Friday, December 14th 2012

            We woke up in a lazy mood.  The rain was coming down in sheets and Mena and I were a bit weary after the prior days travel.  As we lounged around our bleak apartment I told Mena it felt like I was a factory worker in Liverpool and this was our flat.  Very bleak. 

            While Mena was getting ready I walked downstairs and got us ‘white coffee’ and croissants with eggs.

            “How's your food?”  I asked Mena after I’d brought it back to the flat.

            “Everything tastes better in Europe.”  She said, smiling.

            I agree most things taste better here – some of it is probably our imagination but I also feel the ingredients are somewhat fresher in the UK and definitely fresher in Paris.

            We lounged around the apartment and then decided we needed to rally and get a move on.  We decided to head out to the London Tower and then work our way back to Piccadilly Circus, Trafalgar Square, Buckingham Palace and Kensington Palace.

            We took the train to Waterloo and had the intention of walking across the Tower Bridge enroute to the London Tower but when we got out of the 'tube' (as its affectionately known in London) it was still raining.  Hard.  We were walking along the base of the subway station when we saw advertisements for the London Dungeon.  Now this is not something I think either of us would normally be interested in.  It’s the definition of a tourist trap – but the rain was coming down so hard our other sight seeing activities would render us soggy.  I had read somewhere that the London Dungeon was worthwhile but I couldn’t recall the specifics.

            “Do you want to check this out?” I asked Mena.

            “We might as well until it stops raining.”

            The exhibit was slated to last for ninety minutes and it cost is €48. Pretty expensive...

            We were both cautious entering the place, but dear lord am I happy we went in. The whole thing was very well done and I couldn't stop laughing every time Mena got spooked.  She clung to my arm as we went through section after section.

            Of course the workers, able to discern which tourists are scared easily picked Mena out of the crowd and she was the very first one they targeted.  A man walked up to her, his head dropping low and his eyes staring intently, as he yelled in her ear.  Poor girl!

            The rest of the time we were scared a lot and laughed even more. Atypical but glad we did it.  It was a fun hour and a half and by the time we’d finished the rain had dissipated a bit.  We walked across the bridge and started toward Trafalgar Square…Piccadilly Circus…

            (Not much to say about either place.  I find that I don't have as much to write about on this blog as opposed to my blogs detailing my other journeys.  Western Europe is just very similar to new York. There are not many moments where I'm blown away and compelled to capture it in a blog.)

            After Piccadilly Circus and Trafalgar Square we walked to Buckingham palace. Although I’d been to London before I never saw the Buckingham palace and didn’t know what to expect.  It is a huge, library-esque building that doesn't really look like a house for the royal family.  We took a few pictures and that was that.             

Afterwards we walked back to the tube and made our way back to or flat.  We read, relaxed and then went out to dinner.  Originally walked to same pub we went to the night before but it was too crowded and noisy on a Friday night. Instead elected to go to an Indian restaurant.  (Since India was a colony of Britain there is a huge Indian population in London, and, consequently a lot of great Indian food).

            Oval Tandoori was the name of the restaurant.  The proprietor and wait staff were overwhelmed because there was a large party in the other room, and it took us forever to get served but the food was incredible.

            On the walk home I saw a guy leaning against a store front near our apartment.  He was clearly inebriated and was struggling to take off his shoe (for reasons which weren't readily apparent). As we got closer I saw he had a broken nose and had clearly gotten the $%*# kicked out of him that night.  It made me remember something I'd read on the travel guide for London.  Whenever I travel somewhere new I download the free, crowd-sourced Wikitravel information for each city and country we visit.  As Mena can now attest I am completely neurotic at making sure I know my surroundings and that I never put us (and more importantly, her) in danger. On each Wikitravel sheet it lists a 'stay safe' section where it details the crime threats, rip-off schemes and other idiosyncrasies of the place you're visiting.  For most places it lists petty theft and pick pocketing as the main threats. In certain places, like Vietnam, the threats are more severe in certain places – but that's neither here nor there.

            On the London 'stay safe' Wikitravel section it says that one of the 'biggest threats' are drunken English men fancying to get into fights after a night at the pubs.  Everywhere I travel I hear certain snippets of conversation over and over...Russian women are the most beautiful...Americans are rich and dumb...English men are bad drunks.

            As I watched the now one-shoe'd man wobble home to his flat I couldn't help but assume he was the bad drunk or he'd been beaten up by a bad drunk. Mena and I moved out of his way as he stumbled past, spitting blood on the floor. We made our way up to our luxurious (sarcasm) flat, packed and fell asleep. We had a 5:00 AM alarm the next morning to head back to Paris...