Advertisement
Friday April 24th
BUS VS. TRAIN
Transportation in London always holds surprises. Yesterday, we tried booking a bus from Corsham to London, only to discover that we'd pay £38 for the pleasure of sitting on a bus for 3 1/2 hours on what should be a 1 1/2 hour car ride. The train, on the other hand, cost a whopping £1 more.
Trains in England are more than two worlds away from the ones taking millions across India. For starters, everyone is allotted a whole seat. Additionally, the train moves along at about 600 miles an hour, causing the English country side to blur. There's a special section for our combined 50 kilos of luggage, and yet somehow we're more wary of it. Everyone is talking into their cell phones and struggling with Sudokus, but we know you can't put a face on the average English criminal... that blue haired thirteen-year-old girl could easily (with three friends and a car) make off with our whole world's worth of belongings. The threats are more familiar here.
we drop our stuff off in the corner of Jamie's living room and forget all about it. Jimbo wants to buy a
Where are we?
Oh yeah, London new toy, so we head to John Lewis to pick up his shiny new macbook. It sits next to us in the pub, while we play cards and snack on some classic London hors d'oeuvres: olives, onion rings, fries and hummus.
The three of us head up to Shoreditch in trendy East London where Olga lives. Jess is staying with her this weekend, and we follow them around a series of expensive bars with fancy drinks. My boys go home and we girls party into the wee hours. One dance club, possibly called Egg, sports a full spa through a set of creaky double doors. Nooo thanks!
Saturday April 25th
With a full-sized hangover we head to Shepherd's Bush for a garden party. Grilled hamburgers have never tasted so good! We head to Nottinng Hill to meet Jess and Olga again, who have been joined by Bebe and Lucy who drove up this morning to enjoy the city with us. We are hanging out with Olga's boyfriend's roommate Christian, who is moving to Dubai the following morning. George and I certainly have some things to warn him of, and I gave him a whole five dirhams that
BIg Ben
On a fake sunny day. Looks pretty though! followed me home.
Amid the tangled web of love, friendship, and room-mating, we head out for a celebratory dinner. The wait at the fancy taco place is apparently 45 minutes, so we head down the road to the dim sum restaurant called Ping Pong with some of Christian's friends.
Ping pong? Is that a reasonable name for a Chinese restaurant? This reminds me of Grandpa Simpson and his Chinese nursing home nanny:
Craig: Uh, Mr. Simpson, you weren't supposed to leave the home.
Abe: Thankyou Ping-Pong!
Craig: My name is Craig.
Abe: Suuuuuure it is!
Oh, life imitates Simpsons.
Anyway, the dim sum is delish and Jess has her first experience with "this sort of food" and sips the best cocktail I've ever tasted: Finlandia vodka, fresh lemongrass, lime and lychee juice
We meet up with my boys and their friends at the members-only Westbourne Park Studios. Christian didn't know Bebe's name, so gave her the monkier Gina Valencia-Vittoria, which impresses the door girl, who doesn't know (but probably suspects) she's letting in an African/Italian princess.
The club is one gigantic room with random art splashed across the walls and fake palm
trees providing invisible shading for leather couches. It houses a games complex, low-lit lounge area, lDJ station and dance floor. A girl next to us sets the tone with her interpretation of interpretive dance. Backcombed hair and unusually shaped dresses are absolute musts for the girls, and the boys sport what we referred to at Branksome as Grandpa-sweaters.
Many hours later, Lucy and Bebe, Jamie, George, Goggles and I take taxis back to Fulham to listen to Jamie's new set (a list of pre-selected tunes to mix at a bar, for those of us not in the know.) Hilarity ensues. Goggles, who is known as such "because of big sexy eyes" tries it on with an unsuspecting Lucy.
"My specialities include... fooooootbaaaallll! And... Kung Thai Do." He uses nuncucks in everyday situations.
Later, Jamie and Goggles get into a rowdy argument about evolution. "So you're telling me an ape gave birth to a man, yeah?"..... "but the doors! the doors were so short!!" comes drifting up the stairs. This house is absolutely amazing sometimes. We need to buy some sheets so they can rent it out as a Bed, Breakfast & Comedy.
Sunday April
26th
Lucy and Bebe tube over to say goodbye, and we take a blanket and follow Lucy's iPhone to the nearest green space (literally). Some people have even gone to the effort of hauling along lawn chairs. We chat and reminisce and vocalize our many fears for the future (as one does at this point in life) as the sun glides through the dark blue sky. Eventually, Bebe has to catch her train to Manchester, so the two of them, bent over Lucys's everything machine, march down the street with less than zero fear of getting lost.
I took Jamie and George out to the local pub for some excellent grub to say thanks for putting up with me while I hauled them all across London to hang out with my friends. What an excellently friend-filled extravaganza it's been, my first in ages. Thanks girls!
Monday April 27th
In the morning we called up www.hotelconnect.co.uk to try and arrange our accommodation in Iceland. Apparently, it's (yet another) bank holiday weekend when we're there, so their discount hotel deals were fully booked! I harbor some trepidation about Reykjavik, which still seems expensive even though prices
have just plummeted by half.
George and I set out on an authentic London site-seeing trip, which I haven't done since visiting the UK with my parents when I was sixteen. We traipse through the City of Westminster, taking in the fabulous architecture and getting our cameras wet.
Right by Big Ben there was a huge protest taking place in the downpour, protesters not perturbed by the buckets pouring down on them. Something about Sri Lanka, although there were definitely some Iraq posters hanging about. Can't blame them for the multi-cause, after all, in the London Marathon you're allowed to run for whatever you want!
We walked around Buckingham Palace, and tried to get a view in her window. We saw Westminster Abbey, in all its glory, and Downing Street, in all its shame.
Then, to cap off a truly touristy day, we visited the Natural History Museum (after a brief stint at the Science Museum, which isn't yet as interesting as it will someday be). The NHM is mammoth. No art, but lots of dinosaurs. Some scary-looking turtles, too. Well worth the visit.
Advertisement
Tot: 0.05s; Tpl: 0.01s; cc: 8; qc: 24; dbt: 0.0235s; 1; m:domysql w:travelblog (10.17.0.13); sld: 1;
; mem: 1.1mb
Olga
non-member comment
Miss you!
Babe, for future reference it was not he Egg but the Aquarium - when youre back we're definitely hitting that place again!! Come back soon!!! xx