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Published: April 10th 2010
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Original mosaics at the British Museum. I'm in mosaic heaven Day 21-23 What am I doing here again so soon? Well, as most of you know, I will be attempting to walk the pilgrim trail. El Camino de Santiago de Compostela or St James Way. There are many trails throughout Europe and they mostly converge at St Jean Pied de Port, a small town on the French side of the border with Spain across the Pyrenees. The name of this part of the trail is the Camino Frances (all these details will help you to Google it if you want to know more).
When I was in Cardiff I received an email from my good friend Sylke confirming the dates when she can join me in Spain. And to make sure I'm there on time I will be starting the walk a little earlier. So I've returned to London for a couple of days before I hop on the Eurostar for Paris.
I don't stop for long, train from Nottingham to London, check in the Generator Hostel which is near Kings Cross Station, and then out again to visit places that I still wanted to see. First
What a big foot!
You know what they say..... was the British Museum but there was no way I could see the entire place before closing. An incredible place which deserves a full day tour. I left the museum and strolled through Covent Garden. What a buzz of activity! People everywhere, street artists doing their thing and were very good too. One fellow had 100's of people watching for almost an hour and had many running to give him money at the end. I had dinner at one of the Italian Cafe's. Food was great but lousy service. Australians! Huh, can't get good help these days.
My full day before leaving England started off well. Breakfast in a hostel can be hectic at peak times but when a hostel can fit up to 800 people at once, breakfast can be absolutely chaotic during peak times. One of my talents is talking (yeah yeah I know what you're thinking). So I started talking with my neighbours at the table and with luck I met Isolde. She's a German mother of 3 who is changing her career from nursing to teaching. She needs to sit her oral English test in June and has come to London for 8 days to
practice. We quickly learn that we have the same ideas and thoughts on things and decide to go to Camden markets together. What a great place! Colours everywhere, colourful people and colourful buildings. As usual, I become oblivious to others and start walking in a zigzag fashion (following the bright sparklies) but I still manage to avoid hitting other shoppers.
We spend most of the time in the Stables and enjoy the retro stores with 50's, 60's, 70's and 80's clothing and accessories. Too much reality for me in the 80's store. That WAS a bad era of clothing. After 6 hours we were stuffed and needed to head back to the hostel. Isolde had heard about a comedy show on at the Bloomsbury and we checked the internet. Sold out! But we decided to go there anyway just in case there were tickets left. It was just around the corner. We were lucky with standing tickets for 10 quid each. Not bad and we soon find empty seats anyway. It was a funny evening, not only the show but also every now and then Isolde would say 'Vat vas zat?' to me and I'd have to quickly explain
before the next joke. There were 8 acts with various accents and there was one that I found it difficult to understand. There was one joke...What's the difference between a kangaroo and a kangaroot? A kangaroo is an Australia marsupial that hops and the other is a Geordie stuck in a lift! It took an Australian and a German a few minutes to work it out and then we laughed when everyone else was silent. (in case you're wondering, the kangaroot means can't get out!) I think we laughed more because of our situation not the joke.
What a great day to end my time in England. There are far too many other things that I would like to do in the UK so maybe I'll be lucky enough to come back.
Next stop....Paris!
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