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Actually, the first time I went to London was in August. So having just arrived in Britain and then arrived in London, I remember wandering around London for about half a day. The places I wandered around at that time were Big Ben, Piccadilly, Regent Street, the Home Office, the college of arts, and so on, but the photos I took that day had somewhat bad weather, and it seems okay to push the story from that time back a bit, so I'll write first about the time I went on vacation at the end of October.
1. Oh dear, my photo came out so embarrassingly lol anyway, the place I started the bike trip that day was Tate Britain. The Tate Gallery has Modern and Britain within London; Britain has modern and early-modern paintings, Modern has contemporary art. I'll write about going to Tate Britain in the next story; anyway, that day I rented a bike at the Tate, stopped by 'Chelsea's' Stamford Bridge, then via Harrods department store came to Buckingham Palace - Trafalgar Square - and Chinatown. The route was roughly like this.
That season was the last week of October, in other words a vacation week. It wasn't just my vacation week - that 'week' was a vacation week for other people too. Maybe that's why there were enormously many people, and since the weather was nice there were all the more.... If I'd filmed the scenery passing by on the bike with a camera like a GoPro or a Sony action cam, I probably would have uploaded it here, but unfortunately back then I didn't even think of that and didn't have the money for it either. But the scenery I saw at that time remains well in my memory to this day. It was really magnificent. If asked to rate the beauty of scenery, I can say the scenery I saw riding around London on a bike was truly the best, to the point that I'd pick the scenery I saw during the 'bike trip' as my number one over any other scenery.
Especially, that road heading from Hyde Park, past Buckingham Palace, all the way to Trafalgar Square is normally a car road, but that day for some reason cars were prohibited from entering and only bikes and people could go, so I could see such magnificent photos and scenery. From Chelsea to Hyde Park is uphill, so it was actually hard, really hard. Along the way I even tossed a hoodie (my hoodie ㅜㅜ) and rested in the middle because I got hot. But from Hyde Park on it was all downhill + flat so it was so, so easy, and because the way there was that comfortable, the surrounding environment looked all the more magnificent..
About London's public bicycle rental system, if you search 'london public cycle' on Google it'll come up; well, at that time I ended up spending a few extra pounds because I misunderstood the fare system, but the method is probably still the same. There's a rental fee (1.5? pounds for 24 hours - I don't remember the figure well), and after renting from one station, once 30 minutes pass a rental fee of 1 pound per hour is charged. What's worth noting here is that if you return it to another station within 30 minutes, it's free. But we just kept it rented for over 2 hours without returning it, so the money came out a bit high. We should have at least switched bikes at Hyde Park, foolishly lol
3.
It was in front of Big Ben that I met the two people shown in the photos that day. The previous day it had rained, but this day the weather was clear in the morning so Big Ben came out really magnificently. People may not be very visible in this photo now, but whether the weather is good or bad there are enormously many people in front of Big Ben. You might have to watch out for pickpockets too, but I didn't actually get pickpocketed. (Maybe because the public safety is good..)
Westminster is a very symbolic church of the Church of England.. I'm not a member of the Church of England so I didn't go in. This building appears under a slightly different name in Thomas Hardy's novel 'Jude the Obscure.' Since Westminster is such an important building, remembering that it appears under a different name in English literary works will help when reading English literature.
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This is the Thames riverside, taken starting from Tate Britain. The land visible on the right is the other side of the Thames. Actually there aren't many places worth seeing as tourist spots over there. Of course, to go to Greenwich you have to go that way, but apart from that there's almost no reason to go there. Depending on the person, some have their lodging over there, but it's inconvenient because you absolutely have to cross a bridge. In London, at any rate, rather than using the 'Underground - the subway,' it's much more economical to set a generous itinerary and get around by bus. The bus is only 1.2 or 1.5 pounds (but there are no transfers), whereas the Underground takes 2.5 each time.. if you go back and forth between zones at peak time you can see the crazy situation of spending 10 pounds a day on transit. So if you can use the 'bus,' using the bus is much more economical and you also get to see the surrounding environment, which is nice. Honestly, the more you travel, the reason you come to avoid the subway is that since you only travel underground, you can't see the outside scenery. If you take the bus you can see the surrounding scenery too, which is nice.. That's what I think.
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Stamford Bridge, Chelsea's home stadium. The Chelsea neighborhood is a wealthy area among wealthy areas. It would have been easy to explain if I'd taken photos of the neighborhood, but since I don't have them I'll just substitute words. London has various areas. Among them there's Arsenal, there's Chelsea, there's Angel, there's the City of London, Southwark, and so on, and this 'Chelsea,' once you enter the residential complex, the atmosphere was different from the start. Clean and orderly, with pretty houses, a neighborhood where you can really, really feel 'sophistication.' The citizens' club of such a neighborhood is the club called Chelsea FC.. the strap I bought there is hanging on my bag. I still like it.
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Lastly, Camden. Camden wasn't to my taste. It was too chaotic. Still, that costume shop that stuck in my memory - true to its name 'Dark side,' it had only the kinds of clothes you'd expect. Maybe it was because this happened to be Halloween week that there happened to be a lot of those kinds of costumes...
The next London story, well, leaves about the things that happened in Hackney, stopping by the British Museum, and going to the Tate Gallery. Besides that, I thought writing the August travel story as 3 would finish the London stories, but there's one more. If you include the story of the first day of the December vacation wandering around with Camilla, there are 3 more left.. When I go to London again I'll ride a bike again.. I miss that place I rode around on a bike.
London, wandering around with Ji-hwan and Seong-hyeon hyung, was really wonderful..
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