While living in Bristol in 2015, I used to visit London almost every other weekend and each visit was different, unique, and enjoyable. However, I am still in awe of the one weekend which I spent with Vardan. It was a short 3-day layover trip for him, as he was headed to Mexico for his training the following week. He was landing at Heathrow, early morning on 2nd Oct, Friday.
The morning he was set to arrive I had planned to receive him at the airport. But as luck would have it, I missed my bus from Bristol to the Heathrow airport and history has proved that when it comes to Vardan, I am always late. Barely making it into the next one, I was already an hour behind my schedule. I was saved due to the late arrival of the flight and the long queues at immigration. Finally, after some communication issues later we met!!!! It was a dream come true to see him in London. Each time I had visited London, I would think and wish to do those things with him and this time I would.
My roommate had suggested to pre-book a cab from Heathrow to London as it would be economical but when I had checked online about pre-booked cabs I had found them to be not very cheap at 60 pounds and due to uncertainty of flight arrival I had not made the booking, thinking it would cost as much in taking one from the airport. Well I learnt a lesson after paying 100 pounds for a drop till Leicester square and the driver expected a tip. I would advise anyone arriving at Heathrow to take the tube or the bus, unless somebody else is paying for it.
We checked into our hotel, where he slept all jet lagged and I sat planning the weekend ahead. I couldn’t think straight for some reason, and I realized I was hungry and so I came out to grab a sandwich leaving my planning behind. God makes the best plans you see! So, I get back to see a still pretty jet lagged Vardan, but I can’t have him sitting indoors when it is bright and sunny outside.
Like I said London surprises me each time and there is always something new that I uncover. This time it was the wonderful market ahead of the London eye. I had only ever seen the London eye from the other side of the river, so as we walked from Leicester square towards Trafalgar square (I could totally visualize these on the monopoly map), past 10 downing street, we finally see the Big Ben and the glorious London eye. A friend, had suggested a few eateries just ahead of the London eye. Now hungry as we were, I still more hungry after the sandwich, trudged along the river leaving London eye behind us. It was quite a walk from Leicester square to London eye and ahead.
Finally, we settled down for a good Mexican lunch with our shades on while enjoying the sun. We were catching up on our lives and I told Vardan of my visit to the Shakespeare globe theatre which wasn’t far off from where we were. While catching a play was on our radar, we just couldn't decide when we could go for it, as the evening was planned for dinner with a friend, the next day was a Chelsea game and the day after had to be an early night because of the early morning flight next morning and all the plays were inevitably in the evening.
We boarded the London bus using the extra oyster card I had (travel card for metro/bus) for Vardan. The buses look really nice from the outside but are okay on the inside. The best view in the bus though, is from the front seat on the top deck. So as we sat there still contemplating on when to catch a play, when we received a cancellation from our friend and had ourselves the evening. We quickly surfed the plays showing that evening and zeroed in on the Mousetrap. I booked it online on my phone and we were set for the evening. We got off the bus at Oxford Street and thought we'd do ourselves some shopping as we had ample time, because Leicester being the hub of stage plays meant our destination wasn't five minutes from our hotel. Shopping is a pain especially when you don’t like anything after visiting at least 10 stores. That’s what happened to us. We ultimately gave up, came back and rested our backs a bit and got ready to witness the Mousetrap.
I have seen only one other play; therefore, I cannot say if each play in London has the same - top-quality production, brilliant stage lighting and beautiful stage set-up, but for me this play had excellently mastered each of the above. Oh, I could write a whole story on my experience of that play. But let me just say that I was so engrossed in the world of Ralston's that I forgot about the world outside and where I was. We later found out that this is the longest running play in the history of stage drama and we had witnessed the 26208th performance of it.
So, after coming out we were all pumped and excited about having witnessed something so amazing by chance that we decided we should make this night more epic and go clubbing. London has a very good clubbing scene, as well as many speakeasy bars. In our search for a nice club we came across a bunch of people sloganeering 'Dstrkt Dstrkt racist club", whoa and there were people in huge numbers and there were police. That kind of ran down our enthusiasm for clubbing and we ended up at a quiet diner near our hotel, still ending it on a good note. I really needed some good sleep.
