U.K: London

My megabus broke down on the way from Wales to London and I had one of those moments when I realise I´m alone... everyone was on the phone telling friends or family that they´re going to be late etc, and I just sat there writing my journal and eating chocolate enjoying the storm outside because I had nothing to be late for, and noone to tell! It was a weird feeling, but not a bad one.

My hostel is near Kings Cross, it's set in an old courthouse and the Internet room was in the actual court room so you could sit up at the judges big chair and everything! Apparently Charles Dickens worked here when he was really young, and The Clash were tried here for something. My dorm STUNK of smelly feet and there was a terrible rip-roaring snorer... They should wear a badge or something saying 'I snore like a motorbike' so reception can put them all in a room together.

Went on a great free walking tour with people from the hostel and heard awesome stories, this 'new europe' tour company employs history and other students to run the tours in heaps of cities and they really entertain the backpacker crowd and only work for tips. Loved the stories about easy break-ins to Buckingham Palace (like the fat man in spiderman costume who danced on the roof, police threatened to shoot him down but did nothing, they waited for him to get tired and climb down himself haha. And the students who camped in the lawns thinking it was a park, cooked meals and slept and only got found out when they approached a guard asking for directions!)

The Queen wasn't home, but the princes were, and the changing of the guard soldiers marched to 'dancing queen'!

Met up with Matt that evening (Adelaide guy I travelled with in Laos/ Vietnam) for some drinks then we went on a hostel pub crawl around Soho & Covent garden.

The rest of my week in London I stayed with Christine, a friend of my grandparents who Pete & I had stayed with in 2001 on our family Europe trip. She lives about 25 mins out of the city centre on an overground train so pretty similar to going to my house from Melbourne city! I got a UK simcard so I could contact my friends in London easily (the red phone boxes chew up sooo much cash!!) and an oyster train card and felt like a local travelling in and out which was fun. Christine was so helpful, cooked me meals and let me do laundry & use phone and internet all the time which makes such a difference!

Met up almost every day with my mate Tom from work at the Nurses Board, he was staying in Brick Lane which is a really cool st which feels like Fitzroy; cool bars and vintage shops etc, but the major population is Bangladeshi so millions of curry restaurants!

Highlights of rest of week:
Went to a couchsurfing event at a little music festival one day and met lots of travellers there,

Got a rele cheap ticket for 'Hair' musical off lastminute.com and loved it so much, bit lonely going by myself but the music was so uplifting & happy it made me love life

Went to Windsor horse races with Tom and his friend Jack one evening, got to see the castle and had a boat trip down the river to the racecourse which was beautiful, the races were funny- so laid back you could walk across the middle of field to see the start and then the finish (but the favourites won every time so it was no fun picking out random names like at Melbourne cup where every horse has a chance!)

Went to Sherlock holmes museum @ 221b Baker st for a bit of nerdy jess time, and had a giggle at an American lady who thought he was a real person... Also checked out Tate modern with Tom, ate some great curry, and spent the best part of a day in queues and waiting rooms at a hospital trying to get them to change my Australian script into an English one (lost all my pills somewhere so annoying!)

I liked Hyde park & Kensington gardens, wandered around and got stuck in 2nd hand bookshops in Soho, checked out the markets at Covent garden and Camden and was pretty much a pro at the tube even on weekends when they closed like 4 of the most important lines for construction so had to backtrack a lot to get anywhere!

On my last night I went to see a play that Christine recommended called 'War Horse' as I got a cheap ticket to that as well. It was so amazing I want to see it again, apparently Spielberg is making it into a movie at the moment! The play used giant horse puppets (like the animals in lion king musical) but the actors had the movements and noises so perfect you forgot they were people and just saw the horse. It was about a boy´s horse which got sold to the war cause and he enlisted just to try and find his horse again, it was really sad, funny, scary... Amazing.

London was so expensive, topping up oyster card etc, even with free accomodation and some free meals I was spending over my budget every day. The weather was perfect (or 'frightfully hot' as Christine put it!) and I saw squirrels in her garden which she'd charge up the stairs and bellow at because they ate her bird food! I had a lot of fun and good conversations with her, and hope one day I can repay the kindness she showed to me, to some other traveller!