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| The famed cafe from BBC's 'Sherlock' |
I wish I had known how long to plan for each sight to see or
activity to do in London .
I either had too much spare time, or not long enough.
For example, I am not the biggest fan of museums. Especially
since a lot of museums aren’t interactive – you read a plaque and stare at
something carefully displayed in a glass case in front of you. I actually tend
to find them a little dull and can often speed through a museum if nothing
really grabs my interest. Being a biology nerd though, I decided I had to at
least check out the Natural History museum in London . Entry was free and it sounded
interesting. Knowing my speedy museum tendencies, I gave it two hours.
Well. Two hours was nowhere near long enough. I should have
set aside the best part of a day. Unlike a lot of other museums, there was
plenty of opportunity for interacting with a lot of the exhibits, and the “look
but don’t touch” ones were also fascinating. I ended up having to race through
only the exhibitions that were at the top of my list of priorities, and really
regretted having to leave after only seeing about a third of what the museum
had to offer.
My next stop was one I’d been looking forward to ever since
I started planning my trip to the UK, and it was time for Nerdy Fan Girl Moment
Number 2: travelling to the innocuous North Gower Street to have lunch at
Speedy’s Café, otherwise known as the café next door to the home of Sherlock
Holmes and John Watson from BBC’s Sherlock.
Just like finding the entrance to Torchwood in Cardiff , I couldn’t help
but grin and feel a bit giddy as I rounded the corner and came face to face
with one of the more famous locations from one of my favourite shows. The place
was packed, and if it weren’t for the fact that it was featured so prominently
in Sherlock, it would have been another plain and average street café. I barely
got a seat for my marinated chicken salad. The food was good, and inside was a
section of wall featuring photos and memorabilia from the show.
With a full stomach and another destination ticked off the
list, I travelled to Leicester
Square with the intention of securing tickets to a
West End musical that night. £35 later I was
clutching a ticket for a slightly restricted viewing of Les Miserables. I
probably could have found cheaper tickets – there were stacks of places selling
discounted and half-price theatre tickets – but there were still a lot of other
places I wanted to see.
Such as Covent Garden .
There, I was surprised to discover a sizeable and thriving array of cute market
stalls nestled amongst regular shops, with street performers busking or doing
magic tricks for the crowds. Ben’s Cookies seemed popular, and after a
Triple-Chocolate Chunk, I could see why.
Later that night, I parked myself in seat D21 of the upper
circle in the Queen’s Theatre for Les Mis. Of course it was fantastic: the
performers hit every note and the music swelled impressively to fill the
theatre with song. However, I was somehow expecting the show to be more lavish.
Perhaps my expectations were a little too high. Sometime during the night, I
also managed to lose a gorgeous necklace that I’d bought in Amsterdam .
Despite the excellent entertainment, by the time I got back
to my B&B, I wasn’t feeling great. Two days of being entirely on my own in
a big city after spending almost every minute with a big group of other Contiki
people was getting to me again. London
felt incredibly lonely, and people were often surprised to learn that I was
there on my own (“Table just for one?”, “Oh. You only want ONE ticket?”). I was
quite homesick that night, longing for the family and friends who were so far
and so many hours away back home.
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