Looondon!!
I cannot freakin' believe that I still didn't get around to blogging about our London trip! Well, that problem is about to be resolved. In other news: I've sold out to Flickr, but you can follow my narration through pictures.
Let's go back to the beginning first. Susan's birthday was coming up, and I, being the romantic person that I am, decided to take her away on an exciting trip. However, seeing how I am as pragmatic as I was romantic, I figured that we might as well go somewhere that I was itching to go for a long time. London it was.
Susan had no idea about the trip up until her birthday, so clearly she was enthused. We left in the afternoon, and, after an uneventful flight on Virgin airlines and a reasonable Tube ride, we emerged above ground at Gloucester Road station. What do we see? Burger King next to Starbucks next to KFC. “Hmmmm,” we say, and check around to make sure that we really are in the UK. Interesting.
We made it to the hotel (a nice quaint place in a district chock full of other hotels), dropped off our bags, and ran right back to the Tube. Off to Tower of London.
The downtown area is nice. Certainly not as impressive as that of St. Petersburg, but hey, this is just a small island nation we’re talking about. Took a little walk on the shore of Thames, and went in to the Tower. A bit of a misnomer, really, seeing how it’s a complex of old buildings. The highlight was seeing the Crown Jewels (yes, yes, I giggled several times), especially the crowns with egg-sized diamonds. Pretty sweet indeed.
Coming out of the Tower, we decided to sample some local cuisine, and settled on some fish n’ chips. Communicating with the food booth attendant proved mildly difficult. Just a sign of things to come.
The same afternoon, we made it to the Big Ben and Westminster Abbey, and then went from one pub in the Leicester Sq. to another. Slowly, I realized that the Brits sound a bit odd, ranging from “sorta funny” to “highly retarded”. In the worst cases, Susan and I had to parse what people were saying, and translate it to each other.
The next day was a walking marathon. In the morning, we went to the Portobello market and picked up some red currant on the way. From there, we made our way to the British Museum – definitely an impressive place. We had a great dinner at an Indian place and tried to get on the London Eye, but got there too late. Oh well, back to the pubs!
Our final day in London was a short one, but we still made the best of it by hiking from Victoria Station to Buckingham Palace, Trafalgar Square, and finally to Covent Market. The trip back was great – we were on one of the Virgin planes that had awesome new entertainment centers at every seat, so we got to watch Wallace & Gromit and Sin City. Overall – definitely a weekend well spent, and both of us want to go back to London to see more. But no more British accents. Please, learn to speak English!
Let's go back to the beginning first. Susan's birthday was coming up, and I, being the romantic person that I am, decided to take her away on an exciting trip. However, seeing how I am as pragmatic as I was romantic, I figured that we might as well go somewhere that I was itching to go for a long time. London it was.
Susan had no idea about the trip up until her birthday, so clearly she was enthused. We left in the afternoon, and, after an uneventful flight on Virgin airlines and a reasonable Tube ride, we emerged above ground at Gloucester Road station. What do we see? Burger King next to Starbucks next to KFC. “Hmmmm,” we say, and check around to make sure that we really are in the UK. Interesting.
We made it to the hotel (a nice quaint place in a district chock full of other hotels), dropped off our bags, and ran right back to the Tube. Off to Tower of London.
The downtown area is nice. Certainly not as impressive as that of St. Petersburg, but hey, this is just a small island nation we’re talking about. Took a little walk on the shore of Thames, and went in to the Tower. A bit of a misnomer, really, seeing how it’s a complex of old buildings. The highlight was seeing the Crown Jewels (yes, yes, I giggled several times), especially the crowns with egg-sized diamonds. Pretty sweet indeed.
Coming out of the Tower, we decided to sample some local cuisine, and settled on some fish n’ chips. Communicating with the food booth attendant proved mildly difficult. Just a sign of things to come.
The same afternoon, we made it to the Big Ben and Westminster Abbey, and then went from one pub in the Leicester Sq. to another. Slowly, I realized that the Brits sound a bit odd, ranging from “sorta funny” to “highly retarded”. In the worst cases, Susan and I had to parse what people were saying, and translate it to each other.
The next day was a walking marathon. In the morning, we went to the Portobello market and picked up some red currant on the way. From there, we made our way to the British Museum – definitely an impressive place. We had a great dinner at an Indian place and tried to get on the London Eye, but got there too late. Oh well, back to the pubs!
Our final day in London was a short one, but we still made the best of it by hiking from Victoria Station to Buckingham Palace, Trafalgar Square, and finally to Covent Market. The trip back was great – we were on one of the Virgin planes that had awesome new entertainment centers at every seat, so we got to watch Wallace & Gromit and Sin City. Overall – definitely a weekend well spent, and both of us want to go back to London to see more. But no more British accents. Please, learn to speak English!
1 Comments:
Amazing recollection of events!! Your idea of seeing the Tower of London was well worth it. Thanks for all your ingenuity :)
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