This is London: Day 1

Yes!!! Vacation!!! And just in time – my head is swirling with way too many things that have to do with work and responsibilities – I need some time to just relax, rewind, unwind, unload and forget.

And what better way than to run across the big bad pond and drop right into Londontown!!

Terminal 1
This is my first time running through the new Terminal 1 at Pearson in Toronto – very posh indeed. And while I sort of totally understand and actually like the self-service kiosks – they are also a bit cumbersome to use when you’re lugging 2 or more bags.

Only Terminal 1 downfall? The Tim Horton’s is only a half service desk – no breakfast sandwiches for me! Sigh. I switched allegiance and went to the Starbucks for my iced tea lemonade and a scrumptious slice of Lemon Poppy seed cake.

Late Plane
While all the digital displays and lovely airport personnel insisted our flight was on time – you kind of know your plane is late when it is isn’t even attached to the gate deck and the flight staff are all waiting at the door with their luggage. But – c’est ca – I just settled down to play with my iPhone until something drove up.

Pod People
When we did finally get on our way – we were pleased to find our place was a fairly nice one. First class was made up of all these individual pod sections where you can actually sleep lying down, have your own personal flat screen TV and a footstool for added storage.

Not of course that we were in those seats – we just got to walk past them. However – our economy class digs weren’t too bad either. Even though our seats were labeled A and C – Mom and I were alone in a two-seater on the left side with a window and aisle – and everyone had their own personal TV/movie system with a ton of stuff to watch. Legroom was pretty decent, as was storage space. So much better than my last trans-Atlantic flight with Air Transat – need to remember that for the next time.

De-icing
After we were settled in, the captain let us know that the wings needed de-icing – which while I know is a damned consistent occurrence on flights in our weather – it still makes me nervous. By now we were pretty late and I believe the waiting around for de-icing took at least 30 minutes more – someone didn’t want us to get to London anytime soon.

Movie Time
Good thing the entertainment system was already up and running – time to settle in for a movie! Only problem was – I picked District 9 to start with since I hadn’t seen it yet. I got through about 25 minutes of it and couldn’t take it anymore. Watching a movie yourself in an enclosed space with headphones is NOT the ideal way to watch a movie that both slightly scares you and grosses you out at the same time. I had to give up by the time Wikus decides to settle on his first round of cat food.

Instead, I then settled on two mindless movie runs, to get the weird visions out of my head, and watched Harry Potter again, and then Twilight for the third time in my life.

Air Canada: -1
Only really crappy part of the flight: the food. Air Canada needs to seriously get with the program. Even Air Transat rocked in the food department. I barely kept the food on this flight down. Thank God for my earlier delight in lemony goodness.

Tons of babies – silent!
Twisted recurrence on this trip: lots of babies – but every single one of them silent. Not a peep through the whole flight – someone above was finally on my side!

Finally – in London
Well – in the end the flight went quite well with only a few rounds of turbulence. Ica met us at Heathrow and we took a supremely long ride on the Tube to her area at Holloway. However – to my delight – I reacquainted myself with the wonderful lady’s Tube voice that I love so much – and on the perfect line too as Holloway in on the Piccadilly Line. Ask H-Rabbit – I love saying, “Now arriving at Piccadilly Circus, on the Piccadilly Line!” H-Rabbit – I’ve got the accent down pat now! As the ride was supremely long, and during the last round of trains for the night – we picked up quite a few people who apparently didn’t really care that they chose to sit on our luggage. London is way too packed with people. Torontonians need to experience this to remember how good we have it – even during rush hour.

Walking, Walking, Walking
I forgot my sister’s love of walking – and I forgot how deep down the Tube stations actually are. To get out at Holloway you need to ride the escalator that resembles the stairway to heaven, it’s that freaking tall. I have no idea what happens when all these escalators break down cause there aren’t any stairs at all.

Fair-weather
Coming from -17 degree Toronto with the wind-chill – London’s 5 degrees is definitely balmy – though you can tell it’s much more damp and dingy here – the cold seeps into your bones and my hair is a permanent frizz ball.


