London, England – Tubes, Phone booths, and the River of Thames

The best way for me to tell you about my first European experience is by starting from the beginning.

We touched ground at Gatwick Airport (LGW) around 13:00. And after the 10 hour red eye from Los Angeles International Airport (LAX) on Norwegian Airlines, I was ready to get off the plane and right into the UK. I had never been more excited to get off a plane in my entire life.

After going through the long line of passport control, we had finally entered Europe! I was bouncing up and down with joy, I mean that literally too.

After a small mishap with trying to take out money from the ATM (remember your cash withdrawal allowance and the current exchange rate) we were on our way to get into town and drop our stuff off at our hotel before exploring London.

We walked to the train stations and immediately were overwhelmed. It was busy, loud and everything suddenly seemed fast paced and without any phone data or Wi-Fi, we had no idea where we were going. After gawking at timetables and truly not knowing what to do, we ended up in the line to hopefully get the right tubes and trains tickets to our hotel.

The guy that serviced us was very kind and gave us all the info we needed and set us off into our train. We had luckily screenshot our directions to our hotel while we had some Wi-Fi and we were then on our way.

Considering I’m a San Diego girl where public transportation is scarce and we drive everywhere. Taking all the trains and tubes was an experience within itself. I’ve been to New York and through the subway systems there, but for some reason having to change trains to express trains to DLRS to the underground was overwhelming.

But we finally made it the underground London Bridge. And I couldn’t have been happier.

After what felt like an eternity on the packed undergrounds and trains, we made it the Premier Inn Hotel in Docklands and were able to settle in to our rather cozy hotel.

It was our first night in London and we had a travel day pass, so we decided to get into town. We went back into the tubes and made our way to London Bridge and decided to wing it.

There was no real agenda for our first night in Europe, but I wanted to get Fish N’ Chips and see a little sights and then get back to our hotel and in bed to try and beat jet lag.

The London Bridge exit was perfect for our first night. I immediately went crazy with seeing the famous red telephone booths and just had to get inside.

After a little bit more walking we hit the River of Thames. It was huge and beautiful. And the best part of where we were, we had the London Bridge on our left and the Tower Bridge on our right.

It was a wonderful sight. Seeing all these beautiful bridges at the River of the Thames felt surreal to me, but it felt wonderful and I couldn’t have been happier to be there. I already felt at home in Europe.

After taking in a few more sights, we decided it was time for dinner. So we walked along the River of Thames and made our way to this cutesy little pub and made our way inside. It was compact and cozy, but we couldn’t wait to eat our first European meal.

It wasn’t a regular sit down restaurant. We had to sit down, find the number on the table and then order the food at the bar and they served it to us by letting them know our table number. It was cool. But you definitely need to know the menu beforehand so you don’t stand by the register feeling lost. Luckily most restaurants have their menu in the front for everyone to gander at their liking.

Our food was then finally served and Alex got this chicken and mushroom pot pie and I got the famous Fish N’ Chips with mushy peas. It was delicious.

After feeling like I was in a food coma with how big that fish was, we went back outside. Took in our last look of the River of Thames and were then back into the underground to our hotel.

And hey, we actually beat jet lag that night.

Overall, our first night in London and in Europe was a success. I loved it so much and I honestly felt like I was in a dream the whole time. But this was just the beginning, the next day we got to explore a little more of London and then we were in the beautiful city of Paris.

Can’t wait to show you all the rest of my trip!

Cheers my mates. (I also had a bit of a bad habit that when someone talked in a British accent, I felt the need to talk back in one. Don’t worry, I refrained and kept the accent to only my boyfriend 🙂

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