Central London

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After the rather exhausting experience at Pearson International, I basically slept the entire way crossing the “pond”. Well, that’s not entirely correct since I woke up to eat and watch 2/3 of “The Last King of Scotland”. What an amazing movie - just didn’t really help with anxiety. Warning to myself and individuals planning to travel to East Africa: NEVER GRAB A GENERAL’S GUN, SHOOT A COW WITH IT AND, LATER ON, SCREW AND INPREGNANT HIS WIFE. You are just looking for trouble if you decide to do any of the above.

London Heathrow is a ridiculously huge airport, which took us almost half an hour just to get from terminal 4 to 3, where we were meeting up with Tania and Jo. It turned out that their Air Canada flight was surprisingly punctual and we just missed them. After exchanging for some pounds (bloody 21 pounds for $60 USD), Karen, Perren and I decided to take the “tube” to Central London.

Being the world’s oldest underground metro system, it’s also one of the best that’ I’ve seen. The city of London has done an amazing job maintaining the stations - clear instructions considering the number of lines there are, extremely clean (no urine or giant rodents in sight), the cars, although not air-conditioned, have an advanced PA system, digital displays of the locations and really comfortable seats. They are not only velvet like the TTC ones, they are also bouncy! What’s so efficient about the Underground is that you can get to almost every part of Central London very much like the New York Metro…well minus the graffiti and urine. To travel around London, you can either get a day pass for around 7 pounds or an Oyster Card, which is similar to the Octopus Card in HK - superb way to pay but what a lousy name.

One of the first things that strikes me the most is how well-dressed Londoners are. In fact, Tania and I are so impressed by their fashion sense that we have both decided to live here in the distant future. There’s an unexplainable elegant and trendy look to them. It’s like everyone is wearing clothes that are custom-made and yet comfortable and individual. Who needs Abercrombie & Fitch when you have Chanel and Gucci at the airport?

Walking out of the Westminster station, the first thing we saw was the infamous Big Ben and the magnificent Parliament Building beside the River Thames. Red double-decker buses and block London taxis were zooming on the spotless streets and around mixtures of old and new buildings. I was immediately hit by the richness of history of the city. Just make sure you look to the “right” when you are crossing the road (there’s writing on the road to remind you) but the drivers are generally very forgiving and stop politely for pedestrians. Before taking the tube back to Heathrow, we had a nice lunch in a park besides the river. What a way to end our short stay in London with a classic fish and chips lunch.

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