Home Sweet Home – for 10 days
We get to Ica’s place, which is really quite nice. We meet her roommate Alex who is actually packing up to leave the next morning to head back to the States for the Christmas break. We quickly gather round the kitchen eat some of Ica’s peanut-butter chicken noodles (quite good actually despite the name and ingredients) because the plane food was so horrible. She also made some homemade Oreo cookies – those did not turn out as well. We trashed the inside and settled for the outer cookies alone, which were at least edible. Then it was time for bed – though Jessica snuck in some painting too as she had to finish Alex’s going away present before she took off the next morning.

Yay Londontown – can’t wait to get started!!

Europe Day 04: Last & Longest Day in London

Monday, Monday
Being the start of the workweek (just not ours!), Tam had to get up pretty early. Our goodbyes were a bit rushed, as one bathroom for four people was a bit of a squeeze – but we managed. We thanked Tam for everything – she was an awesome host and we were extremely grateful for the free lodging for these past few days.

On our own
We were able to leave after Tam as the doors in her complex lock themselves after you shut the door. I have mixed feelings about this ability as it doesn’t allow room for mistake in possibly leaving your keys inside… but it was good for us because then we didn’t have to leave with Tam so early, and she didn’t have to wait for us.

A bit of aggravation
As we made our way with all of our luggage on the Tube back to Russell Square to lodge our stuff with the Contiki office for the day, we ran into a few aggravations. First – there were no ticket sellers at Seven Sisters, and we needed to buy day passes. We then tried to use the machines, but they simply wouldn’t accept the five-pound not we had and they also refused to take anything but exact change. There was also all of one person on duty at the entrance we were using and he proved to be very little help. Finally, he gave us directions to the entrance at the other end of the station where there more people on duty to help us.

RAIN!!
However, with our luck, yet again it was raining – and this time it wasn’t a nice sun-in, sun-out mix match – just plain ‘ole constant rain. We finally made it to the other entrance and then got lodged in the middle of rush hour traffic with all of our luggage. It was definitely a bit of rough going for both us and I believe the other people in the train as well. The Tube cars aren’t as wide as our subway cars and definitely don’t leave room for added baggage.

Contiki Basement
Eventually we made our way back to Russell Square. We didn’t get lost and I was pretty confident of my mastery of the Tube system. Toronto would be ten times better for it if we found some way to have the subway system a major international city should have. Right now – our transportation rank is down below sea level. We left our luggage at the Contiki basement – 1 pound per bag – and only once we’d fully done it did the guy bother to tell us we could have checked right into our hotel if we had wanted to. Seeing as the rain, Tube ride and money situation had already put me in a foul mood – I pretended to ignore this bit of information so as to prevent myself from exploding.

Bah money
While I absolutely love the ability to use European partner banks to my bank (for the lack of being charged for every transaction) – please let me tell you that their personal customer service leaves a lot to be desired. I was not impressed with our inability to prepare for the rest of Europe by not being able to get Euros on request – especially with such high inter-travel between the UK and the rest of the EU. To say the least – our treatment there was the day’s last straw and I had a bit of a frustration cry in front of Russell Hotel just to release the anger. Plus – it started raining again, which made me fairly grr-argh-ey.

No Loose PG Tips – just bags, bags, bags
It was at this time that Heather realized we had not found the one thing that her mom had asked her to bring back with us – loose leaf PG Tips tea. So at that point we started our hunt for groceries that would carry it. Well – let’s say that search lasted most of the day as it seems that every store we went to either didn’t have it at all, or only had the bag variety (by which I am told contains the crappier parts of the tea leaves as compared to loose leaf which is only the actual leaves).

Oxford Circus
From Russell Square we made our way to Oxford Circus where Tam said there were a lot of shops and good shopping. H-Rabbit and I wanted to head there because we realized that not only should we have never listened to anyone at all who told us about what to bring on the trip, but that we should also have never listened to any advice about the weather. We needed warmer clothes ASAP as the same weather we were experiencing in London was being called for all through France and Switzerland too.

UK Guys are too skinny
Being the way I am, it was going to take too much time to find a place with things to fit me, so I opted to go the guy route and look for stuff in that department. However low and behold – London guys seem to be as skinny or even skinnier than London girls. Yet another frustration for today – bah. We tried H&M and everything there too was skinny-fit. Not happy.

