London
So after months of planning, and about R. 5000 in VISA’s, I left Durban, South Africa on the 6th of May 2011 and flew to Johannesburg. I was joined there by my sister who had been visiting my parental units in Swaziland for a month. My sister lives in London and we arranged the flights so that we could be on the same flight to London. After being amazed at all the foreign facial configurations and languages flowing around me as I sat in the Departures lounge – I felt as if I was already “overseas” without even having left the African continent. I was a little nervous, but that good kind of nervous, the excited kind. My sister Taryn (Taz) arrived and we had a blast checking out the duty-free stores and sampled free Lindt chocolate on offer while we waited for our flight. Finally we were on the plane and off we flew, London bound.
After a really physically taxing 11 hour flight to London, we arrived at Heathrow. On approaching the English coast, I smiled at how beautiful the tiny lines of ship trails looked in the channel, and on approaching the runway, I was amazed at how green the countryside was, right near the airport, and there seemed to be a lot of water around – I suppose I had assumed it to be a concrete and steel conglomeration around the airport, but no. We landed and I approached customs with much trepidation – I had had a bad experience before with these demigods of passage, and here was I, claws and all, hoping that I would get through. I had also heard of horror stories of people getting turned back at this point, but that would just be too much and somebody would’ve been disemboweled if they had tried that! I got through with no problems, and felt a rush of relief that I was actually here, on English soil – home of my ancestors actually.
My family name goes back to the 17th Century in England, and I still carry a title from some noble in our line. (insert apology for being a poncy git). Apparently, at some point, we were linked to the Sherrif of Nottingham from the Robin Hood story – that assertion needs a lot more verification of course, puts my line on the wrong moral side of that narrative and could just be a small piece of family mythology, but hey, get your own poncy story!
When we landed it was 06h30 local time, but 05h30 for my biological clock – suffice to say, not being a morning person and having had little sleep on the plane, that was a challenge, but minor in comparison to the time difference I was required to adapt to on the West coast of the USA, later in my trip.
We took the tube from Heathrow to Waterloo – I was amazed at how busy and expansive the building was. To me it was a melee of humans working and bustling their way to all sorts of destinations like a busy of leaf-cutter ants. The large structure of the terminal seemed to close in on me with the spaghetti map of routes posted everywhere and arriving and departing trains being read out by an almost robotic voice over the PA system. It was an interesting soundscape, and I drank it all in, the sights, sounds and smells.
We sat down for a bit, to give my wide eyes time to adjust and I tried Burger King for a spot of brunch – it was quite disappointing.
After brunch we took a bus and met my sisters roommate, Alex – a really good, quiet person with a dry, wicked sense of humour – after freshening up we all went out to drop off my bags at my hotel and to walk around a bit. We walked to my hotel – the Mercure – near Alex’s house in the suburb of Bermondsy. Then it was onto a bus and a short hop to the Thames – we saw the Millenium bridge. That was interesting but I was still feeling quite sore and jetlagged from the flight. I felt emotionally overwhelmed and it was like being a washing machine of emotions – a lot of humans to deal with!
We grabbed a spot of lunch after sightseeing – a place called Pepys Place – Samuel Pepys was a writer who chronicled some of London’s history. It was quite empty – being the banking sector, there were very few customers about. I had a nice, but rather small portion of peri peri chicken. We had a great chat, and I got to know Alex a bit – he loves history and is quite a good tour guide with an expansive knowledge of London and its history.
We walked around a bit more, and because Taz and I were tired we headed home through Borough Market – apparently more than 1000 years old, it was great, full of people and food and fresh produce – sellers shouting their wares in “funny” British accents. They dropped me at my hotel and Taz went home to recover from the flight. I had a snooze and then decided on a walkabout to find a dinner venue. I walked all around a large block of London after getting a bit lost, to arrive not 50 metres from the hotel where I had a pizza at an Italian place. They had some confusing signs forbidding entrance to their door – after vacillating for a while (being cautious not to immediately fall foul some local ordinance or customs) I just ignored that and finally got into the place. I mean who puts a no entry sign on the only entry door to an establishment! They had an even more complicated credit card system for ordering and receiving your food, but I figured it out after asking some local girls for their assistance. The pizza was great, thin base, with salami and herbs and tomato and olives (all cold) spread over the top of the hot pizza. It was delicious. For dessert I selected the Tiramisu which was gorgeous – generous and tasty. I went home to the hotel, and got a good night’s rest. I was feeling a bit lost without phone or email, and was struck by the realisation of my reliance on my connected online life to feel a degree of security.
