A VISIT TO SOUTH KENSINGTON

When i first time heard of 'South Kensington', i was kinda like the name. And when i know hubby's campus would be within the area, i started dreaming to live there. Heheh in my dream right.. I guess memang tiada jodoh dan rezeki lah, sebab 2 bed flat yang kami try booking dari Malaysia lagi di Jerome House Building di South Kensington cuma available dalam 3-4 bulan lagi. So, hands' down!

JHB is a housing property for international students so the rental range is quite reasonable. Ada kawan baru, Nadiah yang recommend kan sebab dia duduk di situ dan buat PhD gak kt Imperial. Tak de rezeki plak nak berjiran dengan dia. (To Niza Baron, if you read this, thank you dear for introducing us to Nadiah ;)) Namun ada hikmahnya, kalau tak mungkin kami kena bayar sewa rumah je dalam 1100++ pounds sebulan berbanding rumah sekarang. So we were glad that we changed our mind because we realized that the cost living there is actually high.

Anyway, we had a visit to 'Soken' on Saturday during the first weekend we were here. The main motive was to check the route to go to Imperial college London. From our house, we walked about half miles to Stratford Station. There hubby bought one day travel pass for two that costed 12pounds. The Eins went without them as children under 12 years old are free using any public transportation. With the passes, we actually could go anywhere in London by Tube, bus or water taxi.

At Stratford Station. 10.15a.m.

After hubby got us the passes, we quickly went searching for the right terminal because the station is not only for the tube, it got a train and bus terminal as well. Alhamdulillah we easily found it at level 1. (Thanks to the signboards!) Luckily, the tube was arriving in 3 minutes so we did not have to wait it for too long. (Talking about an efficient transportation..;)) Then we took Central line tube to the westbound.

Dunno why we expected for less crowd that day but we were wrong..macam tin sardin dalam Tube tuh. Macam naik LRT during weekend jugak. ;) Though seats are prioritized to disabled, pregnant woman and old folks but still no chance for this pregnant woman. Huhu. However, i was fine and The Eins were also well behaved during the ride. We had seen many people from many kind of races too. Macam-macam gaya dan karakter ada. Ada yang sedap dipandang dan ada yang sebaliknya.

After passing of several stations, we had transit at Holborn station to change tube. Once the Central Line tube stopped, we quickly walked out the tube and rushed with everybody else to find the tube from Piccadilly Line. Owh, dashyat masa tu. Orang ramai, jadi sesak juga dalam terowong tu. Kami plak dengan 2 strollers. Tapi bila sampai kt tangga, ada je yang baik hati menolong sy dan hubby mengangkat stroller kami sampai ke atas. Alhamdulillah. Then when a tube to 'Soken' arrived, we were relieved to see most of the coaches were quite deserted so all of us got to sit until we reached the final destination.

Arrived at South Kensington station and walked through its tunnel heading to the exit way. 

As soon as we exit the station, we went to the right and started walking. The first thing we saw was the National Science Museum but we did not stopped by. Thus we kept walking until we saw the ice rink so we stopped watching people skating for a while. Oh my, at first Zahin also wanted to skate u know..but we told her she could fall because she doesn't know how to skate and told her neither hubby nor me have tried it before to accompany her. Haha. Mujurlah dia boleh terima alasan tu.

Then we continued walking until Zahin told us she wanted to pee. So we stopped by at one area between the ice rink and National History Museum building and went to the nearby toilet. Kebetulan kat situ ada mary-go-round and food stalls. Alang-alang tu kami terus buka bekal dan beli one set of potato chips and hot chocolate to fill our hungry tummy. :)

After lunch, we continued on our mission. We walked in front of the National History Museum and the building was grande and beautiful! There were many people lining up to go inside it because it was free admission. Mula-mula kami plan nak masuk juga tapi tak jadilah sebab tak sanggup nak beratur lama-lama dalam sejuk-sejuk tuh. huhu.

at Imperial College London.

Finally we had found it! Most of the buildings are in modern architectured. The Queen's Tower is the landmark of ICL.  It was really quiet walking there, may be because it was on saturday. By the way, punyela jauh menapak, sekali tengok-tengok rupanya satu blok je dengan 'Soken' station. kalau kami keluar dari station terus jalan ke kiri, dah lama dah jumpa ICL ni..Hehe. Kira kami pusing jauh satu round tau sebab kami ke kanan. Tapi tak pe lah at the end,  hubby dah tau dah jalan ke campus dia...okla, senang hati saya. ;)

The Royal Albert Hall diambil dari jauh..

Nway, bila dah puas kat ICL, ingatkan nak cari lain2 center of attraction. Yang berdekatan cuma The Royal Albert Hall. Ingat nak pergi tapi halfway je sebab camera lense rosak plak. May be next time. Lagipun masa ni, Zahin dah terlentok dalam stroller. Iris plak dah merengek minta di dukung. Bila angkat si kecik ni, rupanya dia poo poo! Since she did not want hubby to carry her, so i had to. There was no public toilet to be seen, so we went inside the building of the National Science Museum and  went straight to the toilet to wash and change her. Before we went out the building, we entered its souvenir shop to buy a mineral water but i could not help myself from buying one of the fridge magnets too. :p

Tube map ( Stratford station di East London, Zon 3 yellow area at the right. Central line is the reed line. Transit kt Holborn station, Zon 1 which is in white area. Then we took tube at Piccadilly Line, the dark blue line and stopped at South Kensington station in West London, zon 1.

It was our first experience to ride by tube. Even though it was a muscled-tiring journey but we were glad we had made it. :) We wish to visit again next time, perhaps we could visit the Kensington Palace, Kensington Garden, Hyde Park and even Harrods. :)

Till then. Wassalam.