London in my limited pop-culture experience is known for a few things: rainy weather, pubs, people with bad teeth, historic/beautiful architecture, and fish and chips.
In one day I've seen all of that.
I landed in London tired and anxious to find JP. With rain drizzling down and overcast skies I immediately felt like I was in England. Since his flight landed an hour before mine I figured that I would find him waiting for me in the hostel.
Just our luck that connection to the tube line that went to our hostel was shut down for the day. My New Yorker instincts kicked in and I got off at the next stop to find that I made the right move! An extra train was all that was needed.
I get off the tube and to the hostel in one piece, sweaty and gross feeling but in one piece nonetheless. Met up with JP, checked into the hostel and started to make plans for our London adventure.
Since it was going to be getting dark soon we decided to stay more local to our area, just south of London bridge.
A great view of tower bridge, the monument, a stop off for coffee and doner kebab, then a walk along the water back. The city felt just like I imagined it would.
On our return we stopped off at The Old Kings Head, a dodgy little pub down a strange alley, for happy hour. Unsure what to order we told the bartender to give us whatever was English/British. He pulled us a couple of cask ales that I found tasty and I proceeded to watch and listen to the locals at this watering hole.
Suddenly one of them overhears us, the drunk sitting on the stool near JP. Maybe it was our accents that stood out in the low key pub. Whatever it was he turns to us and asks where we are from. NYC. Brooklyn or Queens? Queens. Our new friend then goes oh the home of LL Cool J and starts singing lyrics from his songs. (He had some funky teeth but was a really nice guy).
We go on to find out that he's a New Yorker-phile, and claims that nearly everyone in London has a love of everything New York. He proceeded to teach us about Londoner things and we corrected some of his New Yorker impressions.
After parting ways with our new friend we decide to follow his advice and head towards the market to find a place to eat. Finding nothing of interest in the market we headed south, only to find more residential areas.
On the way back to the hostel, feeling defeated that the holiday season created an off day for the city we stumbled into The Blue Eyed Maid to enjoy some fish and chips and a cider. We ended up chatting up the bartender since it was a quiet night there. He told us since Uni is out that its a bit quieter around these parts until next week and that they will be having a New Years party.
After paying out bill it was still only about 7:30p. We walked to the hostel and decided to explore the chill room and cinema. They have a projector here with movies you can borrow. JP opted for the Big Lebowski and while its a classic it failed to be uplifting enough to keep us awake for long.
Instead of the movie we opted to head to the bar attached to our hostel. Turned out to be a great choice. We made another new friend, an Australian named David who was kind enough to give us some tips on what to see while we are here. Then we discovered that hostel residents get all kinds of discounts.
JP and I ended the night on the roof. Eric, if he's reading this, will be the first to tell you that I love hostels with roof decks. They are the perfect place to get a view of the city, spend time catching up and telling stories, and of course feeling like you're in a new part of the world, it's just waiting for you to discover it.
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