Volume 2, Day 47
It took a while and two breakfasts before I could say my goodbyes and get out of the house on Monday. At the bus stop, I let a couple buses pass me by because I wanted a bus operated by a specific company. In my internet research on how to get to London, there is a bus running between Oxford and London for a cheap price, but the real kicker is that they advertise free local bus travel to get into Oxford to catch their bus. Unfortunately, when I asked the driver for that ticket, he didn’t know how to sell said ticket and I was stuck paying regular full fare.
Disappointed by my failure to secure the cheapest possible travel, I rode the “Park and Ride” bus past the parking lot on the outskirts of Oxford and past central Oxford all the way to the train station. It would be a lot cooler to take a train into London and given the fact that I was off peak, I should be spared the exorbitant commuter rates. Yeah, no. I didn’t want to pay 27 quid for a train ticket, so I walked back to the bus station and took my original 8 pound bus to London.
The bus wound its way east through Oxford picking up additional passengers at stops before getting on the highway. It was a quick two hour journey and we went from sailing along the highway to stopped dead in London traffic in basically the blink of an eye. I alighted at Marble Arch and headed straight into the Tube to buy an Oyster card and catch the Central line two stops over to my low rent hostel.
The neighborhood, north of Hyde Park (Kensington Gardens) and west of Paddington, has a real immigrant vibe to it, but maybe that’s just how London is. In any case, I spotted at least five Chinese restaurants within 50 meters of the Underground exit, which got me wondering how one could scientifically define a Chinatown by ratio of Chinese people, text, or shops.
The hostel consists of two houses in a row of town houses and is just as musty and run down as I expected. Several guests were chilling in the patio between the house and the one way street, and I checked in. The cramped room with 16 beds has lockers under the beds, but the hostel decided it could make more money by installing electronic locks on them and charging a pound a day for guests to use them. That is the most egregious bullshit I’ve seen anyone try. The room is pretty small and there is barely enough room to lay a suitcase down to get anything out of it, so blocking off the valuable under bed real estate is a crime in itself. On the other hand, an air conditioning unit was doing its best to keep the room at a frosty … I’m going to say 18 degrees. A group of Egyptian boys had checked in just before me and promptly went to sleep as soon as they made their beds.
I took a minute in the lobby to liaise with a couple friends I am planning on meeting up with in London, then immediately walked down the street and into Kensington Gardens. I made a beeline for the Serpentine Galleries, and took a walk around the park to check out a few monuments and the public swimming area. Given the fact that a heat wave is striking Europe, it may be worth the four quid (including locker, shower, and sun deck) to go swimming in the lake. In any case, it should be sunny and hot these days, so I am grateful to be back in shorts finally.
My stomach was grumbling while still enjoying the bright sun in the park, so I headed back to grab an early dinner from a supermarket. I had salad, but dressed it up with precooked chicken breast slices (on sale) and a mix of feta and olives. I also bought a lot of water. London is more expensive.
I sat in the interconnect basement common rooms (kitchen, TV room, etc) and ate my meal while doing some travel planning (I’m dying to get back on the continent). After hydrating and allowing a proper amount of time for digestion, I changed into running shorts and did a loop around the parks. Let’s see if I can squeeze in a run every day between museum visits and pub quizzing.
After the run, I showered and sat back in the common room working on my computer for a while. It was after 10pm before I even realized it, and I headed upstairs to lazily scroll through social media a bit and fall asleep.
| Local bus (should have been free) | 3.3 |
| X90 to London | 8 |
| Oyster Card (incl. 5 GBP deposit) | 20 |
| Hostel (4 nights) | 409 RMB |
| Groceries | 7.9 |
| Total: | 800.2 RMB (USD 116.30) |
Running Total: 17681 RMB (USD 2569.76)
Daily Average: 376.2 RMB (USD 54.66)