The next day Taz picked me up and after we booked into my next hotel – a 3rd of the price of the Mercure, In a converted apartment block with a shared toilet for 4 units on that floor. A shared ablution facility was something I had not had to deal with since boarding school, but it was clean and the other users seemed to clean up after themselves so all was peachy.
That day we travelled to Camden Town which was fantastic – I had really tasty Caribbean food, and a delicious fresh homemade Lemonade. We met Maria, Taz’s Polish ex girlfriend, and had a really good strong Caipirinha at a Cuban restaurant where there was awesome live Cuban music. I had brought a change of clothes for the scheduled Salsa dancing at the Cuban place, but the dancing seemed to not be on. We relocated to another place in search of Salsa and made our way to Leicester square (which Taz tells me is tourist central). We found a place called Bar Salsa – now this was more like it! Maria and I hopped in on the intermediate lesson given by this erratic Cuban guy – he flitted from move to move and sequence to sequence without much warning. It was fun though and I learnt a few new moves. I got to dance with a tall French girl who was gorgeous but warned me against her elbows which she seemed to be threatening to knock me out with, and a short Spanish girl who was a great dancer and very kind. She was cute too! There were a few very good Salseros at the venue and the floor was hot, busy and pulsating – as any good Salsa venue should be.
We were all pretty tired – also Taz and Maria got hit on by two clueless guys who had nothing they wanted – shamelessly I left the ladies there for the kill and enjoyed the effort the guys seemed prepared to put into a futile venture! We left and they dropped me at my hostel.
The hostel proprietor, Tony Patel is a great young guy – he can’t be more than 24 years old – and really friendly. The room was clean but sparse, and had some black rubbish bags over some of the windows. Flies flew in and out from the rubbish tip under the window, and it was quite hot, the thermostat broken on the radiator, it was permanently on a low creeping heat. I planned to get an early night, but met some folk in the shared kitchen – a beautiful, young German girl from Munich called Sasha, and Andy a British estate agent who stays there 3 days a week for business, and to get a much-needed break from his girlfriend who he can apparently only take in small doses. We chatted for about 1.5 hours.
Sasha is studying Neuropsychology so we got on like a house on fire, but also an aggressive young woman in some ways – she described how she was engaged but had no intention of marrying the guy, she had a lot of options and felt no obligation, but would keep the fiancé around for now for convenience until something better came along. Some young women these days sure are chillingly clinical, and I find that sort of lack of principles quite off-putting. Andrew was a bit more reserved and engaged a little less in the conversation but he did help me turn off the radiator somewhat. We all retired and I got an alright night’s sleep – the main road was apparently a major night ambulance and early morning bus route and kept me marginally insomniac’d.
The next day Monday, I was on my own – and attempted to learn the bus and subway system. I did not do too badly, and made it to London Tower bridge. I took the Tower bridge tour and enjoyed it. An amazing bridge system and the tour enabled me to learn a bit more of the history of London. Truly an old city preganant with hundreds of years of history and intrigue.
After retiring for an afternoon snooze – I was still feeling knackered, my legs were aching and I was really exhausted – I met Taz and Alex for dinner at Hiba, a Lebanese restaurant. We had lamb and chicken schwarma and really good Hummus with Pita bread. I took half as leftovers for the next day’s lunch.
On Tuesday, I got a bit lost trying to get to the Natural History Museum, but found it eventually. I almost cried when I walked into the entrance hall, so beautiful to be silently greeted by a great Diplodocus. After walking around a bit I met Nathan (my good mate from South Africa, recently emigrated to the UK), and we did the Dinosaur exhibit together. He went home early and I did the Human Evolution side of the museum, it was cool but I did not even get through one floor of the museum and vowed to return. I ate my leftovers and a spot of noodles on the way home.
Lucky for those noodles because I got horribly lost in the bus system and it took me more than two hours to get home. I tried to have a rest, but Taz rocked up 5 minutes into that, and we went over to Alex’s flat to chill out, have curry and rice and relax a bit. We had take-away curries, I made the rice, and Taz bought us strawberries for pudding. I washed the dishes while Taz hung up a bit of washing for me. Alex was out at the pub, and I left before he got in. I walked through the quietly dark streets of London to my hostel and was lucky enough to see a city fox on the way home. Silent and beautiful, scruffy vagabond eking a living in the dark urban jungle. We stopped to look at each other, and then we were both gone to the wind of the night.
