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Last Updated on 23 May 2025
After several agonisingly long flights and a 20 hour layover in Manila, we finally land in London on the evening of Halloween. This is horrible news for me, because I love Halloween more than any holiday and yet I am so dead tired that all we do is go immediately to bed. Well, immediately after our 90 minute Uber ride to Brighton. My lovely English friend Becka has been nice enough to let us stay in a flat her grandparents own, but we did not realise how far Brighton was until yesterday when Callum’s dad, born and raised in London, asked where we were staying. It was too late to make other arrangements, plus the flat ends up being lovely and so does Brighton in general. Just English train transport is shockingly expensive to the city, which is a bit sucky.
We are struggling with jet lag quite badly and end up awake at 4am, walking around in search of food. We eat and have an early morning nap before catching the train into London for a bit of an explore, all the classic tourist stops. But the real treat of the day is when we get lost near a big building (which we later learn is Buckingham Palace– oops) and happen to see the Queen from her carriage.
A policeman tells us that she’s been meeting with the President of Columbia and that’s why there’s been a parade organised this morning, with hundreds of horses and English soldier people and marching bands (but also on horses, so not really marching). A spontaneous highlight of our first day in London!
Read more from our Europe trip:
12 TIPS FOR BACKPACKING EUROPE
DISNEYLAND PARIS: THE HAPPIEST PLACE IN FRANCE
EXPLORING UNDERGROUND PARIS: LES CATACOMBS
AUTUMN IN THE CITY OF LIGHTS: OUR FAVOURITE PARIS EXPERIENCES
VENICE, THE WORLD’S GREATEST MAZE
BIKING AROUND LJUBLJANA, SLOVENIA
BIKING AROUND LAKE BLED & VINTGAR GORGE
ADVENTURING TO POSTOJNA JAMA & PREDJAMA GRAD
IT’S BEGINNING TO LOOK A LOT LIKE CHRISTMAS IN VIENNA
HUNGARY FOR THE HOLIDAYS: THE BEST BUDAPEST EXPERIENCES
HISTORY LESSONS IN KRAKÓW: VISITING AUSCHWITZ AND KAZIMIERZ