The Something Explorer
It was at this point that H-Rabbit said I needed some food – plus – it was raining again – so we ducked into a nice little pub around the corner from the Tube station. It was called The “Something” Explorer – the “something” referring to a word I can’t remember. I’ll have to go searching for my free lit I picked up there to give you the real name of the pub later on. Anywayz – we got a very nice sandwich to share – and the pub was extremely well taken care of – it was a bit funny that it was totally empty as it was definitely one of the most cleanest and modern pubs I’d seen the whole time we were here.

Back to the shopping
After Heather was convinced I was actually in a better mood, we then ventured into the Gap and finally managed to pick up a few things to augment our desperately lacking travel wardrobe. I managed to get a zippered sweater that I could throw over stuff whenever I was cold and H-Rabbit cleaned up yet again with a wrap, souvenir London Tee and a sweater as well.

The Big Bus Tour
With sweaters in hand for the continuing cold weather, we then felt ready to embark on the Big Bus Tour that we decided would be the best way to get around all day to catch the sites we had missed before.

The Big Bus Tour is just one of the stop-and-go, get-on-get-off bus services that operate in the city for tourists. We chose this particular company only because its three lines visited more of the sites that we had missed than any other line – PLUS – it had a smaller shuttle line that would actually take us right back to Russell Square when we needed to get to the Contiki meeting – a great option to have in our pockets since timing was obviously going to be down and dirty for the day.

The Big Bus Tour buses are double-decker, but with an open top for the upstairs section, so we knew it was risky with the weather and all. However, it was either that or find our own way around, which we were sure would take twice as long considering a few factors: our moods; the weather; and the fact that I stop every five seconds to take another photograph! It was accessible right from Oxford Circus, so we didn’t have to go anywhere else to catch it, and we found a guy selling tickets right on the corner. The tickets we were originally sold were really neat and would have been a great souvenir item, however the first thing that happens when you get on the bus is the driver takes THAT ticket away and then gives you this stupid, flimsy printed receipt and THAT’s what you have to keep safe and show to every driver throughout the day to get on and off. Bloody aggravating decision – but I guess also smart as there’s no way anyone can scam the tour company into becoming their daily transportation by showing the awesome ticket around for days (the original ticket had no date stamping or anything). Anywho – we did get a free pair of earphones each to listen to the recorded commentary (or Live if you’re on a Red Line bus), but missed out on free ponchos (they were all gone already) – yay for us having our own super-duper Canadian raincoats on hand because…

RAIN... again!
…what happened as soon as we got on the bus, and made our way up top (and managed to de-wet a few chairs enough to sit on them without soaking ourselves)? It began to… RAIN!! AGAIN!! However, armed with sweaters, raincoats and umbrellas – we made the brave decision to tough it out because it was the only way we’d actually see anything and be able to take picture while on the bus as the windows on the lower level were just not happy (foggy, cloudy, destroyed… basically – they might as well have been solid wood doors).

First off point: The Steps of St. Paul’s
Thankfully – during the first leg of the ride – the rain really was on and off, and a little way in, the sun actually came out again which was nice. I can’t quote remember which parts we ran through at this point but I do believe we passed Fleet Street and saw the building that was apparently the inspiration for tiered wedding cakes.

NOTE: As promised before – I’ll re-touch on things like our actual tour route and some of the things we’re seeing in other blogs later since obviously – my memory sucks, and I may totally have screwed up our actual driving route in recalling it, and there is no way I am going to be able to keep every single thing I’ve learned every day in my head for life at just one mention – there’s just too much information!

We made our first get-off point St. Paul’s Cathedral. I immediately began singing Mary Poppins’ Bird Woman song, so H-Rabbit made a beeline to get away from me – but I do love that song and it was neat to be in the actual place of somewhere I had dreamed about often as a kid. We took a few photos along the steps where many people were just hanging around. I do love how people are so comfortable here making their own public spaces. Toronto has very few comparable spots, and nowhere near the same amount – though our population also is nowhere near enough to keep them all filled. We also don’t attract anywhere near the same amount of tourists so you would never be able to recreate the same feeling of community even if we did.

