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Hi Everyone...
Sorry its taken me so long to update my blog, have had limited access and have also had limited energy! Yes it seems, my month long adventure has finally caught up with me, and when I left Washington DC for London, I managed to pick up the worst cold I have had in ages, and it really did knock me about for a while. Have no one but myself to blame though, think I maybe only got 7 or 8 hours sleep the entire time I was in New York (4 days in total) and wouldnt change a thing cos I loved every single last minute of NYC!!
After what seemed like an eternity up in the air, and a right ear that just wouldn't pop, I finally landed in London. It is such an old city, with the most beautiful buildings, with streets with every possible square inch filled with apartments, houses and not much open areas. Despite this, the streets are actually gorgeous to see, and it makes you wonder how some of the cars fit down the very narrow streets, but the thing you begin to notice about London
is that not many people drive, EVERYONE catches the tube (underground train station for us Aussies).
The tube is such a weird, I have to say it, disgusting place. Its pretty dirty under there, and some of the stations are unbelievable, as it seems as though there must be platforms upon platforms, going deep under the ground. There are so many different train lines in London, and to get around town, you need to get on a couple of different lines, so when you get off one train, you usually have to travel up or down several sets of elevators to get to the other line, and it feels as if you are often a million miles below the surface - Amazing really how they do it. But I cant say that it isnt a vit eery being on those trains, as you cant help but think back to the tube bombs and how scary it would have been to be so far underground when chaos happens. If you could have seen me in the tube when I was over there, you all would have laughed, cos if I ever had to change lines, or if I
was heading out of any of the stations, I was pretty much breaking into a sweat, I was hightailing it out of there as soon as possible!!!
I went and visited the amazing Harrods, and was amazed at how over the top the store is. Its a gorgeous store inside and out, and I spent quite a few hours just wandering around, trying to keep my jaw from dropping every time I saw a price tag on many of the gorgeous items. One scarf I looked at was 2000 pounds - yep, thats about $5,500 AUD's - and I hate to tell you but the scarf wasnt even that nice!!! Funny though...
I hopped on a tour - in the pouring rain. It was so funny, we were on top of the open top double decker bus and out of nowhere it started bucketing down - and I mean bucketing down. They gave us disposable ponchos so we didnt get totally soaked, and cos it was so wet, I had the hood on, and pulled the drawstring so that all that was poking out was my eyes - great look. It was
so funny, cos we all would have looked ridiculous!!!
The bus took us to all the amazing spots; the huge Buckingham Palace, Big Ben, the Houses of Parliament, the London Eye, Trafalgar Square (where there was surprise, surprise, another gay pride march - seems I have seen a march in every city I have been to....), Kensington Gardens and all the other sites of the city. It was amazing to finally see all the sites that we have all seen on television or in books, and actually stand in those spots and see them for myself.
I caught up with my friend Tom for dinner on my last night in London. It was great to see him, and we had a great dinner down in a little Italian restaurant in gorgeous Notting Hill. It was cool to wander down the streets (yep the one where the movie Notting Hill is filmed, complete with the bookstore in the movie and all) and even better to be with someone who knew all the sites and actually knew where we were going without using a map - definately nice to not have to worry about the
map for a night! It was a fabulous way to finish off my London adventure and catch up on old times with a good friend - it was great fun, despite being drenched rats by the time we got to the restaurant - yep surprise, surprise it was pouring again!!
The weather was absolutely terrible the entire time I was there, and coupled with the car bombs they found and the increased security everywhere I went, although I loved seeing London, I must say I was happy to hope on a plane, and know that I was heading to Bangkok to do a whole lot of nothing!!!
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