An Afternoon in London

On Tuesday of Week 7, I had to go to London to take a problem solving test at the McKinsey office. I had class in the morning, but since I hadn't been to London in 4+ years, I decided to make an afternoon of the trip and wandered around before and after the test.


I took the train from Oxford, and the trip was about an hour. I had a ticket that also allowed me to travel freely on the Tube. We travelled through the countryside during the majority of the train ride, so I saw a lot of farms and cows.

I arrived at London Paddington, which is a pretty nice station. You have to pay 30p to use the bathroom though. 

As you can see, there aren't gates for the tracks. The trains are like the DC metro (and the Tube) where you put your ticket through a machine, and it shoots your ticket back up at you (or not if you are using a one-way ticket instead of a "return" ticket) as the door to the general boarding area opens. You don't have to show your ticket on the train. The Oxford-London train isn't like typical commuter rail. On my way to London I was on a more commuter-style train, but the first train back when I got to the station at night was more like an Amtrak train. It was fancier and was going pretty far from London. Both trains had a guy in a suit who made his way through the carriages with a rolling cart of tea and snacks. I could get on a train at whatever time I wanted because I had an "open return" ticket.

My train arrived at two, and I took the Tube right to Piccadilly Circus. My test was in that neighborhood at four, so I didn't want to stray too far.

Many of the streets were decorated for Christmas, and Regent St. had some odd decorations. I guess there must be some movie called Arthur Christmas.

Next I wandered to Chinatown, which is pretty pathetic compared to New York's, but more legit than DC's (but DC's Chinatown is aware that it is nothing like a real Chinatown). I got myself a red bean paste bun from one of the street vendors (which there were only like 2 of) and eventually found a place that had take-away bubble tea (which ended up being overpriced and not that great). I also went to a Chinese grocery store and bought some taro and red bean paste mochi to bring home.

I then ended up at St. James Square and by the fancy private London clubs before heading to the street that my test was on.

St. James Square

Jermyn St.

There was an entrance to St. James Church on the street, so I went to check it out. The church was originally built in the 17th century, but it was damaged during WWII. 

When I went out the front entrance of the church, I ended up in the Piccadilly Market. The stalls were full of antiques and collectibles like jewelry and matroyshka dolls. 

The McKinsey building was so nice, and I was amused that they felt the need to have one of those signs by the elevators that tells you what company is on each floor (it just said McKinsey for each floor). After the problem solving test, I walked down to see the Parliament and the river with two of the people from my testing session. 

The two people I was with then went back to the train station, and since the company wouldn't reimburse air travel costs, one of the girls had a 6 hour train ride to Scotland ahead of her. The Westminster station was very modern and had glass barriers so nobody/nothing could fall in the tracks. I think with train transfers I ended up in 4 different stations, and this was the only one to have the glass. As a result, I was trying to theorize why the station in the government area would be the one to have this added protection.

I took the Tube up to Leicester Square in the West End, but the whole park in the middle was blocked off for construction. I walked to Covent Garden, and there were more Christmas decorations on cute little streets.

I walked up to the British Museum to see how it would be lit up at night. Luckily there were signs with maps all over the areas I was in, so walking around and finding my way was not a problem. I remembered a lot of the sights I had passed on this day from my previous trips to London, but I did not realize they were all so close to each other (though this might have something to do with getting used to walking over a mile to get to a metro stop after living in Georgetown for three years). 

I walked all the way back to Piccadilly to see the lights at night before heading back to the train station around eight to go home and do some homework.