We wanted to get a chance to see inside – but it cost money that we hadn’t budgeted for so we just leaned over ropes and pew stands and whatnot to get a good look at the inside – to the dismay of the people manning the line-up but so what.

After that – H-Rabbit spied a Marks & Spencer grocery store across the way and went in to try and continue the search for the PG Tips loose-leaf tea – but to no avail. M&S food stores only sell M&S food! Foiled again.

London Bridge is Falling Down
After we hopped back on to the Big Bus Tour and made our way towards London Bridge, which is, regardless of childhood lore, just a bridge - a regular, un-fancy, concrete and steel bridge. However – from it – you do get a pretty good view of the Tower Bridge down the way – now that’s a cool bridge. Yay for going there sometime soon.

Around the Globe Theatre
One of the things that H-Rabbit had wanted to see was the re-built Shakespearean Globe Theatre – however it wasn’t on the tour route. We managed to figure out that if we got off at London Bridge station, it seemed like we’d be able to walk there in a few minutes, see it, and then walk back and join the tour again when we were done. We obviously were not good judges of our London maps and it actually took a much longer walk to get there than we thought. Also – signage for the theatre is not happy and we got lost – only to find it by going down the most obscure set of stairs around a condo building right beside a bridge across the Thames, that led to the waterfront walkway towards the Art Gallery. Then magically – it was in front of us.

We were really hoping to go inside just to see it – as the web site we had checked the night before said we could either pay for a tour, or pay to just see the exhibition and inside – but we knew we didn’t have time for the tour since we still had to see so many other places and make it back to the Contiki headquarters for our tour meeting at 6pm.

However – at the front desk we learned that their web site sucks ass and is wrong – the only way in to see the theatre is either by taking the tour or seeing a show – neither of which we had the time for. So sadly – we only got to see the outside and had made the crazy trek finding the place for nothing.

Tower Bridge
Since the walk to the theatre ended up being way longer than we thought, we caught a local bus instead of the tour bus to take us directly to the Tower Bridge location, and got off before it crossed. That bridge is truly an impressive sight. I’m really glad we took the time to walk across it ourselves rather than ride across as it offers not only some awesome views of the city, but great views of itself as well.

Tower of London
At the base of the north side of the Tower Bridge, we then came across the fort that surrounds the Tower of London. I’ll be honest here – because I had no clue what the tower looked like – I was extremely disappointed that the actual Tower, which is in the centre of the fortress walls, is so short! You can barely tell there’s a tower there at all from the public walkways (for those of us who weren’t able to make it inside). Originally – we had wanted to go in to see the Crown Jewels that are supposed to be kept there – but we simply didn’t have the time (constrained by the damn occurrence of that Contiki meeting!) and so we didn’t really see the Tower of London at all – just the surrounding area. Let it be known – for awhile I was also quite confused – and took pictures of a much taller building across the street from the Tower – believing IT was the Tower – simply because it was much taller and actually looked like a tower. At this point – I still have no idea what I took a picture of but will have to look it up when I get home.

SUPER RAIN!
From the Tower of London stop, we hooked up with the Big Bus Tour again and went up top because we had thought the skies had cleared… only to be drenched and covered in SUPER RAIN – again! In our tussle to put on our rain gear and get everything covered – H-Rabbit managed to take a long sit in a very wet seat and gave herself wet pants for the rest of the day! This was our longest ride on the bus too since we were heading out all the way to the west end to see Buckingham Palace. Poor H-Rabbit – she was not impressed!

Buckingham Palace
Eventually we arrived at our destination and made the little trek towards the gates in front of the Palace. I was actually quite impressed with them, and the commemorative statue of Queen Victoria, more so than the palace itself. It’s just so… dreary looking and so symmetrical. Add the dreary weather and it just wasn’t as magnificent as some people might think. You can’t get into the palace and take a tour unless it’s August or September when the Royal family doesn’t reside there, so we didn’t have to worry about setting aside time for that. Hilariously enough – we did watch the antics of a weird dancing and waving Guard in front of the palace. Here we were thinking they all had to be super serious and here he was waving and shaking his booty at us. I never managed to get a picture, as he was always so quick about it or unexpected. However – both H-Rabbit and I saw it (along with about 20 other people) so it did indeed happen! Maybe the Queen needs to weed out her guards a bit better. Ha!

