Travelling the wrong direction around the world

Given that we are on a travelers shoestring budget we don’t always have the luxury of selecting the best flights, the number one factor in our flight selection decisions always has to be price. Given that, when we were searching for flights to get us from South America to Australia a few months back, when we stumbled upon one-way flight that was also half the price of all the other flights we were looked at we jumped on it!..... Only problem was that it was going to take us 3 days to get to Oz and this flight literally was taking us the wrong way around the world to get there - Sao Paulo to London, London to Singapore, Singapore to Brisbane....uggggh. But hey, a deal is a deal wherever you can find them. 


After coming off our first ~12 hour flight we were in London Heathrow, since we had a 13 hour layover in London we decided that we would make a day of it and go into the city. We had already made plans to meet up with a friend of our who had moved to London just two weeks earlier and he planned a Ferris Buellers day-off like itinerary for us for the day. After a quick change in the bathroom and clearing UK customs we headed to the arrivals terminal and were greeted with a warm welcome from Scotty, our friend who had just moved to town, complete with home made sign looking for those with a PMA (positive mental attitude) and pints. After hugs and hellos we sat down and cracked our first round of pints for the day (the first of many, many pints), right there in the Heathrow arrivals hall. The rest of the day went a little something like this: 

• Hop on the tube and get off at Piccadilly Circus, immediately find pub and have a traditional English breakfast
• Our intention was to then get on the 2hour bus tour around the city but we spent too long at breakie and quickly decided it would cut into our pub crawl time so we hopped in a cab and ask the cabbie to take us to East London but take the long way an show us the top sites along the way
• Cabbie takes us on 30min tour around the city to Buckingham Palace, Westminster Abbey, Big Ben, London Eye and St. Pauls  Cathedral – we hopped out once to take some quick shots
• Scotty asks cabbie to take us to Griffen’s pub, apparently there are two Griffen's in town and cabbie thinks we mean the one that is a strip club.
• After nearly arriving at Griffen’s (the strip club) we finally realize that he thinks we are going to a different place after some confusing conversation about why the ladies are going there and him telling us to make sure we have lots of 1 pound coins – we quickly change course and head to the Griffen's PUB in Shoreditch.
• Griffen's pub is still closed so we hit the hipster hotspot next door called Book Store and we have pints and ciders
• Move back over to Griffen’s after it has opened and we continue on the pints, Jonny’s two Brit friends that he met in Oz, Harry and Frazer, join in on the action
• We spend the next 5 hours pub crawling through Shoreditch and Bricklane, many pints, ciders and shots are consumed, the first and second “warning, you need to head back to the airport NOW” alarms that I set on my watch goes off……. We continue pinting 
• Friends convince us that we can’t leave London with proper fish and chips so we go next door for fish and chips….. finally 6:30 rolls around and we realize that we have less than 2 hours to get to Heathrow airport and onto our flight 
• We begin sprint #1to Liverpool station and hop on the first tube – the ride takes 1hr 15mins
• Get off at Heathrow at 7:50pm for our 8:30pm flight whilst still needing to clear customs, clear security and find out gate......we quickly start sprint #2
• After cutting into a few lines (made up some sob story about getting on the wrong tube) and a full on sprint to our gate we make it onto to the flight JUST as the gate is about to close

Team power tourist at Buckingham Palace

Going past Big Ben

Winding around Westminster Abbey

Looking at the London Eye

Jonny Reunited with Harry and Frazer

It was an epic day and amazing feat that we actually did make out flight. Needless to getting some sleep on the next leg of our flight was not an issue. After another 2 very long legs, 12 hours and 8 hours respectively, we are now relaxing in Coolum Beach Australia where we have reunited with a good friend from University. It feels great to be back in the sun again!! 

OOO_Talia