After demolishing the last poutine I’ll have for 3 months during my layover in St. Johns, Newfoundland, and getting about an hour of sleep on the plane, I was feeling surprisingly ready to navigate London’s public transit system when I landed at Gatwick airport.
Three trains later, I was hugging Chloe (bestie) in Hackney Central. I was lucky to be staying with her and her lovely lad, Andrew, for the next few days, adjusting to the time difference before heading to Greece, and learning about their life in London. I was greeted by a towel swan Chloe lovingly prepared for me on the futon. We walked down a canal in her neighbourhood and I marvelled at the unfamiliar birds, which, for the most part, were probably extremely common, boring urban birds, with one exception: the rose-ringed parakeet.
I was completely thrown off when I first noticed this colourful bird, seemingly from the tropics, in urban London. Chloe informed me that the way this non-native species came to London is widely speculated, but she heard that Jimi Hendrix used to walk around with one on his shoulder, and they would often fly away. “His assistant would keep buying new birds for him, and the population grew from there,” she said.
Speaking of urban wildlife, there is at least one fox living on the turf roof that Chloe and Andrew can see from their bedroom window. “Sometimes you’ll see a magpie hopping around the fox, and that is the most British sight ever,” said Andrew. The poor thing appears to be riddled with fleas, so whenever I watched it, it was either itching or sleeping.
While my visit was mostly relaxing and uneventful (enjoying the parks, coffee shops, bookstores, and really expensive glasses of wine at an adorable spot called Bruno), there was one particularly eventful night. As if the towel swan wasn’t enough, on my first night in London, Chloe and Andrew booked the three of us a session at this place where you can enjoy rooftop saunas and cold plunges. Given that Chloe and I both suffer from a lack of time awareness, the evening devolved into chaos before it began. We had to inhale the dinner Andrew quickly cooked for us while discussing the fact that we would need to cycle instead of walk to get to our session on time. Chloe grabbed her bike while I rented a notorious electric Lime bike.
I positioned myself on the bike to begin pedaling, hoping to turn left into the bike lane, but I underestimated how powerful the electric bike was. As soon as my foot touched the pedal, I shot out into the crosswalk. I still tried to make the sharp left turn, but was out of control and rammed into another cyclist’s rear tire. Everyone stared. Some people offered an “are you okay?” I looked and felt like the stupid tourist on a rental bike. I hopped off and reversed the bike embarrassingly slowly off the road.
I walked my bike over to where Chloe, who was completely unaware, was waiting. “I hit him,” I exclaimed.
“Who?”
“The cyclist!”
“You’re bleeding,” she said.
I looked down and realized that while I was ramming into the cyclist, I put my foot down to stop myself and skinned my toe pretty badly. Chloe and I swapped bikes so I wouldn’t have to re-traumatize myself, and we made it to the sauna on time, albeit a little worse for wear.
On my last day in London, I walked around the city with no real plan. I let myself wander freely down whichever street looked interesting. (This was a pretty freeing exercise for someone who generally likes to have a plan when it comes to traveling.) While heading in the direction of the Thames River, I found myself turning to walk through a tunnel, which I expected to be a little smelly and not overly interesting. I couldn’t have been more wrong. Turns out I was in a pretty famous spot called Graffiti Tunnel. It did actually smell, but of fresh paint. Groups of people were adding designs to the walls, ceiling, and floor as I walked by. Later, as I ventured past the London Eye, it hit me: “I’m in London!” Of all the ways I could be using my freewill, I’m choosing to wander the streets of London today.
Overall, London was filled with some pleasant surprises, a nice catch-up with my bestie, and my first injury of the trip. I’ll have this scar on my toe as a nice souvenir for a memory I won’t soon forget. I’m writing this from Gatwick airport and just found out the first flight I had planned on taking to eventually get to Greece is delayed, so now my plans are completely derailed, and I think I will be in for an interesting next 24 hours.
Last Updated on November 19, 2025 by Megan Duchesne