I was in London for 1 week during the middle of August 2001. I have a lot to add to this page, I am aiming to have it complete by the end of this month, along with all of my other Europe pages. So please stay tuned! :)
In the meantime, here is a copy of an email which I sent to my friends from London:
Hi all from London!!!
This email may sound a bit bitter at first, only because I just wrote an email which took an hour and then lost it! (swearing has just been censored from the preceding sentence)
arrrghhhhhhhhh!
ahhh I feel better now... ok, breath, breath.
I have been here in London for 6 days now. Tomorrow I leave Europe, my place of residence for the past 2 and a half months!
Day 1. "I must have walked underneath a ladder somewhere..."
My first day in London was uneventful. Not the luckiest of days to say the least! Firstly it was raining, no - pouring. So i decided to buy some covered shoes (all my thong type shoes were inappropriate for London's 'summer' weather), in the process, I was caught in a downpour and I frantically splish-splashed in my flip-flops looking for something appropriate for the weather! I finally found something appropriate after getting drenched through and splashing myself all over with puddles!
Now being sufficiently clothed for London’s weather, I headed out to The Houses of Parliament, Westminster Abbey, the Tower Bridge and London Tower. only I was unfortunate not to see any of these attractions on the inside, literally watching the doors of all 4 attractions shutting in my face!!! arrrghh!! It was all just bad timing, nothing to do with my appearance or demeanor of course (I hope!)
I then proceeded to Convent Garden to buy myself some tickets to Cats and also to try to see something that was a tourist attraction and open past 5.15pm in London! I headed for the ticket office for Cats, but !!!... "arrgh!!" (blood curdling scream) it was closed! scratching and shaking my head, I continued (in surprisingly good spirits looking back!) and explored Convent Garden, Soho and Picadilly Circus and enjoyed it very much.
Day 2. "Much Better"
1. I started the day with a tour at the Houses of Parliament. It was very interesting and I had a great tour guide take me through the very glam British Parliament, which in fact was once the residence of the Royals. Very impressive and beautiful architecture.
2. Westminster Abbey. I ended up spending nearly 3 hours here and thoroughly enjoyed it. I didnt realise before going, but Westminster is the place where most of the Royal Family are buried, and you can visit their tombs here (interesting if you didnt know that already!)... it is also a place where many of Britains most famous writers are buried or have memorials, including Keats, TS Elliot, Shakespeare, Dickens, the Bronte sisters, and more. Also saw coronation chair, where all Royalty have been crowned Kings/Queens with the exception of 2 kings.
3. I took a walk down Whitehall and the Horse Guards Parade, on to Trafalgar Square. T. Square rocked! With pigeons and cute kids prancing in the fountains in their underwear, that is!! No really, I found it to be a great place for relaxing and pigeon/people watching.
4. after lunch in Chinatown, I went to the National Gallery, which was really enjoyable. I saw works of Van Gogh (including the famous sunflowers), Picasso, Matisse, Botecelli, Da Vinci, Luppi. Great!
5. Continued walking to Leicester Square, hung out for a few hours listening to street performers. Danced to a great street performer in front of a crowd of about 100 people with a few other people.
Day 3. "Markets and Markets galore!"
Having had a successful day of sightseeing on day 2, I took to the streets again, braving the Aussie exchange rate in anticipation of some bargains to be found on Portobello Road, Notting Hill as well as the markets in Convent Garden.
That night, I also caught my first show, Starlight Express at the Apollo Victoria Theatre, which I thoroughly enjoyed.
Day 4. ".... and give me more markets!!"
On this day, I took to the streets of Simon's old stomping ground, Camden, in order to see Camden Markets. (Hi Si!) I really enjoyed these markets, there was so much to see there, not just for shopping either. It was great for people watching! eye opening too!
After the markets, I went to Saatchi Gallery, owned by Charles Saatchi, ex chairman of the advertising agency Saatchi & Saatchi. I saw many interesting pieces of cutting edge modern art here, including a silhouette of a woman made out of potato chips, a lounge made of sponges, a giant pool of oil, and many rather interesting and sometimes amusing explicit works of art.
Day 5. "Yes I am a tourist, so sod off!"
Saw many tourist attractions yesterday, including the British Museum. I also did the "London Tower Experience" tour, which was a rather MUNDANE experience if you ask me! Following the mundane experience, I visited London Tower, which is London's second world heritage listed site (W. Abbey being the other). Here, I saw the Royal Crown Jewels, including the largest diamond in the world - 530 carats! before being cut, the diamond was over 3000 carats in size!
Last night, I saw Cats, which I have to say is probably the best theatre show I have ever seen! I enjoyed it so much. The dancing and acrobatics in the show was so good it belonged in a circus, and the singing was excellent. Not to mention the costumes and music. I loved it.
Day 6. "blue skies!"
Woke up to a beautiful day here in London blue skies and sunny! Today I took a trip out to St Albans (a little town north of London) and caught up with Fiona. We visited the largest beautiful rose gardens in the world here!
Trooped back to London to visit the Tate gallery, in anticipation of some modern art, but accidentally visited Tate Gallery, instead of Tate Modern Gallery! Oh well, it was interesting anyway. Tonight I intend to visit the Institute of Contemporary Arts, which is open till 1am, housing art of photography, theatre, dance, film, music, and more.
Next stop, Hong Kong for 5 days!
have to go, my net time has run out.
Hope you are all well. Miss u all!
Love Tash
xxx
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