Having not had the Couchsurfing thing work for me yet and the hostel now fully booked, Alex kindly offered me a small section of his lounge in which to sleep for a few nights. A really kind and generous person, he also lent me a netbook, and a cellphone both of which proved invaluable on my journey. I gave him a bottle of South African wine to say thanks, but he refused all other offers of compensation.
I bought an air mattress for £16 and spent the rest of my London trip using his lounge as a base.
Wednesday saw me getting lost for 2 hours before breakfast, before I spent the rest of the day exploring London. I tried Burger King again at Waterloo station – still crap, won’t do that again!
I went to a debate between AC Grayling and the Archbishop of Canterbury, Dr Rowan Williams about Grayling’s new book, cheekily entitled The Good Book. I hoped to meet him and get a photo! Well, that day turned out to be the first in a series of “a day of days” because the debate was super and I DID get to meet one of my greatest literary and intellectual heroes. I love his writing style, condensed and rich, replete with the meat and potatoes of an intellectual feast. As an intellectual he is one of the Four Horsemen of the New Atheists movement and most importantly to me, he seems to be a principled defender of liberty, secular ethics, and liberal democracy. He is a most inspiring exemplar of all that I hold dear.
Fluxosaurus meets AC Grayling
I met a nice, but quietly reserved Brit in the seat next to me while we waited for the debate to start – we had a nice chat and even though we were on opposite sides of the debate, we parted in good spirits.
Taz and I did a Duck tour the next day – a WWII amphibious craft which drives around London, and then ploughs into the Thames for a river cruise. The tour guide was excellent and I even gave him some material for his joke line-up – I suggested he ask the driver if boatmen have webbed feet – it was funnier if you were there!
We walked around the South Bank – saw some street performers. It was great.
In the afternoon, I did the National Gallery of art – which was just wonderful. I hired an MP3 player that tells you about each painting – it really added immeasurable value and meaning to the experience.
Friday I spent the whole day on Alex’s couch working out my US trip – had to make a cheaper plan for the US to fit into my budget. It was a shame to spend time indoors when London was outside, but I needed to get my US planning done and dusted to relax a bit more there.
Friday night Taz and I went to a club called Freedom Bar – it was cool because we danced a bit and flirted with the locals, but I felt like warm Tyrannosaurus poop the next day from being so exhausted and having a late night.
On Saturday Taz took me to Hoxton –an arty area with street art and street performers. We walked around a bit and then went back to Alex’s place for a bit. Later that night we went out with Alex and ended up at a gay club called Heaven – it was a mixed evening – so everyone was welcome regardless of sexual orientation – the music was really good, and we had fun dancing. We tried to go to another joint called Cellar Door where Taz was hoping I could see a drag queen show – but there was not much happening there, although I did see one drag queen – in a pretty dress, with a large moustache!
We got home quite late but I was running out of time in London so I had to get up early to hit as many museums as possible before my trip to Edinburgh and Dublin. I had become quite accurate with the bus and tube system by this time, so I easily made my way to the British Museum – I flew through there in 3.5 hours, and managed to see and read most of the interesting stuff. I made a speedy journey over to the Science Museum and spent 2.5 hours completing that. I felt very emotional at the space section (I guess us Science nuts are just moved by these things), seeing actual rocket parts and the beauty of their museum design was just so moving. I had not been able to finish the Natural History Museum so I traipsed over there and tried to finish it in 1.5 hours – it closed at 18h00 and I managed to get it done. I really liked their life-size Blue Whale, and saw a whole whack of my favourite Dinosaurs and fossils. They had my favourite fossil of all time on display, an adult female Icthyosaur fossilized at the moment of giving live birth to a young Icthyosaur. Icthyosaurs were contemporaries of some Dinosaurs, but because all Dinosaurs are land animals with a specific hip formation, and because Icthyosaurs lived in the water, they are not Dinosaurs. They are still awfully cool though, and to have such an important process of their existence captured and fossilised for millions of years, to have light bounce off the fossil millions of years later and impinge my retina, be registered by my brain – it was all a bit much, and I sat there entranced for a good half hour.
Icthyosaurus giving birth
I was really sore after the museum day, and retired early at Alex’s place.
I took it easy the next day, Sunday, only walked for a few hours exploring, and then visited a beautiful garden near Westminster Abbey. I caught up on my blogging, and watched Londoners walk by.
That night we went to a traditional English pub and I had just the best Steak and Ale pie. It was fantastic – really perfectly construed crust, filled with a gooey, perfectly salted generous portion of steak filling, tender meat and rich, glossy sauce. It was heaven in a pie crust. There is a picture in the gallery section of that damn supreme pie!
