LONDON

The previous trip to London had been great so with 2 music festivals, a couple of weeks of 12 hours shift cover and summer coming to an end I thought it would be a good time to do another one. It was the exact same plan as the previous time, leave straight after work on Friday and come home Sunday afternoon staying at Palmers lodge. Knowing where I was going I gave myself plenty of time arriving around 7pm.

After settling in I headed straight for the hostel bar which seemed to be a bit quiet for my liking. It was obvious from the start that I was going to be constantly comparing this trip to the previous one. Last time I met a good crowd of people and was heading out around Camden town with them within half an hour. This time the few people who were there were all catching early flights the following morning. A couple of them did stay up until midnight and to be fair it wasn't the worst outcome to a night in a hostel.

After a hot and sleepless night I headed to Liverpool street station for an 11am east end walking tour. The guide showed up but nobody else did so the tour was off. I thought that was very strange for a well advertised tourist event on a busy Saturday in the middle of summer. So I headed straight for plan B which was HMS Belfast on the way I passed monument so I took the quick climb to the top.

At just 3 pounds it had to be one of Londons cheapest tourist attractions. I was not sure what to expect from HMS Belfast but it was well worth it, I usually have a tendency to read and move fast through any museum type place.

It was an interesting place and kept me occupied for at least a couple of hours. Like last time I walked back to the hostel via Camden market stopping for the great food.

I took a detour to the top of Primrose hill for a slightly different London viewpoint. By this time I felt very burned out (both from the walking and the sun) and needed a rest. That was my weekends sightseeing over with.

As per the previous evening I headed down the hostel bar and had a couple of beers. It was almost empty but got talking to the chap behind the bar who remembered me from the previous time I was there. It was still early (before 9pm) so I went for a quick bite to eat and to check the internet.

Back at the bar it was still almost empty, a far cry from the previous time when a group of us met up and went out to a club until the early hours. The bar staff even said that it had dropped off over the last few days. After a couple more beers it was painfully obvious nothing was going to happen that night so I gave up.

It perfectly illustrated how you can go on 2 identical trips as a solo traveller and have 2 completely different outcomes depending on the people you meet. Was I just unlucky that weekend or was it often like that and I was lucky the first time?? What I do know is that I wouldn’t have gone the second time if it had been like that the first.

Before heading to bed I stopped for a cup of tea in the common room, it seemed very quiet but when I went in there was at least 20 people in. Unfortunately I was greeted by a regular sight in hostel common rooms these days nearly all of them were busy on phones/tablets/laptops and little if any social interaction with each other.

I had a last walk through London the following morning then headed home..............