Messages from abroad, not massages from a broad

I don’t know what is up with my pics. Sometimes they appear, and sometimes they don’t. I noticed that if I touch my photos from the actual Picasa album, then the pictures re-appear in my blog again. I don’t get it. My 2nd day posting seems to be fine and I’m not doing anything differently. I don’t get it.

Alright, so when I booked the ticket for the London Eye, it never really occurred to me that I might actually find the damn experience scary. I have a slight fear of heights and as I was in the queue to get on it I started to think that I’d be stuck in a confined space for 30 minutes. If I had a panic attack or something, I’d be totally screwed. I can say that I stayed near the middle of the pod for a few minutes and was kinda glued to the middle bench for the first 5 minutes. Eventually I pried myself away and ventured over to the glass for some pics. It was a pretty good view and well worth the stress.

I walked around the edge of The Thames again and eventually got to the Waterloo area. It’s quite a dump. I only went through there to get to the Underground. Next up was the Britain Museum. This place had artifacts and pieces from all over the world and from various eras. I took a tonne of pictures. I am not even going to bother posting any because there’s too many and cause I’m having problems with pictures in my blog. So check it out directly (http://picasaweb.google.co.uk/biganthony/London#).

It was semi-late in the afternoon when I got out of the museum. I felt like heading back to the hotel again, but instead, I went to pick up my ticket for Wicked. From the theatre, it was a 10 min walk to Buckingham Palace so logically, I went to check it out since I had 3 hours to kill.

I took some quick pics and headed straight back to Victoria Station which is also a big Train station. I really had to take a leak and I wandered around for a bit and settled on a pay toilet. It cost me 30 pence to use the toilet and this marks the first time I paid to take a piss. What a relief though. I reckon it is similar to standing in the heat for an hour and walking into a well air conditioned room. I was stuck in an awkward position as I had too much time to do nothing, but nothing to do with so little time. So I found a spot at the train station and this shouldn’t come to a surprise to someone people, but I took a nap for 45 minutes. I felt a little bit like a homeless person, but I got over it. It was great. I don’t think I could have survived Wicked without it. I didn’t sleep well last night so it was well needed.

Wicked was OK. For some reason, I didn’t enjoy it as much as Avenue Q. Maybe it was because it was more serious. Maybe cause the songs weren’t as catchy. They definitely weren’t sing-a-long, hum at work kinda songs. Maybe it was cause my seats sucked - wayyy up top, Row T near the end (Row X). Or maybe it was the seemingly all British cast that made it harder for me to understand. In all likelihood, it was probably a combination of everything. Oh, plus I was tired. I struggled to stay awake, but I think I pulled it off. The story was just OK too. I thought it was a little boring cause the songs were boring. Oh well.

Alright, I’m keeping this shorter today. I’m packing it in early. I do find it interesting that I took more pictures today, when I actually did a lot less than the previous days. I guess it was because I was allowed to take pictures in the museum. Peace! ~AC

Well, I’ve gotten some messages from some peeps so I’m glad to see people are still following along with me. I’m more than happy to share my experiences, thoughts and pics. By the way, you can view ALL of my photos here.

So I didn’t have a lot planned today, my main goal was to check out St. Paul’s Cathedral, check out Tate Modern, and eat at Borough Market. I find it funny that Cathedral’s charge money to view their building. Museums with millions and millions of dollars in priceless art are totally free, boring cathedrals will charge you 10-15 pounds to take a look inside. Bah. I refuse! So I took some free pics outside. Nice building. I bet it was dreary and boring inside though.

I crossed the Millennium Bridge to get to Tate Modern - a Museum showcasing modern-ish art. I think the building is kinda boring. It’s basically a giant brick rectangle with a suggestively phallic silo in the middle. I guess that’s art?!? You decide:

Although the art pieces weren’t as impressive as the ones in the National Portrait Gallery (and I suppose it isn’t a fair comparison), I did feel that it was neat to see pieces by Warhol, Pollack and Picasso. It’s actually kinda weird to think they were alive less than 50 years ago. There were lots of other weird ‘art’ pieces too. I use the word art loosely since some of it was video of pervy dudes wearing masks and dancing around in the nude. I know a bunch of people that could probably produce some of the same shit, but artsier. So not all of it was paintings. There were some remarkable installation pieces that took up an entire room. I wish I could have taken some pictures. I did see some people sneaking pictures, but I felt like respecting the rules. It was less than three floors of art, but some how I managed to spend over 2 hours perusing the collections.