Monday was not a good day – challenging to say the least. I thought I had left enough time to get to the airport, but the damn trains wait at some of the last stations for up to 8 minutes – I missed my flight by 5 minutes and had to pay £152 to get an alternate one way flight to Edinburgh. These things cannot be helped though and we must accept what we cannot change. Finally I was on my way to Edinburgh, Scotland, and looking forward to seeing a new city, having my own bed and room, and really looking forward to meeting Ivan and Sonja Meyer, my hosts there. I had never physically met Ivan before, but we had been Facebook introduced through some of the Johannesburg Skeptics, and had been Facebook friends for more than a year, and when we finally met face to face, we got on like a house on fire. Sonja was delightful as well and they really showed me some good old South African hospitality in a far off place. See my Edinburgh post for that chapter of my journey..
Here are the pics from my London journey:
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Fluxo about to leave on the journey
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My sister Taz
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Waiting for the plane
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Fluxo at Paddington station – wide eyed
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Fluxo walks along the Thames
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My good mate Alex and my sister Taz
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The Millenium bridge
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We happened upon a wedding
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Fluxo and Alex in front of St Paul’s Cathedral
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Spire al la Nautical
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The visitors centre
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St Paul’s Cathedral
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Some cool flowers around the cathedral
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I liked this doorway
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The Tate – that place was fantastic
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You beauty, how I have missed you – a long lost friend, no longer available in my home country
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Boris’ offices, as I recall.
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Taz and I went to Southbank
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There were these cool cultural things happening
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Taz and I took a Duck Tour – it was great
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I think the guy said this was MI6 – the spy dept.
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Punk cameras in London
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Camden town – awesome Carribean food
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Really cool Cuban bar – live music, and later there was supposed to be Salsa
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Maria – from Poland
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I could barely contain myself when I spotted these
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The most wonderful Diplodocus
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Most terrifying thing imaginable – to me anyway!
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In the Icthyosaur hall – that dude on the cell in the bottom half of the pic is my buddy Nathan.
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Fluxo at the family reunion
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This was cool – an animatronic T-Rex which growled and made threatening motions – some of the little kids were scared, but not me!
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The sickle claw – ooooooooh!
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Shame, these poor Londoners have to use these boats to get around.
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My first hostel room – Tony Patel’s place
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IT was cool – I had a TV
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The view out of the window in my hostel room, there is a rubbish tip or something just below.
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A school just outside my window
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U wish buddy, actually we must solve our own problems like grown ups.
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Trafalgar Square
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The National Gallery Art Museum – it was stupendous!
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Getting some chow in Borough market
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This was venison wors with haloumi.
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By this time I was staying at Alex’s place – this was his view and the sunset from his place
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Alex’s lounge
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That’s the kitchen in the background
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The bathroom – apprently I would make a good Estate Agent photographer
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Taz and I had really good pizza in this place – it was loud and vibey – very cool!
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We went to Hoxton for the day
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Really really good Vietnamese food in Hoxton
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Loads of street art around
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We had coffee in a posh hotel – this is the bathroom – swanky man!
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Buckingham Palace
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This is Bar Salsa where I had a na awesome Salsa night
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I think this was SOHO
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We all land up at Heaven – cool club
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The British Museum
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Then I checked out the Science Museum
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Rocket engine – whooo hooo
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I think this was a J2 rocket engine
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Apollo capsule
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A Cray Supercomputer
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Turing machine
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Herschel’s mirror
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On the upper level they had these interactive Science stations
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They get the kids involved by dressing them up as Roaches – brilliant!
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THen it was back to the Natural History museum
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Ancient bird – this thing will eat ya! My hand for scale.
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Tiktaalik – you realise this is not a fish or a tetrapod – its an intermediary species.
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Cool, giant fox art
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The O2 Centre
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Honestly, the show was a bit crappy – a bit lame, and I saw cooler Animatronic Dino’s at The Berkeley Space Centre
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Greenwich
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Greenwich
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The British Maritime Museum
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Taz’s Birthday party
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St Paul’s Cathedral
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Tower of London – the line was too long and I ran out of time to actually go in.
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Trebuchet!
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Fluxo does the London pub thing
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Taz chows down
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The best Steak and Ale pie in all of London
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Alex devouring a pie
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Had a wonderful English breakfast here on my last day in London
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Fluxosaurus meets AC Grayling
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Icthyosaurus giving birth
Posted in Events, Fossils, Fun, Travel
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