We went to London.

A few months ago my dad very generously offered us some money to go on a little holiday somewhere, his reasoning being that we couldn’t possibly spend nearly a year in Europe without seeing at least one major city. We chose London because it was the only place we both really wanted to visit and the thought of an English speaking country was very appealing. London won over the closer and probably cheaper option of Venice because our friend Imogen is in England at the moment and we wanted to see her. So, off to London we went!

How did we get there?

It snowed in Bulgaria the week were supposed to leave so to be cautious we bussed to Sofia the day before and stayed the night in a rather charming hostel in the centre of the city. We went out for dinner at a place called The Ale House which was a brewery and each table had beer on tap which you helped yourself to. It transpired that Stu couldn’t pull a beer and I could (to be fair, I did once work in a pub).

The next day we caught a 1 lev bus to the airport (gotta love finding cheap airport transport in Europe!) and spent a few hours in arguably the most BORING airport in the world. Yes, worse than Launceston.

We flew with a budget airline called easyJet and they did the job – sort of like Jetstar. Arriving and clearing customs was easy peasy  and we were soon on the 50p shuttle to London-town, playing ‘Zitch [insert spotted London/British cliche]!’ For example: ‘Zitch red double decker bus!’ ‘Zitch Marks and Spencer!’ etc. Kept us entertained us for at least two days!

Where did we stay?

We stayed on the 6th floor (no lifts and yes, it was painful) of a dirt cheap hostel called Astor Quest (huh, I did NOT see a pool table). I say ‘dirt’ cheap because dirt was certainly present. It was the kind of place that makes you pay a deposit for just about everything and talks you into bringing your sheets and towels down when you check out so they don’t have to leave the comfort of the first floor. The showers worked sporadically and the toilets were filthy (and the toilet brushes had DUST on them!) They did supply you with breakfast and it was cheap so we can’t complain too much. It wasn’t too bad considering how little time we spent there.

What did we eat?

We were probably more excited about the diversity of food that would be available to us in London than anything else. Bulgarian food is nice, but we’re spoilt little Australians and wanted some of that diversity back! We enjoyed Thai, Indian, something that can only be best described as Tapas, focaccias, French flans, Cornish pasties… and of course English pub food. It was gastronomically very exciting.

Oh, and coffee! Stu did some research and we visited some cafes that served us some very awesome coffee. Stu’s favourite was Milk Bar in the Soho district but I still remember fondly the rich and creamy taste of the coffee made for us by the funny vague humming girl in Wild & Wood.

Actually, Stu made a Coffee Map of London which you can keep for reference.

What did we do?

Ooh, lots of things!  Most importantly we were joined by Imogen for most of the weekend. With the combined forces of Stu and I not being too big on the touristy scene and Imogen having recently seen most of the major sights, we ended up doing things that appear a little further down on the ‘What you should do in London’ list. Like visiting the Portobello Road market in Notting Hill and Imogen’s idea of a tour around London: walk in a random direction, pick a landmark (eg. the Gherkin), then find the least straight path to it. Was tiring and fun. We also saw Avatar in 3D (and I still haven’t lived down falling asleep in it) and had dinner with all the London Wegmans we could cram together in one apartment (ie Imogen and her brother Alex and his wife Emma and their baby Sophie).

Oh but of course, we did go and gaze at Big Ben (and the surrounding parliamenty things), Downing Street, Hyde Park, the British Museum, Oxford Street, Regent Street, Picadilly Circus, Harrods, Tower Bridge. We had a go at looking at Buckingham Palace but caught up in crowds waiting for the changing of the guard ceremony and since we were supposed to be actually meeting Imo in Notting Hill we left without seeing either.

Best fun: The London Eye. It was actually good value really and a nice way to see all of London at once and remain sitting. We entertained a nearby elderly couple by taking dozens of photos of Imogen and I jumping in the air – to make it look like we were ‘jumping over London.’ We discovered that anything that claims to be a ’4D Experience’ is actually 3D with bubbles blown at you.

What did we think?

We loved London! Even though it was only a very small taste, we’re so glad we got the opportunity to go see it and a massive THANKS to dad for making it possible.

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So now we’re back home in Haskovo and having a go at making a start at packing (yep, procrastination at it’s finest). So far we’ve made a number of piles around our living room that are looking promising. We’re trying to reduce our lives again to two 20kg packs and an up to 20kg box to post – not that we want it to be that heavy!

Only 2 weeks left in the country!

See you all very soon!

We went to London!

And…

We’ll…

Blog…

About…

It…

Soon.

Byee,

Love Stu and Elly.

It was one of those ‘if only I’d gotten the camera out moments earlier’ moments.

You might remember this post where we described how half of Haskovo’s charming power plant disappeared on us? Well, the other day I happened to be out on the balcony (not a common occurrence in winter!) when I heard this great boom like a thunder clap. I looked around to see the power plant’s 30m-high concrete smoke stack toppling over!

The image will stick in my memory forever! And the sound of its collapse was amazing (once it reached us)!

Here is a video I took of the aftermath. I apologise that it’s essentially pointless – in that I missed all the action and all you can see is the cloud of dust rising up from where it fell – but perhaps I captured some of the coolness of it.

Enjoy?

Cheers,

Stu.