I got to Joe Cynic's place with no further hassles. The day before I arrived was his thesis defense and apparently it went off well because the chappie was pleased as punch. His eyes gleamed, his teeth shone, his ear stud twinkled and a general feeling of benevolence radiated out toward all his fellowmen. Ah, wonder when I'll finish with studies. So, this place of his...its a frigging palace. No, seriously! It is. Anyway, we discussed the old times, the present times and the times in between. Information was exchanged and hearty laughs were traded. The usual stuff. After that we headed out to Waterloo station (Ha! The Jason Bourne tour continues), to meet The Sleeper. He hadn't changed a bit. We pranced about a little and general backslapping bonhomie ensued. After which we trooped out to get us a drink. Not that we were thirsty, it just was the thing to do. Besides there was one heck of a snowstorm outside. (Ok, ok..no storm, but you know what I mean.)
Then we were off again, this time to The Sleeper's place where I was to spend the next few days and generally sponge off the chappie. After which I would shift to Joe Cynic's place and sponge off him. And since this was the week where everyone was busy before the holidays , I was doing the typical bus-hopping/ train-hopping (the stuff I normally do when I'm off exploring by myself). Ah, the lure of public transportation. Will I ever tire of it? If you're gonna travel around London, best if you use an Oyster card. Thirty pounds for one weeks worth of travel. This includes the metro...err..the tube as well as the bus. For chappies like me with lots of time on their hands this is a nifty deal. I prefer traveling by bus because that makes it easier to see the general direction I am heading (also helpful if you want to take in the sights, unless of course the bus is packed). And when the frostbite came and I couldn't feel my toes anymore, I'd duck into a tube station and take a ride.
So, anyway, what with the Sleepers fried-snack-eating-habits, I discovered...wait for it...Papadams, or as the British refer to it: Poppadoms. They package it in regular foil packets and hey presto: Ready to eat Papadams on supermarket shelves. Why do I bring this up? Well, some time back a certain Indian actress appeared on a certain British reality show and a certain British participant referred to her as '[Actress's first name] Poppadom'. There was the typical hue and cry, the media jumped in and everybody wanted to shovel in their two bits. The only thing that bugged me back then was this: How the deuce did this British participant hear of Papadams. And why the heck were the media getting the spelling of Papadams all wrong. Maybe this British participant had traveled far and wide, I reasoned (a tad dubiously). And the media is never right (no doubts here), I mused. Quite perplexing, if you follow me. Well...the mystery was all solved once the the Sleeper picked up a packet and waved it around enthusiastically. "You're going to love this stuff, Snoosey-man". Ha, sure. And I'll have some experience points as well, thank you very much. Heh heh...
So, this was what I did till Christmas (not the Poppodams, not the Poppodams...jeez....the other touristy stuff). After which, everyone ditched work and finally the fun did start. But those gory details will follow in another post. On Christmas day The Sleeper cooked some funky stuff, a rare display of his culinary skills. The house didn't burn down and everything went smoothly. Also, let me give you some friendly advice: Whiskey and wine don't go well together. Got that? Excellent! All righty, here come the pics. I'm gonna lump 'em all together , so feast thine eyes. This is two weeks of touristic effort.
Camden Town. A delightful place even more so because I wasn't really expecting something like this in London. Its good for all sorts of stuff: Asian food, Gothic clothing, old books, records and any other thing you could possibly think of. Moving through these alleys, past mystical Oriental shops, digging for some junk (which you know you're never gonna use) adds to the fun.
The food here is on deliberate display. While steam wafts up from the hot food, the distinctly Asian (read: Chinese, Japanese, Indonesian, Taiwanese, Vietnamese) girls behind the counter, would hold a piece of meat (or fish or broccoli or whatever) with large chopsticks and call out to anyone passing by: "Hey Meester, dis good food, verry cheap. The first piece is foor frree." As tempting as it was, I didn't have any. For some reason we always went there after a meal. Dang!!
Benches and tables conveniently line some of the eateries. All the more reason to have sunk my teeth in some delectable food. Double Dang!!!
The Horse Tunnel market and the Stables market make up part of this large maze of alleys and twisting side streets. Apparently, the stables from the old days were converted and became a part of present day Camden Town. If you want more details you should wiki Camdenlock.
Victoria Park. Where fish torture takes place. No, really. Hear me out. Apparently you're allowed to fish here but if you catch one, you've got to chuck it back. Now, if that isn't some form of deviant fish mental torture, you tell me what it is.
Little Venice. (No, I don't get it either. It ain't sinking, by the way.)
Didn't see too many of these chaps around.
London Eye. There it is. La de dah. No, I didn't ride it. Pointless apparently, if the weather doesn't let you have a look over the whole city. Also, Joe Cynic says the best time to do it is late evening, when London's lights are just switching on. Makes sense don't it?
Westminster Abbey. I was there.
Big Ben. I was there as well.
Fancy looking pond outside Buckingham Palace. Plenty of coins in the water there. Not that I took any.
One of them (statue??) guards at the Palace.
London's skyline from Greenwich park. Looks better in real life, though. Also, that green line passing through is not a camera glitch...or whatever you though it was.
The Greenwich meridian.
The observatory at Greenwich is a nifty place. Plenty of cool things to see and its all free. So there you go. No excuse to sit at home now.
Greenwich Village. Very quaint place.
Typical heart-of-London street view. Although, sometimes its even more packed.
Ze red phone booth, ze red bus and ze red Underground sign. Chessy pic? Well, I couldn't resist.
Hyde Park
After all these years, I finally get to see a Zamboni.
The night views in London are brilliant.
