London! Part I

As most people know,  exchanges aren't only about seeing the city you will be studying in (although Maastricht is worth the trip on its own), but also about getting the chance to travel. With that in mind, I decided to spend a few days in London prior to heading to Maas-a decision made all the more justifiable by the need to fly to a major international airport and then take the train to Maastricht anyway. After discovering that the only options were red-eye flights, I decided to leave the same day I finished work, so that I wouldn't be wasting any time, since I would only have three days in London anyway. 

My flight began on, essentially, an oversized tin can that took me from Fredericton to Halifax. From there, we left at midnight and touched down in London at 9:35-a full 35 minutes early, and this, even after being put in a holding pattern (which offered great views of the city) because we were so early. After making my way through customs, and playing games with some elevators that just did not want to take us to our floor, I took the Tube and headed into the city to meet up with some good friends from my Hong Kong days. Taking the Tube with luggage wasn't fun, but it was no more unpleasant than doing so in Montréal. The journey into the city probably took around 40 minutes, and after arriving at Holborn station, I was met by Max, who graciously let me leave my bags in his car while we headed out.

Whilst waiting for our third friend, Andrew, to join us, Max took me on a quick walking tour of the area. I was really surprised how compact that part of London is, and how concentrated the mains sites are. We had to stop in the middle of many casual conversations so I could take pictures of things like Nelson's Monument, or Big Ben. After walking down to the Thames, we headed back to a pub where we met up with Andrew (and some cold beer). As a Canadian, I was pretty excited to dig into some pub fare for my first lunch in London, and so went right for the pie of the day-turkey and ham-since it was the most stereotypical English pub food I could think of. 

Lunch was followed by gelato, and then by checking into my hostel (which was actually a UCL dormitory), after which Max had to part ways with us, leaving me and Andrew to explore the city. And explore we did: the BBC Building, Piccadilly Circus, Westminster Abbey, Downing Street, Parliament and Big Ben, then over the Thames and back again. Once back across the bridge, we realized that we missed Buckingham Palace, and so we headed in that direction, before wandering the neighbourhood in search of a cold drink, and accidentally ending up at London's main Catholic Church, the Westminster Cathedral. Finally, we took our newly found cold drinks over to Green Park, just next to the Palace, and relaxed under the Park's giant trees, catching up on four years since we'd last seen each other (and enjoying a lovely London summer evening). 

Once the sun started to set (and once my brain started to realize I had just walked several kilometres in the heat on zero sleep), we decided it was best to head home. As we parted ways in the station, Andrew asked if I was sure I could find my way back to my room, to which I responded "of course". Which, it turns out, was a complete lie. I probably spent around an hour walking in circles (which, the next day, I would realize had taken me very close to the dorm about 5 times) before finding my way back. 

Having only had one meal that day, there was one last thing to do: head out to a grocery store. I tracked down a Sainsbury's nearby, and quickly got to playing one of my favourite travel games:  buy all the things you don't recognize. Now, it's true that I cheated a little bit, since I had actually seen many of these items (York Chocolate Bars, Whisps, Minstrels, etc.) at import candy stores, or at Pete's Froutique (a store in Halifax and Saint John), but I still wound up with about £9 of mostly candy.