The Lemon Life | online magazine offering a fresh perspective on post-grad life.

Words by: Mark Hunter

Image by: Michael Tunney

Mission: Experience as much of London as possible in one day without spending more than £20.

Mission: Accepted.

Diary:

8.00am – Rise enthusiastically, shower, breakfast and pack the necessities: London A-Z, drink, snacks, Oyster card (London’s public transport travel card), waterproof jacket and eggs.

Running total: £0

9.00am – Catch underground train (which, combined with nearly all other methods of public transport, will cost me £5.80 for all day use) to South Kensington, and try to decide which museum to visit – the Natural History, the Science or the Victoria and Albert.  End up sampling all three (entrance is free to nearly all London museums) for a heinous forty minutes each, but schedule is tight.  Although I do learn something about dinosaurs.

Running total: £5.80

11:00am – Underground to Green Park.  Try to get a good spot for the Changing of the Guard at Buckingham Palace before the Japanese get there.  Don’t manage it.  Watch ceremony with sense of British pride before remembering how scary big horses are.  Once finished, take stroll through beautiful Green Park and St James Park to Westminster Abbey, the Houses of Parliament and Big Ben, where I find Japanese tourists have beaten me again.  Try and throw eggs at Gordon Brown but miss.

Running total: £5.80

12:00pm – Cross Westminster Bridge to South Bank where I take in Dali exhibition.  Come out cross eyed.  Temporarily consider joining queue for London Eye but realise it will blow my budget.  Bugger.  Stop for lunch at National Theatre where I take in sandwiches, tea and free live jazz.

Running total: £10.50

2:00pm – Continue along South Bank and take in Oxo Tower, wonderful Tate Modern gallery and Shakespeare’s Globe Theatre.  Feel very intellectual – an uncomfortable feeling.  Carry on to Tower of London and Tower Bridge, dodging oversized union jack hats and garishly dressed school parties.

Running total: £10.50

3:00pm – Back on underground again, this time to Knightsbridge.  Do Harrods and Sloane Street before catching bus down Piccadilly, past the Ritz, and on to Leicester Square.  Stroll round the heart of London’s theatreland, through Chinatown and into Covent Garden where I stop for a much needed pint.

Running total: £13.50

4:00pm – Take in Regent Street and Oxford Street, trying to keep credit card at bay, until I reach Marble Arch and Hyde Park where I lounge for an hour reading free evening papers until waterproof is required.  Realise I still have £6.50 left.

Running total: £13.50

6:00pm – Take underground to O2 Arena, where I take in a movie, and, although it pushes me over budget, cannot resist popcorn.

Running total: £22.25

8:30pm – Emerge from cinema loathing Michael Bay.  Head back to underground and catch train all the way home.  Collapse in bed a happy, if tired, tourist.

Final total: £22.25

Mission: Unsuccessful, but not by much!

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