This green line leads to something…

As soon as you walk through the exit barriers of the currently desolate Old Street Underground Station, you will notice these lines on the ground leading outside.

A nice thank you message to the NHS, these are all over London right now.

The station has 8 different exits with it being directly under a roundabout, so to help commuters know which route to take these exits are colour coded. I am not sure if the lines simply help commuters find the right exit, or if they also lead to something specific outside. The green line definitely leads to something in particular, so on my daily walk I decided to follow it…

The below shot almost gave the game away… so I decided to blur the answer on the ground 😉

Traffic seems to be getting busier, although it is still much quieter than the norm.

Getting there…

It leads to Moorfields Eye Hospital, only a few minutes up City Road. I heard that the hospital may be treating patients for the virus, but this could be incorrect. It is certainly deferring non-urgent patients though, stating so on their website.

The green line runs right to the front door of the A&E!

The building is a beautiful one, with a more modern extension in the shots above at the accident and emergency entrance. I noticed the clock was in the shape of an eye, which is a pretty cool addition.

Another beautiful day! I have to say London has been gifting us with some beautiful blue skies in the past couple weeks, I hope this continues. It is a concern over here that us Brits won’t be able to resist the opportunity to get a little tan and get complacent with the social distancing, but so far people seem to be resisting temptation. Myself included. I just take shots on my daily walks, or to and from the shop. But I did take a longer walk down towards the highrises yesterday which was EMPTY. Hardly a soul. With it being a bunch of offices the weekend is the perfect time to go on the best of days, now even more so. I felt much better walking down there compared to the parks actually, and I will show you this soon.

I am being sensible, and taking photos when I have to leave for groceries or exercise. And only on an iPhone right now or a small GoPro, as my Nikon would be taking the p*** a little bit.

I hope you have some blog worthy areas on your daily walks when you get the chance to leave the house, and thank you to the NHS and to the health services around the world keeping you healthy in your country.

See you all again soon!!

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Due to the Coronavirus outbreak I am somewhat limited as to what I can do in London, but I aim to post as much as I can during this time. I promise to have some great posts coming your way once this is all over as I continue to explore London.

Stay home, stay safe and happy blogging!

Sam

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Accidental Street Art

Horrible. That’s the only way I can describe the weather in the UK right now, storm after storm bringing relentless rain and wind. For that reason I only went out once, to pop to the shops whilst there was still some light, and I found a cool little something on route.

Someone put a yellow cone over a ground light and I loved it.

Now at first silly me thought this was a cool futuristic cone that actually lights up, until I noticed we aren’t there yet as a civilisation and it was just plonked on a light. But if anything it made me cherish the moment even more. Who put it there? Was it on purpose or just dropped by some worker that didn’t realise their artwork as they walked away?

Just a little something I wanted to share on my only wander today, reminding me that we don’t have to go too far to find a cool discovery and it may be on our doorstep.

I may be milking this a little bit more than it is worth, but I did find it very cool in all honesty.

I hope you think the same 😀

Travel Diary: The Blue Mountains are stunning

Who knew a short train ride from a city the size of Sydney could take you to a magical landscape like this. It wasn’t even a high speed train, with plenty of stops along the way. These mountains really are on the doorstep of Sydneysiders.

Oddly enough, as I was waiting on the train for it to depart, the advertisement board displayed a performance called The Three Sisters. Strategically placed on the platform heading to the attraction of the same name?

Who knows. But before long, the Sydney skyline disappeared into the horizon.

What replaced it was a blanket of green, trees as far as the eye could see. Every now and then the station would stop in smaller and smaller towns, eventually the platforms were so small there weren’t signs telling me where I was. I had to use the TripView ap- which is fantastic- to get my bearings.

Leaving the station in Katoomba, I headed to the hostel. This was roughly a ten minute walk and after dumping my bag and getting directions from the lovely staff, I found I was halfway to some great Blue Mountain viewing points.

The clifftop is lined with reminders of those that worked to build the roads and the people that lived here at the time. I took a moment to reflect on this and the hard work it must have been to create such infrastructure in the summer heat. A pretty powerful reminder.

There was also messages from those that had visited for the first time during times of exploration and discovery. One was by Charles Darwin, stating that the view through the trees was ‘quite novel and extremely magnificent’.

This is the view he was speaking of.

The weather certainly improved which helped greatly for some nice shots.

This stairway was a little nerve-racking, although doable even with a mild fear of heights. It was cool to be able to touch one of the Three Sisters, even if it did get a little crowded.

Now, walking west towards Scenic World, there are two ways to head to the ancient rainforest below. The worlds steepest railway or Australia’s steepest cable car. You can choose to go down one way, walk through the rainforest on one of the various route lengths and up again via the other route. I decided to head down via railway and up via cable car.

If you’re in and around Sydney and have a enough time to venture out of the city, definitely make time for this place. I only spent one full day here and headed back early the next day after a pleasant night in the local YHA hostel. I have a feeling I could have spent more nights in the region and ventured a little further off the beaten track,    however 24 hours was still great fun.

Let me know what you think and if you have been! Speak to you all soon.

Views I will miss, pt 4

This is my local, just around the corner from my house. Admittedly I don’t stop by this place as much as I should but it is great to know it is there for me when a pint is needed.

This was taken last night, it was shortly after my last day at work and as much as I am excited to move on, it was pretty emotional. They were kind to me. A brand new wallet with a bunch of notes stuffed in to help me stay on my feet when I get there. Also, this card.

And on the back!

It’s weird that everything I’m doing here may be the last for a long time, at least it means everything I do from now on is probably going to be a first.