It's about time I recounted my dynamic adventures in the eastern part of Africa. I can't believe it's been 4 months since I first stepped foot onto African soil in Nairobi International Airport in Kenya (also known as Jomo Kenyatta International Airport). But before we get into that, let me tell you about when my friends and I ran the town of London during a layovered traveler's night.
From Chicago O'Hare, we arrived to London Heathrow Airport ahead of schedule (granted it was only by a few minutes). Having slept like a dead person on the flight over (but still grumbling about having missed my meal; yes, I actually enjoy airplane food), we decided to take on the city of London in our flight schedule's allotted time of less-than-six-hours. So, with all of our carry-on gear, we practically sprinted to catch the last 11:27pm Underground via Piccadilly Line towards downtown London to meet up with a friend who lived in Leicester. It took 45 minutes to get from the airport to downtown, can you believe it? 45 minutes both ways left us with only 4 hours in London, and by the time we got to Leicester, it was nearly bar close; I had really really really wanted to drink a pint at a typical British pub, so this was bad news bears for me. Turns out my fears were needless, pubs had already been closed for hours (what's up with that, London?). But there were plenty of exuberantly drunk people dressed in inexplicable clothing (some dude was dressed as bacon, and I could have sworn that I saw a geisha) coming in and out of countless numbers of bars, each puking out effulgent music and tumultuous lights. Speaking of puke, the air reeked of piss and beer and regurgitated fish and chips. My kind of town (not really, but hey whatever I survived five years at Madison). Here we are, exploring the ingloriousness that is London:
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| sporting the 'packs like good little college students |
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Trafalgar Square
boy was it a struggle to get up on that lion
(that's what she said?)
[my friend's picture] |
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Our London liaison ended up taking us to Chinatown (wonder if it was because of me? Naaah, I'm Korean dammit, not Chinese!), and we start off our epic evening at a bar called "O'Neil's." Yep, that's right, we were at an Irish bar in the middle of Chinatown in downtown London. The bar was unbelievably jam packed, and as if our appearance didn't make us stick out like three obnoxious American thumbs, our disabled and disruptive movement thanks to our Kilimanjaro-ready backpacks earned us a couple of judging (yet admittedly well-deserved) glares from the local Brits. Other than that though, my first thought inside the bar was 'holy crap, we've teleported back to Madison.' O'Neil's was essentially an accumulation of every bar in Madison; only difference being that their Guinness was INFINITELY better than any Guinness I have ever had (and probably will ever have until I get to Dublin). I would like to note though, the first beer that I had in London was a Budweiser. 'Murica. I also tried "Crabbies" which is a British Ginger Beer (not a fan) and a few other that I wish I remembered, but having drank several of them, understandably do not. Time flies by when you're having beer after beer after beer, so before we knew it, it was bar close.
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| yay beer |
3 am, what to do? Oh I know, let's Jay-Z this shit and run London for the next 2 hours. And with our abominable American attitude (abrasively enhanced by inebriation), we did exactly that.
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surprisingly useful given our state of minds
luckily though, we didn't need to use them much; there were no cars out |
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yeah that's right
Buckingham Palace |
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| well we couldn't not climb on it |
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showing off our independence
the Queen can't have been very happy about this
[my friend's picture] |
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the lovely Buckingham Palace
sweet dreams, Your Majesty |
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| take me to the Ministry of Magic at once! |
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| hey Big Ben |
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| it's nice to officially have met you |
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| quick shot of the Abbey |
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| it was way past 4am at this point |
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| Big Ben says it was around 4:25am actually |
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this reminds me of Harry Potter
also, say hello to Westminster Abbey |
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| wonder if these protesters joined the riots in August? |
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| Big Ben's bod |
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| about to walk across Westminster Bridge |
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| beautiful |
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victory in a sense
[my friend's picture] |
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| London Eye |
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| 4:35 in London? yeah it's pretty nice |
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| almost time to leave |
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sun's already poking through
which means Africa is calling |
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| farewell London, until next time |
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longest and steepest escalator ever
[my friend's picture] |
My London experience will not be one I forget anytime soon, despite how much we drank. I'm quite proud of us really, we accomplished a lot that night; granted we did this by momentarily (and perhaps stupidly) forgetting that we were en route to climb the world's tallest freestanding mountain in less than a week's time.