Next up was Borough Market. I had a few people recommend this place to me so it must have been worth it. I held off eating until I could check it out. It was a lot like Granville Island but smaller and grungy. I pigged out and had to hold back on things like pies and cakes. I had a wild boar sausage sandwich, followed by a hamburger, some fresh squeezed juices, and a fantastic creme caramel.

At this point, it was 2pm and I was beat already. My feet, legs and back were killing me so I went back to the hotel for some R&R. I totally needed it and I think it was a good call. So after some computer time, I headed back out to Picadilly Circus. I wanted to pick up a ticket for the London Eye and I know they had some cheaper tickets for sale out there. I picked up a fast trak pass for 17 pounds, which is normally 27 on site. I’m going to check that out tomorrow. It was around this time when I realized I didn’t have anything planned for the evening. My choices were: hang out at a bar/restaurant all night, and/or watch a movie, and/or go back to the hotel to chill out. Since I pussied out the night before, I decided to fuck all those choices and went for a musical. I hit up Leicester Sq for some half-price/cheap tickets. Les Miserables didn’t look very promising when I checked a few cheap ticket booths, so I settled on Avenue Q. If you’ve never heard of it, it’s like an adult version of Sesame Street and The Muppets. I snagged a ticket and I still had 2.5 hours to kill til show time, so I went over to Covent Garden and Market.

The place was pretty cool and as soon as you turned the corner, you could feel the energy emanating from the people and venue. Don’t get me wrong, it was a total tourist trap, but it had everything people would want: chain restaurants, quaint little restaurants and eateries, merchandise stands, retail shops (even a David and Goliath), lots of street performers, etc… I did my requisite walk-thru and watched some of the street performers. I find that I don’t have a lot of patience for a lot of the gigs because the performers waste a lot of time talking shit and doing nothing. I cannot give them credit for that. I’d much rather stand around listening to someone sing if they’ve got a decent voice. I gave a singer some of my change because I felt all the other performers had wasted my time.

I’m always drawn towards McDonald’s at other countries. I’m always curious to see how different their menus are. So for a snack I tried something called the Little Chorizo Melt, which was a paper thin chorizo patty with pepperoni, cheese and lettuce. I wanna say it sucked but maybe my expectations were just too high for it. I also got a fancy Chocolate Cornetto McFlurry, but they gave me Chocolate Mint instead. Despite the botched up order, it wasn’t too bad, although the Flake Cone I had yesterday was wayyy better. I vow to get another one before I leave here.

So bare with me, I’m almost done. Avenue Q was great. It was totally lighthearted and funny. What could be better than Muppets swearing, and singing a song called Internet Is For Porn and having sex on stage? That gives you a good idea of what kinda show it was. If you ever find yourself with nothing to do and it’s playing in the neighborhood, give it a go.

To cap off the night, I stumbled into neighboring Chinatown. Chinatown here is awesome. It’s nothing but restaurants and none of the stink and shit like it is in Vancouver. I settled on a bowl of beef brisket and wonton noodle soup. It was awesome. Almost as good as the one from #9 and infinitely better than the garbage that I find in DC.