Food stuff and drink stuff. I should have devoted an entire post to this, but then I realized I didn't have enough pictures. So I guess I'll just describe them in the posts to follow. And just in case you didn't get it, the pics are (top to bottom) ze English Breakfast, ze Fish and Chips and ze Ale.
Hookah stuff. Keep this picture at the back of thine mind for I shall tell thee a tale which shall chill thine blood to the marrow and cause thine hair to stand on end like the quills on a fretful porpentine.
Ahem. And till the next time....
Then we were off again, this time to The Sleeper's place where I was to spend the next few days and generally sponge off the chappie. After which I would shift to Joe Cynic's place and sponge off him. And since this was the week where everyone was busy before the holidays , I was doing the typical bus-hopping/ train-hopping (the stuff I normally do when I'm off exploring by myself). Ah, the lure of public transportation. Will I ever tire of it? If you're gonna travel around London, best if you use an Oyster card. Thirty pounds for one weeks worth of travel. This includes the metro...err..the tube as well as the bus. For chappies like me with lots of time on their hands this is a nifty deal. I prefer traveling by bus because that makes it easier to see the general direction I am heading (also helpful if you want to take in the sights, unless of course the bus is packed). And when the frostbite came and I couldn't feel my toes anymore, I'd duck into a tube station and take a ride.
So, anyway, what with the Sleepers fried-snack-eating-habits, I discovered...wait for it...Papadams, or as the British refer to it: Poppadoms. They package it in regular foil packets and hey presto: Ready to eat Papadams on supermarket shelves. Why do I bring this up? Well, some time back a certain Indian actress appeared on a certain British reality show and a certain British participant referred to her as '[Actress's first name] Poppadom'. There was the typical hue and cry, the media jumped in and everybody wanted to shovel in their two bits. The only thing that bugged me back then was this: How the deuce did this British participant hear of Papadams. And why the heck were the media getting the spelling of Papadams all wrong. Maybe this British participant had traveled far and wide, I reasoned (a tad dubiously). And the media is never right (no doubts here), I mused. Quite perplexing, if you follow me. Well...the mystery was all solved once the the Sleeper picked up a packet and waved it around enthusiastically. "You're going to love this stuff, Snoosey-man". Ha, sure. And I'll have some experience points as well, thank you very much. Heh heh...
So, this was what I did till Christmas (not the Poppodams, not the Poppodams...jeez....the other touristy stuff). After which, everyone ditched work and finally the fun did start. But those gory details will follow in another post. On Christmas day The Sleeper cooked some funky stuff, a rare display of his culinary skills. The house didn't burn down and everything went smoothly. Also, let me give you some friendly advice: Whiskey and wine don't go well together. Got that? Excellent! All righty, here come the pics. I'm gonna lump 'em all together , so feast thine eyes. This is two weeks of touristic effort.
Camden Town. A delightful place even more so because I wasn't really expecting something like this in London. Its good for all sorts of stuff: Asian food, Gothic clothing, old books, records and any other thing you could possibly think of. Moving through these alleys, past mystical Oriental shops, digging for some junk (which you know you're never gonna use) adds to the fun.
The food here is on deliberate display. While steam wafts up from the hot food, the distinctly Asian (read: Chinese, Japanese, Indonesian, Taiwanese, Vietnamese) girls behind the counter, would hold a piece of meat (or fish or broccoli or whatever) with large chopsticks and call out to anyone passing by: "Hey Meester, dis good food, verry cheap. The first piece is foor frree." As tempting as it was, I didn't have any. For some reason we always went there after a meal. Dang!!
Benches and tables conveniently line some of the eateries. All the more reason to have sunk my teeth in some delectable food. Double Dang!!!
The Horse Tunnel market and the Stables market make up part of this large maze of alleys and twisting side streets. Apparently, the stables from the old days were converted and became a part of present day Camden Town. If you want more details you should wiki Camdenlock.
Victoria Park. Where fish torture takes place. No, really. Hear me out. Apparently you're allowed to fish here but if you catch one, you've got to chuck it back. Now, if that isn't some form of deviant fish mental torture, you tell me what it is.
Little Venice. (No, I don't get it either. It ain't sinking, by the way.)
Didn't see too many of these chaps around.
London Eye. There it is. La de dah. No, I didn't ride it. Pointless apparently, if the weather doesn't let you have a look over the whole city. Also, Joe Cynic says the best time to do it is late evening, when London's lights are just switching on. Makes sense don't it?
Westminster Abbey. I was there.
Big Ben. I was there as well.
Fancy looking pond outside Buckingham Palace. Plenty of coins in the water there. Not that I took any.
One of them (statue??) guards at the Palace.
London's skyline from Greenwich park. Looks better in real life, though. Also, that green line passing through is not a camera glitch...or whatever you though it was.
The Greenwich meridian.
The observatory at Greenwich is a nifty place. Plenty of cool things to see and its all free. So there you go. No excuse to sit at home now.
Greenwich Village. Very quaint place.
Typical heart-of-London street view. Although, sometimes its even more packed.
Ze red phone booth, ze red bus and ze red Underground sign. Chessy pic? Well, I couldn't resist.
Hyde Park
After all these years, I finally get to see a Zamboni.
The night views in London are brilliant.
Food stuff and drink stuff. I should have devoted an entire post to this, but then I realized I didn't have enough pictures. So I guess I'll just describe them in the posts to follow. And just in case you didn't get it, the pics are (top to bottom) ze English Breakfast, ze Fish and Chips and ze Ale.
Hookah stuff. Keep this picture at the back of thine mind for I shall tell thee a tale which shall chill thine blood to the marrow and cause thine hair to stand on end like the quills on a fretful porpentine.Ahem. And till the next time....