SUPER DUPER DOWNPOUR
Just as we finished taking our photos and looking around – we then got hit with the day’s most massive downpour. It was like having buckets of water poured down right on top of you. Even with all our rain gear – we were still getting wet – but unlike almost everyone else at the gates – we at least had umbrellas and could manage to wait the downpour out without having to move. Funnily enough – that was actually the only time I ever saw anyone run to try and get out of the rain. Every other time people just kept walking – sometimes without a coat or umbrella or anything. Londoners have definitely come to acquire an awesome skill of just ignoring the wet. I however could not – and so convinced H-Rabbit we should just get to the bus.

End of touring
Time had finally caught up with us and we realized we wouldn’t make the link to the Big Bus Tour line that ran by the Contiki area in time for our meeting so we got off at the closest Metro location – Green Park.

Loose PG Tips!
Before we hopped on, H-Rabbit noticed a Sainsbury grocery store, so we tried again for the elusive loose leaf PG Tips. Ta-da! Finally – we found some – but only after random help from a woman who thought we were American and seemed to be a bit flabbergasted by the fact that we were actually Canadian when we told her so. She said that apparently all the Indian stores in Toronto carry the stuff so next time we shouldn’t be too worried about finding it all the way over here.

Contiki Meeting
After buying the tea – and some awesomely delicious Brownie bites amongst a few other snacky things – we then Tubed directly to Russell Square for our Contiki meeting. I’m going to be brutally honest here – the “Begin the Tour” meeting the night before your tour starts is a big waste of time. Besides being reminded about every single rule that you should have already read in the paperwork you were sent ages ago, the only other thing you got to do was “sort of” meet the other people on your tour, and meet your tour manager. While I understand checking in, and giving pertinent information needed to happen – it most certainly didn’t have to happen in a meeting fashion that interrupted the day at a very specific time. When Contiki has full-time staff at a welcome desk pretty much all day long, we should have just been able to check in with them whenever we first arrived and given them whatever information they needed. They could also then have given us the information we needed. The standard start meeting is most definitely a way for them to cut their workload rather than serve their clients. So yeah, wrapping that up with a “not impressed”.

Checked into our first Hotel
After the meeting we grabbed our bags from the Basement and then walked over to the Imperial Hotel to check in. It was a standard room and pretty much what we were expecting, regardless of the rumblings we had heard from some girls in the meeting who described it as awful. They awesomely had a kettle and all the makings for tea so we rested a bit by watching some random hilarious British comedy show while Heather dried off and changed out of her wet clothes. Mine had survived quite well with my raincoat so I only needed a drying “period” to be comfortable again.
Back to Leicester one more time
To end our stay in London we decided to head back to Leicester one last time as it was the most liveliest part of town that we had seen our whole time there. We decided to get our “traditional” fish & chips meal at the Mermaid’s Tail (right in the square). The price actually wasn’t too bad, and neither were the fish & chips. After dinner we reminded ourselves sharply that we hadn’t picked up a single souvenir and I decided on magnets as my city-to-city souvenir for myself. We picked up a few other things as well and enjoyed the awesome nightlife the city had to offer.

Leicester to Piccadilly to Embankment
It was a Monday night but London’s nightlife was rip roaring and building with every moment – even though by this time it was nearing 11pm. Instead of less and less people being around, it seemed like there actually was more and more and more. The streets were teeming and alive. We went back to Piccadilly to see the London “Times Square” in full effect with lights and People and music. We then wanted to see the Thames in lights and took the Tube to Embankment again to see what we saw in the day under the night lights of the city. London at night was extremely beautiful – though I think that of pretty much every city at night I must admit.

The end of London
In the end, we Tubed “home” just in time – the last trains on all of London’s Tube lines end around the midnight mark – even though so many people were obviously out on the town. London cabbies must make a pretty penny when everyone finally makes their way home since it seemed like the entire city was out having a blast. We – however – had to be on a bus for 6:30am so we made it back into our rooms to settle in for a few hours sleep and semi-pack again for the start of our tour. Can’t believe we’re going to be getting a 5:30am wake-up call. It’s been a blast, but I know the adventure is only just starting – I can’t wait for what’s next.

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.

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!