We have been traveling for three days now. Our trip started in Los Angeles with a 10-hour flight to
London. The flight went smoothly, but Gardo was complaining about a sore ass. Rey offered to massage
it for him, but this never took place.
We landed in Heathrow Airport and hopped on the Piccadilly tube line. Because of the recent bombing,
part of this tube line was shut down. We then took the #8 bus to the Liverpool Street Station. The bus
took us through town just as the evening rush hour began. We went through a part of town that looked
like Times Square in the sense of tourists, big advertisements, and lots of McDonald's and Burger King's.
It then went through streets that had upscale clothing stores and then through the financial section of
town. We transferred to the #242 bus and got off at the Middleton stop along Kingsland in the
neighborhood of Hackney. This neighborhood is sometimes jokingly called Crackney.
We were about two blocks from Elizabeth's place [1], but we walked about twelve blocks to find it. The
streets are not well marked and contain some weird twists and turns. After a call to Elizabeth's from a pay
phone, she steered us straight and walked down the street to meet us. Elizabeth turned out to be a
gracious host and made sure we saw and did everything we wanted to in London.
After a quick freshening up, we headed to a local Jamaican restaurant. Paying only about four pounds
each, we got a hearty meal. We had chicken, rice & peas, plantains, and beef patties. This place did not
have tables, so we went to a local garden called Albion Square [2]. We ate our food while catching up and
watching the sky turn dark.
With our stomachs full, we hopped on the #242 bus to meet up with Elizabeth's boyfriend, Alvin, who was
having some drinks with his co-workers. Although we had ridden on a double-decker bus earlier in the
day, this was our first ride up top. It was a very different and cool perspective from up there [3], so all
subsequent bus rides saw us head straight for the stairs.
We learned from Alvin that pubs stay open until 11pm, bars stay open until 12am, and clubs stay open until
4am. We surmised that we were in a bar and drank until 11:30pm when we were politely asked to leave
because it was closing time. So were we in a pub that closed late or a bar that closed early? Either way,
we had a decent buzz. While we drank, I got to talking to Alvin's German co-worker, Vincent. Although not
an expert on Berlin, Vincent started jotting down several places to see and good places to go for food and
drink. Combined with Rey's German friend, Martin, who we will meet up with later on, we should be able to
entertain ourselves well in Germany.
Alvin rode his bike home and got a head start on eating up our leftovers. The rest of us, including Vincent,
walked out to the bus stop just in time to see our bus pull away [4]. With a full bladder, Rey and I went
searching for an alleyway to take a piss. After about twenty minutes, our bus came and we were off. We
said goodbye to Vincent, had some chicken back at the apartment and stayed up talking until about 2am.
Alvin and Elizabeth had to work in the morning, so they adjourned to their bedroom while we set up our
sleeping arrangements. Rey and Gardo took the floor with some fluffy comforters, provided by our hosts,
to soften the hardwood floors [5]. Victor and I slept on the couches. We weren't able to stretch out, but
both of us seemed to sleep fine.
With Alvin and Elizabeth [6] off to work, Victor was the first to get up and quickly headed out the door to
buy some ingredients for breakfast. The rest of us woke to the smell of chicken, sausage, eggs, peppers,
onions, and garlic [7]. I made some coffee and it was a great start to our first morning in London. Rey and
Gardo took showers while Victor and I decided to wait until the afternoon. Victor and I realized later that
we would not be heading back to the apartment before going out for the evening. The rest of the day,
Victor and I were heckled about being cochinos.
We left the apartment about 1:30pm, bought some bus passes, and jumped on the #243 bus in hopes it
would take us near the British Museum. When we crossed the Thames River, we decided that our bus was
not going the right direction. After a quick look at a bus map, we hopped on another bus, back across the
Thames, and to the British Museum.
