Stella Artois. The fosters of Europe
Trip Start
Mar 06, 2009
1
3
11
Trip End
May 07, 2010
London,
England,
United Kingdom
Tuesday, March 17, 2009
I've just completed my first week in London. We were trying to lay low and not spend much money, so I haven't seen many of the sights.
We did go to the Portabello road Market which was pretty nice. It is not far from Notting Hill and that side of town seems pretty cool. We also passed George Orwell's house on the way. The market started off as a rich mans trash and treasure, lots of antiques, but as we progressed down the road the options available also progressed; Stalls were selling paella, deep fried seafood bites, kebabs and free trade coffee. The shops were becoming more colourful and the place started to have a village feel.
As we walked even further down the road we started to enter North Kensington, which seemed to be like little Morocco, there was an eclectic mix of Seafood shops, cool pubs with all day veggie breakfasts, and middle eastern grocery stores
-
. It was a really really fantastic place and I think after our trip to south America we could come back and live here, despite it's proximity to Shepherd's Bush (little Australia) which I promised myself we would avoid at all costs. The rest of the week was spent getting stuff set ready for our return trip; looking at suburbs we would like to live in, getting our UK bank accounts sorted, as well as our Yellow Fever vaccinations.
Our house is an... interesting mix. Usually when you go into a share house you organise it with the other house mates, with this house the landlord rents out each room. We live with an older Hungarian couple (the woman is a clean freak and every time I see her she is whinging about the other flatmates and is scrubbing the floors or vacuuming the carpet), a smelly, unclean, overweight Swedish girl (who will avoid me at all costs, if I am coming out of my room at the same time as her, she goes back into her room until I'm gone. I have no idea why, perhaps she thinks I smell - She talks to Milli though) and a Pakistani guy and an Indian guy who share the room below us. We also don't have a lounge room, but this place is only 105 pounds a week so we can't really complain, and besides we're leaving in two weeks.
Today we decided to venture up to Camden Town as it's a place we thought about living (also my banker said I look like I belong there.
1_
. what ever that means). Our main objective was to go and check out Camden Market . The walk to the actual market from the train station was a nightmare (I hate crowds at the best of times) it was full of emo and goth clothing stores, tattoo and piercing parlors and really pushy and arrogant people. There were also some other markets set up nearby, one with the misleading title of 'Camden Market' which is obviously there to cash on the other Camden Markets notoriety - it was full of trashy t shirts and over prices gumboots. The real Camden Market however was excellent, cool cheap vintage clothes (5 pound velvet jackets, 15 pound leather jackets) some alternative stores, and fantastic food stalls. I definately think I could live in Camden but it's got be a hell of a distance away from that street near the train station.One thing that I am LOVING is that good french and Italian wine is only a couple of pounds here, and Stella comes in 500ml cans for a pound! crazy talk!
Milli says:
Back to cheery old London! I was happy to come back and coming from Scotland/going to Gatwick (rather than Heathrow) there were no hassles and it was quite quick to get out with our belongings
2_
. We were to meet our landlord at a café near Mile End station so we navigated our way there and ducked into a bar as we were early. Nice, easygoing and quiet (though it was a Monday afternoon...) I had some trouble getting money out of some ATMs but finally found one that would SHOW ME THE MONEY!!!!!!!!! Sorry, had to be done.
So we had enough to pay our rent and we got to our room and were just ecstatic at the fact we had our own space and lots of time to regroup, recharge, relax, whatever. It had been a long, busy, ultimately bordering on smelly time travelling with bits of time here and there. Never long enough to settle, reflect much and certainly not to wash laundry and have it dry. We were close to our last pair of socks and were going to have to have a showdown to find a winner but luckily it wasn't necessary.
The lady was nice enough though she ushered us into our room and didn't introduce us to anyone who was around. We found out we had 5 other house mates...but the juicy stuff we had to find out for ourselves.
Before that though we went to the nearest big supermarket to get some food and also bedding. Kind of irritated about that but the place was like a Big W so we got a doona, sheets and pillows for cheapish. The place was huge and we got excited and bought a lot of food and went home.
In the few days after that we washed clothes, read, slept, ate, drank and watched things we were able to download at home. It was great.
