London is alright. I arrived early Saturday morning to Heathrow Airport. Upon arriving I remembered that Heathrow probably has the least amount of security out of any airport. And by that I mean the most security. We waited in line for about 20 minutes as people checked our passports. Everyone had to fill out these little sheets stating their purpose and where they would be staying while in London. I filled in every blank expect for occupation which was about the the same size as the space for 'middle initial.' I thought, whose occupation is only one letter?
I gave the lady the slip and she asked me the usually questions. Then she said, "What do you do? You've left occupation blank." This is where I say, "Um, well it's complicated, it's like computers, but I work with the automotive compa......" and just as I was uselessly explaining myself she writes, 'IT.' Yup, IT. It's over, I am now an IT consultant. How did this happen? All of the sudden my job has broken down to being IT? Well I guess if I end up missing or become suspected of plotting some sort of terror threat, the men in charge of the case will say, "Well of course, look, this guy knows computers, let's get em boys." Of course I know nothing about computers, except how to run the programs at work.
So off into London. Our hotel was located in a nice area just north of Covent Park and Soho off Googe Street. The room wasn't ready until after 2 so I had about 3 or so hours to kill until I met up with Jake. Jake had been traveling the week past from Rome, to Barcelona and now London. His trip is pretty monstrous to say the least. I was hoping we could cool off with a couple pints in the old country eh.
Although it is true they speak English in London, the customs are still European. I went into a coffee shop in an area off Oxford Street and found myself asking for a tall coffee with my hands and pointing to cakes while speaking very basic English. It was strange because I could understand everything everyone was saying, but I have been so used to not understanding everyone's conversations that I forgot all people talk about is pretty much crap. I began to be thankful that I didn't understand everyone in all the other countries I'd been to. Sometimes I don't want to hear about what your girlfriend did at your other girlfriend's house and how you can't believe it.
So now I'm responsible for every homeless guy and lost tourist. No more looking dumbfounded when some one asked me for change.
'At's right mate, you know wat I said, don't look me like that, and ova a quid,' the bum thought.
'Damn understanding English,' I thought to myself.
So I meet up with Jake at the hotel and we walk down to the Thames. Apparently it was Veteran's Day in England and there was a fireworks ceremony over the river. We took it in. After that, we were close to the London Eye and I like to go up high in big cities and look at all there is to see. It was a slow nice ride and I took 64 pictures of Big Ben.
We walked some more across the river and into China Town and Soho. Somehow we miraculously found a restaurant off a side street that had a hip flare and healthy menu. I didn't expect to find anything in a huge city I knew nothing about and I was pleasantly surprised by this place. I had a vegetarian burrito with plenty of beans and Jake had some super duper healthy burger. The table next to us reminded me that all the other people that got drunk in other countries probably sounded like idiots too. We paid a million us dollars for our food and left.
The next morning we got up and took the bus all over the place. London was quite easy to get around and the bus went everywhere. We never waited longer than 5 minutes and the bus routes were posted clearly everywhere. It was well good. After riding around we ended up at the Tate Modern Art Museum. There are some famous pieces here and I remembered that I went to Art School.
After that I found some stairs that went into the water next to a life preserver with no intention of ever being untied from a post in an area where there were no attempt to stop anyone from falling in. We moved on from here to the Design Museum. This was falsely named as it should have been called the Zaha Hadid Museum. I liked seeing all her work, but it was only two rooms and only her work. I then remembered I went to Design School.
Later that night we got some pints and headed in early. The next morning was short but I saw what was close to the fifth or sixth MK V R32. London pretty much has the mk V r32 thing locked in. Everywhere you turn there is another super expensive GTI and alot of them 4 door.
Overall I liked London compared to the other big cities I've been to in Europe. It wasn't crazy hectic and it was easy to get around. Besides the fact that everything is way too expensive, it's a nice place. People are friendly and they have an Apple store. There's quite a bit of diversity and the NHS will take care of you if you get hurt! Cigarettes are $14, there's a lot of Indian food, they like cars and I like the rain. So this is what i learned in 2.5 days in one of the biggest cities in the world. Cheers!
