London

'Millennium Bridge'

Big Ben

Marching Band at Buckingham Palace

Changing of the guards

The testicle march!?!

Cute Cupcake Kiosk

The tower Bridge

Buckingham PalaceThe military museum with London eye in the background

I (Sharon) arrived in London Wednesday lunch time following another 8 hour bus trip and a very early start, yay for cheap travel! I was picked up by Luke and had my first experience on the London underground, very hot and muggy down there! He took me back to his and his wife Sarah’s apartment where Andrew and I were to stay for a few nights. For the rest of the day I read my book, drank tea and watched all the dodgy people coming and going from a pawn shop across the road… very interesting and can absorb hours of ones time. I will explain their apartment’s neighbourhood as a cultural experience where someone who is white sticks out like a sore thumb. The area has police cars that zoom past every 20mins or so with sirens that keep you awake until late at night. They have a local market a few doors down run everyday with yelling store owners, large throngs of people, rotten meat and vegetable smells, stray dogs and all. Andrew says that at times it smells a lot like Africa here! But all in all a very fun place to hang around and experience new things!
The following day I decided to brave the underground alone and headed for Oxford Circus the shopping area of town. The trip was good and I managed to find my way no problem though did have one incident where I learned that when a young Greek guy asks you for directions he is not actually lost he just wants your phone number, but that one was very easily diverted as I did not even have a phone, haha 1 Sharon, 0 Strange Greek guy! In the city I window shopped, people watched and walked around a huge local park and generally enjoyed a sunny day until it hit four and I finally experienced the ‘little New Zealand vs big London feeling’ and headed back to the safety of the flat, phew. That night I learned how to play Mexican train dominos and found that though it sounds geeky it’s actually fantastic and every one should play!!
The next day, actually early morning I, being a now very experienced underground traveller headed out to pick up Andrew from the bus station. I will admit I did get a little lost, but only when I started walking down London streets. To this day I am proud to say I have never been lost on any London public transport… mainly due to great hosts! We headed back to the apartment with a jet lagged Andrew in rush hour, fun, fun and had another quiet day.
Saturday started our three day walking tour of London, kindly explained by Luke. We hit all the tourist attractions with great vigour and had loads of fun in the city of London. We spent Saturday exploring the London wall, castle and bridge. We tasted many free food tasters at the Borough market and brought ourselves a yummy cheese cake treat. We looked at old pubs under the London bridge, gazed at the amazing works of art in the Tate modern art gallery, walked around the St Pauls cathedral and finished it off with a book market in Waterloo.
Sunday was spent marketing. We looked around Brick lane market, everything that is stolen in London during the week gets sold here, Spitalfields market, more upper class where up and coming designers sell their wares, and other random no named but very interesting markets. We ate some yummy Moroccan food (there was food from all over the world) and wished we were rich as there where so many great things to spend your money on. This was probably our most enjoyable day with loads of people and things to see and do. That night we went to Church with Sarah and Luke a lovely little church which we also very much enjoyed.
On our last day in London (Monday) we finished the last leg of our walking tour. We headed out to Buckingham Palace, saw the end of the changing of the guard (very proper and formal) and where lucky (or not so lucky as there were tonnes of people about) enough to see the royal marching band play. We walked through the royal park reaching Trafalgar square which was overrun by people and as we were soon to discover so was the whole of London! In the square we watched a man conducting some random people all playing their own tune on different instruments which was a part of some art month and then looked around the British art gallery. We also went to see the London eye, parliament buildings, the big Ben and Westminster Chapel. The rest of the day was spent looking at buskers and random stalls.
London in a nut shell was a great city to explore with different sights, smells and experiences around every corner. We enjoyed our hosts Sarah and Luke and our only complaint would be that we wished the police would turn off their sirens earlier so we could sleep!