Sooo, some touristy adventures and some cutural notes.
We walked all around on Thursday. That morning we walked to Camden Market. It reminded me of a classier flea market, but it did have some fun clothing boutique stores and a bunch of food stalls. It was worth checking out as long as you know exactly how far of a walk it is. We went from there, on the tube, to Bond Street area (which is London's Rodeo Drive), walked through Trafalger Square, saw the British National Museum (lots of art that I realized that I cannot appreciate), walked by Big Ben and Parliament, and then finally to Victoria Park along Thames River. It was an awesome walk with some awesome pictures that will be put up when I get back. Although, it was not fully appreciated because we didn't really understand all of the intracacies and interesting facts about the area. For that reason we went to take the Fat Tire bike tour that Kaushal introduced us to. Sadly, there were not enough people there to take the tour so they told us to come by the next day. So we then walked across Hyde Park to the Science Museum. This was really cool and we saw some cool exhibits (leave it to the engineers to appreciate cool techy stuff and not art). At this point Jay stated the realisation that the tube stations are like "warp points". Where we can pop out of anywhere with a little research.
That night we met up with Ira (friend from UCLA). She took us around University of London and the surrounding area. The area was pretty cool and there was plenty to do to keep busy. But she explained how the campus and campus life was horrible, at least in comparison to UCLA. The elevators don't work, printers don't work, the campus community is not very good, etc. We did get to hang out with a few of her friends though. It was fun to get a little insight into the college community around this area, and this well known university. Sadly, we had to end the night early because our train pass ended at 12 (midnight). We went to a bar real quick and then left jogging to the station. We literally got in the gates at 11:59, I was simply impressed with ourselves. After a little work we got back to the hostel and met some cool travellers. There were Slovenian, and we had a good conversation on colleges, lifestyles, and how the guy was really into American sports. After a little chat that night, we called it in early.
The next day we started of the day with the Bike Tour. The tour was awesome! I highly recommend it to anyone in London, Paris, Barcelona, and Berlin. We got to see and hear stories about Parliament, Big Ben, changing of the guard, Westminster Abby, etc. And on the tour we met some cool other tourists that were fun to talk to. Two of the girls were especially fun, and we even coincidentally ran into them on the train on Saturday. After the tour we walked around Hyde park, saw the entrance to a huge concert where the Killers were playing that day for 55 pounds. When 6pm finally came around, we had passed Bond street again, we got into the train (/warp point) and got out near Oxford Street, where all the Indians were supposed to be. We ran into the closest one, because it was raining. But Ira was right, the food here is not that great. Although the English breakfast, with beans, was interesting and Bangers and Mash was actually pretty good. Of course the fish and chips was much better than I expected. Anyways, Indian food sucked, we went to Covent Garden. It is supposed to be a cool place for evening-ish activities, but EVERYTHING in London closes at 9 (except for select bars and clubs which we had no idea about). So we headed back to the hotel and played some scrabble to kill some time while looking for interesting people to talk to. None showed up.
This morning, Saturday, we got lost onto the train station (my fault) and got the the Euston station just in time. We hopped onto our previously purchased train tickets and headed towards Birmingham to visit my aunt and amama (grandma). After a 2 hour journey my aunt picked us up and we went to Stratford-upon-Avon and saw Shakespeare's birthplace. While it was very touristy, his old house was still intact. It was a fun day trip outing with so many people from different cultures around us. For lunch we had paninis and shared an awesome eclair. Seriously, I've never had one this good before. The soft bread melted into the accompanying vanilla ice cream, yup, not the other way around. After that we drove through Cheltnam where I saw for the first time, a cricket match with only white people (in the States we only see cricket played by Indians). Then we drove to Bristol for a BBQ for one of my aunt's friends. It was really cool to meet some more English people and hang out with them for a night. There were all very friendly and made for really good conversation. We played a simplified version of Taboo and "Cheer's Governor" (as Brandon called it) and left around 1130pm. We finally arrived at amama's home, where I got to talk to my mom and dad after a few days. And now it is time for bed.
But before I go, one cultural topic. Everyone in London is dressed so nice all the time. When people in the Bay say LA is so dressed up, the girls are always dolled up, everyone is stuck up, etc. They should check out London. Everyone here is nice, but they really put an effort out to look nice all the time. I had to figure out why I thought everyone here was more handsome/pretty, then I realized it was because they put on makeup/nice clothes daily. I like that style, but they really spend a pretty penny on all that clothing. And with really expensive rent (much more than LA), it seems like they can't save very much. But hey, maybe their salaries compensate. Really cool to see though. All the guys go out in at least very nice jeans, but generally slacks and a dress shirt. Even at the local pubs, most guys are in suits.
More to come later. Good night!
