Ruby Loves Adventure

London 2012 is officially under way (did you get to watch it? I did!) and since not everyone can go there at the moment, I thought I could take you on a little tour what to see! This city has over 2,000 years of history, and is a cultural melting pot. It is a city where the old meets new, where high rise modern buildings can be seen within a few minutes walk from a castle!

First off, let's tour some Olympic venues within the London.

The Olympic Stadium, within the Olympic Village in Stratford, hosted the Opening Ceremonies last Friday. It would also host the Athletics & Closing Ceremony, definitely something to look out for. Have you seen the fireworks over this stadium during the Opening Ceremony?


Wimbledon is widely known for its yearly Tennis tournament, and this time, the All England Lawn Tennis and Croquet Club will also be the venue for the Tennis Olympic Event.



The Wembley Stadium, distinguishable from miles around London because of the large arch in front, will host the football (soccer to Americans) final. Other football matches are scattered throughout England, but this is the closest to London so far.



And on to some iconic views - if you've seen the Olympic Opening Ceremonies, David Beckham went through this steering a speedboat (of course there's fireworks as he went through too)- this is Tower Bridge. It currently has the Olympic rings at the top for the Olympics :)

Early this January, there was a Piso fare from low cost carrier, Cebu Pacific, and since I couldn't resist the chance to grab a sale, I booked a ticket to a random destination, which was for Shanghai.

I had no clue what to expect from Shanghai, other than it used to be a colony of my beloved England, and that I watched a show on the travel channel about it. I just know that I need to have a visa to get in the country (ahh yes another obstacle I had to get through).

The flight arrives at 12mn in Shanghai and to save on costs for the hostel and the taxi from the airport, we decided to find a quiet place to stay and sleep.

I did not get enough sleep on the plane ride to Shanghai so when I found my spot to sleep on, I just put on my eye patch, my socks, and the sarong and Zzzzzzzed.

I woke up at around 5am (slept around 130/2) because the sound of the hoover cleaning the floor was quite annoying. It was also surprising for me that their sunrise is very early! Sleeping in the airport could be a good experience too, something I would definitely do again.

After changing our money (bloody hell, you have to pay a 50rmb service charge for any foreign exchange transactions done in the airport) - such a shame too as my ATM is not being recognized by any foreign bank at the ATM! Gaaah!

Got a Shanghai Metro card, then boarded a metro line 2 to East Nanjing Road. It's quite overwhelming as there are obviously a lot of people in China! The metro also takes forever to get from the airport to the city center with an interhange somewhere so watch out for that and allot ample time to get to/from the airport.

After finding the hostel of my friend - Blue Mountain Bund Youth Hostel at South Shanxi Road (near Exit One of the East Nanjing Road Stn), dropping off our bags and off we went to explore the city.

First stop was to just find breakfast! I was really, really hungry at the time and we ended up at KFC in East Nanjing Rd: something that's familiar to me, and was the first restaurant we saw! Got a burger of sorts plus an egg tart (for around 20RMB), and off we went to explore East Nanjing Rd.

Initially, I wanted to go and walk around the Bund area, but we ended up on the wrong direction and ended up at People's Square!

Explored the area for a little while before hopping on the Metro to Lujiazhui (Metro Line 2) to officially begin our tour!