2006-12-11 - 11:53 p.m.
I like London. It's different than a lot of cities that we've seen, a difference that is only accentuated by the fact that we are staying in an actual flat with real other people, rather than a hostel or hotel. It is just so big, and feels like a big city, and all the historical stuff is sort of neatly woven in with everything else, so you can see skyscrapers in the distance over the Parliament buildings. It's really quite appealing.
We spent our last day in Athens not doing much. We planned to go to the Greek War Museum, since it sounded interesting and free. We got there, and it turned out to be two rather small floors, one of which had an impressive collection of swords and guns (ever seen a revolving rifle?) and the other which dealt mostly with WW2. What they had was interesting, and I liked the looking at the evolution of firearms, but there was just not too much.
We spent the rest of the day just wandering, spending the last of our Euros, being continually impressed by Athens. Did you know that a lot of the curbs in Athens are made of marble? It's pretty odd.
We picked our luggage up from the hotel, and took the metro out to the airport. Luckily the train had luggage racks, so we didn't have to stand there with our packs on for forty five minutes. Once at the airport, we realized that we had an hour to kill, so I found a seat (Jesse had one briefly until a old Greek guy came along who obviously felt he had a prior claim to the seat, and gestured Jesse off). Security etc. was ok, no one stopped us, and we didn't try to bring anything on that we shouldn't. The flight was not too full, and I managed to get a window, and Jesse an aisle, with no one in between. Add to that we found a copy of Newsweek by my seat, and the flight was pretty good.
Once in London we got through Customs with no troubles. We had arranged to stay with a friend of my sister Anne's. This fellow, Michael, is a New Zealander who met her when she was in London with Dad a few years ago. He heard we were going to be in the city, and offered to let us stay. This blew me away. He had never met me, and offered to let us stay in his flat. Needless to say, we gratefully accepted.
Over the two days prior to us leaving, he had sent me about five e-mails, with directions, travel hints, links to maps, you name it. I had written down the tube directions, when he e-mailed me to say that the tube closes at midnight. We of course got in after midnight, and although Michael had sent bus directions, I had forgotten to write them down.
The first thing to do was of course to get into town. I found a bus to take us there, eight pounds each, which seemed reasonable enough. We walked outside to find the bus, and I was unpleasantly surprised. Apparently while I was in Greece, winter hit the rest of the world. I was definitely not prepared for that, and was glad to have the chance to acclimatize to some degree of cold before heading back to the frozen west.
The bus dropped us off at Basil Street station (right across from the Sherlock Holmes Museum). From there it was a series of tense exchanges between Jesse and I, each of whom had half the information that we needed to get where we were going. After only one or two mistakes, and five minutes waiting for the bus, we were on our way. It was largely thanks to Jesse that we got off at the right stop.
We found Michael's place with remarkably little trouble. We came to the city cold, never having been here, and with only an address and the nearest tube station to guide us, and we got here with no serious mistakes. Is it just me, or are we getting better at this?
Michael is awesome, and very friendly. His room is huge, and has two beds, and plenty of room on the floor. For a guy who was expecting a corner of a living room, this is luxury. The kitchen and living room are both separate rooms, so we generally hide out in one, and try to stay out of the way as much as possible. This is easier, since we are keeping our usual dissolute holiday hours, and Michael and his two roommates have to work. Michael has been more than generous though, and I really can't say that enough. On Sunday he cooked us a huge breakfast, and then cooked us a huge supper! And then he let me chat to my sister on his computer (which I'm also using right now). He's shown us tons of his traveling pictures from when he was in Canada this summer- they made Jesse pretty homesick I think.
Last night, Michael was trying to defrost his fridge. Now, I'm not much of a homemaker, but I learned this spring how to defrost a fridge (thanks Vicky!!) so I was able to help him out. Come to London, defrost fridges. Not a bad life really.
We spent our first full day in London at Camden Lock Market. This is a big market that is on everyday, and big on Sundays at Camden Lock, which is on a canal. We walked from Michael's through Regent's park, along the canals. Despite the gloomy weather, it was quite a nice walk. I seem to have adjusted to the weather, which is nice. The Market was cool, with lots of interesting stalls. Lots of clothes, lots of T shirts with funny sayings (Sex, Drugs and Sausage Rolls) .
Today we spent doing more of the touristy things. We walked from Michael's place through Hyde Park to Buckingham Palace, first of all. This sort of snuck up on me- "Hey, Jess, what's that?"
"Umm... I think it's Buckingham Palace"
and it was. Just there. Right in front of me. I was impressed. We then walked through St. James' park to Westminster Abby, which costs 10 POUNDS to get in!!!! We were going to skip it, until we saw they had a service at five. In the meantime, we saw the Parliament Building, along with Big Ben, the London Eye (which looks like it would be cool, but is boring from the ground) and Trafalgar Square. I was particularly excited to see Trafalgar Square, since I quite like Nelson, and have read a lot about him, and because I was always struck by the pictures that my parents had of the square from when they were in England. It was really cool- the pedestal with Nelson on it, and the Lions.
We walked back to the Abby, and got there in time for sung Evensong. This was just incredible- to be worshipping in Westminster Abby!! Also, it's the first Anglican service that I've been to since I left, and it was sure nice to be back.
I only saw one grave I recognized, since they don't let you look around too much. David Livingstone. I think I will have to come back and do it properly, but this was a nice way to see the Abby, and go to a service. Tomorrow we are going to try to do the same for St. Paul's.
We took our time coming back, and found the station where the bus to the airport will leave from. Then we got fish and chips for dinner, and I have to say that they tasted better on the streets of London from a greasy paper cone than they do in a pub in Victoria.
It was a day of lots of walking, and tomorrow looks to be the same. My shoes are definitely getting toward the end of their useful life, and my knees are getting quite sore. Still-gotta play through the pain, at least for a couple more days!
