pstaehli.ch

London, 1997

Index:
introduction
the first two days
interesting places to visit
tips
some pictures

Introduction:
I went to London with a friend of mine (Samuel Obi). We stayed there from Monday, 6th of October 1997 until Saturday, 11th of October. Before we started to this trip, I looked for a cheap place to stay in London. The cheapest place I found is the Eurotower (see picture on the left and links on th right): for a room with two separate beds (there were two more things in the room: a wardrobe and a tiny washbasin) we paid 60£ a week each. But be warned: don't expect much of it!
The weather was just as we expected: don't forget the raincoat (even if it doesn't rain when you're leaving the Hostel). But on the other hand: take your camera with you even if it does rain!

The first two days:
When we arrived at London Heathrow, we took the tube (that's how the people in London call the underground - although we were told that there are differences between the two) - the Picadilly-line up to Green Park, where we changed to the Victoria-line. We dropped out at Stockwell and went to the Eurotower, where we took a twin room. After that, we went out to get something to eat (in fact, we had spaghetti bolognese - professionally prepared with the help of a microwave oven ;-). For the rest of the evening, we walked a bit along the Oxford-street.
When we woke up the following morning, the weather was - guess it? - bad, of course. I left my camera at the reception (where you can have your valuable things locked up for free) and we left with seek mode engaged for whatever looked like something to eat for breakfast (but not English breakfast, of course!). At the nearest supermarket we bought a bunch of rolls, some slices of cheese and half a pint of milk each. This went to be our breakfast, which we had in the tube, on our way to the centre of the city (but don't do this if there are a lot of people in there!). When we got off the tube, the weather was - guess it? - fine! The sun was shining! So we sat on a bench in Green Park and finished our breakfast. After that, we spent the whole day walking and shopping all around (mainly in the area of the Oxford-street).

Interesting places to visit:
Well - I think I'll just cut here with the detailed description of our trip and go to listing up a few places which I think are worth visiting (you'll find everything and much, much more in TimeOut - London's living guide (see below)).
A great shop to visit is certainly the Virgin Megastore: it's really huge and you can find almost anything there. They've got books, CD's (audio as well as PC stuff), Videos and Games (they sell even Magic: The Gathering cards).
Tower Records, located at Picadilly Circus, is a really large Music shop (I think even the prices are rather low compared to Britain's standard, but 15£ to 20£ is not that cheap compared to Swiss prices). They also have Videos and other stuff.
My colleague can recommend you a really good comic-store (I'm not that keen on comics, so I can't say how good it is).
A remark for Sega-fans: it will cost you a little fortune to get up to the highest floor of Sega-World (in fact, you have to pay a few £ for each floor, and playing is free only on the highest floor!).
We didn't have time to visit all these museums and sight-seeings (in fact: the only thing we went into was the Tower Bridge (costs you about half a day!), so I can't recommend much of it.
Ok, let's go to the night-life section:
There's this rather good club called The Borderline playing rock and hard rock sound (I think ;-). And if you've been there already: no, they really have several sorts of beer - but if they don't catch which sort you order, they'll just nod, say 'Ok!' and give you the usual 1/2 pint of lager.
Another Club's the Smithfields (we were there on Wednesday with the PM Scientists 'playing'): A lot of Drum'n'Bass. The club's really nice (sort of cave-style), with two dance-floors and two bars, but don't forget your ears (I mean these little things you put in your ears to protect them), because it's TERRIBLY LOOOUUUD!
Last but not least, there's THE FRIDGE. This is really the best club I've ever seen. There you can hear great techno sound (you don't even need ear protection) such as psychedelic techno and trance (not this Drum'n'Bass stuff). They've got three mixers: one for the sound, one for the light and one for the video (yes! live video-mixing). It's very well organized and if you enter before 11pm you can save a lot of money (5£ !!). It's a must for everyone who likes techno music.

Tips:
Ok. For all those who are going to spend a few days in London as well, here are some helpful (I hope) tips:

1. When you arrive at the airport (or at whatever), buy a one week travelcard - it's much less expensive than buying tickets all the time. It's also better than the one day travelcard, because the night busses are only free with the one week travelcard and because you don't have to buy a card each morning.
2. As soon as you see a newsstand, go and get the TimeOut magazine, which covers every aspect of London (including shopping, eating, tourist section, night life, theatre, sports, and so on) from Wednesday up to the following Wednesday and costs £1.70.
3. If you are a student, get an international student card (ISIC) and show it everytime you have to pay admission.
4. Make sure you have enough cash with you on the first day, especially if you're going to stay at the Eurotower, because you have to pay the bill in advance!