Isn’t London Lovely (2008)

I made it to London on Wednesday the 7th, and I can`t believe my adventure has officially started.

Immigration – first speed bump of the trip.  I hate to say I was shocked when I got to customs.  I have cleared immigration so many times (in languages I didn`t speak), yet this was one of the toughest interrogation I have had.  The immigration officer kept questioning me about how long I will be staying, where I was going afterwards, what proof I had of my onward travel – all he wanted was proof (and I didn`t have it on me as it was in my checked luggage).  This made me realize I have to carry a copy of my round the world ticket with me at all airports.  Lucky I was able to show him my visa`s for Russia and India proving I was moving on from England.  Guess they don`t want people just coming and staying forever.  Lesson learned.

After that, I was ready to go.  I knew England would be easy to navigate as I`ve been there twice before and getting money, Internet access and the such was easy.  So I hopped on the Tube and in an hour was at Amber and Richard`s flat in Marylebone.  Amber was already at work and Richard was on a conference call at home, but they left everything for me so I could get set up comfortable in their flat (THANK YOU!!!).  I have to say, it was the nicest welcome I think I will ever have in the coming year.  Flowers in my room, fresh towels and cute little travel soaps and shampoos, fresh croissants and fruit and a friendly note telling me all I need to get started.  I could have stayed here forever – but knew I came here to see more of the city and enjoy their lifestyle.

So off to Buckingham Palace as my previous two visits, I missed the changing of the guard.  So this time I was going to be there early to get a spot up close.  Unfortunately, the third time was not the charm as this day they canceled the show as there was some royal event.  Maybe I`ll try again on another morning…

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Did I mention it was unseasonable warm this day – and everyone in the city was out to enjoy the sun?  Amber told me three days earlier she was wearing a wool coat and this sun came out of no where and it should stay through the weekend (so I`m super excited now).  After the Palace disappointment, I wandered around St. James Park as the flowers were blooming, every working stiff was out on lunch break to enjoy the park and it was so nice to relax and stroll around.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I still had energy so I walked across the Jubilee bridge to see the London Eye, but decided I didn`t need to spend $30 to ride it (as it`s just a big Ferris Wheel).

Wasn`t something I needed to do and I kept on walking to Westminster Abby bridge to see Big Ben.  The clock tower is so large and impressive surrounded by Westminster Abby – it just made me stop and stare for a while.

Later that night, I met up with Amber for dinner (at Wagamama – as I loved that place years ago) and it was perfect once again.  We had a nice long time to catch up before we met Richard at the neighborhood pub.   I love to mulit-task and think I`m pretty good at it, but I think Amber and Richard have mastered it even more.  They had a grocery delivery scheduled for 10-11pm.  So they said we could sit outside at the neighborhood pub and we would watch for the van to drive by and then one of them would run home to get the delivery.  How perfect was that!

I would have thought at 11pm when we were kicked out of the pub that we would be off to bed, but Amber and I were up to 2:30am as she had to conduct some business with the office in California and wanted me as a sounding board for some of the politics involved.  Crazy late work night – but at least I could sleep in the next morning.

Now Thursday – that was quite an interesting day…

After sleeping in and missing going to see the changing of the guard, I met up with Carolyn Stone for lunch.  I worked with her in the San Francisco Bernstein office in 2001, and she moved to the London office two years ago.  We had a wonderful lunch and great time catching up. Carolyn is another traveling soul and had lots of great ideas for me along the way (Thanks again Carolyn!)   The rest of the afternoon was sightseeing from the Tate Britain, taking a boat cruise on the Thames to the Tate Modern, which was much better art in my humble opinion.  At that point, Amber was still at work, so I started wandering the cobblestone streets in search of Tower Bridge.  No map – just heading east and I knew I would turn up on something.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Here`s where the interesting part/people comes in.  On my way to “Punch & Judy`s” pub in Covent Gardens (great recommendation Colin), the following occurred:

1. Met Louie – a shirtless guy from Poland that was walking his bike and kept calling out to me “hi beautiful…”, “can we chat beautiful” and then he sped up to get in front of me and in my eye sight as I was doing a great job at ignoring him.  He offered to give me a ride to the pub, which I declined.  He also asked for my number as he wanted to see me again and I was able to say, “I don`t think so as I don`t think my boyfriend would appreciate it”.  Which he then said he`s give me his number and I could “call him privately”.  I just started to laugh and walked away.

2. When I got to the pub, I met Rachel and Mark.  They saw me on my own and invited me to sit with them (while I waited for Amber).  Rachel was a friendly and loud, 25 year old, “air hostess” with Virgin.  She had just met Mark, a very friendly 48 year old man.  He was nice, but not someone I would choose to hang out with so I was hoping Amber would come soon and we could leave.  Rachel and Mark were fun to drink with and I ended up staying with them for 2 hours and had a fun time – but not people I needed to exchange contact info with

3. While sitting with Rachel and Mark we made friends with 4 guys that came up to us.  3 were single and 1 was married.  Reason this was strange as the married guy was the talkative one and very cocky.  He ended up picking a big fight with Rachel that made many heads turn in the bar and caused a scene.  Neither would back down and the 4 guys had to leave and it put a damper on the night.  I guess they all had their pride and no one would back down.  All this fighting over what district they each lived in.

Soon after Amber showed up – about 9pm and more fun was to be had…
4. We went for fish and chips at her favorite place.  While sitting in the window seat inside, a drunk man in a suit comes up to us and asks Amber if he can have some of her beer.  “Of course not” was her response.  He started begging again for beer and reaching for it, and he was making a scene but finally left (or so we thought)

5. Some newbies to town (2 men) tapped me on the shoulder asking me to help open the mayo packet.  How strange is that a man asking a woman to open something..hummmm – was that just his opening line?  I took the task and opened his mayo and we chatted for a while.  He thought I was Irish, yet I know I have no such accent.  All in all, funny guys adding to our entertainment.

6. A nice English girl witnessed all this at the table next to us and said “welcome to English culture” and tried to reassure me all English are not like that.

7. Finally – the same drunk man from #4 above, came back into the restaurant (with 2 friends) with his takeaway and sat down (a big no-no at this place).  It took the manager, cook, cleaner and about 3 other workers to get these 3 drunk people out of the eatery as it was closed.

Amber and I just started laughing as it was just an interesting day of people that I don`t think either of us will forgot.

So that`s it.  Two days in London and already tales and fun.  I think I will be staying here till Monday or Tuesday before heading to Scotland.

Here`s a link to all of my photos in snapfish…more to come later in the week:
http://www1.snapfish.com/thumbnailshare/AlbumID=225804505/a=13210121/t_=13210121