Crumpets and Marmite

---

Here I am at Heathrow airport - 2am waiting for my flight *yawn*.

My Lonely Planet guide to London has been our bible - cheers Sis! It had maps of every where in London and maps of the tube. Thank god the tube lines are colour coded - makes it so much easier. We bought day trip passes most days, which meant we could get on off as much as we liked. The tube stations were all close to the places we wanted to go - I love it!! Not like Perth's shitty transport system. During peak hour it got very hot on the trains and very personal with the amount of people packed on there.

Our first day in London was a packed with sight seeing. We booked a 'flight' on the London Eye (this really huge ferris wheel on the Thames River) for 5pm, so we thought we would direct our sight seeing around this part of London - seeing Madam Tussauds, Trafalger Sq, Big Ben and Westminster Abbey.

We went to Madam Tussauds wax museum. It was bloody expensive but we really wanted to see it. When you first walk in you kinda can't tell whats real and whats fake cause there are so many people! Dan got a shot with Jennifer Lopez :p We both got a photo with Madonna! The wax models look so life like! There was a podium in between George Bush and Tony Blair - we stood on it for a photo... I was going to get my picture taken giving the finger to Bush - but like yeah.... Americans travel too. :p Funniest thing was a muslim lady got her picture taken with Bush - kind of ironic. The museum had movie stars, singers, royalty, action figures (like the hulk) etc. We paid extra to go to the Chamber of Horrors. All these warnings saying 'Must be over 14', 'Not recommended for people with heart conditions' - so we assumed it must be pretty scary. It was bloody hilarious. They had real actors trying to scare people and Dan and I were laughing our heads off. The actors kept trying to act crazy and not let us past but we laughed even more. This couple in front of us was shitting themselves! The lady kept screaming... of course - I laughed even more at her. :D

We went on to see the Houses of Parliament (big ben) and Westminster Abbey (where Princess Diana's funeral was). Everything looked so regal and fancy. We walked up Parliament road and saw No 10 Downing street. Tony Blair invited us in for tea and scones - but we had to turn down the offer.... too busy you know? This road led us to Trafalgar Sqaure. It was about mmm 28 degrees and people had their shirts off etc bathing in the fountains there. What the hell is wrong with English people? There were pigeons everywhere! People had them on their arms and were feeding them! This one guy had a alot around him and some one threw a can at him hahaha the birds flew away boo hoo. We went to the National Art gallery at Trafalgar sqaure... lots of nice paintings and it was good to read the analysis of what the painting represented. I got to see Van Gogh's - Sunflowers. I have loved this painting since I was kid! It was no where near as crowed as the Lourve and entry was a small donation to the gallery.

Our London Eye flight was really good! We could see so far out around London. We were in the capsule with these Americans and to one side you could see this tower that kinda looked like the Eiffel Tower.... but obviously not. This kid goes 'WOW - you can see the eiffel tower from here' - yeah he's dead now. jokes hahaha. What a dumb arse. It was a hot day and the capsules were like sauna's - they had small air conditioning units.... which did nothing when there is 15 people in there. But it was all still worth it for the view.

We did the shopping thing in London as well. Oxford street, Regent street, Camden Street Markets (see Marcia we went!!!). We went to Harrods of course. Woah - so much nice stuff. Out the front were parked new Bentley's, Rolls Royces etc. Obviously very rich people coming to buy the latest Gucci handbag etc. Dan and I went to the Harrods shop and bought a few things we could afford 😊 But we still walked around the store to goggle at the designer products. We also went to Hamleys - a massive 4 story toy store. Oh to be a kid again! We bought some gifts for Thomas - but the hard thing was getting Dan out of the gadgets section!

The Camden markets were fun! Punks everywhere - of course the Doc Marten shop is there. We saw some boots that defy gravity.... six inches of platform. How anyone can walk in these - I'll never know. It was kinda like the freo markets - you find some good bargins while other shops just sold bongs hahaha.

We saw St Pauls cathedral - thanks Tony for telling me about that! Its from Mary Poppins! My favourite movie. '...on the steps of Saint Paaauuuullllls - feeeed the birds, tuppence a bag, tuppence, tuppence, tuppence a bag'. This is the cathedral that survived the London bombing blitz in WWII!

Now - party time..... On Saturday night we went to a club called Fabric. Well known for its Drum and Bass sessions. It was walking distance from our hotel... and it was SOOO worth it. They had three rooms playing techno, house and dnb. Its seems that london clubs have great DJ line ups every weekend. Unlike Perth where you have to wait for an event to be held. The bad thing about the clubs is that there are no pass outs, so if you leave to get some fresh air you have to pay like £15 to get back in. When we left - the walk home was like 1 hour of James Street Northbridge. Drunks, fights, cops and half eaten kebabs everywhere. I guess thats why there is no passouts - the less people on the street drunk, the better.

Our last day was filled with seeing the bridges and Buckingham palace. I was disappointed with London Bridge... I wanted it to be fallen down hahaha. Tower bridge was really nice - we walked across the Thames and caught the underground to Queens house! The palace is open during summer, would have been nice to see inside, but this was one line we were not prepared to stand in! Saw the guards doing their funny march in their bear skin hats. Tony - Queen Lizzy says hi. She said you haven't replied to her email.

We walked from the palace through to Hyde Park. We went to the speakers corner - funny stuff. On Sundays people can stand on boxes and talk about what ever they want. Some people were going off about random stuff, mostly religion. I'd say this is the only place crazy's can talk to crowds without being arrested. The crowd can also yell back at the speaker - makes for interesting watching.

Apparently we have been really lucky with the weather here - only 2 days of rain. Dan and I quickly learnt umbrella etiquette. Basically dont poke people's eyes out! We spent alot of time trying to wet each other with the water off the brolly's... immature I know :p

The hotel we stayed in was great. Was really central and close to the tube. We had breakfast every morning there. I ate Marmite on toast - its about as close to Vegemite as you'll get!

A couple of things we noticed about London was sirens all the time! Kinda makes you worried when you see cops, ambulance and fire brigade all go rushing past at once. The ambulances have a quick response unit, which is a small car that gets there first to treat the patient on-site, then the ambulance arrives. I guess its the best way to do it as it would be hard getting the ambulance quickly through all that traffic.

Another thing was that they call a liquor store and 'off license'. Just doesn't sound the same 'Hey I'm going to the offy to get some beers" compared to "Hey I'm going to the bottle-o to get some beers". The off license seems more like a deli that just happens to sell alcohol as well!

We heard some strange words and sayings in London as well.... like
'Blocked' - drunk
'you'll get nicked' - get caught.

I realised how bad we aussies spoke when I asked for worda (water) and I would have to repeat myself saying "water" - making sure I pronounced it with the 't' instead of a 'd'.

Well now its home time and the trip is over 😞 I am glad to be heading home for a wardrobe and not a suitcase. We have both loved London! Already talking about things we have to do when we come back! Thanks for reading the blog everyone! We'll be putting up more pics when we get home.

---