By Milo 
London is one of those cities throughout the world that I have always felt drawn towards, yet for one reason or another have never visited. The city is massive in its size and history, with buildings that are hundreds of years old standing next to ones only recently constructed. The city has survived plagues, numerous wars, and a plethora of other events to make it one of the most historic cities in the world. When moving to Dublin, I knew that of the European places I would visit, London was on the top of the list.
Arriving on a Friday afternoon, I followed the signs in the airport to the subway which would move me through the historic tube system to my hotel. I checked into my room and texted a friend of mine to let her know I had arrived and figured out where we would be meeting later that evening for a few drinks. Then it was into bed for a quick nap, or so I had hoped. I had been suffering from a nasty cough for about a week, and with my new street-noise-filled apartment in Dublin, I couldn’t say when the last time I had a full night’s sleep was. And a nice quiet hotel room seemed like a good way to get a few hours of sleep. It’s possibly my eyes might have reached some sleep for a minute or two, but it didn’t feel like it when she texted to let me know she was on her way.
I crawled out of bed coughing with a headache now. Hopefully, a shower would help, I thought, and took a nice long shower in the hopes it would improve my physical well-being. It helped a little. From there it was to a pub for some good beer and not-so-good pub grub. One of the nice things about travel is the people you meet while doing it, and Samantha is one of these people who met through those travels. We were both volunteering last year at the Antelope Park in Africa and with the modern world of Facebook have stayed in touch ever since. Initially, I had threatened to crash on her sofa for the weekend, and she offered, but when she mentioned she lived in a house with three other girls, I decided it would be better to stay in the city. The idea of sleeping in a house full of women always sounds like a good idea, but experience has shown that it’s never as fun as a young guy would hope it to be.
At the pub, we ordered our beers and caught up while eating poor-quality food. I wasn’t expecting a world-class steak, but I also wasn’t expecting beef jerky on a plate. Samantha wasn’t able to finish her chicken something or other, and she lives in the city. I finished mine even though disappointed in the quality. From that pub, we went to another bar to order some drinks with alcohol in them instead of beer. But apparently, they have the same skimpy quantity pour of liquor in London as they do in Dublin. S’s stomach was bothering her, and my cough wasn’t sounding any better, even though I keep trying to convince myself it was getting better. So, I walked her back to the tube and from there back to my hotel where I attempted to sleep while sucking on cough drops all night long.
The last time I went on vacation and got a nasty cough, it was in South America. On that trip, it turned into a nasty head cold and other flu symptoms before heading home to Seattle, where after getting to the point of not being able to eat, experiencing sweats and chills at the same time, I eventually went to the doctor and was informed that I had Scarlet Fever. That trip was at the top of my mind as I attempted to sleep my first night in London, but this time around I was able to console myself with the joy that the company I kept was more pleasant. And come on what are the chances of getting Scarlet Fever twice in a lifetime? Something I didn’t even know people still picked up until my pleasurable experience with it.
If I could sleep long enough to dream, I would dream of getting a good night’s sleep.
London Day 2: Bus Tour and Pictures
I crawled out of bed on day 2 of my excursion to London believing that my cough was getting better and went to book my ticket for a bus tour. I bought a ticket for the Hop-on Hop-off bus. Although the buses never seem to run on the schedule, they say they do, and one drove past me once while waiting to get on, I have found they are an excellent way to see a city for a day. I later found out this is normal in London. you have to hold your arm or hand out flagging them down to let them know to stop.
The hop-on tours are usually open air on the top, and they stop at most of the worthwhile sites to see in a city. Tickets are generally good for 24 or 48 hours depending on which purchased.
It was on the tour that I experienced London’s typical weather of sun, rain, wind, sun, rain wind, etc. Probably not the best thing to do for a nasty cough and developing head cold.
Here are a couple of random pics from the top of the bus that I took as it slowly moved around the congested streets of the city.
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St. Pauls Cathedral
One of the stops was at St. Paul’s Cathedral. I wish I could have spent more time here but by the time I arrived, it was about 15 minutes before closing. I paid the 20 pounds and went climbing the stairs to the top, or as close to the top as I could get. The final set of stairs had a pretty full line, so I decided to spend the time snapping some pictures of the city from the level I was at and headed quickly to the basement and the graves.
British Museum
I pretty much spent one whole day at the British Museum. The museum is free to enter, and usually has a special exhibit for an extra fee. I paid the extra fee to see an exhibit on Pompey and Herculaneum before beginning my walk around the museum. This is really a fantastic museum, and I would highly recommend it to anyone in London. Just be warned, it gets crowded.
I will leave the debate about whether or not they should return items to the place of origin for another day.
