I´ve always wanted to come to London. It´s never been a burning destination for me but well like all Australian´s that travel. London is the basepoint that begins their traveling diary. So like everybody else I guess I had to hop on the bandwagon and see why everybody posts images of themselves on the web from here and rave on about their experiences here.
My first experience of London was very enjoyable on my part. More so from the 3 year catch up with one of my best friends from the Gold Coast, Nick, who gave me a very in depth insight into all the landmarks and places we visited. Walking around the landmarks with him was like having my own personal tour guide as I was given the history behind each area we went to. Brilliant memory for someone that´s been there for only 3 years. He probably knew more about the cities monuments that the locals.
Here was Nick´s little itinery for the Sat we ventured. I was so buggered. I bought Nick some Starbucks for an excuse to sit down. We even scored a free Frapaccino because of our incredibly good looks (the girl stuffed up the order). I was hesitant for Nick to take the typical tourist photo of me standing in a fake pose with a fake smile. But what the heck you only live once.
I can´t remember all the stuff that we did and all the places that we saw but I´ve copied and pasted a part of Nick´s blog so I don´t have to write it...
¨Friday at 3pm we got a ring on the doorbell and who is there but Ed and his girlfriend Katrina here for the long weekend. They came bearing gifts and we had a great catch up as it has been almost 3 years since seeing Ed. After a few drinks we headed down to the local pub – The 10 Bells which has been open since the 1600’s and is where Jack The Ripper used as his drinking hole and has been used in the movie ‘To Hell’ with Johnny Depp. Ed is not a drinker but I wouldn’t let him pass through London without trying the famous ‘room temperature’ beers that they are famous for. He only had a small one but it was more than enough for him.
We then headed down to Shoreditch where I had booked a table at a Vietnamese restaurant which Helen and I had been to before. It was busy and we ordered but when our meals came Ed had ordered a dish we had last time and it looked very different but apparently it was the right dish. I ordered flame grilled pork belly which sounded good. When it arrived it was in a soup and the ‘crackling’ was non existent. The fat was just that and there were 3 boiled eggs in there with it. Not choosing that again. We also found out that Katrina would hammer a nail into her hand for £20 000. That’s a bit expensive.
The Horse Guards to 10 Downing Street to Big Ben and Westminster to Westminster Abbey to The Eye to Trafalgar Square (where Ed needed a sit down as he wasn’t used to tramping around London. He even shouted me a Starbucks as a bribe to sit down so we sat on Nelson’s Column – get your minds out of the gutter – in Trafalgar square. Then we went to the National Gallery to The South Bank to Oxo Tower to St Paul’s Cathedral – where we got in free because of evensong – to Tower of London to Tower Bridge and then back home. We were pretty buggered but Helen was putting on her Lasagna which was just what everyone needed. After dinner we relaxed and then headed to Brick lane for a drink. It was god weather so it was pretty packed but we got a table and brought Jenga out for a game. We got a pretty high tower but I was the one who lost that game. Luckily the bar closed and I didn’t have to buy the round.
On Sunday we headed to Regent’s park for a walk then through Primrose Hill into Camden. After the girls left to visit their friends we caught the bus to Oxford Circus and visited Niketown and the Apple Shop. Ed was very impressed and we even didn’t believe it when we went to the table to play around with the new Apple Phone and found that you were allowed to call anyone on it to test it. You can’t even do that in a phone shop. We then headed back to brick lane where I bought a bootleg copy of Iron Man only to find that once at home it was not that movie at all. For dinner we had Turkey and then watched another dud copy of There Will Be Blood which was good but the DVD was not. Monday morning they headed off and we wished them well on their way.¨ by Nick Crilly
In all though London was a pretty good experience. I got taken through the up streets and the real ghetto streets of London. Nick was so kind to give us a tour of markets whereby all of the products on sale looked as if they were stolen. Obvious by the way in which the salespeople looked and the products on offer. I wasn´t brave enough to take a photo while I was there as it would have been stolen within 5 seconds. But got to love the Bootleggers that sell DVD´s every few meters.
About a 10 minute walk away from these markets though was an upmarket area where the millionaires rome in London. I think the area was called Regent´s park.
Walking through London during this weekend there was definitely a lot more vibe about. Warm weather and the celebrations of a long weekend were plenty. For all night ravers London is the place to be. The only thing is though the streets outside of some of these clubs could pass as criminal houses but on the inside its a far different story where the clubs and bars are an ongoing party.
I seemed to like the hip culture in London though. Definitely my sort of creative style but the lifestyle lived in London I don´t know if I could go on living in condensed, overpopulated, expensive housing. To catch a 5 minute train would cost 4 to 5GBP. Props to Nick for letting me know the day passes in that case. Nick´s place is a pimping and luxuriously renovated pad. I really liked his little cosy apartment, which was found by chance and tremendous luck.
During one of our ventures throuh London Nick gave me a tour through his work, Nike London, which was really impressive even though they were renovating at the time. Afterwards we went a few metres down to the Apple store, which was incredible. They must go through so many faulty display products there as everything is on display. You can even test the new Apple iPhone and actually call other people from the store. Major communication stores don´t offer that sort of service in their major retail stores. You´re even welcome to browse the Internet using an iBook or iMac free of charge. So if you´re in need to go to an Internet cafe or bord at work you can always venture down to the Apple store to use free interent and look at anything you want.
Before I got to London though Katrina always said that they´re aint to many good looking people there. From my experiences in London I saw heaps of hot girls. Well maybe not the same in comparison to Sweden. While we were at the airport to leave, I saw one of the finest women I have ever physically seen. She was that good looking that every male with her view stopped to look at her. Katrina even caught me having a quick little glance... but I wasn´t checking her out. She was that smoking hot that I think women around her were envious or were even checking her out. I guess thats how Katrina knew I was looking because she may have been looking herself.
From my experiences though, I think I´ll come back to London. Maybe even work there next year. But who knows what the future holds.
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