My Central Europe Travel Experience Day1 – 13 Hours flight to London

On Labour Day of 1st of May 2010, early in the morning at 5:30AM while everyone else were still sleeping, we were already standing at the bus stand. We were waiting for our Star Shuttle bus to take us to LCCT airport in 1 hour time so we could check in our baggage well before our flight time at 9:20AM. I always love to take Star Shuttle to or from LCCT since it stops at Batu 3, Jalan Ipoh which is very close to our home and it costs only RM9 one way (Terravision also cost us 9 bucks to get to London city from Stansted, only that it was in Pound Sterling!). Where were we flying to? If our air tickets did print correctly, we should depart from LCCT and arrive at Stansted, London in 13 hours! It’s going to be our starting and ending point of 14 days Central Europe sightseeing tour! 🙂

There are 5 airports in London. We were flying to low cost Stansted airport because we were taking low cost Air Asia X flight. Our carrier was Airbus A340. Seats configuration were still 2-4-2 (it has been upgraded last month to be more spacious).

Since we were flying east to west, I was trying to stay awake as much as possible. This was mentioned in the in-flight magazine which is one of the 5 tips to a more enjoyable flight. The 5 tips mentioned are:

1. Equalise Pressure of your ears by swallowing, yawning or exhaling forcibly while pinching your nose;
2. Stretch & Flex your legs every hour to prevent swelling and pain at the back of your leg;
3. Forget contact lenses and wear spectacles instead to prevent your eyes from becoming dry especially during a long haul flight;
4. Sleep smart to counter the jet-lag effect; Sleep as much as you like when flying west to east, and
5. Stay hydrated by drinking more water as airplane air is extremely dry.

Half way through the flight, our plane passed by a very long mountain range which I wasn’t sure whether it was the Alps or Himalaya…

When we are approaching UK, we flew over a very large fields of farms in other parts of Europe and even withing UK.

Many of these ‘yellow’ fields were spotted. I found out later that they are actually Canola field which produce edible oil from their seeds.

After a long long flight, We were finally landed at the Stansted Airport of London! Though it is the low cost carrier airport of London, it is still a very big and advanced airport (if compared to Ciampino airport of Rome). However, it wasn’t a nice day. It’s raining and the temperature dropped drastically to only 11°C eventhough it was in May!

There are 2 most popular transportation options to go to London city centre. One is by train and we opted for the other one which is by bus or shuttle. We took Terravision shuttle for £9.00. After an hour, we were in London city centre Liverpool Street train station.

It was nearly 8 in the evening so we quickly grabbed an underground train ticket (cost £4 one way) and jumped onto the train to get us to Russel Square (Changed line in Holborn). From Russel Square tube station, we had to walked ten minutes to reach our London accommodation, our first accommodation in Europe, the Smart Russel Square Bed and Breakfast. It is located at 71, Guilford Street.

Smart Russel Square B&B is a 4-storey high apartment along Guildford Street with many rooms and beds to offer to those travelers on a tight budget. We booked 5 beds in a 6-person mixed dorm with shared bathroom for £16 per person per night which was quite reasonable if you are talking about staying in London City Centre. In fact, our hostel is in walking distance to all major travel attractions in London City Centre especially the British Musuem which is only throw stone away! We got the deal by booking well in advance online through one of those booking agents like Hotel Direct.

After checking in and settling down a bit, it was already 10PM at night. The rain had just stopped but it was still freezing cold with only 6°C I believed. We walked out for our first dinner in London and Europe. With some advice from our B&B receptionist, we came to a street nearby with quite some restaurants and cafes. It was weekend night so the night was quite busy eventhough it was raining half an hour ago.

We chose this kebab shop called Valencia Cafe Restaurant. It offered middle east menu and we ordered kebabs, curry, fried rice with lots of fries! This wrapped up our 1st day in London also our first destination in Europe briefly. Tomorrow we will start exploring the busiest city in Europe, London and its shopping streets in more details! Stay tuned! Subscribe to my RSS feeds for upcoming stories of my Europe travel. – Travel Feeder, your ultimate travel photo blog

About The Author

Cecil Lee

The author is an avid traveler and photography hobbyist who loves to share with others his travel and photo-taking experience in many popular tourist destinations around Europe, Asia and Australasia. Read the exciting stories with many photos captured on his journeys.