We woke up fresh and early and I already had in mind what we could do to use our morning, head to the Borough’s market! A lot of people had suggested this place to me, but I never quite made it, so I was glad that I was finally going there with Vardan. After the bus ride it was time to give Vardan a taste of the infamous London tube. Why infamous you ask? Well it has a smell, but like any other underground, you would expect to get these and the second reason for it being infamous is because it is always jam packed, sometimes you have to wait it out, but it is also famous for being the first underground metro in the world. Here is nice video if you are interested to see the history of the underground metro.
Fifteen mins later we were hopping off at the nearest station to Borough’s market. It is one of the oldest markets for wholesale and local produce, it is closed on Sundays and to truly relish it you must come here on a Saturday. There were food stalls serving a variety of food. I being a big foodie was over the moon seeing so much deliciousness in one place, it was beyond me. If I had my way I would have wanted to try each and everything in that place. But I settled to dig my teeth into a hot dog while sipping a nice coffee and just enjoyed the whole vibe of the place.
We were in London, in the month of October, roaming around in thin tops and shirts like it was the middle of summer. We were definitely not dressed for the weather and so out of need we finally shopped ourselves some nice jackets and warm fuzzies. Thank god the shopping stars aligned, and we found ourselves what we needed in the first store we entered. We were staying at the Radisson Blu Hampshire, it was very characteristic of late 1800’s and one of the more spacious hotels I have stayed at in London.
Once we reached our room we got changed into our Chelsea jerseys and made our way to Stamford bridge. It was such a big moment for Vardan as he is such a diehard fan. We grabbed a quick bite at the restaurant in the arena and made our way to the seats which were a bit in the top corner of the stadium but Vardan was least worried, he was just so happy. I loved it. The game was with South Hampton, which is not a great team, but still had a good chance against our team which was not in great form that season. I had my new Sony camera, which I was majorly zooming into the field and capturing all our favorites- Terry, Mourihno, Oscar, Luiz!!
The game was exciting and the atmosphere electrifying to begin with, but as the game proceeded it got quieter as South Hampton clearly showed the upper hand and scored a goal. After halftime, Chelsea equalized the goal, with Willian taking an epic penalty, but within minutes South Hampton scored another. Once the game ended the whole stadium emptied in a civilized way, but just outside we saw some angry Chelsea fans telling a reporter how the Chelsea fan base was full of plastic supporters. I was so clueless on this term that when I asked Vardan on what it meant he found it very cute and innocent and as we made our exit, he explained to me that plastic fans are supporters who don’t cheer for the team even if they are losing, as was the case today. Vardan really goes down in energy after such games, so it was a miracle he cheered up by the time we reached back, and we went out again strolling through Trafalgar square and Piccadilly circus. While strolling around an alley way in Leicester square we caught Nicole Kidman rushing through the back door of a building, she was in town performing a play. We were so awed at having seen her in real life, it just made our night. We had a nice dinner at cozy greek restaurant.
The next day was our last day in London and there were many competing plans to execute running a wild in my head. We could spend the day in London and cover the remaining London sights like - Madame Tussaud, Buckingham Palace, Hyde Park, Westminster Abbey, Thames River Cruise, St. Paul's Cathedral, Tower Bridge and Tower Castle. All these things we could do in a day and I had done exactly these when I had come to London for the first time. The second plan was to go to Bath, Stonehenge and Windsor Castle, which was a day tour from London. I had not visited Bath in the 10 months I lived in Bristol. So, we decided to do the day tour, which started at 7 AM.
