London Day 1

LONDON   7 July 2012 - 9 July 2012

" London bridge is falling down, falling down, falling down...
London bridge is falling down, my fair lady... "

I think everyone know how to sing this, including me :)
Going to London to check out the London bridge !!! Of course... not only the bridge...

DAY 1   7 July 2012

We bought the Megabus ticket to London and back to Sheffield for only £16 because we purchased the tickets earlier. Remember to plan your trip to get early bird discounts ! 
A lot of people asked me, " Why don't you take train to London? "
Ummm.. it is much more expensive compared to traveling by bus although taking train is a faster way to reach London..

We went to Meadowhall to board the bus and it took around 4 hours to reach London !
Pheww~~~ a neck rest is a must if you want to have a good sleep in bus ! 
We reached London around 2pm and everyone of us straight away walked to our hostel which is located 2.2 miles away from the Victoria station (the central London wailway terminus and London Underground complex) !!! 

We walked for approximately 1 hour to reach the hostel ! hehe 
We stayed at Barkston Rooms, located at Barkston which is near London Underground station (Earl's Court Station). That is the advantage of it but I personally feel that the disadvantage is : whole floor consist of 1 bathroom & 2 toilets only.
This is so inconvenience ! 
Accommodation fees for 3 days 2 nights is £36.12.

It is a youth hostel and all of us stayed at common dorm. 8 persons per room, which means you might need to stay with someone you don't know.
Luckily, we were in a big group of 15 persons...
But unlucky one, they didn't have an empty room anymore...
One person gonna stay alone with the strangers !
However, Huang was the MAN ! He volunteered to be the only one man !
So 6 persons per room, another one was 8 persons per room, Huang stayed in another room !

We walked into our room, knowing that we were going to have two roommates !
But they were not in the room ! Couldn't meet them before we go out to tour London ! :)

Ready to go London 

Waiting for the bus ! 

Our Megabus !
It is actually not "mega" at all, 4 seats per row !
Quite squeezy ......

The starting of 2.2 miles ......

Station which near our hostel

We decided to take the underground train to the places we want to go by buying the day pass (zone 1 - 4) for £7.70. 

First, we stopped at Hyde Park ! It is one of the London's finest landscapes. It is really HUGE as it covers 350 acres ! We just took some pictures then off we move to another place already.

We planned to visit here again on the next day as we couldn't manage to discover the park when everyone of us were so H-U-N-G-R-Y ! lol
We just had a breakfast before we board the bus ! Luckily we did bring some tuna bread, if not we would be more hungry ! 

Hyde Park station

Waiting for the train 

One of the entrances to Hyde Park 

Spotted the word "Hyde Park" ? hehe

After that, we board the train to Leicester Square. It is a pedestrianized square in the West End of London ! 
It was so crowded over there !! I should say that it was so crowded everywhere is London ! It is because it was weekends ???
We were so excited as we saw a lot of outlets selling London's souvenirs, etc ! 
To be more precise, the girls were so excited ! haha
The guys were too hungry to be excited already. The first thing first was to search for our dinner...
Hence, the girls went shopping; the guys went to hunt for food ! :P
Me and the girls saw a huge M&M outlet there and we couldn't resist the temptation... we left the guys and went into the outlet ! hehe
Until a call from K, he asked us to gather outside a restaurant and reminded us that it was time for dinner !! 

We decided to treat ourselves some good food !!!!!!
Some of my friends went to have Chinese food buffet (something like economy rice, but it is in a buffet style); me and K and my friends had our dinner at Golden Pagoda ! 
The foods were NICE ! Everyone was so so hungry till each person finished up 3 bowls of rice !! Haha
However, the restaurant required us to have a minimum spending of £10 per person. 
But ended up, we also spent £11 for our dinner.
So full and satisfied ! :) 

After the dinner, me, K, Yu En and Li Sin went to M&M again ! hehe
M&M is really the heaven for children and choc lovers ! 
Spent our sweet time there and got myself a pressed penny as a souvenir :) 

Yummy Yummy Food ~~~

Hungry look ! 

Got the fortune cookies as a dessert ! 

M & M :D

We planned to see the Olympic Stadium so we headed to Olympic Park ! 
That was also the reason why we purchased the Zone 1 - 4 day pass, as Olympic Park is in Zone 4 ! 
However, it was too late for us to reach there.
The shops in the shopping mall closed already :( No more shopping :(

Finally, we found the Olympic Stadium !!!!!!!!!
BUT...............

John Lewis is closed by that time !!!! :( 

We only could see the Olympic Stadium through the holes :(
Too bad !
Luckily K has DSLR and he managed to shoot this ......

Olympic Stadium !
Looking forward to the Olympic ! 

Then, we headed back to our hostel with our tired and disappointed faces ! LOL 

When we reached our hostel, we met our roommates :):):)
One girl from Hong Kong and another guy from Ireland who is working in APPLE ! OMG !
We had a good chat and even planned to have breakfast together on the next day morning. But the girl is going back to Hong Kong tomorrow morning already ! 

Everyone were so tired and fell asleep very quickly.
That was the Day 1 in London ! 
Tired, lost but quite a happy one :)