A Wee Little Walk in the Park

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Wow, where does the time go? I can’t believe it’s been over two weeks since my last post! Since that time, I left Toronto, visited my friend Roo in London, started my french course in Nice, and went to Paris for a weekend! Crap, I’m totally behind! I will start with London and then I will try to play catch up over the next few days.

After a red eye flight, I arrived in London in the morning and had to navigate my way to the beautiful area of town known as Brixton (for those of you who know London right now, you’ve probably caught on to the slight sarcasm). Actually, I didn’t find Brixton that bad, but I guess it’s not the nicest area in London. My friend Farooq (Roo) lives in a house there (which is quite nice, I might add) with five other people. All of them were extremely welcoming and hospitable. I’m willing to bet they get pretty sick of hosting people, as I’m sure living with Canadians (one of Roo’s roommates is his brother, Mair) means that every one of their friends and family (and their friends’ friends...ahem) are looking for a free place to stay when in the not-so-cheap London.

I’ve been to London twice before, but I was 13 the first time and made stupid, stupid decisions (such as choosing to go to MacDonald’s rather than the Tower of London) and I was only in London for a day the second time (I was 20, by myself, and not so inclined to conquer the city alone at that point). So, really, this was my first time really seeing London. Because Roo and friends had to work the first day I was there, I decided to do the touristy things without being too much of a tourist (I hope!). I walked all along the river, went to the Tate Modern (it’s free; how great is that), and went on a tour of the Tower of London (I’m glad I waited until now, as the 26 year old Christine enjoyed it much more than the 13 year old Christine would have). After walking around a bit more and enjoying the sites such as the London Eye and Big Ben, I met up with Roo and his friends for drinks. It was quite a site to see people spilling out of the pubs with alcohol in hand and taking the party to the street. I guess it’s socially acceptable to drink anywhere, “You can even drink on the tube”, as Roo told me. Those crazy Brits. Well, this sober Canadian didn’t really fit into the culture (although, Roo subconsciously chose a pub right across the street from the Canadian store and the Maple Leaf bar!). Although I retired early and took the tube home with a few of Roo’s flatmates, it sounded like the rest of the group had quite a good time as I heard them stumble in around 4 a.m.

The next day was Saturday, so Roo had the day free to come explore with me. After nursing his hangover with a traditional English breakfast (a very greasy version of it), Roo sobered up and suggested we go on a walk through all of the Royal Parks. Well, after that day, I think I’m ready for a marathon! We started at Big Ben and made our way through St. James’ Park, Green Park, Hyde Park, and Kensington Park. And, of course, we saw a few palaces along the way. We also saw half of the population of London, as it was the first beautiful day they’ve had this year and the cast of thousands had the same idea we did.

We were going to try to make it up to Regency Park and go to some viewing spot where you can see all of London, but after covering at least 15km, we decided to go to Little Venice instead and go for Thai (um, ‘cause that makes sense to have Thai in Little Venice 😉 Actually, I was wondering why it was Little Venice instead of Little Italy, but soon discovered why as we walked over many little waterways with long boats tied to the docks. It’s quite a cute little area of London.

The next day, I had to catch my flight to Nice around 6 p.m., so I had to give a good 4 hours to get the airport. Seriously, I’m not kidding, I left Roo’s house 4 hours before my flight left and the timing was perfect! Wow, and I thought Edmonton was bad with it’s airport halfway to Calgary! Anyway, I decided to go browse a market before I had to leave, so Roo directed me to the up and coming Spittelfields Market by Liverpool station. It reminded me of Doha and it’s souqs, but it was an open market selling everything, but mostly clothes. *sigh* I had neither the money nor the room for new clothes, so I had to pass up some fabulous deals. I know you’re all feeling for me right now, aren’t you? 😉

So, that was my short trip to London in a nutshell. My past week and a half in France has been very interesting and I promise that I will write more soon that’s not just a recount of what I did—sorry if this entry bored you! Oh, and I apologize for the lack of photos. Of course I have photos, but do you think I can figure out how to upload them onto this French computer? Non.

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Comments

[Teri]

Hi Christine! Sounds good again! I'll have to get your advice before I head over to London in November (although I've already the first peice of advice is not to go in November). Anyways, sounds like you're doing well and having lots of fun still!!