on my last day in london i went down to greenwich to see the prime meridian. i also went to the maritime museum. the great thing about london is that all the big museums are free! on the way, i stopped at canary wharf, which is a huge development where all the big banks are based. it is probably the closest thing europe has to an american downtown. it was foggy and all the skyscrapers were cloaked in fog – beautiful. then that evening i went to camden town. this is the place one would gravitate toward if one had a tattoo of a welsh dragon tattooed across one’s face, a fluorescent red show-hawk to show off, a studded dog collar around your neck that is a few sizes too small, a disturbing sexual fetish, or perhaps an urgent need for some hard drugs. you get the picture. of course, you can go there if you follow a more normal lifestyle as well, and just do some shopping for a ramones t-shirt or something. truly an eclectic place.
the next day i took the train to gatwick, and left london 🙁
i flew on airbaltic, a latvian low cost airline, to riga, latvia. i navigated the riga airport with a british couple who were on a quest to watch an ice hockey game in every country where it is played. for some reason the diminutive airport seemed a lot more complicated than it should have been – we needed to take three different buses between terminals before finding the right place. despite the fact that the whole airport only had about ten gates. i bought a stale sandwich containing lots of butter and a few thin slices of pickle which the wrapper claimed to be the best latvia has to offer – i sure hope its wrong. i’m sure it is. then i flew to dubai!
i took a day trip from london to oxford. it is a nice little town/city northwest of london that is uber famous as you likely know. apparently twenty-something prime ministers of the united kingdom have gone to school there, as well as some other notables such as benazir bhutto, indira gandhi and many others! i learned some interesting things – there are a large number of “colleges” spread about the town (actually there are so many that the town is basically filling the little gaps between them) – when combined they make up oxford university. i basically just walked around there the entire day. oh yes, i also climbed the spire of a little church for a fantastic view. the bus to get there ended up taking three times as long as it should have because the freeway was backed up. this is because it snowed again last night. all people here can talk about is the weather, and its not even very cold. i take that back, it is rather cold (considering i didn’t bring a coat).
hooray, i’m in london! i got in rather late on friday, and made my way, with very large backpack on back and smaller one in front down the piccadilly line to these wonderful people’s house that i am staying at. i was careful to “mind the gap” as i “alighted” (brits and their phrases and fancy verbs). on saturday i saw a ton of stuff – piccadilly circus, big ben, parliament, the london eye, st. paul’s cathedral, westminster abbey, and got lost a bunch, which was great. and of course i also had some fish and chips. it started getting really cold (there’s snow on the ground, which apparently never happens here), so i stepped into the tate modern for a couple hours and appreciated some modern art. apparently its so cold that kids aren’t even going to school. sunday i went to a baptist church just around the corner; i am staying with the pastor. he had a fantastic sermon! and everyone was, rather surprisingly, very friendly, although with all their accent and british mutterings and whatnot i had to truly focus to comprehend. and then after church i was invited for lunch which was brilliant! it was some older people from the church that were over at the pastor’s house for lunch, and i must say that it was quite the prim and proper ordeal! lunch followed by these fantastically ornate traditional desserts and then orders for tea; stretching on into the late afternoon.
then i went back into london, and saw some more things like the tower bridge. after which i fled from an altercation with a drunk bloke outside a pub (i did nothing wrong, i assure you). the next day i went down to trafalgar square, feasted my eyes upon the overrated beauty that is buckingham palace, and then got lost searching for this massive department store that i have heard so much about called harrods. when i finally found it it did not disappoint! absolutely everything one could ever want in one building, and the best brands and all out luxury at that. also varieties of cheese that apparently can be found nowhere else. not that i was prepared to buy anything, buts it was fantastic! then i went to the british museum for the entire afternoon, and gazed upon such objects as the rosetta stone!
british museum, london
the next day i went to the american embassy to get some pages added to my passport. after going through all the craziness just to get in, i had to fill out a bunch of paperwork, but i had forgotten some info, so that must have got them suspicious. the guy asked me probably 50 detailed questions about my life before acknowledging that i might be who i said i was. but then as i was waiting he got talking to his colleague, and they started pointing at me and getting all concerned looking. then he called me up again and got all up in my grill, asking all these involved questions like why this and why that and then why are you doing this that way and not that other way like we think a person in your situation would naturally do this thing. my goodness. finally i escaped and walked in a general direction for basically the rest of the afternoon, ending at the new british library where i peered at the magna carta. it was a successful day.
tell you what, food is expensive here! i have basically just been eating kebab sandwiches (because they seem to be the cheapest food ) whenever i get hungry at the arab eateries that are ubiquitous in the less glamorous parts of town. it is great because it reminds me of egypt.
parliament, londonbig ben, londonlondon city hallst. paul’s cathedral. london
