Day 22...Australian Werewolves in London - 18th July

Got up early at 8am but with 4 people in the house, and figuring out if Kristin was allowed to have the day off work (she did- yay) we ended up leaving the flat 5 hours later - at lunch time! We took the hot, hot, hot bus. They don't have A/C on buses, subways or many stores either so this heat is quite difficult! So we took the bus to Trafalgar Square and got spewed out onto the sidewalk and some thankful breeze.

There were no pigeons in Trafalgar Square! You are no longer allowed to feed them, so they've all nicked off. But there were heaps of yankee tourists everywhere. I felt slightly disoriented to which country I was actually in! The view was nice of museums and very London-ey streets. We took our shoes off and stuck our legs in the fountain in the middle of the square, it was heaven! It really helped the mood eh!

Then we caught the bus again down Fleet Street to St Pauls cathedral. The dome was huge on the outside and it looked very regal but inside it was lots of empty cavernous space and didn't look old or austere. They wanted to screw us 10 pounds so we didn't go fully inside. The Catholic Church has enough money I think! So we walked down to the Thames and saw a silty, mucky brown river - no wonder that whale died in it. But I liked it nonetheless with its treelined sides and skyline views and street performers everywhere. I tried to imagine the people walking along it in the medieval ages, or in the industrial revolution in their Victorian dresses. It was so hot!! London had its hottest day on record today and we were out trekking in it! Stoopid tourists. You've got to love global warming.
We saw the London Eye and Millenium Bridge (the latter from afar) and Big Ben. The Big Ben is a pretty cool clock with parliament attached but I don't think it's big enough for Owen Wilson and Jackie Chan to hold onto the moving watch arms. I wanted to replace one of the hundreds of statues on the parliament building with one of me doing the Jesus buddy pose "eeey" - you know?
Westminster Abbey was also large and impressive but wanted to sting us 10 pounds too, for which we don't have the funds for so we kept on. We passed Tony Blairs house on the way to Green Park. (Not really his house, the street is all cordoned off with metal bars and stern looking security dudes). I got a bobby hat on the way - only 1.5 pounds! I loved it and commenced to wear it all day! I got a few stares, even some double takes from the fuzz themselves. hee hee

We met Chris in the park and had an iceypole and watched the cutest little baby ducks before going to Buckingham Palace. I think because everyone says how boring/small/ugly/unimpressive it is, I had different expectations and ended up liking it. It looked pretty big for someone's house to me. People in fancy hats were rocking up for some tea or event or something as well. Due to terrorism, you can't get near the palace or guards. The guys with the fuzzy hats are mere specks in the distance and you can't make faces at them at all. Such a shame what this world has come to really!

Via St James Park we stopped at a really English pub for a pint, with after work drinkers spilled out into the small square. It's a great drinking culture here. Very relaxed and enjoyable. So nice and refreshed we trudged up into Hyde Park to Speakers Corner to see the freaks ranting there, but the loonies weren't there that day! Apparently its only a Sunday thing. I was very disappointed about that, and had to make do with a photo of myself with said bobby hat. It wasn't the same though. The Marble Arch was also there (apparently the king and queen ordered one back in the day and it was too small for carriages to pass through so they just popped it in the corner of the park).

Harrods was nearby so we bussed it there and spent most of our time around the food section. It was great as there were different sections for chocolate, meats, fresh, candy etc but torture as well as we were all famished by this time. We ended up in Soho at this great Thai restaurant which is like Wagamama as you shared tables with all the other guests. The food was delicious and we had a lovely time. Satisfied, we commenced to pub and bar hop around Soho with the aid of some M&M's for stamina as we had such a huge day! Kristin helped us out with drinks a bit too, which was really nice of her and it helped us out a lot! It was funny in Soho - when it got dark it suddenly changed and every patron was a guy! A gay guy. Or a tranny. It was quite great actually. And it seemed to happen in 5 minutes. We walked into a bar, and when we walked out all the women had disappeared! Very cute.

I can't remember how we got there, but we wandered down a fairly quiet, dark street in Soho looking for an illegal licence venue Kristin and Chris knew about. (With England, pub and drinking licences finish from either midnight or 2am. Then everyone either has to go to a nightclub or go home. If you want to stay out, you can't drink anywhere so places that don't have licences set up in store basements and stuff and keep the party going!) It wasn't closing time for the other pubs when we got there but we were curious to see it. So we walked down this dark empty street and up to a place that had a repairs sign out the front. Chris knocked loudly on a black door. No answer. He knocked again. And to Nate and my surprise the door flung open and an edgy guy poked his head out like a rooster and looked furtively up and down the street. We asked to come in and he looed us over, and ushered us quickly inside. We wandered down a skinny hall and downstairs into the back basement. It was very small and our heads just about touched the ceiling. Chris and Kristin had been drinking there one night late, and Bjork ended up there! There was only one other group while Nate and I were there as the pubs hadn't closed yet but the music was on and we had a drink. I loved the novelty of it. They in return loved my bobby hat and took pictures of me wearing it, then of them wearing it. It was fun! (By the way I wasn't wearing it when we knocked on the door, otherwise rooster guy would have had a heart attack!) When we were ready to leave, edgy rooster guy peeked out into the street and when it was all clear, kicked us out quickly. Such funny stuff!

As we had a massive day of walking, we headed home and to bed around 2am-ish.

PS- convenience stores are called "off licences" here, I think its because they sell liquor. Also, you can't say "head" as in, I'm about to "head off" as they think its something else.