London

Day 1

The highlight of my first day was probably that my bus from stansted airport had free wifi on board, I think mum would have raved about it! However I was pretty exhausted from the whole day so as I got to London I did not do too much, simply cooking my dinner and washing my clothes. I did discover I actually love cooking food though. 

On another note you can see Europe's most unfortunately named skyscraper (the shard) from the window of my hostel room. 

Day 2

I was still feeling very tired so day 2 was not a huge day, it was also transfer deadline day and for any football fans they know that's a pretty important day of sitting in front of the tv making observations about players you have never seen play and hoping they will join your club because they are good on FIFA. 

I did however go to the Australian embassy and stand in the line for about 45 minutes to hand in my vote in the election. I voted for the greens, I must say I was very surprised by the swing against them considering the amount of frustration I can see towards both pragmatic major parties.

After voting I thought the only right thing to do would be to go and drink some of Australia's best as there happened to be an Aussie pub around the corner. That vb was one of the most glorious beers I have ever tasted, well worth the ridiculous price of 4.50 pounds.

Day 3

As I was cooking my dinner on day 2 I met a couple of German girls called pia and Jana who I had a chat with and it turned out they were staying in my room. So on day three I hung out with them and I spoke in German pretty much the entire day which was cool. 

We had a picnic in regent park which was awesome, it was by far the best I have eaten on this trip. One of the first times I felt good after eating. Regent park is pretty beautiful too, they have a lot of flower displays that were impressive. The grass though was just not up to the standard of good ol' rosiland park in bendigo! 

After that we went to Hyde park and hung out around there, I saw a squirrel for the first time so that was pretty exciting. I ended up feeding one chips from my hand, sadly I only have a picture of pia feeding one. It was still pretty awesome and ridiculous though! 

On our way to Hyde Park we saw a man feeding pigeons which probably doesn't sound like much however this man was feeding roughly 50-60 pigeons and they just seemed to be under his spell. I found it very amusing.

I also saw Stephen fry and Boris Johnson later on in the day. My favourite part of the day however was finding a few brilliant postcards in a typical tourist store, they are pictured below. This is no joke these are genuinely on sale, I'm not sure which I prefer, the photo of Kate and Will is very awful though so it may take the cake. 

Day 4 

I went to the Camden markets with a few friends I met at the hostel, Camden markets is like hipster heaven. You can find anything and everything there from 10 stores selling rip off beats by doctor dre to arts and craft stores to a store that resembles a rave club and sells much more than just rave things.. I really wanted to spend all of my money at the market however all I picked up was a present for Nella and some badges to make by bag a bit more punk.

After the market we headed to a nearby pub to have the traditional British fish n chips with mushy peas, I must say it was very very good. I drank a pint of fosters as I did, honestly I think fosters is nowhere near as bad as people say! 

After eating we went and did a few of the more typical tourist things such as big Ben and the London eye. Both were very enjoyable, in front of big Ben someone came up to us and asked if we had the time.. People can be pretty stupid sometimes. The London eye for me was a good experience although a bit nerve wracking, I'm sure many of you know I'm not great with heights regardless of that it was awesome. The views of the city are wonderful! 

After a pretty half assed attempt at going to a gig in Camden we eventually returned to our hostel at 1 am, I was more than glad to sleep after such a huge day. 

Day 5 

On day 5 I went to the Tate modern museum, I had heard a lot of people saying how great they found the museum so was pretty excited about it. I left the museum feeling a bit disappointed, I've never been a huge fan of modern art and I did quite like some sections of it however most things post 1950ish just made me cringe, such as this.

After the museum I returned to my hostel and went out with Ellese who is also 18 and from Australia, at first we went to the M n M world in Leicester square. Not being a huge chocolate fan it was not that exciting for me, however it was a pretty cool place. The many union jacks below are made entirely from M n Ms.

After the M n M's world we went to a few clubs in the area, most of them were empty which was a bit disappointing but I still had a good time. 

Something interesting I noticed in the area of the club after leaving was the presence of around 40-50 gypsies trying to sell flowers to people, this was not really the attempted sale of flowers more of a general harrassment of everyone within 50 meters of them. 

Day 6

This was the day I had been waiting for, finally seeing the England national team at Wembley stadium. Seeing the likes of Frank Lampard and Steven Gerrard playing right in front of me was a surreal experience. England ended up beating Moldova 4-0 which was to be expected so the crowd was in full voice and it was a really fun night.

Before the game I went to the British museum which was just incredible, I didn't get to stay for long enough even though I was there for 2 hours, with roughly 8,000,000 artifacts there I can imagine I could spend days there. I especially enjoyed the Egyptian section and the mummified animals, my favourited being the mummified cats and mummified sacred bulls. 

Another part I found interesting was the section on money and the development of it, specifically this part on the Zimbabwean dollar.

After the game I went with some friends from my hostel to a club in Vauxhall, it was very fun. One of the guys from the hostel wanted to see the dj that was playing and to his surprise when we got there we discovered it may have been a gay bar due to the presence of a drag queen on the door but hey, I had fun anyway haha. 

Day 7 

I was pretty out of it from the night before so the day mainly involved just getting myself together and eating a glorious burrito, Ellese and I met up a with a friend of hers and went to Leicester square again which was a nice way to end my time in London. 

Album for the city: Hungry Ghost - Violent Soho - this album came out on the Friday of my stay in London and all I can say is wow! It is like grunge like Smashing Pumpkins meets 90's punk-pop like Blink 182. For me this is the best album I've heard this year, definitely check it out if you like that sort of music and support the Australian scene. Key tracks: covered in chrome, in the aisle, saramona said and ok cathedral.