Lost in London

As you may (or more likely not) know last night I got hopelessly lost in London after leaving seone (a club that is in some converted underground tunnels sporting a foam party!) in a rather inebriated and annoyed state (the reasons of which I will not go into).

Thus when I escaped from the underground warren of tunnels and out into the chilly night it was a most refreshing experience. However, as I had been separated from my friends, I had no clue where to go next; nor money to pay for a cab, which is excessively expensive by yourself - around £50. Furthermore the night buses were being uncooperative and after waiting at a bus stop for what felt like an age (probably 5 minutes) with some people who clearly had less clue about London buses than I did (which was quite remarkable) I left on a mission to find my way back to the river.

Anyway I'm digressing, I left the club and took what looked like the correct path. This decision was taken without any knowledge of where to go as I did not know where the club was located in London - except that it was in south east London.

As I ambled off I reflected on the events of that night and didn't realise that I was going in the wrong direction, i.e south as I did not have the sun to guide me and the roads all looked the same - long, noisy and wide. After yet more walking - plenty more coming trust me, I stumbled upon Old Kent Road and had one of those moments where you match something you've heard of with the real thing; by this I mean the little brown square on the Monopoly board. Then I noticed to my surprise that there was a New Kent Road too which although obvious with retrospect, had not occurred to me.

Unfortunately at this point I realised that I was hopelessly lost and for lack of ideas or indeed any sense of direction, I set to texting people in London who could possibly help me. As no-one replied, as you would expect at that time of night, I called my good friend Simone and promptly woke her up. Fortunately she didn't seem too annoyed about the rude awakening and I quickly set to explaining to her about my predicament.

She retrieved her laptop and guided me to the only place I knew well - the River Thames. After what seemed like forever and a few despairing moments I reached my goal, and what better place to reach it I ask than Westminster Bridge? To my right I had the London Eye and straight ahead lay Big Ben which is really quite a fantastic work of art and rather tall. Around the perimeter of the houses of Parliament there were many policemen patrolling even at that ungodly hour.

Having escaped the maze of south London I followed the river for a long long time until I reached my halls, at 6am in the morning and after a 6.5mile hike.

Here is a map of the course I took (sorry for appalling quality):