Airbnb

Although I am going to be staying with a friend outside of London for most of my time in the London area, I wanted to be in Central London for at least a couple of days.  So I have made my first Airbnb booking of my trip. 

Airbnb  is a service where people with rooms, apartments, or houses to rent advertise them, and people who are looking for places to stay, usually cheap places to stay, can book.  I was a little creeped out by Airbnb because they wanted me to record a video (!) about myself as part of my profile.  The first place I found on there emailed me back and said that I might not be comfortable there if I care about cleanliness and quiet, so I took their word for it.  The place I ultimately booked is in Islington, and not far from a tube station.  Fingers crossed it will be a good choice.  It will no doubt be some of my most expensive lodging in the next few months because it is in London.  This Airbnb thing will be interesting, I think.  Hopefully interesting in a good way.

I also booked a train ticket from London to Brussels for my onward journey.  This isn't really what I wanted to do.  Back before the Eurostar channel tunnel train cut hours off of the journey to continental Europe, one used to go to Victoria Station in London, get a train to Dover or Folkestone, take a ferry or hovercraft across the English Channel to Calais or Boulogne in France, or Oostende in Belgium, then get another train.  It was time consuming but I had the idea that if they still had that, it would be cheaper than Eurostar.  Alas, those services are no more.  Eurostar has killed them off.