Oy! That was way more than I expected to type. I hope it was as fun for you as it was for me. Tomorrow, new adventures to come! ~ AC

So far so good. I started on the west side London on day 2 and where better to start but the Natural History Museum and the Science Museum. I’d say it’s an older, more poorly designed version of the one in Washington, DC. I’m glad I got there nice and early (15 min after opening). A lot of the exhibits were very old and dated looking; like they were created 20-30 years ago. I also noticed that a lot of the exhibits were really cheesy - full on styrofoam visuals and fake animals galore. I was going through the building at very quick pace until other people started to show up. That’s when I realized that the design of the place was total shit. Narrow walkways and ridiculous queues. The dinosaur exhibit was the most frustrating one cause it was busy and there was one path and one direction to see it. I wanted to run through it but ended up plodding through with hundreds of other people. It was hot and slow and it totally sucked. I think I went through the entire place in about two hours. I think I enjoyed the physical building more than the exhibits. Look how beautiful this place is:

From there, I was quite close to one of the Royal Parks, so I went to check out Hyde Park. I didn’t really expect to spend more than 15 minutes taking a stroll in the park, but ended up spending over an hour there. I discovered that the Diana Memorial Fountain was there so I went to check it out. I was expecting a typical fountain but it turned out to be a stylishly modern structure:

I had read about the the Jeff Koons art show at urbanjunkies.com and was happy to stumble upon it on my way out of the Park. It was free, so why not check it out? I wasn’t allowed to take pictures of the pieces inside, but I did sneak a shot of the art from an exterior window afterwards.

Stupidly, I thought I would be smart and take a shortcut to Brompton Road, only to find out that there were no thru roads to it from the residential area. What a waste of time. Luckily, Brompton was a great road with tonnes of shopping and stuff to see. I was so tired and hungry by the time I made my way around though. It’s a long story but I was actually looking for a specific Polish restaurant that was mentioned in my Lonely Planet book. It turns out, that I read the street name wrong and it ended up being right next to the underground station that I came from. And the menu was disappointing and it was way more expensive than I thought it was stated in the guide, so I didn’t end up eating there.

Next stop was the House of Parliament. I got some great pics of the building, including Big Ben and the London Eye on the other side of the river.

I’m saving the London Eye for later in the week so I didn’t cross the Westminster Bridge to see it up close. Instead, I went to Westminster Abbey. It started to rain and I was really tempted to head back to the hotel from a catnip but I kept going and walked up to Trafalgar Square and the National Gallery. It was a bustling area with lots of people just loitering. I went into the National Gallery and was blown away by the art. I spent 3 hours there. I was totally impressed by the paintings on display. I wonder if there are any artists in our time that are as talented as the ones from hundreds of years ago. Too bad I couldn’t take pictures of them but I guess many can be looked up online.

Next up, Picadilly Circus. What a cool place. It was full of people, eateries, bars and theatres. I walked around there for a solid 90 minutes. I had a quick beer near the tail-end of my walk. It was warm, but I was tired and thirsty and I killed it in about 3 minutes. I called it a day and headed back to the hotel. All-in-all, it was 10 hours later and I was thrilled to sit down in the comfy confines of the hotel room. I rested for an hour and went to the local bar for some dinner: Beer and fish & chips with peas. It’s a weird combination but it was sustenance and much needed at 9PM.

It’s actually Thursday morning now and I’m aching all over. But it’s time to get the day started. Time’s a wasting. ~AC

I kept the plan simple on day 1.  I started with the Tower of London, which is about 2 minutes away from the hotel.  It’s quite convenient in  this area since it’s also right next to the Tube.  I didn’t want to pay to get into the Tower as it didn’t interest me that much.  It’s basically a dirty old castle built hundreds of years ago which means nothing but stairs; read, I’m lazy.  I was quite fascinated with the area though.  It’s quite nice; very touristy, but still neat to see a giant old structure in the middle of a modern area.  There were lots of tourists and food.

Right next to the Tower of London was Tower Bridge:

From there, I headed over to The O2, which was supposed to be the venue for MJ’s concerts. There was a tribute wall setup where other fans had congregated. There were lots of messages on the wall and people were also writing on the near by trees. Some girls were playing MJs tunes while others were just there to pay their respects:

Next up, Canary Wharf. I had heard of it but I didn’t really know what to expect there. I was surprised to find a giant mall nestled between some small wharfs and giant office buildings. It looked like a nice place to work. One of convenience as there were lots of places to eat around there too. Along the West India Dock there were a row of restaurants, all with giant patios aching to be used for lunch/happy hour.

