London – Some time on my own

Monday I headed out into London town with a few things to do. Originally I was going to go to Wimbledon with Marnie, but she had gone too hard on Saturday night and was not in any state to watch tennis all day. We would’ve struggled to get tickets anyway, so it turned out to be a good thing we didn’t go.

I needed a UK simcard, an Australia to Europe/UK adaptor and some security netting for luggage that Belle has apparently seen, but I’ve not seen before or after. I got the train into Charing Cross station and decided to walk to Oxford street without consulting a map, being as navigation is apparently so difficult in London. As I was born with an innate sense of direction (anyone know which awesome animated movie this quote is from?), this jaunt through the most touristy area of London proved to be quite simple, apart from slow walking tourists irritating me. I got my simcard and was now once again connected to the world of reasonable priced sms. I couldn’t find anywhere that sold the luggage netting stuff, not could I find the Aus to UK Euro adaptor I was looking for, but continued to walk around Oxford Street for a while.

After I grew tired of Oxford Street and the tourist fueled irritation I got on the tube and went down to Westminster for more tourist related madness. I came up from the underground right in front of Big Ben and then took quite a few touristy shots from Westminster Bridge. I stood on the bridge for a few minutes, one of the most tourist heavy places in the world and watched all of them take photos of each other with Westminster Abbey and Big Ben in the background. I was one of them, but it was not the photos that were important to me. It was just the fact that I was finally here. It had taken nearly seven years from the time I decided to come, to actually getting here, and most of the delays were my own doing, but I was finally here, and that felt satisfying.

I then walked along the Thames back towards Trafalgar Square. Along the way there are many war memorials to the various armed forces that battled in the first and second world wars. I like the Air Force memorial for those that died in the Battle of Britain the best. It’s not a high monument, similar to the Bali monument in Kings Park in a lot of ways, but has 3D sculptures of various war moments cast in bronze coming out of the side of the walls.

When I got back to Trafalgar Square, I decided in would be a dereliction of my duties as a tourist if I did not go to Buckingham palace. So I trekked down to the palace and walked around the gates out the front, taking photos as is the tourist way. At the Australia gate I took some photos and was very surprised to notice that the statue at the top looks to be a child hugging a kangaroo. Not what I’d expected. I then decided that I’d been a tourist long enough for today and headed back to Greenwich to have dinner with Jax and Belle.

The next day I had my only appointment of the time in England, and that was at the local job centre in order to get my National Insurance Number. I left later that I wanted to, but still got to Stepney on time for my interview. All went well with that, and I set out to do more exploring around London.

From Stepney I walked into the city. There is a habit of many people, including nearly all Londoners, to use the tube all the time, even though it might only be a ten minute walk. I like to walk, it’s exercise (I already feel weird having not been to a gym in over two weeks) and you get to see where everything is in relation to each other, rather than just popping out of a hole in the ground in front of it. Also, I could see the Gherkin in the distance and wanted to know if that was indeed the buildings official name, as Belinda had told me. To my surprise, it was. It is officially called “The Gherkin Tower”. It does look like a gherkin, so I guess it makes sense.

I then walked around the Tower of London for more snaps, and then made my way into Chinatown for a quick bite at a place that claimed to be the Dumpling King. The dumplings were excellent (they’d want to be for 5 pounds for 7 dumplings) but, alas, this was not the king. I’ve had better.

I continued on my way through Soho to the Borders, were I pulled up a chair and read through some travel books about The Netherlands. It was soon 2pm and time for me to have lunch with Jax and Bruce. It was great to see Bruce again, he’s always a cheerful fellow, and I won’t see him again for a while as he’s heading back to Perth before I get back from Europe. Jax, Bruce and I had a good chat before everyone’s lunch break was over and it was time to leave, as I had to get back to Greenwich to let Belle in after work.

I packed up all my stuff for the trip to Holland tomorrow and then headed out to meet Dima in Clapham for a few drinks. Dima did the typical bar hopping thing as Johnno, Scotty, Dima and I went had one beer at each bar before we moved on to another. It was a fun night with the boys, and I really like Clapham. It’s likely to be the suburb I’ll live in if I don’t get a job on the snow, and come back to settle in London. I made it home at just before midnight after sprinting for the train from Waterloo to Waterloo east train station. I think I may have pulled a hammie, but I’m sure I’ll survive.

I woke up the next morning with a slight hangover. I’ve really gotta get used to that, as I assume it’s only gonna get worse over the next 3 months of travelling around Europe. I went to work with Belle as this was the only way for her to have her keys. I left my bags at her work in Edgeware road and set off on a completely random morning around London before I went to Heathrow around noon. I jumped on a train without looking where it was going and decided to get off at the next stop that sounded interesting. That stop happened to be Notting Hill. Holy Jeebus, there is some money in that suburb. The place is gorgeous, but also has a fairly stuffy feel to it. I walked further through notting Hill to check out the Portobello Road market, which was pretty dead, but it was 10am on a Wednesday morning.

I then got back on the subway and went to Waterloo train station to check out some graffiti art Belle had recommended. There wasn’t much left of it, as it’s in a tunnel where graffiti is legal, so all the taggers had come in and gone over the top of the cool stuff with their useless and ugly tags. I then went back to Edgeware road, picked up my bags and took the first steps of my solo adventure through Europe.

Upon arrival to Heathrow, after checking in my bags, I learned two things about myself very quickly. I trust people too easy, and I have a habit of getting fleeced by a pretty girl trying to sell me stuff I don’t need. The first was after I was in a luggage store in the Airport, before you go through security. She told me no other shops in the airport would have the adaptor I was looking for, hence I bought a straight Euro adaptor off her. Only to walk through security and find a large electronics shop with every kind of adaptor I could need. Grrr
Secondly, there were some smoking hot cars on display and I went to take some photos of them. The cute sales girl started talking me into buying a raffle ticket and even though I didn’t want one and I needed that money, I still ended up buying one. I am a tool.

I got on the plane, and straight away started talking to the woman next to me who is one her way home to Amsterdam after 4 months travelling in Australia. She found it very amusing that I was about to do in her country what she had just finished doing in mine. We chatted the whole way to Amsterdam, which was the shortest flight of my life. I couldn’t believe it. We’d barely got to cruising altitude when the pilot was telling us to prepare for our descent. All those years flying into and out of Perth have made me forget that flights that last for less than one hour actually exist. I was in line for security longer than I was on the plane!

I write this now sitting on the train to Groningen. The Dutch countryside reminds me a lot of Victoria (when it rains). It is very flat and very green, with the occasional typical Dutch windmill thrown in to remind me of where I am. Its 9pm and still blazing sunlight. I won’t get to my hostel till after 9:30pm. I hope they haven’t given my bed away.