*
And so, after what should have been longer in Yorkshire, we caught a train to East London - Colchester - to stay once again with Zoe Bamford (who kindly put us up when we first arrived in England 2 months ago). This time we were ready to explore the big smoke: London. And of course to spend more time with Zoe, having good times.
Our time in London City istelf, was brief - but comprehensive! I of course have been to London before, so I plotted out a route that would help Karlos to see all the best touristy bits (the stuff that would be relevant and interesting to us both) in just one day - and it went something like this:
We got a train from Colchester to Liverpool St station, and we then went for a walk along the Thames, taking in the view of Westminster, to the west, as we headed east - towards The Globe, to purchase tickets for a show - any show - so long as it was on 'tonight.' On the way we had views of St Paul's Cathedral amongst other things.
After we had scored tickets for Shakespeare's 'Merry Wives of Windsor' (not the £5 standing seats, unfortunately - as even though there are 750 per every show, they were all sold out! So we had to splurge for the £29 'gods seats') - we then went to Pizza Express for a yummy, cheap lunch.
Next - we got the tube to Westminster - and here we were the mother of all tourists - taking snaps of Big Ben (which is actually the bell, inside the clock tower - and YAY we did get to here is ding dong), and the Houses of Parliament, and Westminster Abbey, and any statue of any national icon, or monarch at any point between all three. We battled with rude tourists (usually the French variety who don't know how to say "excuse me") and watched protesters who were anti-Irag war, who had set camp. Often I think this is the centre of it all - here in London - but always I seek to move on after an hour or so. Fortunately, Karlos had no interest in seeing the tombs of long-dead monarchs, or modern-day politicians... so we moved on before too long.
Continuing westward, we walked through St James' park on the way to Buckingham Palace. Here, we spent some time watching an old cockney man feed the squirrels - with nuts from his top pocket. It was adorable! The squirrels were a slightly timid of us passers-by, but not afraid of this old man at all - as soon as they had their nut they would scurry up a nearby tree to break into it and eat it, and then as soon as they were done they ran straight back to him to get another. I imagined he had done this, on the same bench, for quite some time. I do love squirrels - there are worse ways to waste time I suppose.
Eventually, we managed to tear ourselves away from the squirrels (ok - Karlos managed to tear me away!) and then we reached Buckingham Palace. Again, I was grateful to learn that Karlos had no desire to view "another bloody old house." I resisted the urge to make him understand the importance of Buckingham Palace (purely out of my inbred patriotism), as I didn't want to convinvce him to change his mind - I was on a tight budget after all, and the admission fee for B.P is not cheap! So we spent some time watching the guard's outside - do absolutely nothing - and had the usual tourist moment of taking pictures of each other outside the palace gates, me making him retake mine, again and again, until I was almost in tears at how I couldn't take a single good photo due to "bad hair," and him scolding me telling me I look lovely. And then we moved on.
We got the tube, still westbound, and got off at Hyde Park corner... Harrods. Whether you like shopping or not, whether you have money to spend or not - Harrods is a 'must see' in London. We wandered the various floors for a little while - I found myself a toilet complete with perfumes and creams free to use - and eventually we found an exit (veeery easy to get lost in there) shortly followed by a bakery (where Karlos told off a little boy for sticking his podgy finger into a chocolate cake on display and licking it - I thought the kid was gonna cry!), before we finally found a healthy joint selling sandwiches etc.
We could have sat in the sandwich bar aaaaall day - it was late afternoon now, and we had covered so much ground our feet were aching more than our growling stomachs. But no rest for the wicked - I had big plans - which involved a walk from Kensington Gardens into Hyde Park.... a long way - so we decided to get the tube even further west, and then walk back towards Hyde Park corner. A little optimistic a plan - halfway through Kensington Gardens my feet really started to hurt - and we had to stop for a rest. Karlos was fine with this... grateful probably... Hyde Park is around 400 acres in size! No amount of it being pretty would make up for a day's worth of walking already - so we flagged it.
We had enough time to get a tube to Trafalger square, as we headed back eastward (towards The Globe) before our play at 7pm. So we stopped there for a little while, and then found a (my favourite) 'Pret a Manger' cafe for a nice healthy tea.
Our day in London was slowly coming to an end... we got another tube, closer towards the Globe, and walked towards it over Millenium Bridge. And I couldn't think of any better way for us to finish our day in London - than a performance at Shakespeare's Globe Theatre. Bravo!
We spent a few more days, out east with Zoe - chilling out and having a laugh. It was so easy to feel at home with Zoe - she's a good friend of Karlos' and I really enjoyed getting to know her. Karlos cooked us both tea one night; I managed to get my hair done at a hairdresser's round the corner (first time in 4 months - heaven!); we met her gossipy next door neighbours(!), and their dog - a staffy - who was afraid of a feather, hahaha; and we finished up with a wicked night out on the town with Zoe and some of her mates. All in all - bloody tops.
I ♥ London!
~ Comet xo
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