London the First Time

I really like London a lot. I liked it so much that I am going back a
second time. i actually have to come back because that´s where my
flight leaves from, but I am coming back early to spend more time in
the city.

The reason I came to London now instead of waiting was to see Seonghee
(my ex turned friend) before he went back to Korea at the end of his
school year. Flights in Europe are cheap so I flew from Prague to
London and then from there to Basel where I am with Brad right now.





My First day in london I got in late walked through Hyde Park to
Buckingham palace where I saw the guards changing shift (not the big
ceremonial changing of the guards though). I walked from there to
Victoria station where I went to Pulborough in the afternoon (see
other post). When I got back, I went to Leicester square and bought
discount tickets to see the west end production of The Producers. I
had high expectations for the musical, but warmed up to it after a few
scenes and loved it by the end of the first act.

The next day I slept in and then met up with Seonghee in the
afternoon. He was looking happy and healthy and it was nice to see him
in his new hometown. We had lunch at a cafe and then shopped for a bit
(didn´t buy anything) before he dropped me off to get at a barber to
get my haircut.

After the barber I walked around and explored London a bit and then
went to bed early.

The next morning I was out of the door at 9 am. I first headed to the
Tower of London where I saw the crown jewels. There are videos playing
on the way in, one showing Queen Elizabeth#s coronation in a shortened
version put to music. I was feeling patriotic and energetic by the
time I saw the jewels including the royal scepter that has the world#s
biggest diamond. It was lifted from the Taj Mahal, and I remember the
tour guide I had when I was there in October was a little cranky about
losing so much to the British.








i explored the armories of the tower saw a working porticaulis (I love
those) and a reproduction of a rack and other torture devices. Then it
was off to the tower bridge, globe theatre and Waterloo station where
I headed on my epic journey to Stonehenge.

Why epic you say? Well, it seems that the British are constantly
upgrading their rail and underground lines on weekends disrupting
serviced. instead o taking 1.5 hours to get to Salisbury... it took
2.5 hours. I left at 3 pm and was in bed just before 3 am. It was
quite a public transport nightmare.

Stonehenge itself was wonderful. I applied six weeks ago for an
appointment to go INTO the citric and run int he grass around the
stones. I took about 100 hundred pictures and have posted a lot of
them here.













After catching a lift to Amsbury nearby Stonehenge, I was stuck
waiting for a Bus. I went to a Chinese take away who#s proprietor was
really interested in where I was from. I said Canada, to which he
replied "I´m Canadian, too." He moved to Vancouver from China years
ago with his wife and was now living in England. Soon enough his wife
and Son came in. The man yelled "He´s from Nova Scotia" and we started
chatting about everything. The mom was impressed that I am going to
SFU in Vancouver, thinking that it is hard to get into. She hoped her
son would go there when he was older. The son had his nose in a novel,
but the few times he spoke it was strange to heard a British accent
where his parents have Canadian ones.

After a long sleep, I woke up and went to St. Paul's Cathedral for
church. The Liturgy was beautiful and the choir was amazing. I was
happy that I knew the first hymn, but all the rest were new to me.

I met Seonghee in the afternoon and we ate and went shopping for his
niece at Baby Gap and other places. We were stuck trying to decided
which sandals to get her, so I suggested that he call her sister in
Korea, who probably knew exactly what she wanted.

After shopping seonghee and I went to the British museum for a bit, I
started to feel sick so he headed off to get his stuff so he could go
to the airport and I headed back to my hostel for a nap.

After my nap I met up with a friend of a friend named Meaghan who is a
Canadian teaching in London. We decided on eating Indian when we met
in Soho and had a great meal. We got along really well, and I would
write more, but I have to catch a train back to Basel to meet brad (I
came to Germany today where the Internet is 4 times cheaper).

Morgan, I will write all about meeting Meaghan when I respond to the
nice e-mail you sent... :-) )