A Place to Crash

London Calling: Day 2

Mon, 25 Apr 2011 14:15:34 -0700

Note: I've been doing a lot of ongoing Tweeting about my time to and in London, so I highly recommend watching my stream at @ariedana if you want to know what I'm up to all the time. Or at least all the time six hours ahead of you. It's weird to think that the main part of my day is over before most of my friends and family have lunch. And the rest of this post is pretty much a straight reposting of something I wrote on Facebook awhile ago, but it's here so everyone can see it. ;)

Today I got off to an later start than I wanted (knocked out for about 12 hours) but I still made it to Piccadilly Circus, Oxford Circus, H&M (very dangerous store), and Boots megastore (ditto). Women of the world who love places like Bath & Body Works but can't afford to spend much time in Sephora - Boots is your Kryptonite. Oxford Street's H&M makes any of their American outlets look like crap. I'm now afraid to visit M&S.

Then did a great tour of Westminster Abbey, which will be closed the rest of the week and was extraordinarily moving. Nothing like visiting the tombs of about a dozen British monarchs and then the monuments and resting places Shakespeare, the Brontes, Samuel Johnson and Jane Austen. And it's relatively tiny! No wonder people were annoyed that William and Kate chose it for the wedding - I'm wondering if guests are going to be hanging from the rafters. But I literally sat in a chair right next to the main altar and got to imagine what it will look like from there on Friday. Also went to a prayer service at a shrine at King Edward the Confessor's tomb and lit some candles.

After, I walked around the Abbey (setups for media underway) and juiced up the iPod at a pub in Westminster before going to the Churchill War Museum, which is in his wartime bunker. Lots of pictures of that for Anglotopia (you can't take pictures in the Abbey, although I got a lot outside). Then I walked past the Houses of Parliament, visited yet another pub for iPod juicing and my first Pimms (yum!) and Whitehall to Trafalgar Square. That place has terrific energy. Finally walked back to the Carling Cross station, discovered the huge charms of M&S Simply Food's marvelous takeaway selection and then headed back "home" to Tooting.

It's hard to encapsulate everything about the London experience. I love the tube - yes, it's convoluted but you can literally go anywhere. I love the weather. I don't hear the accents at all - I already knew I didn't on the telly I was watching back in the US, but I don't even hear them here. People are very reserved but nice. And I'm not feeling the least bit overwhelmed by the city or the bigness of everything. Which is quite odd in a way. I kinda feel at home here, even moreso than I expected I would.

A Place to Crash

London Calling: Day 2

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