Our major focus was to see some mummies from Egypt. When we arrived at the museum, we took some
pictures in front of it and noted how uncrowded it was. Once we pulled on the locked door, we realized we
were at the back of the museum. Armed with our pictures of the rear exit [8], we circled around the block
to the front. Yes, this entrance was much more impressive [9].
We stayed at the museum for about two hours seeing displays from Egypt [10], Korea, India, and the
Americas. I took a picture with Cleopatra and this was definitely the highlight for me [11]. We stood next to
an old woman who farted, bought some postcards and left to see the sights along the south bank of the
Thames.
We saw the London Eye, a huge ferris wheel constructed to view the city from high up above, Big Ben, the
clock in charge of Grenidge Mean Time, and the House of Parliament [12, 13, 14]. We skipped the Salvador
Dali museum because it cost 9.75 pounds and thought there would be better Dali museums in Barcelona.
We walked across the Westminster Bridge, also known as the Queen's Walk [15], to take a closer look at
Big Ben and Parliament and to see what else this part of town had to see. Victor decided to eat his snack:
a banana. We were unable to find a trashcan (locally known as a trash bin) and Victor was left carrying
around the peel for over an hour. We later learned that there were no trash cans in this area because they
could be used to plants bombs. Although we didn't see it much, it is somewhat acceptable to leave your
trash on the sidewalk.
We then walked by Westminster Abbey and took some pictures [16]. It was about 6pm. The sightseeing
was now over and we set our sights on the evening's eating and drinking. We learned from our guidebook
that the Leicester (pronounced Lester) Square seemed to have the most pubs. It was a bit touristy, but
there were plenty of selections for beer and pub food. Elizabeth met up with us using Starbucks as a
landmark. While waiting for her, we had a couple beers at The Roundtable [17]. We enjoyed beers called
the Bombardier, Courage, and Theaston's Old Peculiar.
With Elizabeth in tow, we came across The Bear & Staff. We chowed down on fish & chips and gammon
(bacon) steak & eggs along with a couple Guinness [18]. We were then joined by Tania, Victor's friend
from London [19]. With her help, we found a dub club to go to in Brixton. It was a bit far from where we
were and Tania would not be able to join us. Victor declared that he would be going with or without us.
Tania guided us halfway until her tube stop and the rest of us carried on to Brixton to a club called Mass to
see the London reggae scene.
The club did not disappoint. We were treated to some awesome beats that got everybody dancing. The
club took a while to fill up, but by midnight the place was packed. The surprise of the night was the main
DJ and supposed owner of the club. A white man in his mid-forties, wearing slacks and a collared dress
shirt, proceeded to play some of the best reggae music I have ever heard in a club. The set was peppered
with another DJ singing along to the words and the owner's occasional, perfectly-timed yells that
accented the songs.
We left about 2:30am. The tube closed around midnight, so we decided to take a cab. There were five of
us when the cabs only take four passengers. After some heavy negotiating from Elizabeth, the driver took
us halfway home for 10 pounds. He dropped us off at the foot of the London Bridge [20, 21]. Although the
name is quite famous, the bridge is anything but impressive. It hardly even looked old. Our bus finally
arrived and we completed our journey home. We stopped at the grocery store for some munchies before
going back to the apartment. We were pretty tired by this point, so we went to bed fairly quickly [22].
The next morning started about 11am. Elizabeth had the day off from work, so she fixed us coffee and
crumpets with butter and jelly. Victor and I took our first showers of the trip, day three.
Our next stop was Barcelona. We were to take a plane from Stanshead at 6pm. With a late start in the
morning, an early arrival at the airport, and about 1.5 hours travel time to the airport, we didn't have much
time to do anymore sightseeing. Elizabeth did take us to a flea market where Rey bought some stamps
with old race cars on them. His nephew Ricky has plans to start a stamp collection. It was a smooth trip to
the airport. We ate, had a beer, and we were up in the air towards Spain. I am writing from the plane and
we just landed. The next phase of the trip has begun.
