Why I was happy to be flying solo

London was the first city I ever travelled truly alone. And I could not have enjoyed doing so more!
The city is known for its free museums, such as the British National, the National Gallery and the Tate Modern museum. I am not sure I would want to drag anyone else through the hours I spent enjoying the paintings and art at these places.

In addition, the hostel I stayed at, Hostel One Camden was great for solo travelers as everyone who worked there wanted to get to know you, encouraged you to partake in the activities, and were always around even if they weren’t working a shift. They led an excursion every day, provided dinner every evening, and took us to a bar in the area every night. With all these things happening, I didn’t really feel like I was alone there. If you are going to London ever, I HIGHLY recommend staying at Hostel One. In addition to all this, they had a happy hour for guests every night from 7-9pm where drinks are 20% off (drinks in London are expensive so this is a great deal, not to mention Raf the bartender is great).

Day 1 : Jet lag and beyond

When I first arrived, I pushed through the jet lag to drop my stuff at my hostel in Camden and then wandered down to the Camden Markets. It was a beautiful day to wander the stalls and grab a bit of food. From there, I took the underground to British museum and forced myself to walk through the rooms containing the Rosetta Stone, the Easter island head, and the remains of the Parthenon.

Day 2 : Lots of Art, Rain and Beer

The next day, some people from my hostel decided to go to the Tate Modern Museum. We were going to go to Hyde Park, but it was raining pretty much all day, making this impossible. After lunch they went back to the hostel and I headed over to the National Gallery to enjoy some classical and post-impressionist paintings, such as those by Van Gogh, Titian, Cézanne, Vermeer, Seurat, Monet and more. I must have walked at least 10 miles that day because after the Gallery, I wandered up to Buckingham Palace and down to Regent Street. This street is the 5^th Ave of London, meaning it has all of the high-end retail stores. I finally got back to my hostel around 7:30pm, just in time for a drink and dinner.

The bar we were headed to that night was an Irish bar called O’Neill’s Soho. We ended up having a smaller group of about 8 of us and had to take a bus for about 20 minutes to get to Chinatown (yes, there is one in London!), where the bar was. The beer there was fairly-priced, it wasn’t too hard to get a drink, and the music was great. After getting drinks, we walked upstairs to dance, where we discovered that it was actually a live band! We proceeded to have quite a few drinks each and when the bar closed around 1:30 or 2, we wanted dumplings (we were in Chinatown after all). Sadly, all the dumpling places were closed and all we could find were fries. We had a lively bus ride home as the Dumpling Crew. Shout out to Ana for taking us to such a great bar and for a fun night!