Kiwi clichè- London

So shock horror: Kiwi in London. Because that’s never happened before right?

In all honesty I do not see the attraction. Like yes it was an awesome place to visit. But would I live there- No. Not a chance.

I guess going in Winter time was my first mistake. It was rather gloomy and grey. 90% of the time it was also raining. Don’t get me wrong, I very much enjoyed visiting London, but there is zero chance of me moving there. Not my cup of tea (see what I did there..).

Day 1: I arrived at a ridiculous hour of the day. 5am to be precise, and somehow managed to figure out the tube to my hostel without getting lost. The sky was crystal clear blue and the sun was full beam and I had hope that this is what London was like. After finally getting some winter appropriate clothing after being in Thailand, I wandered up to the Southern side of Hyde Park. It is HUGE! I didn’t even make a dent in the size of it. So there’s a funny story with my first day in London. A squirrel climbed my leg. Also someone managed to take a photo of it. So there I was wandering around like a lost soul and I saw this girl crouching down next to a squirrel while it ran rounds around her. As I got closer I said to her “OMG he is so close to you”, and while saying that he climbed up me like I was a tree. A small tree albeit. Somehow she managed to get a photo of my surprise and she sent it to me. Thank you stranger girl who I met in Hyde park & who I’ll never speak to again!

The next few days I spend in South Kensington going through the museums and coffee stores. The most annoying thing is the fact that in the Natural History museum the blue whale and dinosaur exhibitions were closed. The one bloody time I’m there its closed. Typical. I was absolutely livid, considering I am a massive nerd when it comes to that sort of thing, or more so science in general. I could have spent days wandering that museum. I did have a giggle when a young girl saw some New Zealand birds and asked what they were. Me being a proud Kiwi and all explained to her that they were Kiwi’s and the size of its egg is almost the size of the bird. She was so amazed and kept asking questions and as her and her friend wandered off I heard her whisper “Mum told us never to talk to strangers”. I had a giggle.

I even got to experience a night out in London. I met up with a friends from high-school who now lives there and we went out to this new bar opening in Soho. A) I had NO clothes appropriate to go out in and B) what the hell do you even wear out in London Winter. We got escorted down these dodgy looking stairs once we arrived and down stairs was this swanky bar with lots of little booths and super house-like music. Our little booth had our own little lit up sign with our names and we had a stunning model/waitress serving us Prosecco and platters of food all night.

I only had a few days in London before I had to head out on my Coniki – which I’ll write about in another post. However, after my contiki I spent a good 5 or so days with Alisha and Reid and even crashed their Valentines trip to Edinburgh.

So on arriving back I made my way out to Hoxton to where Alisha was living and spent a few days out there. I went down to Southbank, The Tower of London, Tower Bridge (& sang London bridge is falling down-oops), Trafalgar square, Big Ben, Buckingham palace, Oxford circus and all the cliché tourist spots. The tube is so handy! Less than ideal at peak times as I felt like I was a sardine in a can and next to sweaty old men, but hey it was an experience. We went down to Shoreditch- which is like a super hipster area in east London-, and ran into Sean from home! In the middle of London, not near where he lives we run into someone we know. We went to these small markets that had THE BEST WAFFLES EVER! Filled with Nutella, ice cream, chocolate and overall goodness.

Valentines day. Alone. As I was staying with Alisha and Reid they asked if I wanted to jump in on their trip to Edinburgh. So why not. First of all we were late to catch the train out to the airport because Alisha wanted new make up on the way, then once at the airport Alisha had to unpack her bag at security due to too much liquid in carry-on. Then her & I wanted food and water for the flight and Reid went off to the terminal. We read the signs wrong and ended up yonks away from where we needed to be so had to be escorted to the correct terminal. And to top it off those two weren’t exactly speaking for the rest of the night. Absolute nightmare. First night we met a group of people and ended up having drinks and dinner with them which was super fun! The next morning we went on a walk-a-bout tour around the old city and our tour guide was no doubt the most Scottish man you would ever meet! Long red frizzy hair, long beard, wearing a daggy plaid shirt and baggy jeans with the most non-understandable accent. It was bloody cold there, and the snow was like massive slabs of slightly wet ice which melting on contact. So I was drenched, hungover and freezing my nips off, so probably wasn’t soaking in any information about the city that he told me. Late that afternoon after defrosting we went up to Edinburgh castle and wow! The old fortress is amazing! So many little buildings over looking the entire city! We saw the crown jewels (HAHA), the dungeons and also a war memorial for all the soldiers which passed during combat in both WWI and WWII. I found a few Bamford’s and wondered if I was in any way related.I spent my last day wandering around more of the city by myself and Alisha and Reid caught a train north to see some friends. I went out to some old Roman ruins (which I thought was weird that it was in Scotland of all places), and then up Arthurs Seat. I have never been so cold in my life. It was like I had a constant icicle being slapped into my face and then on top of that nearly wet myself as I’d had about 4 coffees before climbing it.

Overall I enjoyed the UK of which I was able to see and it was rather cool to be able to see where my ancestors would have lived, but it doesn’t make me want to move there. Its rather grey, gloomy and cold. I do however want the chance to explore Ireland and Wales as I have some friends there who can show me all the best parts!

This Bamford unfortunately didn’t make it to the small settlement of Bamford. How useless can I get. I had one job- I said to Dad that I would.