UNITED KINGDOM OF NO PUBLIC TRANSPORT

I expected that trying to plan my first trip to a faraway land would be hard.

You have no idea how much of an understatement that is.

It all started off well and easy, finding out where I wanted to go, what I wanted to do, my next destination and how to travel from place to place.

Christmas in London sounds magical right? Like how the public transport in London magically disappears on Christmas AND Boxing Day.

This obviously proves how dumb I am at this because apparently it is a well-known fact that London is practically a quarantine zone during this festive season of Santa Claus.

Trella Goh has never been on a self-planned trip alone with her friends before. The closest to that was being in a pre-planned trip to Germany with fellow then-18-year-olds with chaperones and meeting points every hour. I had no idea what to do except depend on Tripadvisor and idk what else I depended on because I ended up planning a trip where I booked hotels before realising that there was no transport to said hotel BECAUSE CHRISTMAS MADE PUBLIC TRANSPORT DISAPPEAR (except for National Express which is ridiculously expensive on Boxing Day with only one or two services that would leave you crying with a ginormous price tag of x2 and x3 of a normal trip time wasted).

I ended up cancelling my hotel at York and am going to spend a ridiculously cold and quiet day on Christmas... I am obviously a noob at planning a trip.

However, Christmas in London is not ALL that bad. If you're already on a budget, you won't be planning to take the tube much and neither will you be dining out frequently so it doesn't really matter if public transport and diners are shut down (save for a few restaurants that will leave your wallet £50-70 pounds emptier on average). Christmas Day is the only time of the year where you get to see London in its serene beauty without buses, taxis and humans sprawling across the streets. 

There a few guides on Tripadvisor on lovely things to do during Christmas Day, like taking a walk around a quiet London or hiking across scenic paths around London.

My plan now has been altered to London for 4 days and then Edinburgh for 4 days before heading to Paris for New Year's Eve and then leaving for school in Spain on 3rd January!

Now that most of my plans are settled, I really hope they run smoothly and that there no more hiccups! *fingers crossed*

For now, before I embark on a 6-month long journey, let me get back to being a sociology major and get rid of my readings before class at 12pm tomorrow!