Easter Break 1

The program during the Easter holidays was very tight. On Monday, I set off towards London with 3 of my friends at 5:30 in the morning. Since obviously we're not as rich as the English, we decided to take the 6-hour bus ride instead of a 2-hour train ride and thus save 30 pounds.

We finally arrived in London at 11:30 and went straight to the hostel. Of course, we also tried to save money on accommodation. In the end, it turned out that taking the cheapest offer is not always the best idea. But 17 pounds per night just sounded too tempting.

All three of my friends were in London for the first time, which meant: tourist attractions!

The weather on the first two days was typically British, meaning rain. But we all know that from Manchester, so we tried to ignore the rain as best as possible.

After the first round of tourist attractions, we headed to the National Art Gallery. There you can see artworks by many different artists, such as Monet, van Gogh, or Da Vinci. Unfortunately, it was very crowded there, so you couldn't really take in the paintings. Also, I had the feeling that people were only in the museum to take photos of the famous paintings for their various social network profiles, instead of actually engaging with art. Unfortunately, my friends were part of this group, which I found very disappointing. So, I couldn't see everything the museum had to offer.

In the evening, we were all pretty exhausted since we hadn't gotten much sleep. The beds in the hostel were a complete disaster. Normally, I can sleep well anywhere, but it felt like I was sleeping more on the 'slatted frame' (metal grid) than on the mattress. The next day, everyone in the room woke up at 7 in the morning from a terrible noise. No one knew what the noise was until we later found out that there were construction works going on outside the facade. So, a perfect start to the day!

Afterwards, we walked to Camden Town, which is located in the northwest of London. There you can find many different shops and markets.

We walked an average of about 15-18 km every day, which we all felt at the end of the day. The weather was finally better on the third day, which immediately put us in a better mood.

The life of a money saver is not easy. The three nights in the hostel were bearable, but I won't go to this hostel again. In addition, there were the early flights, because nowadays you can only fly with Ryanair, as all other airlines go bankrupt. You have to weigh whether you accept a flight at 7 in the morning to pay only half the price or not. Anyone who has been to London knows that the airport is quite far outside the city, so you have to get up at 3:30 in the morning if you want to catch your flight.

I flew off at 7:30 and finally arrived in Cologne at around 9 o'clock!

You will find the next part of my holidays soon in the article 'Easter Break 2'.