The Gaps Hit London

Travelling to London while hung-over and extremely tired is not advisable. Fortunately, I learnt this lesson from what I have seen, not from personal experience. We made it to London, a bit later than usual but in one piece, regardless of Emily greeting us that morning with “No, go away. I’m not going to London, just go without me.”

Oxford St was a bustling city centre full of energy and purpose. It is home to the biggest Topshop I have ever seen (I tried on 12 items, fortunately I was locked out of my credit card at the time), a huge number of shops, black taxis and red buses, as well as many pastry shops. We then explored Notting Hill and Kensington Park. While it was dark, it was still very pretty and lots of fun. We befriended a couple of roller-bladers who needed help untangling their safety vest. This resulted in a rather weird conversation around roller-blading and us both being offered to join them for an 8 mile stroll the next day, skates provided and all.  Jem and I managed to find a cute wee English pub before heading back to Shepherd’s Bush to celebrate Australia Day. 

Australia Day celebrations were in full flight at Belushi’s bar (below our hostel) and we were eager to join but soon realised our lack of colour. A quick trip to Poundland saw the purchase of some green and gold nail polish, insulation tape and a fluoro yellow hat. We were set for the night. Out at Harrow, where Tim Rowe is based, we had a look around the school and their accommodation, nothing on the Gap Shack of course. We went down to the local pub, before a very interesting journey back to Shepherd’s Bush due to the Tube being closed after midnight. We got there in the end though and to have Billy and Nathan waiting for us was awesome.

Jack the Ripper's Local Pub

Sunday plans changed about, but resulted in us taking a walking tour around Eastern London with an Irish man named Thomas. It was really good, as he was so passionate about the area and its culture. We met him at a statue dedicated to the children involved in the Kindertransport before WWII. It was a really nice statue of kids with their suitcases and teddies. There was a German lady looking at the statue and it turned out she was one of the children who came here during the Kindertransport. She had never known her brother or sister and she had never been back. Strangely enough she did still have a German accent though. It really put it into perspective for us! We ventured through Eastern London - along Keira Knightley’s street, to a mass burial ground, Spitalfield's Market etc. While it used to be the poor end of town occupied predominantly by Jews, it is now known for its culture and food and occupied predominately by Bangladeshi and hipsters. There are so many curry shops and the queue for the Beigel shop was half way down the street. The Brick Lane Mosque is the only building in the UK to have been a church, a synagogue and a mosque, following the change in communities. We also stopped outside Jack the Ripper’s local pub as it was believed he picked up two of his victims there. It was the first time I had actually been told the story about Jack the Ripper – it took me by great surprise. While he was never caught, there a plenty of theories to who it was, most likely a Jewish man whose name escapes me – he was identified as the murderer unofficially, but once the accuser knew he was Jewish, he would not repeat the accusation in court for not wanting to bad name the whole Jewish community of London.  There was a lot of street art and it was market day on Brick Lane, so there were heaps of people about. It was really cool to experience a new part of the city. We then found ourselves in Central London, walking in font of Big Ben and parliament, across the Westminster Bridge to Southbank. Southbank hasn’t changed since I was there four years ago. The street acts are still just as hyped up and there are a lot of weird people about, but I am sure it is something that cannot be experiences quite the same anywhere else. 

Next time I am in London I hope to see some more of the Markets. Jem and I really want to find the house with the blue door in Notting Hill too. I can definitely see myself living there one day!