Thursday, August 31, 2006

London - 2005

This time last year i was in Europe having the time of my life. I'd go back in a minute.
Between me and Em we took 800 photos; I've tried to distill down the holiday down to about 20 photos.


A bridge, possibly London Bridge, possibly not.

Possibly Westminster Abbey.

It was easy culling out photos, especially when i was in them because invaribly I look like a dork. Case in point.

Of course, we drank tea.

I didn't really like London, it was rainy and grey, especially our hotel room when the cieling started to leak in the middle of the night. The town mainly consists of franchises (starbucks, mcdonalds, allbarone) being run by europeons (i swear you could exist living in london and not hear an english accent). All the food lacked flavour, the beer had flavour it that flavour was foul. An excursion to Stonehenge, Bath and Sailsbury was nice. I like the subway.

Highlights

  • British Museum - I could spend days walking around there.
  • Modern Tate Gallery - ditto
  • Drinking with Scotty and Londongirl - ditto, except replace walking with drinking.

Purchase I had to carry around for the rest of the trip - Harrods bag and apron.

3 comments:

The Frase said...

Thats Tower Bridge, not London Bridge. And by the look of it, the photo was taken standing out the front of London Tower (the castle). Confussed?

It's funny, just last weekend we were shopping and dining (i.e pub lunch and pints) around that same area where we took you Mark. Haven't really been back there much so we were reminiscing about when we hooked up with you!

You are very right on many points about London.
There is London, and there is England.
London is truly an international city. It's a simmering pot of multi-culture- which is pretty cool for a lot of reasons, but if you're after a bit of johnny-english action you have to scrape at the surface a bit to find it.

I personally get off on walking out my door and hearing a Russian, greek, arabian, Polish, French, Spainish, Romanian or any type of African accent. It makes me fearful of returning to Australia and being surrounded by nothing BUT Australian accents.
However, it is always a pleasure to get out of London and immediantly you get some johnny english action!

London is brilliant during summer- but less cool in other times of the year.

And having a drink with me and London Girl would be a highlight on ANYONES holiday itinerary!!

Mark Selan said...

Ah, tower bridge. That's right london bridge fell down. it makes sense we did go down to London tower when we first got to london. i didn't sleep on the plane so that first day is very hazy.

Well, i was reminiscing about you when you were reminiscing about me.

I'm not so worried about the foriegners as people (some of my best freiends are foreigners!). i think its more the fact that these young people have to leave their homes and countires to find menial work tending bar, waiting on tables, working in shops and being exploited.

The last day of the trip was spent in london, having flown from slovenia in the evening we stayed at some dodgy hostel in picadilly circus. i went for awander around the area after dinner looking for a drink - but then started to freak out at the number of people. We had spent the previous 5 weeks in small villages and towns and then to be in the middle of this great mass of people 11pm on a tuesday night was way too much for me so i scampered back to our room and hid under the covers. Lucky for me the din of the circus was clearly audible from our room.

The country side was way nicer. Johnny english indeed, pip pip.

you and london girl - top 10. come to adelaide and i'll replicate the experience except with better beer and tastier food but with less londoness.

Anonymous said...

Actually London bridge was dismantled and re-built in the desert in Arizona. They then dug a lake underneath it and built a town around it. Rumour has it that they thought they had bought Tower bridge (the one in your photo) and were a bit miffed.

So its an easy mistake to make.

Daren