Day 2: Tower Bridge and more Primitives :)

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I woke up at the Duke of York Hostel still feeling sleepy because I had not caught up yet to the local time (Lousy Jetlag). My roommates were still asleep so I went downstairs and ate some cereal that the hostel provides as a free breakfast. To save money I have a habit of booking hostels that serve breakfast and loading up as much possible. Confession here, I will smuggle out fruits and granola bars if they are provided so I can eat those later. Anyway I went back upstairs and met some of my roommates. Mostly Aussies and 1 English lady. I apparently had a conversation them last night when they had gotten in late. I had a vague recollection it but mostly it was drunk talk from their side and sleepy talk from my side. Since it was mostly Aussies I asked them advise on the various Australian cities I would be seeing soon. I got some good information but felt a little overloaded at this point because I would need weeks in each city to see everything. Besides myself and the Aussies, the one English lady Rachel who was actually going on a Topdeck tour later this year. I gave her some advise on what the tours were like. I couldn't say enough about how wonderful those trips are.

After that I went up to Camden Market with Rachel. We chatted on tube and I pointed out a number of people in formal attire coming out of the tube. I assumed they were heading to a wedding at the nearby hotel. In central London even people who are going to weddings will take the tube. Also in a nearby tube car there was what appeared to be a hen party. A group of women wearing sashes with one of them wearing what appeared to be an tiara. London transport is always very efficient so in short order we reached Camden Market. I always visit the market when I am in the city just to wander about and take a look around. After the market Rachel went off to meet a friend while I went looking for a post office. Before that I went to my favourite curry place near Kings Cross. I eat there all the time while I am in London. the curry is tasty and not that expensive either.

I needed to get a box of chocolate before I went to the post office so I went to Tesco where I bought a good box of chocolate. Post office was right next door so it was convenient. Chocolates were for my cousins in Paris because I could not see them this year. Also sent off a bunch of postcards from London. Just to be ironic I sent postcards that I had bought in Canada from London. I had most of the afternoon left to do something. I have been to London often enough that there was not much for me to see. I decided to head to Tower Bridge because that was one major landmark I had not seen yet. I exited the station and saw that the tower of London was nearby. I took some pictures of the outside and of the ticket booth but opted not to spend the money to go in. After wandering the bridge and the area around the tower I headed back to the station. Around the area there are peanut sellers that sell caramel roasted peanuts. I was hungry so I bought some. It was tasty but made me thirsty.

It was approaching the time for my concert so I headed back to the hostel to get ready. Most of my roommates were heading to a pub crawl and I would have went if not for my concert. The Primitives concert was at the same place The Lexington. I got my hand stamped again and once again the stamp took weeks to come off. This concert had a really good opening band called The Popguns. The concert was full to bursting and there was fairly violent mosh pit going on. I didn't want to participate but since I was at the front stage I didn't have a lot of choice. The Primitives came on to a loud roar and it was mostly the same set as last night. I was really enjoying myself even thought I was really getting bruised up by the mosh pit. The Primitives finished and did the traditional encore but the fans had not had enough so we kept making noise until they came out for 2nd ENCORE. Never had that happened before at a Primitives concert so I was quite happy. After the show I got my usual pictures with The Primitives and chatted a bit with my fellow fans.

That is usually where the story ended but I had a bit of an adventure getting home. Left the concert and got back to Kings Cross and took the tube to Euston station. I should have changed over to the line that got me home but I waited on the platform for awhile and it kept saying the train was delayed and would be here shortly. After waiting for 30 minutes an attendant came out and told us there had been a jumper at Liverpool station and there would be no train that evening. This left me scrambling but since I know the tube system well I jumped on the Victoria line and did another transfer to get to my correct station. It was a bit of long route because the Central line was also down for maintenance. I just got to my station as it was closing. The attendant was actually locking the door as I got to the exit. I breathed a sigh of relief as I made it to my hostel but it was almost 1AM at this point so there was no food available anywhere so I would have to wait until morning to find food.

So that is my latest trip to London my favourite city in the world. I will definitely be back before too long.

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