The Chronicles of Adriana: London's Redemption

The Parliament and the Big Ben

When I went to London back in 2006 (my first and only one time in that city until now) I said it was going to be many years before I’d return back there. I know it is awful to say this but back then London did not really do it for me. I can’t really explain why: maybe my expectations were set very high (so many people had told me so many wonderful things about London I don’t know what I was expecting anymore) or I was tired from some very hectic days in York and Edinburgh at the beginning of that vacation (you know, when you try to do 4 European cities in 5 days) or maybe I was just so traumatized by how expensive everything was that I could not get past the currency exchange. I could not see beyond the bagel and tea for 5-6 British pounds which back then represented 7.50 to 9 dollars. But I definitely spoke to soon. An opportunity presented itself for me to go back to London, something I was not really contemplating on this trip, and give this city a second chance. My uncle and his wife are moving from Madrid to London and she is already living there so after she offered me a place to stay I decided to go visit her and spend some time in London. This time around my companion was with my “Europe on a shoestring” book which gives a lot of good information on places to visit and things to do in many European cities when you are on a budget. So I started looking for the most economical way to get from Paris to London and lucked out with what I found. Since the inauguration of the Channel Tunnel (the undersea tunnel which allows trains to cross from France to England under the English Channel) I had always dreamt of being able to experience being on that train. Thank God I found a great deal on the Eurostar (77 Euros for a roundtrip ticket) and was able to finally be on it. The train left Paris at around 1o’clock in the afternoon and took 2 hours and 20 minutes to reach London after stopping in 2 cities in France (Lile and Calais) and one in England. The terminal for the Eurostar in Paris is very similar to an airport terminal. You have to go thru security and have your bags scanned, then get your passport stamped by a French immigration officer and then be questioned and stamped by a British immigration officer. After that you walk into a small version of an airport’s waiting area with chairs on one side and small shops and pastry shops on the other. About 20 minutes before the schedule departure they start boarding the train and you hand your ticket to an agent at the door right before the escalators/stairs leading to the train. The train itself does not look as high-tech or from an episode of the Jetsons as you would expect…or at least as I had expected. However, it is very comfortable inside and I loved the fact that everyone boarded and got seated in a very civilized way. I knew that the train would stop in Calais, a city right on the French coast, and afterwards it would cross the channel into England. So once the train left Calais I was on the lookout for that moment the train would start to enter the channel. I was hoping for some sort of signal that would warn me. But to my disappointment there is really nothing that anticipates the entrance into the tunnel: no announcement from the captain (Captaint!! Ja ja ja..as if this was a plane or a ship; but I don’t really know what to call him/her), no music, no fireworks. So here is how I experienced it: I kept seeing more of a suburban area (green fields) as the train left Calais but saw no water. All of a sudden the train enters a tunnel (just like you experience in many train journeys here in Europe) and I also felt the train speeding up. Since I was on the lookout for the moment we would enter the tunnel I reached for my cellphone and looked at the time. The train continued its journey and nothing could be seen on either side, everything was pitch dark. After I while my ears began to get clogged. A couple of minutes into the darkness I assumed we were crossing the channel and I just continued with my reading instead of thinking that I was inside this tunnel underneath the pressure of who knows how much water and what if something went wrong or if the train had to stop for a reason and stay inside the tunnel for who knows how long, etc (I tend to be claustrophobic) When I finally saw the light (no I wasn’t having a near death experience) and saw land I looked at my cellphone again. 20 minutes had elapsed and my service provider had changed from France SFR to UK Telecom. How cool is that?!?!? I had crossed the channel and was now in the UK. About 20-30 minutes later the train arrived at the new St. Pancras station in London where my aunt was waiting for me.

St. Pancras Station in London

St. Pancras Station - Eurostar train

The weather in London was colder than in Paris, actually it was much colder and very windy. It turns out there was an artic front entering the UK right the same week I was there and the temperature dropped significantly to the low 30’s and high 20’s. But having London the reputation of a city where it always rains I lucked out because it only rained one morning from the 7 days I spent there.

Tragalgar Square and the Big Ben in the back

Picadilly - Buckingham Palace

In London I had a fantastic week. I spent time with Esperanza and the family she shares a “flat” with. They were extremely nice and welcoming, so it felt very good to be once again surrounded by the warmness of a whole family, sitting down with them to chat, watch a movie, laugh, eat and enjoy a couple of wine glasses. Since they are all from Colombia they cooked some Colombian dishes which I loved and savored: sancocho, empanadas, arepa made from cooked corn, and yuca frita. While in London I visited a lot of museums since all of them were free: the British Museum, the National Gallery, the National Portrait Gallery (this one I really loved. It has portraits from British royals and celebrities from the 16th century until today), the Victoria and Albert Museum and the Science Museum. I also took my time to revisit the places I visited the first time around (this time I was not willing to pay the high prices to go in so I just enjoyed them from the outside) like the Tower of London (15 British pounds = 30 USD), the Wesminster Abbey (10 pounds = 20 USD) and St. Paul Cathedral. I also took my time strolling down Hyde Park, Picadilly, Trafalgar Square, the Parliament and the Big Ben, Buckingham Palace, the Tower Bridge, the London Bridge (is falling down, falling down, falling down…lalalala). A friend who I met in my German class in Munich was also in London that week as her family is from there so I met up with her to walk a little bit around Covent Garden and have a coffee. I also had time to visit a friend of the family who invited me to a home cooked lunch and where I also had a wonderful time talking. I took one day to visit the city of Oxford (I’m putting a separate story and separate pictures for Oxford) and another one to visit two small suburban towns: Richmond and Wimbledon. All and all I had a wonderful time and really enjoyed the city. I had the chance and the time to fall in love with it. I left wanting more of it, wanting to go back and realizing that sometimes it is worth to give a second chance!!!