.  

Not St. Paul's

Big Ben and Parliament were of course first up, and with the weather typically dreary and gray it felt just like I always imagined it would gazing at them from across the Thames. The weather here in the UK is rarely sunny, but I can't complain because that's just what one expects here. If I were in Rio it would be a different story, but in Britain bleakness is just par for the course.  

A thirty minute walk brought me to St. Paul's Cathedral, site of such notable events as Churchill's funeral and Princess Diana's wedding to Prince Charles. This notoriety I suppose is what helps justify the expensive admission fee. Trying to spare my wallet more suffering, I settled for pictures from the outside. 

After St. Paul's I had the vague notion of continuing East until I hit the Tower of London and the Tower Bridge (London Bridge from the song). Heading in that general direction, I stumbled upon a bit of a hidden gem in 'The Monument', a 202 ft. column finished in 1677 to commemorate the Great Fire of London. For a mere two pounds, you can climb the 311 step spiral staircase inside and enjoy a surprisingly good view of the city from the top. Two pounds doesn't typically get you much in London, so pleased with my find I went right on up and snapped this beauty:

So many cranes...

Continuing along, the Tower of London wasn't quite is imposing as I had imagined it. Built by William the Conqueror in 1078 to strike fear in the hearts of his subjects, I found it rather plain. Perhaps the horrors of the modern world have numbed me to the terrors of stone masonry. Right next to the tower is the aptly named Tower Bridge, and this I must say was more imposing than I had imagined. I even got to see it open up for a passing ship, one positive in a mixed bag of timing that would slight me at my next stop.

Oooooooooo scary

The Shard, just sayin'

The slight I speak of was the closing of the National Gallery 10 minutes before my arrival at Trafalgar Square, an unfortunate occurrence I may have planned for had I...planned anything. Instead I was greeted by a massive crowd of people (as opposed to some other animal) watching this awkward Japanese cultural show/celebration, which at that moment consisted of scantily clad cheerleader-esque dancers jumping around to a recorded track. Absolutely nothing wrong with that in my book, but not exactly an apt replacement for the works of J.M.W. Turner and John Constable. Oh well.

Westminster

The sun was beginning to set, and for photograph-minded individuals this means one thing- amazing shots. With the sun just above the horizon and the sky clearing up, bleakness gave way to radiance and the city opened up in a way hard to imagine just an hour before. I took a shortcut past Westminster Abbey racing back to Parliament, my camera gorging itself on a steady diet of statues and sun-bathed marble on the way. Finally, I made it back to my point of origin, and just as I had expected Big Ben was drenched in the evening rays. Snap snap snap, mission accomplished. 

By this time my phone had long since died, but I had one more stop in mind- Piccadilly Circus. Kind of the 'Time Square' of London, I heard it was a pretty happening place, and since the bright glow of advertising made sunlight unnecessary, there was no reason not to check it out. So... here it is. Lots of people and ads, and a particularly un-entertaining street performance. Not much else to say. 

The ads are on the other side, too bright for a good picture

I'm told I had a lot of fun that night... so now you know as much as I do! Unfortunately I was far too ambitious in booking my return ticket for the next morning, scheduled for 9am. I was pretty much on schedule until I fell asleep on the Tube and rode it to the end of the line, which forced me to catch a later bus that didn't get me back to Edinburgh until 2am. All in all though, it was a great time. Big thanks to my fraternity bro for having me down and helping me celebrate. 

As I was only in London for just over 2 days, it's hard for me to draw any conclusions about the place, however it didn't take me long to realize one thing- London is damn expensive. I spent some time in NYC this summer and thought that city was expensive, but London will now forever hold a special place in my consciousness as where money goes to die a painful death. I sort of rationalized it as a 21st birthday present to myself...but I'll have a hard time finding an excuse to visit again. That said, there is easily enough other stuff I would like to see and do to keep me busy for at least a week (Buckingham Palace, Hyde Park, the Tate just to name a few), so I can't rule out another visit at some point. Still, for going in without a battle plan, I would say my blitz on London was an overall success.