London for the Weekend 8/21/2024

Wow wow wow, London truly was such an incredible weekend. Between seeing my favorite artist multiple times with my best friend, exploring a city that before i wasn’t a huge fan of, and a really wonderful night with someone I had met on a previous adventure, i really have no complaints. Other than how quick it ended.

Where to start… My luck was off to a flying start when my flight to London had gifted me the entire row to myself for my 11 hour flight. I somehow managed to get a solid 7 hours of sleep basically preventing my jet lag from ever happening when I arrived in London. I was disappointed to see that don’t stamp your passport as US citizen in the UK, but at least I got thru customs in under 15 minutes and was on a train into London quicker than I ever imagined. Once i got into the city I met my best friend Alex at his hotel where we grabbed some quick lunch then got ready to see TAYLOR SWIFT in concert at Wembley Stadium. Those who know me are aware i have been a swiftie since I was a child, and even though I have been lucky enough to see her in concert a few times already with the Eras tour, each time feels like its own magic. This was also the first time I had gone with Alex where he is known for his SwiftTok account which means many a people were coming up to say Hi and trade bracelets with us. After grabbing some drinks at the White Horse Pub (how perfect to have a bar nearby named this??) we wandered into the stadiums where I got to experience my first concert on the floor. While it was tough to see at times the fun and silliness of dancing along other Taylor fans was just so much fun. To avoid the madness of the Underground immediately after the show we took our little group back to the White Horse post show. It was filled with fans and we all sang Taylor songs and reminisced on the show. We eventually got a cab home and got some late night Mediterranean food before heading back to the hotel at 2 am. Overall, a great way to start my weekend in London, and force myself to ignore Jet Lag.

Now let’s talk about Sunday. This is the one day I was visiting that Taylor didn’t have a show so I checked into my hotel after saying goodbye to Alex. I wandered around Hyde Park seeing the ponds and gardens and doing some grade A people watching. I was advised that it is crucial to get a Sunday Roast in a pub when the opportunity arises so I found a nearby location and plopped myself down for some beer and roast. It did feel crucial to get some real food in me after having so much time snacking on late night shops and airplane food. The food held up, and then i was back to wandering until i could officially check into my hotel and get my room. I had visited Buckingham Palace before but it was near where I was at so I strolled through that way to watch the changing of the guard before heading back to my hotel. That evening I had plans to see someone you may recognize if you’ve followed this blog from back when it started. Hayden was a guy I met in Ho Chi Minh when I started my journey backpacking though South East Asia last year. He’s from New Zealand but has been living in London since he finished his journey traveling last year. He graciously agreed to take me out when I told him I was coming to town. I got myself organized and cleaned up at my hotel and then caught the Tube to meet him at a bar called the Game Keeper (he accidentally called it the Gate Keeper which made finding the bar tricker than expected) once i wandered by he waved me down and we grabbed a beer. It’s always surprising to me how easy it can be to pick up where things have left off with people you’ve met on your travels. Even though it had been over a year since we’d seen each other it felt easy to chat and talk about how our lives have changed in the past year. We joked about past adventures and shared stories about what our respective lives look like now that we’re not both nomads backpacking on a different continent. He ended up getting us a reservation at this incredible place in London that is apparently a well known experience that I hadn’t heard of called the Sky Garden. We took the elevator up to the top of the second tallest building in London where you could see the city while exploring what seemed to be a greenhouse on a rooftop with a bar. We grabbed some wine and beer, enjoyed the view and each others company, and just spent a lovely night catching up. I’ve always said my favorite part of travel is the people I meet along the way, and it was great to see the memory of a person holds true when seeing them again a year later. I’m thankful for the people I get to meet and memories we make together even when we’re worlds apart. The hard part of meeting great people though is that it can be so easy and natural to spend time with them, and you know there is an expiration to the experience with them. We went our separate ways but agreed to see each other again when our adventures cross paths in the future. He plans to travel through Mexico next year, and that’s close enough to San Diego that perhaps we will meet again one day.

Monday was an unexpected day. What was planned to be another day exploring the city turned into a day full of Taylor Swift shenanigans. I grabbed an early coffee and pastry and then decided to go take a picture outside of a pub called The Black Dog (which Taylor has written a song about.) however, as i was sipping my coffee the pub opened an hour early. So i figured why not pop in for a drink. There was a stunning mural on the wall with the lyrics to Taylor’s song and lots of great beer and food. As a solo traveler I love popping down in a bar seat and chatting up bartenders and people watching. Eventually, another girl sat down by me in her Reputation shirt and we started chatting. She was also in town for the show and strangely also a solo traveler from California! We bonded over our adventures and shared a few beers before a THIRD solo traveler from California joined us. We ended up having more time and beer than planned at The Black Dog than any of us expected. We shared our stories of our favorite places we had traveled and talked about the complications of dating (one must do this in the black dog) and overall just had a really great time. We grabbed some pictures together and then started to head out separate ways. I ended up getting a text from Alex that one of his Tik Tok Followers had gifted us two more tickets to the Monday night Taylor show, and if you have free tickets to Taylor you have to go. So i ran back to my hotel to get changed and cleaned up before heading back to Wembley for another round of music and madness. We got in to dance to Paramore opening up the show and gathered back on the floor in a corner to just dance and have a blast. While the view of the concert wasn’t the best, the ticket was free and the crowds energy was magical. The underground wasn’t as big of a nightmare post show as expected so I got home at a normal ish hour and passed out with a very missing voice and very sore legs.

Now i want to make this clear… Tuesday was the only ACTUAL day i PLANNED to see Taylor when this $300 plane ticket was booked. Alex was taking his parents and it’s easier to get 4 tickets than it is 3, so i kindly offered to be number 4 in their group. It was also the closing night of the European leg of the tour so we knew it would be a big night. I woke up that morning and ordered some room service, and started packing up all of my stuff to prep for my early flight Wednesday morning. I managed to piece together an outfit for the show when i was not prepared to need a look for this many nights then hopped on the tube to go meet Alex and his parents for lunch. We went to a cute restaurant called the Ivy Collective and indulged in a Pims and a Shepards Pie to try and be as British as possible. We shared with his parents what to expect from the show and fans kept stopping us to take pictures with Alex, which his parents found very silly. After lunch we headed towards Wembley so we could be in all the pre-show magic. We grabbed more drinks at the White Horse, wandered around outside the stadium and seeing everything happening before going into the stadium. Alex had gotten us great lower bowl seats where we could see everything. The show was more than i ever expected it could be. Florence Welch ended up coming out during the Tortured Poets set because Taylor Swift is a crazy person and just surprise added the song Florida! to the set list. We all lost our minds. Then Jack Antonoff joined her on stage to sing two of my all time favorite songs, Death by a Thousand Cuts and Getaway Car. It was a really magical moment to share with my friend and his family. Then of course Taylor randomly dropped the I Can Do it With a Broken Heart Music video at the end of the show which was filled with videos of behind the Scenes footage of the Eras Tour. We were riding on a high the whole time. I made it back to my hotel, closed up my suitcase, and went to sleep. Now I sit on my 11 hour flight back to LA, writing this blog post and just thinking about how grateful I am to have the life I do. The people I know and experiences I have are more than most people will ever know. So if i can leave you with one piece of advice, take risks. Book the last minute flight. Say yes when people want to share a part of their world with you. Even if people are judgmental about you seeing Taylor Swift three times or think you’re crazy for accepting a date with someone you only met once on a total opposite side of the world, none of that matters. I am creating stories and a life that bring me joy, and i couldn’t be more thankful. Long Live the magic we made.