London, England, Day 3 - National Gallery, Undiscovered London

March 28th This morning was an early start since I had a tour at 10:30am.  I met a girl named Rosa who's Mexican and on exchange in Vienna at the moment.  She was staying in the same hostel as I was and part of the same group.  After a short trip to the YHA where we picked up a few more people we caught the underground to green park to meet the larger group.  From there we proceeded to Buckingham Palace, St James Palace, Pall Mall, Trafalgar Square, The Mall, Horseguards Parade, Whitehall, Downing Street, Westminster and Big Ben.

London, England, Day 2 - O2 Climb, Tate Gallery, Les Miserables

March 27th Started off the day with a wake up called at 8:30am.  My room for 3 had no roomies for now which was nice.  The room was very simple, one bunk bed, one single bed, and a small sink with a mirror.  The downside was that I was on the lower bunk bed and the ceiling was ridiculously low so whenever I got up I hit my head.  I caught the underground to North Greenwich in the morning for the O2 climb, height was 52metres/170 feet.  The weather wasn't so bad that day so it was a nice short climb.  Talked to two English ladies who lived in London and were doing the climb.  It was Easter break so that's why they had time off.  There was a German couple and everyone else was English.  So the guide was just telling us the silly questions that he's been asked, like "If that's the River Thames then what's the river on this other side" (It's the River Thames), or "Is that the Eiffel tower?" (which was a water tower).  It was bouncy going up the stadium and bouncy if not steep, coming down.  It was a nice climb to the top, but no SLR photos only mobile phone cameras allowed.

After the climb I had lunch in the Harvester then caught the underground to Southwark where I visited the Tate gallery.  Spent about 2 hours or so there, and watched a short interesting documentary about blind people painting.

London, England, Day 1 - Big Ben, Trafalgar Square, Miss Saigon

I was in London from March 26th to 30th, primarily to watch a documentary (yes I flew all the way to England to watch a documentary :)) but since the last time I was there in 2010 I didn't get to see much of the city I thought I'll expand my schedule and add a few more days so I can explore the city more as well as watch a few musicals.

March 26th  The day started with an unearthly wake up call at 4:30am.  Flying into Gatwick I arrived around 12pm or so after going through customs at the pace of a snail.  I had completely forgotten that the UK is not part of the Schengen area, but thankfully I always carry my passport when travelling.  After I checked into the hostel to drop off my baggage I went to a Thai place to eat some noodles.  And had to also buy a power adapter since I had left mine at home.  I went back to the hostel and then checked into the room before walking to Trafalgar Square and then to Big Ben.  But not before collecting tickets to Miss Saigon at the Prince Edward Theatre.  I was too tired to fully appreciate it but it was really good, I had caught the late evening show.  Sat in the front row and that was different.  Got to smell all the special effects literally.  If you like Asian girls for sure you would like Miss Saigon, it was full of Asian women.

National Gallery Trafalgar Square... lots of people

Lion (which were modelled after domestic cats so they were sitting incorrectly!)

Fountain Trafalgar Square

Pigeon...

... on top of Shaun the Sheep

Elizabeth tower housing big ben bell.  Taken near Westminster Abbey.

London eye redux.  Yeah the weather was pretty bad that day did I tell you?

Miss Saigon cast at the end