London Trip: One day before and first day of the UCEAP :)

One day before London Trip:  I spent a majority of my time “googling locations” and attractions of what to do. I know it’s a strange habit of mine but I tend to like having a hand written goal list sloppily written out even if I don’t do everything on the list. The satisfaction of crossing off and adding things on that list is perhaps a bit amusing and satisfying to say the least. In no particular order I wrote down: Victoria Albert Museum, Sherlock Holmes Museum (8 pounds), Wellington Arch, Tate Britain, Les Miserables Broadway, Tower of London, Tower bridge from London Bridge, meet up with a friend of mine: Daniel.

Big Ben Clock tower.

Day of trip: I woke up and printed out everything, but realized I was running incredibly late. I ended up running up the Royal mile and taking a cab to Waverly station, fortunately arriving at 9:07AM 23 minutes before my train departure.  After meeting up with fellow interns James and Derek, we ended up walking into the wrong compartments to find our spots. Unlike the tickets in Scotland, the tickets to London have specific seat destinations, so unfortunately I could not sit anywhere I wanted to. This didn’t occur to me till later I realized I was sitting in another person’s spot. Besides that, the train was delayed for 2 hours because a tree fell on the rails in Scotland. This was slightly irritating, but on the bright side I can now refund my ticket so yay free ticket to London? 

UCEAP Selfie with Derek on the train to London

Upon arrival, I realised I did not have time to do much considering it was 4:05 PM, and most museums I wanted to go to close at 5PM. Fortunately the Sherlock Holmes Museum was open so I ended up running to 221 B Baker Street to do that. After paying 8 pounds, and getting my ticket verified by the Scotland Yard guard, I proceeded to enter 221B Baker’s Street. Wow. So there are about 4-5 floors and 2-3 rooms per floor. From the narrow hallways with wooden framed pictures of Sir Conan Doyle to a English classic fireplace, it was as though I had entered Mr. Doyle’s books. Dim lights, warm fire places, pipes, cocaine and antique chemistry glassware neatly placed in leather boxes, cursive hand written notes laid upon tables, exhibitions of evidence from previous cases, and much more- Honestly, my description of what I saw doesn’t even do justice to just how brilliant and spectacular the museum is as an attraction. Personally it’s one of those you just have to go there to see it for yourself. Just be prepared to be Sherlocked into London 1880s.

Sherlock's Arch nemisis: Moriarty!

Here's a snippet of the Sherlock Holmes Museum :)

After the museum, I went back to charge my phone and ended up meeting one of my good friends Mai. We ended up randomly getting lost and settling for Japanese food run by Chinese Londoners. I personally found it hilarious how the one street we were on had everything from Vietnamese food to Lebanese food, but the one food it did not have was Chinese food, the one that we were craving. We both ordered ramen (a rich tonkotsu ramen and a peppered beef ramen) Both were delicious. Additionally, I ordered a fried tempera-like roll: a tuna maki roll covered in tempera batter drizzled with a spicy hot pepper and garlic aioli. I already knew it would be texturally crunchy and taste amazing, but perhaps my biggest surprise was the fact that the tuna was not cooked after the roll was fried. After that, I went back and still charged my phone, and decided to call it a night. Not really ideal, but I did not want to get lost considering I had drained my phone after taking a bunch of pictures in the museum. 

Overall though, it was a good day.