Exploring England with Faraaz!

I arrived in London on Australia Day at 6am and spent the next two hours struggling with all my luggage to Joyce's apartment in South East London. (Joyce is my half Aunt and she moved to London about 3 or 4 years ago.) Sadly my only celebration on this great and allustrious day was to have a VB on the flight from Bangkok to London. Once I had arrived I did actually go into central London in search of some fellow Aussies (apparently they had filled Leicster Square with sand and had a barbeque there the year before) but couldn't find anything big so spent the rest of that day checking out the British Museum. I was amazed by how many truly significant pieces of art and sculpture are in that museum alone! To name just a few I saw the Rosetta Stone (the key to deciphered Egyptian hieroglyphs), sculptures from the Parthenon and sculptures from the Mausoleum of Halicarnassus (one of the seven ancient wonders of the world). It's really awe inspiring to come from somewhere like Australia, where if something is 100 years old it's heritage listed, to come to London and see sculptures dating back thousands of years!

I had a few more days in London and I spent them just wandering around seeing most of the main sights in central London. I also went to the Natural History Museum, as it was free, and had a few hours checking out the different displays. And finally in London I went to Greenwich, as it was very close to Joyce's apartment, and stood on the Prime Meridian. These places are all very interesting in their own right but I don't think that they are very interesting to read about on someone's blog... so let's move on.

When we returned from our short trip, to Stockholm and Budapest, I went with Faraaz up to Sheffield where he has been studying for the past 7 months or so. I got to meet most of his room mates and we had a corridor party that night which was a lot of fun. I met people from Spain, France, Hungary, Germany, Morocco and even one girl from Reunion Island. It was a great taster of what student life will be like in Europe and I am eagerly anticipating my stay in Vienna.

After Sheffield we spent about a week in Birmingham staying with Fraz's brother Fav. We spent most of the time relaxing and watching movies. We watched 'Crash' one night which is probably one of the best movies I've seen in a while. Fav's wife also cooked us some really great meals and I ate like a king the whole time I was there.

On my last day in Birmingham we visited Sarehole Mill, in the area where J.R.R. Tolkien grew up. The area around the mill is meant to have given him inspiration for discribing the Shire in The Lord of the Rings. It did look very like the Shire, even in winter, but it wasn't as interesting as I had hoped it would be.

Later on that day before I left for Luton I went to a Premier League Match. I saw Aston Villa vs Newcastle at Villa Park in Birmingham. I had a great seat almost at ground level and had a perfect view for two of the goals. Newcastle won 2-1 so the Villa fans weren't too happy but at least I got to see some quality football. After the game I caught a bus and met up with Fraz in Luton. Then it was on to Joyces, where I stayed the night, before leaving for the airport, and Vienna, at 6.30 am!

ps. I hope that a few of you appreciate that Monty Python quote. I thought that it was appropriate considering where I was.

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