Woke up in London

In the wee hours of the morning, 7:30am, everything is closed; the hostel booking standing, the internet cafes, the public library, tourist information booths, etc. The only place we found open were morning coffee shops where we grabbed a bite to eat. I sit outside in the cold. It is windy on and off and the sun has been behind clouds since I got in. People are rushing to work and getting coffee's to-go. A small sized cup of coffee is 3£, roughly $6. I quickly notice that the walking pace here is a tad bit quicker than the Dublin.

After lounging in the cold, I explore the surrounding area, unable to find a hostel. As the hours pass we are finally able to use the internet in the train station. It seems that most places are booked, but we are able to find a hostel for 20£ a night, The Generator. Contrary to the advice given to us by our friend from London, we decided to go ahead and book the hostel anyways.

The Generator is a party hostel, at any time there are roughly 800 guests staying there, or so the bathroom signs tell us. Because of the number of people, everything is crowded. The decorations of the hostel consist of an old interior with bright reflective stainless steel floors and multicolored neon lights across the ceiling. On the actual residence floor it is a much different story. One look down the hall way and it almost seems like an old prison. There is a bar/club on the bottom floor, so it is loud. At night, security patrols around the front door telling people to not make so much noise. This seems pretty futile to me, considering the club has enough bass to be heard from any floor on the building in that same corner. Needless to say we switched hostels.

The next agenda on our list was food. London is famous for its diversity and it is also known for good Indian food. Luckily next to the Generator was a vast array of restaurants of various ethnicity. We stopped by the first reasonably priced location and ordered some curry.

I pictured London as being taller, however after arriving I see that it is more spread out than tall. I am told that there is a limit on how high buildings are around here. Gene and I visit the Foundling Museum which had a concert for a classical guitarist. The show was inspiringly good and gave me a craving to play my guitar, which I sold just before my departure on this trip. That night I began to research which guitar(s) I wanted to get for when I return. Thus far I think I want an American Stratocaster (cream) and also a Yamaha acoustic guitar. The next day we found a 1£/hour internet cafe, very reasonable considering our hostel wanted 5£/hour and booked our next lodge.


Palmer's Lodge runs about 16£ a night, but it has free internet and breakfast included. It is located just north of the Swiss Cottage tube stop which is in the northwest area of London. The location is not ideal; however I was tired of moving all my stuff around. I decided that internet, free breakfast, better rooms, and cleaner bathrooms were enough to warrant being further away from the city. With an Oyster card it was a much easier decision.

An Oyster Card is used for much of London's public transit systems. The card deploys a pay as you go system where you can top off the card using coins, cash or smart-chip equipped (non-US) credit cards. The card contains a contactless smartcard which is used to swipe when you enter a tube stop or get on a bus. For tube stops you swipe once more when you get off the tube where the cheapest fare is then calculated. The fare prices range depending on distance and whether the travel time was during peak hours, however it caps off every day. To give you an idea City of London to Swiss cottage is about 2£, while a typical fare within London is 1.40£.