London in 48 Hours: What I Saw, Loved and Learned

“London and fog! When these two come together, it is time to be a writer!” Mehmet Murat İldan’s words perfectly capture the weather and atmosphere I was greeted with when I first set foot in London for the first time. Despite being a very spontaneous trip planned two days before I left Paris, it turned out to be one of the most memorable places I’ve visited.

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While flights with EasyJet and Vueling only cost me 120€ and worked out conveniently for my last-minute trip, I’d definitely recommend taking the train if you have more time to plan as it is not only cheaper but also way more eco-friendly.

I was lucky enough to stay for free with a family friend, though I had initially planned to stay in a guesthouse for 13£ a night which is a great option if you’re a budget traveller and have no place to crash at free of charge.

As to the things I did: on the first day, I went to a café right outside of the flat called Redemption Roasters for a quick breakfast. I got a chai latte and a chocolate muffin, both were delicious and left me wanting more, something I thought would never happen given the reputation of British food, but I guess it’s pretty hard to mess up a muffin.

It wouldn’t be a trip to London without going to the British Museum! I walked from the café as I didn’t want to pay for transportation. I was pleasantly surprised to find that there were indeed a few (very few) British things inside. I’d definitely recommend dedicating 3-4 hours to the museum in order to really see everything, especially if you’re going to be in London for a long time.

Here are a few of the pieces that left me gasping for air:

Everything in the museum was tantalizing. I’ve stood in front of these pieces for several minutes mesmerized by their craftsmanship. It seems impossible to imagine making these intricate pieces of jewelry, shrines, and tapestries with the limited tools available at the time.

It’s truly a labor of love, especially comparing it to today’s technology where everything can be mass produced within minutes. It’s almost hard to believe that there were people working on making the perfect piece for days, weeks, months, or even years at a time in order to honor their loved ones, monarchs, and deities— a reflection of the devotion and skill of their makers.

I could’ve easily spent hours in front of each piece, analysing every nook and cranny and burning them into my head, wondering who their maker was and what kind of life they led. Yet I couldn’t help the wave of discomfort washing over me, knowing that many of these pieces had been forcefully taken from their rightful home. How would their makers feel knowing their labor of love had been stolen by the museum, taken far away from the eyes they were meant to honor in order to be displayed to unworthy ones?

I left the museum carrying that question in my heart and made my way to Trafalgar Square. The awe-inspiring view, combined with the smell of oncoming rain was incredibly refreshing. I facetimed my mother to show her my surroundings and she recommended I walk around Soho then go down to the docks at night for a view of the fully-lit London Eye.

A fifteen-minute walk from Trafalgar Square is the Big Ben! The first thing I did after taking in the sheer size of it was a photoshoot, but hey, it’s one of the funnest things about travelling if you ask me. It’s amazing that we have the ability to capture moments of our lives to keep on our persons forever, I don’t think we appreciate that enough.

After hours of walking around London with a heavy bag on my back, I was starving. I entered a random restaurant, made the grave mistake of not leaving when I noticed the prices weren’t written on the menu, and got my last pounds taken from me. Moral of the story: don’t eat anything in central London or you’ll end up paying 27£ for meh food.

I unfortunately couldn’t go to the Camden or Borough Markets for dinner as they were closed by then so I went to Chinatown instead. I had the most amazing orange bangbang chicken corn dog from Jixiang Fried Chicken for only 3,5£! It was larger than my head and dripping in delicious kewpie mayo and an assortment of seasonings. For dessert, I had a strawberry taro boba from Gong Cha, it was really good! The strawberry flavoring really took me back to middle school when my mom would pack strawberry milk in my lunchbox because I hated the taste of regular milk.

After that, as per my mother’s recommendation, I went down to the docks and walked until I reached the London Eye, the view of it at night is so gorgeous! I honestly wish I had the extra 30£ to spend to ride it.

On the second day, I met up with some friends and had breakfast at the Alma café, I really wanted to try the full english breakfast but unfortunately, there weren’t any halal/non pork options so I had the club sandwich without any bacon instead.

After that, we spent the day thrifting in Brick Lane, a charming street thrumming with energy lined with eclectic thrift stores. While we admired the Y2K themed stores, I had to leave with our tail between our legs as the prices went from 20-100£ per item of clothing and I had neither the money nor the luggage space to spare.

This trip reminded me of the magic of spontaneity. Even with minimal planning, I managed to have the best time here and explored so much of London’s beauty and culture! Next time, I’ll be more organised with plans to visit the Natural History museum, Borough Market, and the Sherlock Holmes museum.

© 2025 C. H. Gökdemir. All rights reserved.