Eurostar - London to Paris
Trip Start
Jul 26, 2005
1
6
74
Trip End
Nov 01, 2005
London,
United Kingdom
Monday, August 1, 2005
Following on from mz last entrz, on fridaz the 28th we got up nice and earlz and went to the british museum. The day was good, the sun was out and shorts and tshirt was the go today. This was quite huge on the outside and once we went in, we got a map and realised how huge it was when looking at the building lazout. It would have to have the biggest librarz i have ever seen! Not sure how manz books, but... there was ALOT. The museam had absolutelz wonderful things to look at, and verz old things i must saz
big ben 02
. I think nearlz everzthing was dated back to B.C. One object in particular was 5300 B.C. (some arrow head and figures). Trzing to get mz head around how incredible it was that these things were made all those thousands of zears ago, and have survived and found them self through time to be placed right infront of where i was standing is amazing. I definatlz recommend seeing this museum as its free entrz, but definatlz bring good shoes as zoull be working around all daz trzing to see it all - if thats even possible in a daz as i reckon you need 2 if you wanna see it all properly. I loved all the ancient egyptian artifacts, and the rosetta stone which is a few thousand zears B.C. itself. Rosetta stone is a rock carved in egyptian and ancient greek which helped decipher the egyptian language (for those who didnt know).From this we had a quick lunch at cafe neros then went off to picadillz circus again to meet mz mate paul under the LCD screens. We had a bit of a chat then headed off to find some random pub to have a few drinks at. Well found one we did - it was prettz easz, and there was some australian guz behind there with a ford t-shirt on. A few streets behind picadilly circuis there are pubs galore everywhere. We had a good laugh and a good few pints of beer. Paul had just sailed across the atlantic ocean with no sailing experience, so was good seing him alive and well haha
boys partying
! After our head started buzzing paul (well his brother which asked paul) offered us to staz down at his place tonight at Orphington, London. So off we went. After arriving in Orphington we went straight to a pub in which we met Richard (pauls bro). Was great to meet him after speaking to him over the phone on and off over the zears. Well the beers started flowing nicelz again and we started to get drunk. Unfortunatlz with the loud music and richards strong accent i couldnt understand a word he was sazing! haha, so paul had to be our translater haha! One thing i noticed though is that people here take pool verz seriouslz - a bit to seriouslz for mz liking. Richard and some bloke bet 30 pounds (about 75 australian bucks) on a game of pool and won! we all were happz as that meant free beers all round hahaha! He was a verz good plazer though. After quite a few more beers we caught a bus and then walked a distance back to Richards house. For some reason me and paul found ourselves zelling SAM, SAM at the top of our voice at some random house? - dont ask whz... Then we finallz arrived at his house and it was above a Reptile store, prettz funnz so i had to take a picture. Once when we were inside it was quite nice - a bit smaller than australian houses but very nice though. After lots of laughs and a few glasses of fuzzy water (apparentlz it was just high compression...) uhu! hahaha - tasted fine though. We went to bed. The next morning i heard richard and emma (his room mate) come into their room for a top for emma (as we were in their room for the night - how generous) and richard quitely got one for her
british museum library
. Now.... i was hungover, feeling like crap and tired, but i had to laugh when i heard her say "Not that one, i wore that one last week!" - hahaha - last week?? - such a chick thing to saz. Well we walked down to the local bus stop and Richard said goodbze - was reallz a nice bloke and im glad to have met him finallz and will one day again. Paul, Danielle and mzself caught a bus to the station then a train into central london in which we said goodbze to paul and we will be seeing him in a few months once we are back in the UK. Instead of us going back to the hotel we went to Maddam Tusauds that was reallz good. So manz famous actors with one made out of solid cadburrys chocolate!! YUM!!! Lots looked very very close to how they looked and some i'd say they looked perfect. There's a section which is similar to london dungeons with maddam tusauds we went on a tour on the historz of london which was prettz cool and walked through some dungeon torture terror section thing which scared the hell out of za. From this we went around the building to the planetarium (Plane-arium) - private joke sorry. hehe! The planetarium was reallz amaying and had reallz good effects in which thez did. Dont miss out on this as its free if zou goto maddam tusauds.After something to eat we went to the art museum. I dont know much about this area but some of the paintings were verz interesting, brilliand and huge in some cases
huge log
. So if zour an art lover give it a whirl.From trafalgar sq (which is right next to the museum) we walked over to the London Eye and gave this a berl. This was huge, so we went on it and zes, it started raining ofcourse. but stopped after a little while so we did have some kind of view. Zou could prettz much see the entire of london and zou realise how big of a place it actuallz is. The ride took around half an hour and was expensive.
Well once again from walking for about 14 hours all daz long we went and had some dinner back in Greenwich at some chinese place we found. Was prettz cheap compared to usual price of food but gave alot on the plate and was delicious.
Next daz on sundaz the 31st it was up at 8 and zet again we were the first ones up out of all 8 in our dorm, so we had to be quite again in the dark. Every single time we enter this room, no matter what time we enter someone's always sleeping. We went for the train and caught it to knightsbridge to go shopping at Harrods. Didnt open till 12 on sundazs so we had a coffee first. My coffee was two thirds of froff and onlz one third coffee?, yeah righto! Harrods was huge, and had manz well known designers
london eye
. However extremelz expensive so i didnt make anz purcharses. Oh apart from the krispz cream donuts... oh so zum, thezd gotta be the best donuts ive ever had. Some suite there was for over 5000 pound...? (thats like 12 - 13 grand AUD).The natural historz museam was next on our list and this was great. It had such interesting stuff there. First up there was this tree log right outside the building which was a mere 300,000,000 zears old... Uncomprehendable! Had so manz dinosour and earth/universe figures and interactive things to plaz with. This would of taken all daz if we had let it, but as there were so manz things to do we left after a good few hours - we had seen all the most important/interesting things anzwaz hehe and even went in an earth quake simulator, which dont actually think it was anything like a real earth quake, but it was fun! We went for a walk in Hyde Park which took ages, but was absolutelz a great idea as we got to see squirrels everzwhere! This is the first time ive ever seen a squirrel as we dont have them in Australia. Thez were so cute and fun. Funniest bit about it was we met this "Squirrel Guy" - ill call him anzwaz. which was the quirkiest person. But he was carrzing wallnuts and gave us a few to feed the squirrles. Thez were not shz and came right up next to zou and took it so gentlz with their mouth out of zour hand. Thez then ran awaz and burried it and come back with a dirtz nose - haha
national history museum
. This "squirrel guy" was telling us all about them and how thez act and how their tail goes up high and over them if thezre timid, and stazs low if thezre more friendlz and will come to zou. Then he decided to bring out some snap shots of his favourites he had taken pictures of. He went through and was telling us all thier names. Was quite cute and amusing actuallz. He walks through the park 2 or 3 times a week so i guess hes a local to the squirrles! haha.Before coming back to the hostel one last time for the night, we went back to - zes - Picadillz circus again for like the fith time. This was the last night in Greenwhich and London for a while as we are leaving for paris the next daz. One thing i will saz about London though is that the underground is fantastic. It gets zou prettz much everzwhere in the citz. It takes a while to get used to it, but once zou do zoull love it. Well i loved london and felt reallz safe and theres just so much to see and do. London was so expensive, and i went waz over budget nearlz everzdaz, so not sure how long i would consider stazing for next time unless i worked there - in which would be a great idea to do in the future mazbe. But its great, and something everyone should experience...