We got up early, got packed and were ready to leave when Vardan can't find his specs. We absolutely panicked, looking about the room we still couldn't find them, and we also start running late for the tour, thankfully we had kept sometime for breakfast which we would now be skipping. We think about cancelling our day trip as he wouldn't be able to enjoy without seeing properly and I am dejected to come this close to visiting Bath and having it slip away yet again, while I did have a backup plan for the day I was really excited for this day trip. I decide to do one last search before calling it quits and I end up finding his specs slyly hidden away in the nook between the mattress and the bed, on Vardan's bedside.
We rushed out of the hotel, quickly completing our checkout and we made a run with our luggage to another hotel, from where we were getting picked up by the tours. High-heeled boots, cobbled streets, luggage and panic for time are not a good recipe for getting anywhere on time. But we just about managed to make it into the bus. Once inside the bus and a beautiful dawn just breaking in front of us, we took a deep sigh of breath and let our day roll. We picked the seats on top of the bus which gave us a nice vantage point of the English Countryside.
We were headed to Windsor Castle our first stop - the home of queen Elizabeth. We reached here well before 9 AM and had to queue outside the gates. Vardan never one to get bored standing, started playing a game with me without my knowledge. Gently but cautiously he’d come close to me and blow some air through my hair and then quickly go back before I turned. When I turned around he’d be looking everywhere and saying – ‘did you also feel that wind?’ Such a kid, but made me laugh nonetheless. While the queue outside got moving, we found ourselves in another queue to buy the ticket and enter the castle. After a good hour of waiting our castle tour finally began, only for us to find out that we cannot take pictures inside. So not a whole lot of pictures of this place and therefore not a whole lot of memories, but it was a good tour and I had found it interesting. For instance, there is a tower on which if there is flag present then it meant the queen was in the castle and amongst us. I was so hopeful she’d be there, just to feel precious amongst royalty.
We grabbed a quick breakfast and headed from here at around 11 am to go to the city of Bath. Now like I had mentioned I lived in Bristol which was 15 mins away from this iconic city and yet I had not visited in all my time there. I guess somethings are meant to be. I was destined to visit this beautiful romantic town with Vardan.
We got dropped off at the Bath Abbey compound area from where most tourist attractions are at walking distance. The chapel square was blooming with flowers, which was quite surprising for October and there were so many happy faces around basking in the sun, nice music all around. I felt I got a skip in my step just by settling foot there. Due to time constraints (the main drawback of tours) and our primary aim being the Roman baths, we skipped the Abbey, getting a view of it from outside and headed straight to Roman baths. The place is picture perfect and the pool at the center of the structure makes you want to dive right into it, but once you see that there is very little else to see in there as most of it is ruins and then some rebuilding of the ruins.
Once out, we were hungry for a bite. Our tour guide had given us a lunch recommendation to try out the Cornish pasty at the Cornish bakery. We headed straight to the shop to try out the famous Cornish pasty. We got a vegetarian and a chicken pasty with coffee to go and walked out to a park with the view of the Avon river. The sun was shining and warm, the Cornish pasties were yum and the view perfect and calm, it was a perfect afternoon.
Soon after our bus came around and we headed to our last destination for the day - Stonehenge. This was another item on my checklist to visit while I was still in UK and I was glad to be going there today. I had very little idea on the importance of this monument, I just knew that it was world heritage site. Stonehenge is a bit of an enigma, no one knows how such big boulders of rock came to be in such a precise circle or what the purpose of this formation is, everyone just has theories. While mine came to me recently when watching a video on what would happen if the earth started spinning faster? Well, one of the things that would happen is that all objects would start flying, even heavy ones like the boulders at Stonehenge. So maybe there were some scientists in pre-historic era who discovered ways to beat earth's gravity and make heavy object levitate. It is definitely something to think about.
Well other than the enigma of the place, the boulders on their own were quite ordinary, something that could be left as ruins of a place for rituals.
I didn't want the bus to go back to London, I wanted this adventure to continue some more. Next day Vardan had his flight to Mexico and I had to head back to Bristol. Was it really three days that we had stayed in London? It felt like a lifetime! This trip will always hold a special place in my heart!
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