We found out all the goss Shane has indicated (through me, the social butterfly who excitedly came back to our room advising Shane of the latest information I had gathered about our roomies and what it meant for us....while he murmured a 'response' and kept looking at the computer screen)
3_
. Its basically a waiting game we all play to stay out of each others way in the bathroom or kitchen (as the loungeroom is a bedroom for the boys...dodge landlord!) The Hungarian lady (I missed her name and am scared she'll put Ajax in my tea if I ask now!) cleans frantically both for a job and at home but she does like me. She just appreciates cleanliness which Shane and I can relate to! I'm friends with everyone except the Indian guy who is a little short with me and is always wandering around the house on the phone so no time to delve into his work history or his favourite colour. No matter. Anyway that's the status of the house.
After we had gathered a bit of moss on ourselves in our room, we showered and started to roll. (Wow, tough crowd...).
We went into the city with our brand spanking new Oyster cards, cheaper public transport OH YEAH!!
We went to the company that we chose to help us set things up in London, were given lots of information and paperwork and then went to open our bank accounts.
The bank we had to go to was surrounded by Lebanese restaurants and that made up most of the banks clientele. We were told the only English speakers they generally got were people like us referred from the start up company
4_
. The first guy we got was a fantastic British wop, who had hit his finger inviting us to his desk and went on and on and on and on and on about it in sulky voice I thought only I had mastered, saying he was playing in a band for the bank (!?) in two days and he hoped he could still play his guitar. He then proceeded to play an air guitar a few times to check if he could hit the notes and still rock out. He was really dopey (oh wait, that's obvious isn't it) and kept saying he couldn't steal all the business and would get someone else to help Shane. In the end we realised he was itching to go to lunch and the guy we got to help Shane was HEAPS better. I hope my money doesn't go to some offshore account in the Cayman Islands or buys stock or something, he really cut corners it seemed.
Shanes guy was great and we found out he had studied in Melbourne (Pakistani student visa everyone! Ok so only my dorky immigration friends...) and loved the place! He especially liked Red Rooster....a little too much....but anyway. He was actually in the band with the other guy (it was for charity) and we were invited but didn't end up going. Hair to wash, you know.
So we celebrated opening our accounts buy spending lots of money on a Lebanese lunch. I do have to say it was fantastic and the flavours were mouthwatering but we shouldn't have spent so much
5_
. A recurring phrase we here quite a bit while in London unfortunately.In between relaxing and laying low so we don't spend much cash, we went out and explored...and spent a lot of cash. Its very frustrating and hard to find a happy middleground. The area we live in kind of reminds me of Flemington in that its got some good cheap foods from all over the world (excited to get to the Afghan/Persian one soon!) while also being quite a dirty plain area. It is close to the new(ish) Docklands area where the financial district has grown up, and there are a few canals snaking around which are cool but we did find other areas of London are cooler. But its cheap for now!
One day we went to Portabello road, and checked out the market there. It was fantastic but SO busy. Amazing food stalls, like Vic market but with more antiques and stretched out down a skinny road!
Cool bars, cafes, bookshops and clothes there, Shane got a crystal decanter for his Whiskey for 5 pounds!!!!! Unfortunately not on the 'essential' list of things backpackers need to take with them to Central and South America, so we will probably have to leave a few things in London. If anyone knows of someone please let us know....
Another day we went to Camden market and wandered around there, again it was tres cool (except as Shane said for the insane trashy bit) with gorgeous old buildings, lots of canals, and an old horse holding building (do they have a special name or something?) that was done up and now has funky clothing stalls in it
6_
. I had been to this area before with some friends a few years ago but it was bigger and busier. We did go to what we thought (or I thought...Shane is more often on the ball...while I am lazing around with a hula hoop) was an Irish bar as it was St. Patrick's day - 250th I believe!!!! - but it was an English one. Perhaps that was why with every Guiness purchased you got a full breakfast! Despite it being 3pm and me just having eaten a fantastic Haloumi salad wrap, I ate all the veggie stuff and remained FAR SOUTH from the black pudding. It creeps up here like there's no tomorrow. On the train back home Shane realised he lost his iPod and mobile and that they were under the open paper we had left at the pub. We rushed back and were unbelievably relieved to find a lady had found them and given them to the staff. Good people are great!!!!!!!!!
London is a fantastic city, just so much to see and do, lovely old buildings, GREAT train system (I've been watching developments in Melbourne Connex, don't you forget it) and just a stupendous variety of things. Always some things they lack compared to Melbourne of course - no Hokkien noodles in the supermarkets and minimarts we have tried to find them at, crisps chips generally come in small bags of 6 instead of one serve of normal or larger sized bags, need I go on? Perhaps yes but I wont.
