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“the girl behind the bar asked "Canadian or American?" I responded with. "Neither, I have Britsh Pounds."” |
Today was our first day in London by ourselves. We woke to a drizzle which lasted late into the morning. Today was also our first day using the famous London Underground. We took the wrong train about 4 times, but eventually figured out how things work.
The first place we visited was Buckingham Pallace. Not too much going on there, aside from the guards carrying machine guns.
Then we were off to Harrods. It took us a seriously long time to find it on the underground. The inside was spectacular, and the prices were actually not too outrageous. It was like a marbleized, overstaffed, glamorized version of Holts. Part of the store has an Egyption theme, and the visuals in that area were awesome. Upon entering Herrods I was asked to remove my backpack and carry it. I was perplexed at the time as to why I was asked to do this, but I later on found out that it was to preserve the high class atmoshpere of the shopping centre. Weak.
Next we went to look for lunch. We searched for a fish and cjps joint called Rock and Sole Plaice near Covent Garden. After much searching we finally found it. Shafiq had the cod and I had some sort of shark. We both had delicious meals.
The next leg of our journey was rather humorous. Our goal was to make it to the Salvador Dali museum, near the London Eye. As Shafiq was stepping into one of the Underground trains, the doors slammed shut on him, and then on his backpack. I then watched him sail down the line without me. The other people waiting with me for the next train must have thought I was crazy because I was laughing so hard to myself. I hopped on the next train, intent on making it to the gallery. Upon arriving there I found Shafiq again, which was great!
The exhibit itself was quite interesting. We both learned a lot about Dali himself, and the symbolism and meanings in his art.
After this we walked accross the Westminster Bridge. We passed Big Ben and the parlimentary buildings which were spectacular. We then continued on to Westminster Abbey which was unfortunately closed. We took pictures on the exterior then hopped on the tube to come home (not without, once again, getting on the wrong train).
At about 7:30 we headed over for dinner at my grand aunt's house. We had a scrumptious Indian meal, and I met some of my relatives.
Shafiq and I left that scene around 9:00 and got dropped off at a local pub. While I was paying for a couple pints, the girl behind the bar asked "Canadian or American?" I responded with. "Neither, I have Britsh Pounds." She then asked the question again. Then I understood that she was asking what my nationality was. Duh... We had a couple lovely pints (a Stella and some organic beer), our first of the trip, then proceeded to get lost walking home. It took 5 minutes or less to drive to the pub, and close to 1.25 hours for us to return. We got home, ate some food, and here I am, finishing my journal entry for the day.
previous travel blog entry
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