Life Of Travel

A couple of weeks ago I went into London to visit a friend from Perth (my home town, in Australia, not Scotland) who has found herself in Ireland and was in London for the weekend for job interviews or something. In any case, I hadn’t seen her in about 4 years so it made the 7 hour bus ride worth the trip, and while I was there I figured it was a good opportunity to catch up with some friends from Summer Camp.

Now I’ve been to London a few times before so had already done the *sightseeing thing so this was purely a catch up trip. **Dan and Rachael had been good enough to accomodate me for the weekend, thanks guys . So I arrived on the friday afternoon and didnt really have much of a plan except to catch up with Amanda (friend from Perth) at some stage and then on Saturday night go out with the camp crew. On Friday night Dan and Rach went to see some comedian (I cant remember his name, it was Ricky Gervais’s mate, apparently very good) so I went into town to have a drink with Amanda. Saturday was supposed to be the party night and my plan was to take it easy on Friday night but as it always is when old friends get together we ended up getting shit-faced in random pubs in London. I didn’t get back to Dans’ till 0800 the next morning and lets just say that there are a few moments that have flash-backed into my memory about that night.

1. I have a habit of carrying my pocket knife. Sometimes I forget to take it out on a night out. One of the clubs we went into had a metal detector which triggered my memory of what I was carrying. It beeped, I got searched, and then they let me in! Good security guys.
2. The pubs/clubs close fairly early in London which is very surprising for a big city, but they let you take your drink out. I have a distinct memory of 3 of us around a wheelie bin or something in the middle of the footpath just having a casual drink. Is street drinking legal in England cause no-one seemed to care, but then again, no one else was street drinking
3. I missed my train home. Lets not dwell on the finer details, but obviously my survival instincts kicked in to get out of the cold and I woke up in someone’s shed, then at sunrise I caught the train, which explains where I was until 0800am.. there you go Dan, now you know!

Can You Believe I've Never Taken a Picture in London? I Should Probably Do That Next Time I'm There, I Got This One From Google Images

Saturday was a day of recovery. Went outside for a walk in the park and to buy some stuff for dinner that night but that was about it. Harriet and Alex turned up around dinner time. We ate (Rachael cooked up chicken kebabs, the kind on a stick, with cous sous.. mmm delicious!) and then played drinking games (Harriet brought her own cards just in case Dan didnt have any!?) I was pretty broke by this stage since my Lloyds bankcard only works at Lloyds banks and I spent most of my cash the night before, so I was on Morrisons Cider. We got liquored up and went to Camden for a night out. Camden is by far my favourite place in London. I had previously only been there during the day for the markets, which in turn brings market food, so I was exited about the night out there. We went to a few places but my pick of the night was a little dingy pub in which the DJ was playing Beastie Boys, NWA and other similiar tunes. I got offered some coke and it was generally pretty rough, but a damn good joint! I dont think the others appreciated it quite as much as me so we bailed to a more regular pub. We finished the night with kebabs and caught the wrong bus home so it took an hour or so longer than it should have, but all in all, a good night.

On Sunday Alex and I caught up with another friend, Alice, and had a burger. Not very eventful but good to catch up. Then took the 7 hour bus ride home, also uneventful, I mean fuck, its a bus ride.

*London is a very big city and there its alot of tourist stuff to do. Given that, in my opinion, you can get a good feel for it in a 4 day visit. I’m not a big fan of London so this is a bit of a biased comment. I would not want to live there, and its not because I dont like big cities (I would happily live in New York or Hong Kong or a dozen or so other big cities for more than a few months) but the feel of London is not my style. As a generalisation, the people are not as friendly as they should be, and for a big city it doesnt have the ‘there’s always something going on feel’ as it should (although I’m sure there is always something going on somewhere). Definately worth a visit though (as all places) and there are millions of people who would disagree with me about London, so I guess you should just go (if you havent already) and decide for yourself.

If you want to know the top sightseeing spots and stuff to do visit wikitravel. Can you believe that I’ve been to London 3-4 times and have NO pictures! I got the one for this post off google images. Should probably take some next time I go.

** Up until now I have never put names in posts for the sake of privacy, but now I figure that Im just using first names so only people that know them will know that its them, but if I’m refering to you and you want me to remove your name just let me know.