A short travel vlog by Nate and Kara Buchanan documenting their first full day in London before a travel conference. They stay in a shared Airbnb, visit central London sights (Westminster Abbey, Big Ben, London Eye), explore St. James Park and Chinatown, and eat pho in Chinatown (noting it cost about US$30 for two bowls). The tone is informal and enthusiastic, focused on sightseeing and food.
Today is our first full day in London. We're here for a travel conference, but it doesn't start for two days. So today and tomorrow we're gonna squeeze in as much touristy things in London as possible.
So we're trying something new. For the first time in London, we're staying at an Airbnb that's shared with the lady who's actually living there. I was kind of question about how that would go, but so far it's been awesome. She is Bulgarian, but living here in London. And apparently today is a Bulgarian holiday where you celebrate your ancestors and friends who have died by cooking really delicious food. And she shared a lot of it with us this morning. It was a great start to the day.
It's been so much fun. She's so sweet.
So now we are catching the train into central London and we'll go from there. What looks central?
Alright, I know this is a big one. St. James Park.
What happens if we just ride our line to the end at Tower Hill and then like just walk all the way over to Piccadilly? That might be a good way to see a lot of things. Okay.
Oyster cars are so fun. You just put money on them and then you tap it when you walk in and then you tap it when you walk out. You don't even really have to know where you're going.
That's good for us.
All right. We're not as close as I thought. Big Ben is still over an hour walk away, so I think we're gonna grab another train.
I literally spotted Big Ben as soon as we walked out of the Underground.
Pretty incred.
Ah. Just struck two and I think we missed it.
Oh, it's going.
While we were waiting for Big Ben to go off, we thought we would get a little snack before we get to lunch. We heard London has the best Indian food. Besides in India, I guess so we got a veggie Samad.
I am amazed by how many people are here right now. And it's like freezing. I can't imagine when it's warm, touristy weather.
So many people.
London is pretty incredible.
Loving it. We've only seen this one little street, but every angle of the bend. What is it?
Big Bin.
It just keeps getting prettier.
To be honest, I didn't have high hopes for London and I'm not sure why. I mean, I've never heard bad thing about it, but it just didn't seem like my kind of city. But I've been extremely impressed. It's beautiful. Here.
We are at Westminster Abbey. A huge church and we saw that three. They have some kind of singing in there and it's almost three. So we're going to try and find it.
Not a good sign.
Maybe tomorrow. I'd say it probably has something to do with these crosses.
I'd say our self guided tour of the big sights of London is going pretty well so far. We've walked around Westminster, we saw the Abbey, we saw the London Eye, we saw Big Ben, we saw double decker buses, the London taxi cabs.
So we're doing great. So far so good.
Now we're hanging out in a little.
Park trying to get some more by.
The river where it's freezing.
For those of you who haven't been following us for very long, we spent the first three months of our trip in Southeast Asia and really fell in love with food. And sometimes we just really miss it. So we are going to go to the Chinatown of London.
The wind is so cold.
Wow.
It's the coolest thing I've seen since we've been in London.
Found another pretty place in London. Who's surprised? Not me.
We made it.
Herbal medicine.
I can smell it. We're back.
That warmed me right up.
Pho is one of the foods we fell in love with in Asia and we haven't had it since. And that place made really good pho. It was just as good as I remember.
It was just as good as I remember. But it was a lot more expensive than I remember. That cost like US$30 for two bowls of pho. And those were like $1 a piece when we were in VI.
That part was a little painful. We've also gotten a little rusty on our chopstick and noodle slurping skills.
It was pitiful.
I was a little embarrassed.
All right, we're both freezing. We're heading home. Calling in night. Good first day in London though. Yeah.
For the next week I will be on constant alert for Dell. Then we're gonna be best.
Saving some for later.
London is annoyingly pretty. I can't put down the camera.
Whoa. Airplane.
Schrader.
Alright now move it.
What a weird statue.
