Day 10!

After a late night on day 9, my dad and I decided to not set an alarm and sleep in!

We then got breakfast and then I got ready for my day!

My dad had grading… I guess he has a job or something to do 😅 so I went off on my own for the morning!

I set out on a 35 minute walk to Camden Market! The clouds have come back and the sun is not out anymore. But it has warmed up a bit so I’ll take it!

On my walk, I saw an absurd amount of pigeons and also some graffiti. I really enjoy looking at graffiti and wondering how people get tags in some places, but London is honestly fairly clean of it all! The further from the city you get the more you’ll see.

Camden Market is the largest market in London! It has loads of food vendors, clothing, trinkets, vintage items, pretty much anything you can think of.

The street starts off with a few store fronts on both sides and then turns into a madhouse of mazes of different shops and restaurants! I actually got lost at one point and very turned around at others.

After wandering around for a couple of hours, I decided to continue on walking to a nearby park!

Regent’s Park is a ginormous park within a quick walk of the Camden Market!

My walk through Regent’s Park was very pleasant. There’s a long walking path to stroll down and a beautiful garden too! I’m sure it’s even better in full bloom.

What I wish I had realized while I was there was that the park north of it, Primrose Hill, allegedly has a gorgeous view of downtown London. Next time I’m in the area I’ll go check it out for sure!

It’s been pretty amazing seeing how many people are out and about during the day of a work week! Whether it’s walking their dog or on a run, people love to be outdoors here! Even in the cloudy cold!

I wrote about public restrooms in my last post and how convenient and free they are! Well, there’s also public restrooms that require payment to get in. This one only cost 20p to get in which is around $0.25. I didn’t get it into the picture, but you can actually use a credit card/apple pay to get in!

My stomach was starting to rumble so I knew it was time to head back to the hotel for a nice peanut butter and jelly sandwich!

From where I was at it was a 25 minute bus ride home… or a 30 minute walk, so I went for the latter!

London is insanely walkable and I’m definitely trying to get my legs ready for all the walking and hiking SE Asia will hold for me!

On my walk home I passed fairly close to the British Telecommunications Tower. The tower is 620 ft tall (189 m) and sends telecom signals from London to all of England!

Also, in 1971 a revolving restaurant was opened on the top floor! But that same year a bomb was detonated in it causing the restaurant to close. And then in 1980 the entire building was closed to the public… I would have loved to see the view from the top of that tower!

I made it back to the hotel to eat and rest up for my next outing!

My next outing started by walking with my dad to his class he was teaching!

I then wandered to a nearby park, Brunswick Square Gardens.

These gardens/parks/squares are scattered everywhere in London and offer a great place to sit, people watch, and enjoy nature!

I ended up sitting there for about a half an hour. At that point the temperature was starting to get a bit too chilly for me so I decided to go walk to another park…

But with a missed turn and the cold getting the better of me, I decided to just turn it into a long walk back to the hotel!

After all this walking it was time for a drink (Imperial Amber Lager)!

I waited around for my dad to come back from class so we could head to dinner!

My dad’s colleague Devin ended up joining us and while we were waiting for him we ran into none other than Ellen!

We set out on a 15 minute walk to a Thai restaurant called Busaba. I guess I can’t wait to be back in SE Asia and wanted a taste of what I have to look forward to!

I couldn’t find any Thai Basil dish on the menu so I settled with another one of my favorite Thai foods, a Green Curry with jasmine rice.

They also didn’t have my favorite Thai beer, Chang, so I got a Singha instead!

These are flavors I really miss and cannot wait to experience them in Thailand again!

I’ve really enjoyed these past few days of relaxed traveling. I think it’s one of the best ways to see a new place when you can experience it more like a local! When you have the time to do what you want every day with no worry of rushing it opens up a whole new world of how traveling can be done.

(I say relaxing travel… but I walked 11 miles today 😂)

With only two days left in London, I’m excited to see what we get up to! And I know tomorrow is going to be another wonderful adventure that includes an exciting event you’ll want to hear about!

– Elie