Europe Day 03: Lazy London Day

Late Start
We definitely took our time today. After realizing just how many hours we were awake for the past two days, we though maybe a good sleep in and a slow start was a really good idea.

Full Breakfast
When Tam came down, it was already lunch, but since that’s no different than our usual schedules at home – we barely noticed. She cooked us an amazingly full breakfast of eggs, mushrooms and bacon. I officially love UK bacon – unlike the stuff we get at home – there’s still meat on these cuts instead of the usual 90% fat. If I could ship some home I would.

Check out our Contiki Future
After breakfast and getting ready, we headed out by Tube again into the city core. Our first stop was Russell Square to check out the Contiki Basement office and get a bearing on where our hotel(s) were. We had to do all our check-ins and meetings at one place, and were staying the next night at another. Tam wouldn’t be with us tomorrow so we wanted to make sure we knew where we were and how to get there so we weren’t lost for our actual tour start.

Camden Market
Once leaving Russell Square, Tam then took us to Camden Market for some shopping and flea market bargains. This was definitely my kind of flea market. They had absolutely everything – and it was a mecca for crafters and artists of every kind. If we had flea markets like this at home (unlike the fairly dirty, sleazy and usually filled with cheaply made “Made in China” plastics markets we tend to be saddled with) I’d be there every weekend.

Leicester Square x2
From there, we went back to Leicester Square to see it more clearly and actually get a good look around since yesterday we were fairly out of it from jet lag, exhaustion an light-headedness. Biggest problem that hit us at this point was it started to pour. I am going to be honest – I do not like London’s rain. It’s cold and damp and gets into your clothes and doesn’t leave. The sun doesn’t dry it, the winds don’t take it away – it just hangs onto everything – and definitely gave way to a pretty grumpy me.

TGI Friday on Sunday
To get out of the pour, we dipped into a place called Tiger Tiger – but then we dipped right back out again. It said it served food but apparently we were too late and they had stopped serving and the waitress then totally ignored us. Apparently the place is a highly touted nightspot but really, with service like that, I don’t think I’d have reason to step in again ever. After that, with the rain still coming down hard, we simply slipped into TGI Friday’s to get out of the rain and eat something decent. Dinner wasn’t bad and it gave us a great chance to catch up and actually have a god chat with Tam. Lots of stories were told and we had a good set of laughs.

Piccadilly Circus
From dinner, Tam then walked us over to Piccadilly Circus, which wasn’t too far at all. The area is basically considered London’s version of Times Square, and is lit up with billboards and lights. In the centre stands a statue led up to by a large set of circular stairs that you can always find many people lazing around. Nowadays apparently they city is actually paying for the stairs to be washed of pigeon poop everyday so they can actually be used by people. Tam says before they weren’t cleaned at all and the place used to be really disgusting. You were lucky to find a clean place to stand let alone sit. I enjoyed being in the circus, if only to chuckle at my childhood visions of Piccadilly being an actual Circus and originally being disappointed a long time ago when I realized it was no such thing.

Tim Horton’s!
Yes – Canada has invaded Piccadilly Circus. Tam’s sole mission for taking us there was to find the supposed Tim Horton’s that set up shop there and found it we did indeed. Problem was, we were thoroughly stuffed from dinner and had no room to even get a back-home coffee – though Tam was pleased that she now knew where it was and could come by anytime for a taste of home.

Covent Garden
After making our find, Tam then took us to Covent Garden. Because it was Sunday, most of the little shops were closed by the time we got there, but there was some strange troupe of highly annoying American gymnasts doing an act in the back square. They basically pushed and begged for money about every 2 minutes during their act. In the middle it also started to pour again so we took this as our cue to leave and did not give the gymnasts any money because, well, in comparison to Cirque acts we can frequently see at home – these girls were just plain bad – and I really didn’t appreciate the constant and consistent pestering. Plus – as Tam said – we didn’t come to London to watch American artists.

Calling it a day
After making our way through the market – we decided it would be a good bet to just make our way home again. It was nice to have a short day that was relaxing. We also got a chance to meet Tam’s roommate who was… who he was. Caught up on a bit more Big Brother and then to sleep we went.