Alone Again

After Ray and I left Marrakech we spent one night in Paris together before we parted ways. She was going to Zurich and I was planning to stay in Paris for a couple of days before heading to London. If you have been with my blog for a while you will know Paris was trying its hardest to get rid of me only a few weeks before. I had decided to try and change my ticket to leave the next day instead of staying 3 nights. After a day involving walking 3 blocks up a steep Montmatre hill in the wrong direction searching for my hostel thanks to Google maps, two separate 30 min waits in the same queue at the train station (due to the woman at the customer service desk pretending I had been in the wrong line the first time) to change my ticket, a long walk to a metro station that ended up being closed, which lead to a longer walk in the dodgiest neighborhood I have ever seen in Paris to get to the next station- I was glad to be leaving Paris at 7am the next morning. The day wasn't a complete bust though, I did buy three pairs of shoes at Repetto much to the the confusion and amazement of the shop assistant because they were all the same. I did point out that I was just stocking up because they are so much more expensive in Australia, but she still thought it was funny enough to tell everyone else who worked there...

London over the next couple of days was great. It was two days before the Olympics were ending and there was just this electricity in the air. Everyone was amped and constantly in a good mood. Thousands of volunteers hung about on the streets, purely there to be nice to you and help you find your way or answer any questions you had. This was a stark contrast to Paris where people were immediately rude to you if you asked them to speak English. I spent my first morning exploring the area around my hostel, mostly relying on my Monopoly board knowledge to get around. I stumbled across the Sherlock Holmes museum which was hilarious, and then found myself at Hyde park where, completely unbeknownst to me there was a huge area cordoned off to broadcast the Olympics on giant screens for the general public. It was free to enter and there was food and drink stalls, kids activities, even movies at some times. It was great to be in that atmosphere and a nice way to spend my time when I was by myself as your actually interacting, however subtly, with thousands of other people.

/Olympics in the air

/Sherlock Holmes museum

/Crowd at Hyde Park

Over the next couple of days I just chilled out. Did some washing and found £20 in the machine, went to the Natural History Museum and Tate Modern and visited areas of London I hadn't been to before like Little Venice- which by the way I think should be called Little Amsterdam because it looks more like that than Venice.

/pretty park view from my bedroom

/Natural History Museum

/Rainbow in the rainy London sky

/Intermittent sun in Little Venice

/Perfect deck chair setup in the park

On the night of the closing ceremonies I headed out to Victoria Park- another first for me- to watch the telecast live. It was the same setup as Hyde Park but I went there because Hyde Park was charging for it that night as they had bands playing too, and the tickets were all sold out. Victoria Park was great though because it was right near the actual stadium so you could watch the fireworks. It was so much fun watching all the Brits say goodbye to their moment in the sun. Everyone was singing and dancing and waving flags and erupting in cheers any time any team GB member was on screen. In terms if the acts I loved the Spice Girls and Russell Brand, and felt extremely embarrassed for GB that they included One Direction. But these two 4 year old boys in front of me loved 1D and were screaming and jumping up and down. It was hilarious.

/Crazy security at Victoria Park- no aerosols or liquids above 100ml- for real

It was such a great 4 days, and I was a little bit sad when it was ending. The next day my friend Shereen arrived in London and we will be traveling around together for the next 5 months, so I won't have any alone time for a very long time. Don't get me wrong, London with Shereen was way more fun than without her, but I'm used to having a house to myself and my two best friends on the other side of the country. I'm definitely a bit of a loner and I know the next months are going to be a huge adjustment for me.

More joint London adventures with Shereen next time.

Xx