Ye Olde London

I started writing this as a comment but began going into far too much detail about things so decided to create a new post...

I'm in London at the moment and am staying with my wonderful friend Henry whom I met in Berlin (a native Brit, though). When he moved back here he took his computer with him so I'm having to adjust to the German keyboard all over again. Damn it!

I'm liking London a lot more than I thought I would. I'm staying in the East End, only a couple of streets away from Brick Lane (I haven' visited it yet though!) and not too far away from the street called Little Britain! Ha!

I arrived yesterday on a RyanAir flight (my first ever!) and spent the afternoon following Henry around the Westend, including Soho. If I were a zillionaire I would like to have had a drink at every funky little bar/cafe/restaurant we passed (that's a lot of drinks and a lot of pounds!). We bought a four pack of no-name beer from Sainsbury's and drank that instead. So many people, so many pasties. Yes, pasties. I had spent the afternoon telling Henry how I've been craving pasties for the last two years and haven't been able to have one and must indulge in London, when we turn a corner and find not only a pasty store but a pasty festival! They knew I was coming. They. Knew. I. Was. Coming. I had a pasty. A big one. It was gooood.

Weird and disturbing fact about London: they speak English here. I hear they speak it all over the UK. I'm still getting used to being able to understand people on the street, on the TV (which I've already been watching too much of - British Big Brother, Spaced, Top of the Pops - OMG the last Top of the Pops ever was screened tonight! It's been axed even though it still has a massive following. Nice one iTunes, MTV, etc...). Let's not forget that it's been over two years since I've been in an English speaking country! Not since I left Melbourne! It's actually a little disorienting. I keep speaking to people on the street in foreign languages (nein danke, gracias, s'il vous plait,,,) and then feeling terribly silly about it afterwards. I can read signs on the street and in the tube! Understand voiceover announcements! These latter two I seem to be finding particularly hilarious and when I hear an announcement or see a sign on the tube I start laughing at how absurd the meaning is and look around expecting others to be laughing at it too, but apparently notifications of which floor to get off at on the elevator or reminders to mind the gap between the train and the platform don't seem to be funny if you've been able to understand them all along. Did you know that last year there was one fatality and over two hundred injuries in London resulting from people not minding the gap? Ha ha! Today I actually followed a couple down the street so that I could continue to listen to their conversation! It's crazy, really, being able to understand everything with absolute certainty, with no guesswork required. I think it may be driving me a bit nutty.

I seem to have diverged a little bit. Today is Sunday so I went to three markets: Spittalfields (just down the street from where I'm staying), Portebello and Camden. It was a good day. I also walked through Hyde Park which was devastatingly disappointing, but when I made it to the Speakers' Corner (in the north eastern tip of the park?) there were several people 'speaking' (ranting, preaching...) to crowds of people. Most people seemed to be discussing the current Israel/Lebanon issue and I ended up listening to one particularly charismatic speaker for about an hour. Until I went and sat right underneath him, it was difficult to hear him for all of the other people around who were yelling and arguing. People were getting very emotional about the things that were being said. It was interesting (to say the least) to witness.

One thing that bothers me a little about London: no-one seems to smile at each other in the street. Coming from Spain I had become quite accustomed to making eye contact with people and having them grin at me. I've made eye contact with people on the street here in London but when I smile at them they glare back at me! Not so nice.

I've only been here for a day and a half, so still lots to do. I haven't even seen the Thames yet! I plan to do that tomorrow and also splurge a little and go on the London Eye - it costs a ridiculous twenty quid!

Love to you all
XO