London calling.

Having fully embraced Picasa and all the wonderful things it can do, I suppose it's high time I filled the internet void in on my recent travels to London. Game plan: day by day breakdown, possible photo accompaniments, and of course a link to my photo album from the adventure. Expect a lot of over-enthusiasm for contrast and colour adjustments - hopefully I get the hang of tasteful editing as this year goes on. But first, a quick weather update: The days are getting shorter (and I mean shorter) and there's a constant and noticeable chill. I'm determined not to turn on my heater yet, but I have broken out the woolly jumper May knitted me.
On to London!

Day One


Due to some last minute planning on the part of my travel companions (AKA the flatmates that hadn't already seen Avenue Q), I took the train alone early Saturday morning.  The other two flew, as it was cheaper than last minute train tickets.  Seemed like a bit of a let-down at first, but travelling alone is a highly underrated joy in life.  Five hours later it's a bit past noon in King's Cross, London.  One of the many things that really don't compare in Canada are our train stations - King's Cross was energetic and bright and efficient and really a neat place to be.

I thought I'd be embarrassed hunting down platform 9¾ but I forgot that in a city the size of London you will never be the most enthusiastic or embarrassing and certainly never the craziest.  It's a comforting feeling.


Our first stop after buying passes for the Tube was Chinatown - close to the theatres, cheap food and worth a see in its own right.  Nothing too special but I did finally get the pho I've been craving since I left Ottawa!  That led on to Piccadilly Circus, Leicester Square, Oxford Street and a great deal of walking.

The three of us, trapped in the madness of the Oxford St Primark on a Saturday, were then subjected the inevitable panic of realizing that there are 22 minutes to pick up pre-ordered theatre tickets before they start getting sold off.  Mad dash, nervous tube ride, testing our luck in traffic and a whole lot of sweat payed off, tickets in hand we had a quick dinner and settled into our seats for Avenue Q.  It was absolutely hilarious, I highly recommend keeping your eye out for a deal on tickets if the opportunity presents itself.  Although I never want to see puppets having sex again, we really had a blast.


Back to the hostel.  Beer.  Sleep.  Well deserved.


Day Two


We lucked out on accomodations; our hostel was cheap, comfortable and perfectly located.  A couple minutes walk and you're at the Swiss Cottage station on your way into town.  The girls were leaving that afternoon (I have Mondays off and stayed on for another day) so we set out early to the Tube for a fast-paced tour of the city.

Luckily, Big Ben, the London Eye, Westminster Abbey and a whole ton of generic London-themed photo ops are completely doable in about 25 minutes.  We came, we saw, we took way too many photos, and we hurried back to the underground.

Next stop: Harrods!  I could not understand the crowds outside - all people lining up for the doors to open.  We arrived 15 minutes beforehand and they were pretty well established already.  Once you've been in Harrods, though, it all makes sense.  Doesn't matter if you're a shopper or not (and not just because you probably can't afford to look twice at half of what they sell), Harrods is something you just can't help but be amazed by.  It's the Disney World of department stores (Orlando Disney, too, none of that Euro Disney nonsense).

At this point, America and Japan left to catch their plane and I finished up at Harrods.  I capped off the day with a tour of Portobello Road and Notting Hill.  Another phenomenal neighbourhood.  To all my fellow southwestern Ontarians, think Kensington Market in Toronto, but 10-20 times the size, add a lot of great antique stores, way nicer shops, take away all the homeless people and pot cafes and paint half of it in pastel colours.  That's getting pretty close.  

Easily passed three hours walking about (and also discovered very suddenly the border between where I couldn't afford a thing and where I was probably going to run into trouble).  That evening I limped back to the hostel and spent the evening lazing about.


Day Three


Having survived the past few days on little to no proper rest, I slept in a bit, had a leisurely breakfast and packed my things for the trip home.  I had until 3:00 to get to King's Cross for the train home so I intended to see a few final things before I left.  After finding a bus to connect me to an underground line that was not suffering power failures, I stopped by Oxford Circus to poke about and buy a drink then it was onwards!  To the British Museum!

This place blew me away: such an enormous collection and such an incredible building to house it all!  The museum itself could stand alone as a tourist attraction, it really is a marvel.  I made an all-too-brief pass through some of their ancient Greek collection as well as the Egyptian galleries (saw Cleopatra's mummy!), but will really have to go back to make a full day of it.

Fueled up with high tea in the cafeteria (has anyone had clotted cream before?? It's like the siren song of spreads - horrifying and unsettling and sadly irresistible) and traipsed back through the neighbourhood in search of the underground.  Then I scored some stamps for the postcards I'd accumulated, admired the buildings a bit, and decided it was high time I made my way to the train.

After a long weekend of sight-seeing and a LOT of walking, it was a relief to have four or five hours of quiet, sitting on the train.  Tall boys of Carlsberg were cheap on board, so that helped too.  

There you have it!  A very plain but hopefully informative summary of my first trip here on the continent.  I've booked another to Barcelona and Lisbon for January, and I will make an effort to blog/journal during that time - hopefully it will make for a slightly more insightful/entertaining account.  Feel free to check out the rest of my photos, I've weeded them down to the highlights.  (Another skill I need to work on - taking good travel photos; the quality/quantity concept is still somewhat elusive.)

Until next time!