LONDON – THE BEGINNING

After a whole day of travel it felt so good to finally be on solid ground. With our UK working visa’s in hand, passing immigration was a breeze! We quickly changed into warmer clothes before stepping our into the chilly London air. At first it’s fresh and welcoming, but soon it’s creeping into your bones and we were picking up the pace just to get our blood flowing. We found the train station and had our first transaction with pounds before boarding the 1hour train from Gatwick to the city.

So tired that we had become giddy… I giggled as we watched the countryside turn into houses as far as the eye could see. The soft winter sun and gentle rocking of the train soon overwhelmed me and I was battling my closing eyes. It was mid-day in London but almost midnight back home.

We changed trains at a station overlooking the river and after a short metro ride we arrived at our hostel.  It was my first time staying in a dorm room, and although clean and cosy, I had to try and fall asleep each night to the sound of five boys snoring! We started our first day sleepy-eyed and jet lagged at 6am. Filling our bellies with free continental breakfast, we set out for our first day of exploring. There is nothing quite as wonderful as the first day in a city full of new discoveries.

We walked for nine hours on our first day. We started at your typical tourist spot (Trafalgar Square), and made our way through SOHO and onwards. We stopped by Chinatown where they were celebrating the Chinese New Year.

My favourite streets of London are in SOHO. The buildings are beautiful, tiny coffee shops hidden down alleyways and peering into shop windows.

It took us three days until we felt like masters of the metro. After a few slips ups where we might have gotten totally lost… I invested in a free offline metro map (Tube Map) that was a life saver! So easy to type in what station you are starting at and where you’d like to finish. This is Earls Court station, a place I vividly remembered from when I first visited London six years ago. Memories flooded back while wandering the streets and alleys.

I think my all time favourite place in London was the Borough Market. Bustling food stalls tucked beneath the train line. There were so many different food vendors that the air was filled with the most delicious scents. Martin bought a German sausage and I splurged on a vegan/gluten free brownie. For an extra desert we bought a pack of four fresh figs for 1 pound to treat ourselves while we explored between the stalls.

You can’t visit London without riding a double decker bus. And if you’re lucky enough you’ll snag the front seat like we did and get to watch how perilously the driver squeezes between small spaces with no regard for safety or common sense…

When I first visited London with my mother we stayed mostly in Zone 1-2 which gave me a very naive perception of the city. A romantic outlook of quaint little streets, clean pavements and upmarket shops. In reality London is much much bigger, a little dirty and certainly diverse. In many ways that makes it even more fascinatingly wonderful. This time our accommodation was in Zone 3 and I saw London in an entirely different light. One thing I loved were the street-side fruit and vegetable stalls! 1 pound bowls filled with fresh goodness!

One rainy afternoon we bought umbrella’s and made our way through the puddles to the Tate Modern. I saw my first Picasso in real life, pondered intriguing modern sculptures and felt my heart fill with passion from the Henry Wessel exhibit.

Long days lead to early nights. Making our way home in the night-time rain and watching the lights twinkle like thousands of stars.

 

Our first week was both wonderful and slightly terrible! I want my blog to be an honest portrayal of our life and adventures.  I believe it’s really important to not always project a ‘perfect life’ on the internet because it breeds an unhealthy view of the world.

Before we left Australia I had no anxiety about our upcoming adventure, in-fact I was so sure that this was the right path for me and that I would be carefree as soon as I touched down in London…  Well 24 hours of travel totally took it’s toll on my body and my nerves were through the roof for our first week. A combination of really bad jet-lag, lack of sleep and never seeing the sun… meant that I was confused and miserable. I had terrible homesickness and even though we were having a great time, in the back of my mind I was wondering if I’d made a terrible mistake. There was nowhere to go back to, I left a wonderful life and home in Melbourne, I’d sold all of my belongings and we knew no one here in this unfamiliar side of the world. So I had an anxiety attack, a really big one. I am human! And now I realise this was completely normal, and healthy. I am just surprised it took me actually landing here before I went through this normal thought process.  I follow the lives of a lot of wonderful travellers, photographers, bloggers, and they make travelling the world look like one big incredible adventure, with no regrets! But I really wish someone had mentioned that yes it is hard, and yes it is scary, but it really is worth it. I have a tendency to try and ‘plan my whole life’. I’m always trying to think what path I should take, who I should be, what road is going to make me happiest.  But I’m learning to let it all go, not worry so much, just go with the flow of it and see where I end up. It might have taken me two and a bit weeks into our travels but I finally feel settled. I’m embracing this new way of life.

❤