london the first few days!

After all the turmoil of getting to London we finally arrived at Lachlan’s place in East Action about 15mins outside London via the tube. We arrived to a house FULL of friendly people, Tanya and Ryan from NZ, Tessa and Elyse from Melb. They are all living in a tiny share house, and with the arrival of the three of us it was quite cramped. They didn't seem to mind though, I have a feeling it's quite common to have people coming and going all the time.

We arrived into London airport at around 5pm Thursday 15/5/08... By 8 we were showered changed and at the pub. Lach took us to a backpackers pub called Belushi's we met some more of Lachs friends, surprise surprise they were all aussie's and kiwis! They introduced us to the 'Aussie dink' which all the brits think is the most common drink back home... it's called a snake bite (£3 for a pint), it is half cider half beer with a splash of red of current cordial. I find this strange seen as I hadn't tasted cider before that night. we stayed at the pub until close (midnight) then home on the 24hr bus via kfc... a very healthy dinner to start the trip off...

Friday was up early! Alex and Lach were very excited about showing Damien and I the sights of London. We caught the train in to Westminster train station, as we emerged from the underground to the sight of big Ben and the houses of parliament. From the same spot we could see the London eye and Westminster abbey so we wandered around a little and took some touristy photos then wandered down to the palace. on the way you couldn't help but notice all the giant red double Decker busses which don't stop for anyone, the roads a congested with busses and cabs, there are hardly any personally driven cars, apparently because there is an extra tax to use the inner city roads. We wandered past the palace to the horse guards place... Alex will not be happy with me cos I can't remember the proper name of the place. but we took some pics with the guards that can't move and felt a little sorry for the poor horses that stand in that one spot for hours on end... from there it was up to see nelsons column in Trafalgar square via a really nice little Irish pub called waxy O'Tools, it was one of the most interesting pubs I have ever seen. It was set over about 4 levels some going above some below ground all based around this tree that was inside the pub... so hard to explain but we sat down n had a pint to take it all in. After Trafalgar square we wandered on to oxford circus to see all the lights and sights... by this point we were exhausted, so jumped on the tube to get home.

If only that was the end of our very long day! The second we walked in the door we were told to get changed n get our bums down to a bar in central London for Tessa's 21st birthday drinks. So of we went to this circular bar where we met h whole lot of other travelers n enjoyed a few glasses of wine compliments of Tessa’s tab... After hitting a wall at around 7ish (jetlag - that was fun!) we powered on to the ministry of sound club (MOS) in a traditional London cab... We had to pre-purchase tickets for MOS the day before over the net but once we got there it was straight in onto the dance floor... it was a pretty big venue about the size of metro in Melb but the space was used a lot better. So we partied there until the we hours of the morning, on the way out Alex and I were confronted with the task of getting home on our own, which didn't turn out to be as hard as we thought because the people at the club agree on a price for the cabbie to take you home n you pay him before you even leave the venue.

We woke up sat morning with sore heads all round. so had a pretty quiet day, Alex and I stayed in n watched a movie while Lach and damo went round the corner for drinks at the other aussie kiwi house with the people we met at the pub the first night we got in.

Sunday was another big one! It was the going away party of one of Lachs friends Haidee, we were told we were in for a treat, as they only go to this place for going always. We were told to wear nothing nice as it was bound to be a messy day, which started at midday, so we wandered to the station via the off license. (Off license is a milk bar the sells wine, pre-mixers, beer anything out want to drink really.) With a drink in hand we caught the tube to a place called the church. The venue was kind of like an old theatre with all the chairs removed. it was filled with travelers, they played all the old classics from the land down under to your the voice... there was group drinking games between the all the brits, aussie’s, kiwis and south Africans... needless to say it was a messy afternoon. The church closed at 4pm so it was onwards to the Shepard’s bush walkabout, yet another Aussie kiwi pub till the 1am when we all went home to sleep for a week!

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