By then, I was quite tired. I hit up the local Waitrose and picked up some roast chicken and drinks and called it a day. I already have blisters on my feet. I was in bed by 9pm!! Believe it!

Day 2 awaits. Til then. ~AC

I made it.  I took the plunge and came out to the UK on my own.  It should be fun, but I’m tired cause I didn’t sleep well on the plane.  Why didn’t I sleep well?  Probably because the guy sitting next to me was stinky and HUGE.  His arms spilled over into my space frequently and half the time his elbow was poking me in the ribs.  My Economy Plus seats never seemed so small.  Out of a 6.5 hour flight, I think I only got 2 hours sleep.  After a while, I got fed up and because I couldn’t sleep, I was pretty restless.  I think I started making things very uncomfortable for him too cause I was moving around so much and bumping his ridiculously intrusive elbow.

Anyway, since I couldn’t sleep I pulled out my netbook and picked a movie to watch from my harddrive: ‘Knowing’ was my selection, starring Nic Cage.   I got 1/3 way into the movie and it donned on me that this was a highly inappropriate movie to watch on the plane as it was full of doom and destruction.  There was even a scene with a  plane crash and I felt a little uneasy about watching it, but I powered through it.  Since most people were probably sleeping, I didn’t think I would rile anyone up.  It was a better movie than I thought it would be.

Now’s the time I should mention the dreaded airplane lavatory.  I almost never use it when I fly, but on longer flights such as this one, I had to use it cause I needed to tinkle.  When I got up to go, all of them were vacant so I had 4 to choose from on the 777.  I picked the big fucking worse one.   Someone had bled on the toilet seat and to top it off, their attempt at cleaning it was piss-poor at best.  Totally disgusting.  I did my business and that was the last time I got up.

I’m in the hotel now.  It’s nice and modern and clean.  I’ve been here too long so I’m going to venture out to find some grub.  Take care!  ~  AC

So I’ve kinda stopped blogging for various reasons.  Life doesn’t seem that interesting to write about and most people I talk to already know what I’m up to.  So it seems kinda redundant to be yappin about the same stuff in person and in writing.  I don’t think anybody wants to hear weekly updates on how I play kickball and drink my face off on Thursday nights.  I suppose there were a few interesting things the last few months, but I guess I was just lazy.  Here are some quick hits:

Washington Capitals Playoff Hockey:

Round 1 Game 7 - Rangers Lose!

Chili-Cookoff 2009:

When will we learn from our mistakes?

Camping at Assateaque Island:

Wild horses at the campsite which happened to be near a great beach too.

I guess the only interesting thing that’s happened lately is the Michael Jackson fiasco.  So about 34 days before I was supposed to see MJ perform in London, the Reaper decided to pay him a visit and persuaded Whacko Jacko to go with him.  Argh!!  This turn of events has put a serious crink in my bucket list.  One item was to see Madonna live (check, I saw her last year), and the other was MJ (shit, at least I tried).  My initial reaction was to cancel the whole bloody trip but my hotel reservation was going to be a problem.  When I had booked it, it was supposed to be a special awesome rate, and there was a disclaimer about no refunds and no cancellations because of the spectacular rate.  I thought, no problem.  I’m committed, so I won’t need to worry about cancelling anything.  I guess I didn’t expect the highlight of my trip to fizzle out like that.  I could probably go through my credit card to get a refund, but I’ve decided a vacation isn’t the worse thing to deal with so I’m gonna check out the UK still.  I’ve never been so it’s a good reason to go still.  With that said, I have requested a refund on my concert tickets.  The concert organizers are giving people the option of getting a full refund or in lieu of a refund, you can take a wickedly expensive commemorative lenticular ticket (ooooo - lenticular).  Perhaps the ticket is worth something on eBay, but I’m not really willing to risk $150 to find out.  The good thing is that the money saved from the concert will go towards general spending on the rest of the trip.

So that’s that.  Vacation awaits in about two weeks.   I think I will blog my adventures while I’m there so I’m resurrecting this for a little while.  Happy times!!