Europe Day 02: London!!

Well, day two started on the plane, after the best sleep… oh wait – make that no sleep… but then again – in the end that really didn’t matter – because rah, rah, sis boom bah – we were in London!!

From the sky
Flying in found us covered in clouds. Britons may like to know that the clouds that cover them in grey and rain actually look amazingly beautiful from the other side. I believe that pilots get the best weather most of the time – everything is sunny above the clouds. Once we headed in though – you become amazed at how little cloud cover can be so dense and create such darkness beneath. However – the Fates were smiling and gave us a great day where the clouds moved quickly and the sun was allowed to shine through in parts all day long.

Customs
Jedi Jarvis would be glad to hear we took great notice of London Customs’ … well, customs. Strangely enough – the experience was quite different from what we’re used to from Canada and the States. I’m guessing their training is quite different. Their customs agents are all about smiling and talking to everyone and asking about the funny things in our vacation. They also actually invite multiple people to come up to the front to be talked to together. What Jedi Jarvis would probably not like to hear is a little story about the immigration cards we had to fill out… but that’s a private one.

SIDE NOTE: In prep for writing these, I realized that maybe my descriptions of important and historical places might not be correct, in either my understanding, who was telling me about them, or the validity of the reference material I had on me at the time. Hence – after this run of blogs, I’ll be doing some “Remembering Europe” blogs once I get home that will be snippet pieces about very specific things or places that we visited, and will include real “info and facts” as researched – rather than from my memory and/or random people’s “educated” guesses. Anywho – back to the blog….

King’s Cross/St. Pancras
After getting through all the airport regulars, we then had to take the train from Gatwick to King’s Cross/St. Pancras where we were going to meet my cousin Tam. She would then be taking us on the Tube to her part of town. Can I just say how much I LOVED the train ride! Those bloody things move so fast. It was nice to ride through the countryside and see the different levels of living outside of the city core. We even managed to see a graveyard for the decrepit and dying red telephone booths that have obviously been removed from the city proper. The best part of the ride was the portion on the south side of the Thames through the crowded Embankment area. When they say “right next to the tracks” in rental announcements – they literally mean right next to the tracks. And I’m not talking the first floor… the train ran right past the floors of buildings stories and stories up. Can you imagine waking up and brushing your teeth in your 10th floor bathroom and looking out the window only to see a train passing by 5 inches from your face?

Bad With UK Money & Payphones
After arriving at King’s Cross/St. Pancras – we did have a little bit of a stopper – as we were supposed to call Tam first before she came to pick us up. First, my cell phone that I brought, did NOT work, despite what Rogers and Fido told me before I left. With that, we then had to figure out a way to get some change to work the pay phones. Heather had a bit of an adventure with the store cashier on that one, as for some reason, they had more trouble determining what she would need for the phone than we did, and they gave her pound coins instead of pence coins… really ridiculous. Anywho – from there we then called Tamara – and couldn’t get her. Home phone, cell phone – all a miss. We then called her cell phone again – got her – but then only to talk to her for 9 seconds exactly (learned from Tam at a later time) before the phone hung up on me. Apparently it isn’t a regular call to call a cell phone here from a pay phone – but they don’t exactly tell you that on the signage. So after waiting some more, we called again – talked for another 9 seconds - and got hung up on again. Tam then took a chance that I might actually stay at the payphone and promptly called it right back. I really like that you can call payphones here – why don’t we have that in Toronto?

Tamara
Finally – after a bit more waiting while she rode the Tube towards us – there she was!

Boots – UK’s Shopper’s Drug Mart
After all our hellos and hugs and baggage looks, we then followed Tam to “Boots” (A pharmacy like Shoppers Drug Mart – I think we even used to have some Boots stores in Toronto once upon a time) to pick up a quick lunch. They have this great, on-the-go deal where you can get a drink, sandwich and dessert for about $3 pounds or less from this huge selection along one side of the store. It’s an utterly amazing concept that we definitely need at home for all us peeps who can’t get it up to make our own lunch, but don’t want to spend more than five bucks buying it either.

The Tube
From there – we then bought our tickets for the Tube for the next few days. I absolutely adore the Tube system as well. Stretching all across the city in fifty million different ways, with so many lines…. I can’t believe how pathetic the TTC seems in comparison – and the Tube isn’t even touted as one of the worlds best! Two of the most killer things: speed and arrival time. Those trains move so fast it’s unbelievable – and they arrive literally every minute or two. It’s a little weird to have to remember to vacuum through our tickets at the entrance and exit gates every time we got on and off – but it was definitely way better than having to stand in a fifty person line when you just don’t have a token or Metropass.

Seven Sisters
Tam resides in an area called Seven Sisters. I believe this resides in section 4 of the city, Upper East Side. It was only a 10-15 minute ride from the centre of the city and was a really nice area (a la us regular folks standards). While extremely close to the Metro station near her, it is actually a bit of a circular and roundabout walk to her place. I don’t believe I managed to memorize the pattern at all from her place to the station or vice versa.

