English on the go
Summer has just started and the weather in Spain is abnormally hot. I was looking for some relief and I began to remember my years in the UK. I lived there when I was young, and I remember the cool breeze and how refreshing it felt compared to the scorching heat here. As I thought about where to go on a short trip to get away from the Spanish heat, London became a strong option to consider. I asked my son, where would you like to go?. After explaining the destination options, he also liked the idea of visiting England, so we booked the tickets and started looking for hotels where we could stay.
We woke up early that morning, we hopped in the car, we dropped off our luggage, went through security and checked the screens to see which gate the plane would depart from, but it wasn’t announced yet, so we waited,.... We checked again, we then knew, so we walked to the gate, we boarded the plane, slept, and arrived in London.
An uber driver was waiting for us and drove us to our studio apartment, near Queensways Subway station. We arrived early in the morning, and though we didn’t sleep much we had to make the most of the day, so we drank a juice in a nearby restaurant and headed for a walk around Kensington Park. That day we had reserved a theater play in the Lyric Theater, on the West End, so after walking through Hyde Park, we went to take a peek at Buckingham Palace, crossed Green Park, saw Piccadilly Circus, and walked along Shaftesbury Avenue until we located the theatre. Next to it, there is China Town.
We had time left until the play started and we hadn’t eaten anything since the airport, so we started to look for good-quality Chinese restaurants. There were many but at the end of the street we saw a local that was half empty and that the only clients eating were Chinese. We finally saw a truly good restaurant that wasn’t a tourist trap. We ate there and the food was incredible. We were completely stuffed and we had to go to the theater because the play was about to start.
The play was called Hadestown and it was about two ancient Greek myths, the love story of Orpheus and Eurydice, and the tale of Hades and Persephone. The story is set in a mythical depression-era-inspired world where Eurydice, who is poor and hungry, falls in love with Orpheus, a musician that is writing a song that can change the world. Eurydice's life starts to become difficult and Hades, the king of the Underworld, makes her an offer. He can give her the safety and security she needs, which Orpheus doesn't give her, in exchange for her soul, and she accepts. The play was really good and the music was better. After the play, we walked to the hotel, we were really tired, so we ordered a take away and finally went to sleep.
View of the Chinese town in London.
The next day, waking up felt like a chore. We had breakfast at the same restaurant we drank the juice yesterday, near our studio, called “The Park”.
After that, we walked through Kensington Park intending to visit the Natural History Museum, and we happened to pass by Kensington Palace. There were people walking inside, so we went to see what the occasion was. The doors were open to the public, and the entry tickets were quite cheap, so an unexpected but interesting tour presented itself, and we didn’t turn it down.
The Palace was divided into three sections, each guided by an audio tour guide. Every section focused on a different royal figure. We learned about Queen Victoria's childhood, the reign of King William III and Queen Mary II, and of course, Princess Diana´s life since it was her official residence.
After that, we wanted to follow the plan, visit the Natural History Museum, so we headed there. The building is beautiful, but more impressive than that is the giant skeleton of a blue whale that hangs from the roof as soon as you walk in. There were many curious things to learn about nature and we looked through as many as we could. We stopped to eat in an inside restaurant there and we continued exploring.
Inside of the Natural History Museum
After spending an extended period learning about history, our brains were starting to give up. Shopping was our next goal, and Westfield was the destination. We ordered an Uber to pick us up and headed over. The center was in West London, Shepard’s Bush, to be exact, and it was enormous. The stores I had missed from my previous stay here came flooding back to my memory, and I couldn’t help going into them: M&S, Next, Harrods Outlet, and many others. At J Sports we were able to try some boxing boots for my son, which is really hard to do in Spain, and we bought them at a really good price. We also tried the Mexican restaurant Chipotle. After trying the burrito, our hands were dripping in oil and sauce, but the mess was totally worth it.
After dinner, we had to figure out how to get to the studio. A lot of people were riding those electric rental bikes and it seemed safe, most of them weren’t even using helmets. We downloaded the app, registered, and started to plan our route. But when we went to pay on the machine, we realised it was broken. We couldn’t hire a bike.
That’s when we noticed we still hadn’t taken the bus, and a bus stop was literally a few feet away. The map was really easy to understand, and five minutes later, we climbed on the double-decker bus. Two days had already flown by, and our last night there was just ahead.
Waking up early had become a tradition. The bus never waits, and our time was running out. We headed to Camden Market, a place like no other. As soon as we arrived, we were greeted by a real punk, unapologetically blasting loud music and holding a banner I’ll never forget: “Help a punk get drunk”. It was a Tuesday and the market was nearly empty. We walked through the second hand stores, the vintage stalls, and the colorful streets. We saw the iconic Amy Winehouse bronze statue, and continued walking entering the Hansel and Gretel candy shop. Churros were also being served in a food van, but I don’t think they’re as good as ours. Camden Town is a must-see during any stay in London, and though our visit was short, we had plenty of activities we had to check off.
We headed to the nearest Underground station and took the black line, northern line, to get off at Tottenham Court Road. From there we took a walk towards our next short stop, the British Museum.
We had to enter from the back; the line was long, but since we weren't carrying any bags, we were allowed to skip it. Looking at the Mesopotamian artifacts made it easy to imagine the lifestyle of humans thousands of years ago, and it made me reflect on human evolution. The Egyptian sarcophagus, their take on living and the afterlife,... there was literally so much history on the building, I couldn't possibly learn all of it in years. But even just taking a glimpse was already deeply moving.
As lunchtime approached, we ordered an Uber and headed to Borough Market, a market entirely dedicated to food. There were countless culinary stalls, seafood there seemed fresh, and the exotic fruits, which are hard to find, were on display. We tried some treats, like the famous chocolate-topped strawberries, various kinds of bread... but the paella stall seemed to be the main attraction. I’m not exaggerating when I say the line stretched across half the market for a plate of paella, and that the smell was impossible to miss.
After lunch, our last visit was waiting: a guided tour on a boat along the Thames river. It departed from the London Eye at four, but we had to be there about an hour early, so we started walking. I’m not going to lie, it was a long walk, nearly an hour long, but we had enough time.
We sat at the front of the upper deck, where it was open-roofed. The tour guide was genuinely entertaining and explained plenty of curiosities of the city we didn’t know. It lasted just under an hour, but it felt more like twenty minutes because the whole time the guide didn’t stop explaining interesting information.
