Being tourists!

We landed into Heathrow after over 30 hours of traveling. I cleared immigration alright, but Dylan got asked a hundred and one questions before he was let in. I was so surprised we didn't have to go through customs with our bags like we do in Australia. If you've never flown into Australia before, you have to fill out a little declaration card that customs officers take very seriously, and if a dog likes the smell of your bag be prepared for it to get turned inside out. In the UK apparently, you grab your bags and walk through a door with a sign that says you have nothing to declare!

Exploring the beautiful Hyde Park as the sun set.

We caught the tube to our hostel with no troubles. Thankfully it wasn't peak hour! We stayed at Astor Hyde Park Hostel for seven nights. It was the first time for me I had booked a hostel not a part of the Hosteling International group. Our main things we looked for when booking was wifi, kitchen facilities and value for money. Astor Hyde Park ticked all these boxes and also had a top location. We had two tube stops, a number of grocery stores, museums and Hyde Park itself all within a short walk. The staff were also five stars; those rare hostel staff that are friendly and sociable while also being tremendously helpful. Shout out to the hostel for also helping with working out my butt with all those stairs to our room!

Our first few days were spent exploring and fighting jet lag.
I also had a cold, which made me feel tired and exhausted all the time, and a little easier to ignore the jet lag. We quickly became pros at taking the tube. We would get off at random stops and explore. We've also done a lot of walking. 

Probably one of our coldest days of exploring!

Typical tourist shot!

A little 3D map on the south side of the river

Walking over Tower Bridge

After seeing the Tower Bridge and exploring that area we got back on and headed west. I told Dylan to pick a random stop and we'll get off and find something for lunch. We were both hungry, cold and a bit over tourists. Guess where we got off. Guess. We walked out of the station and we're right underneath the Big Ben. Cue selfies with Ben, the London Eye and a walk through St. James's Park and more selfies with the Queen's house.

Me, Benny and Dylan

Pretending I own the place at Buckingham Palace

Selfie with the Palace

After that we stumbled upon a food market between office-type buildings near Victoria station. We ate some delicious French potato dish. It had so much flavour and warmed us up a little. Then we did a lap of all the dessert stands, but we couldn't go past the Black Forest cake. Chocolate in the middle, fruity on the outside and a hundred per cent made with love. The guy at the stand was also super nice.

We've been lucky to have nice weather our first few days, although definitely a shock from the Aussie summer!

All in all, London has made a great first impression! I'll be sticking around for a while longer!