I arrived at the airport, and for some reason, the ticket agent gave me a VIP card which enabled me to take the super-secret line through customs and security. I navigated both within 7 minutes, while I watched the poor saps in the "regular" line take over an hour. It was dee-light-ful.
The flight lasted about 14 hours. We departed at around 1:30am and arrived around 8am local time. I think I slept about 3 hours, though I did manage to catch 127 Hours (good), The Kings Speech (excellent), and numerous episodes of Modern Family (I see why people like that show -- it's hi-larious!).
Walking into Heathrow was a breath of fresh air. As much as I liked SE Asia, it was nice to be back in a place where I understood every sign, and could figure out how to navigate the city rather painlessly.
Some random initial observations about the Brits:
#1: Their money is inordinately large. Damn bills don't fit in my wallet correctly and I keep staring at giant pictures of the queen. I'm trying to hide my enthusiasm.
#2: Why aren't they on the Euro? I almost changed my Bahts to Euros, but was advised that they still use the pound even though the rest of Europe uses the Euro.
#3: The UK is the only place in Europe that is on a time zone different from the rest of Western Europe. These island people are annoying.
#4: The stereotypes about teeth and pastiness are alive and well. I'll also add one more -- maybe it's more obvious after being in SE Asia, but England has really embraced the American way of life and is now populated by a multitude of pasty fatties with bad teeth. Seriously...these people are not.attractive.at.all. The accents help a little, but, wow -- it's really striking.
#5: Me likes some of their jargon -- in particular, I like the term, "Circus," which means a cluster f$ck of streets. There are several "circuses" in town, with, I believe Piccadilly Circus being the most famous.
#6: The dollar is getting slaughtered here, so things are REALLY expensive for an American. Initially, I kept getting confused because when I saw a sign for 2 pounds, I assumed, "Ah, that's nothing," thinking that I was still using dongs or bahts. Oh no -- 2 pounds is roughly $3.50. How about beer specials for $6 or $7? Wow -- that's amazing. ;p
#7: The weather here has been AMAZING. It's been sunny and about 70 degrees every day. Absolutely beautiful. None of that stereotypical gloominess. I guess everywhere I go, I turn things upside down -- it was really nice in Bangkok, it's nice here; I'm thinking that it's gonna be snowing when I get to Cairo...
At any rate, I'm staying in a pretty cool part of town called, "Camden." I chose that area because it was billed as being less touristy and more East Austin-ish. It's not quite as eclectic as what was billed in what I read, but it's cool. My hostel was a short walk from the train station. I walked in, exhausted, and found out that check-in wasn't for another 5 hours or so. Ugh. I decided to wonder around a bit.
There are tons and tons of markets here -- really, it's astounding. All kinds of crap is being sold at the markets. Probably the coolest market I found was a market that was a massive old horse stable that was converted into a marketplace. The place is freakin' huge. It was like a giant maze. There had to have been at least 100 places in there - it was an insanely huge place. Anyone who enjoys hunting for random crap will be in paradise here (and no, I did not buy any jewels here, you mothaf$c...!!) All kinds of food are served, too.
The market sat on a canal which, when I followed the canal a bit, I met another freaking market.
I walked another block, and at this point, I thought I was suffering from sleep deprivation, because I found my third market...
I found two more markets, but by that point, I was sick of taking pictures and perusing random crap, so I decided to start taking random pictures of the landscape because it definitely lived up to what I had envisioned London to look like...
Finally, enough time had passed that I could enter the hostel...well, here's what $45 a night gets you in London...
Actually, other than the awful body odor smell that emanated throughout the whole place, it hasn't been THAT bad. I'm on the lower bunk on my bed, and besides the constant farting that the dude above me was doing last night (he also only had 7 teeth -- I counted 'em), it was ok. Two of guys are pretty cool -- one is a 22 year old Canadian, and the other is a 19 year old German.
I was completely exhausted, so I tried taking a nap, but of course, when sharing a place with 5 other people, that's not exactly in the cards. So, instead, I hit up a couple of pubs, watched the Man U v. Chelsea game live (which was an interesting experience) and hung out at another pub where a Portuguese dude kept trying to hook me up with every woman in the place once he learned that I was single. He also went on a half hour diatribe about how much he hated America, but liked me. Ah...good times...
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