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Published: June 22nd 2006
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Lone Bike
Outside the cathedral in Stratford. It seems rather forced and even a little dishonest writing an entry after more than a month since we've been to a place. Funny though, as I look at the date on this entry, it was the day we left London to return to the US of A and our whirlwind trip came to an end with a final crazy push. This day, the 23rd of april, was actually the "most London" of London days. We awoke to grey rainy weather and with some very gracious help from Iaian and Nikki we made it to the train station to ride to the airport. And then onto our Air India flight to NYC. Despite Aneta's concern, the flight was quite nice and even included a rather captivating film about a young farm boy who wants to be a cricket pro. He, of course, enlists the aid of the town drunk as his mentor. The town drunk was, of course, the former national cricket team captain. You know this tale. Told in many ways and many languages. This time in Hindi (with subtitles). I won't spoil the ending, but suffice it to say I nearly screamed at the elderly couple who stood up
in front of me during the pivotal final 'test' scene. Maybe I am a little impressionable.
Back to the trip. After our time in Brighton, we were wary about the big city. Our first insight came rather quickly when we arrived at our destination and noted that a simple one way transit pass on the tube / subway was 2-3x more than we had anticipated. Silly Yanks. "Assume the position" We did manage to make our way to Nikki's office without incident and dropped off our bags. We then spent a lovely day strolling by the Thames. I say strolling because all we did was walk, no purchases at all, $6 ice cream, $4 water, $25 museum. Then back to the pad in Earlsfield. It struck us as strange, however, that we managed to stumble into what is best descibed as a South African dominated episode of Real World. Tucked in this quaint commuter neighborhood was a home packed with ex-pats. The young office types keeping the tube full and the city humming. And, as with all of our experiences so far, the people made the trip. Forget just the simple offer of a place to crash- Nikki gave
Chairs in the Park
Icons in the backround up her room, her bed, her cell phone, heck I was afraid to make an off color joke in case she misunderstood.
Our first full day in London was spent exploring the public transit system with Dirk and Katriene who made a special trip from Belgium to share in the financial flogging that is London. But the weather was great and the company was as well. We found our way about the city spotting important locales fromt he top of the double decker bus. A true London experience!
On the list of important tasks which kept popping up on this trip was the great number of "World Heritage sites" we had visited. So when the opportunity to see one of the grand daddies of the list appeared, who could say no. Not us. So despite a late start, we boarded the train to Stratford and made our way to STONEHENGE. (By the way, they really hit you with the shuttle bus sevice. Assume...) And as expected, since we were on our usual tight (tardy) schedule, we zipped through the whole 3000 year old site with some fine pictures and an important life goal check mark. Yippee. If you
PLEEEEAASSEEEE!!!
Scotsman beggin' to party as Nikki and housemates watch on! get the chance to go, try to get there early and don't make dinner plans in London for later that nite. Some people complain that the site is roped off, but I was happy about it as I avoided a repeat of the Parthenon debacle and no unintended visitors marred our otherwise fabulous pictures. Well, unless you count the drab weather - but it is London after all.
Next, and certainly not least, we finally met up with Aneta's sister Gulya in London and Iain made an appearance from up north. Starting with a impromtu cocktail hour at the house and then heading by taxi (no trains due to a unexplained disturbance at the train station) to a "night-life hot-spot". Now we finally got to see some English night life which bore a shocking resemblance to the "bridge and tunnel" night life in NYC. We did get to do some flaming Sambuca shots which could be called "how I knowingly set my face on fire". But no long term damage was incurred, thankfully. And we left the bar just as the "dodgy" women got to dancing on the tables and were forcibly removed by the bouncers. Much to the
chagrin of the men at the bar. The good news was that upon awakening we found more South Africans cooking up pancakes in the kitchen. We need more of these guys back home.
Finally, we had to see the famous Portobello Market which is so much like a Saturday in Soho (east) that we really couldn't keep track of which continent we were on anymore. Open air markets were probably the most frequented cross-cultural events dotting our entire trip, and well worth every one. This one was missing live chickens and dead bats but nevertheless was filled with fun and tasty snacks. A must if you're here for the weekend. And then a subway ride to the Botanical gardens for a little stroll in the flora artificially instilled in a posh London community. Could be Brooklyn. Who knew?
That brings us back to the top of this entry. Grey skies, airplanes, and a young Indian man trying to bowl his way off the farm and into cricket history. America, here we come! Never did find out about the pudding...
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Mom
non-member comment
Amazing
It's fonderful that after being back to this " crazy, crayzy, crazy " life in America you are able to keep in your hearts the beautiful memories of your trip. Keep them with you as long as you can - keep looking at your 6000+ pictures - I think it will help. WELCOME BACK - I LOVE YOU BOTH.