Tam’s Flat
Tam lives in a two-floor flat along a cute little row-house section. The living, dining and kitchen area are on the ground floor, and there is a bathroom and two bedrooms upstairs. The flat has been really nicely done up and when she moved in it was fully furnished.

The Roommate
Tam did fill us in on the stories about her roommate. These stories I will also save for one on ones as most of them I don’t believe many of you will believe unless I tell you myself – and on the other hand, I have a slight idea it may not be the best idea to tell the world of the Internet.

Walk about London
After taking some time to settle down and settle in, as well as eat our quick-eats Boots meals, we then decided it would be good to get in a quick walking tour of a few of the London sites. Tamara was free to come with us, which proved quite fruitful as I think we saw a lot more with her than we ever would have trying to walk around on our own without some sort of a guide.

Embankment
After running through The Tube and learning about the ease and wonder of switching from line to line, we made our way to Embankment station right in the heart of downtown, based along the Thames. We got out of the Underground there and made our way across by foot on the Millennium bridge towards a few of the more tourist-y attractions.

Big Wheel Festivus
Lucky for us, we somehow managed to land right in the middle of a small festival of artists, which made our walk ten times more pleasurable. From the south side of the Thames we were making our way towards the London Eye, and had spectacular views across the water of the Big Ben clock tower and the parliament buildings. We also walked right under the London Eye, which is as huge as it seems to be in pictures and on television.

Anya, the ultimate tourista
I believe I began our trip as a severe embarrassment to both H-Rabbit and Tam, for I was full on tourista with my picture-taking and picking up of various “free” literature. I learned to take it a bit easier as the walk went on for only so much could fit into our little day-bags and – mostly – I kept getting left behind!

Quick sites
After passing the London Eye we got a glimpse of the Salvadore Dali museum, and then walked up to Westminster Bridge towards Big Ben.

Big Ben & Parliament
I’ll be honest – it was an absolute treat to be able to see these buildings in person, especially in the late afternoon during the setting sun as I can tell you now – I have never ever realized just how spectacular and shimmering those buildings are. On television and pictures, the parliament buildings always come out so dark, brown and dreary – but in person they are actually shining, glittery and gold! The carvings and detail work is unbelievable and you can’t even describe the feeling it gives you to think about the workmanship needed for such a feat of building.

Westminster Abbey
After the parliament buildings we took a quick jaunt around Westminster Abbey. We didn’t get to go inside, but the outside was just as impressive. The detail on all the historical buildings in London really was moving and made you really think about the work and time that people once had to make things right and make them beautiful. It almost makes you wish we didn’t live in the time and economy that we do today… until you think about slavery, abject poverty and all those other lovely things….

Guards in front of St. James Park
From Westminster, we then took a small walk to the gates before St. James Park. On duty were some of the Queen’s very own grumpy guards. H-Rabbit and I managed to get in queue to take a shot with one of them – but if you ever see the picture, you’ll realize just how scared we were to do it. Right before our pick he randomly decided to yell at the top of his lungs at some woman beyond us – but in doing so yelled right in my ear. We quickly snapped our picture and ran away.

Trafalgar Square – Pride followed us to London
Tam then walked us to Trafalgar Square – a huge meeting and gathering place in London in front of some important building that I can’t remember right now, but I’ll figure it out later. Just guess what we walk in on - London’s massive Pride celebrations! While their partying numbers in no way compared to our Toronto ones that we amassed the weekend before we left – I must say their Queens do it ten times better than any of the ones I’ve seen back home. You wouldn’t believe the spectacular costumes!

Leicester Square – Pubs & Excitement
After having our fill of the huge Pride concert in the square, we then went to another popular square filled with stores, shops, theatres and pubs – Leicester Square. You wouldn’t believe the amount of people that are always – and I really do mean ALWAYS – out in London. All hours, all the time, and things stay open really, really late… or early as the case may be. It was at this point we realized we were starving again and headed for some dinner.

Pub Food – So fulfilling
So let me just say – I don’t know one Canadian pub I’ve been to in Toronto that even comes close to comparing the pub food we found in London. The meal we had basically made my vacation before it even started. Heather and I both had pies (chicken and steak) and Tam settled for a steak proper – and let’s just say we probably ate three times our stomach space in food for less than a meal at McDonald’s. Just thinking of the meal now I can remember every bit of it.

Hare Krishnas
Once done with our food, Tam has a hankering for Hagen Daaz, so we went back to the centre of Leicester Square, got some ice cream and then sat down for a bit to enjoy it. Upon doing so – we then got “serenaded” by London’s Hare Krishnas that paraded through the square multiple times chanting and singing and begging everyone to join in. It was definitely a site to behold as it was just as all those movies from the 70’s portrayed it but I’d obviously never seen in real life seeing as how depleted the movement has become in Toronto.

Crash but no burn
After that – our first day in London and our trip entirely ended and we decided to Tube back to Tamara’s the finally get to sleep. While getting ready – we were introduced to the hardcore fandom Londoners seems to have for their version of “Big Brother” (which by the way is ten times more funny and fascinating than the American version for sure) as well as a show called “The IT Crew” (I think!) which hilariously reminds me of… well, you guess!

With that – it was then sleep – and prep for another full day of London!