about the roommates

Up til this point -this being London-I've been staying in hostels that are part of the Youth Hostel Association (YHA) but as I said, they are really pricey here in Londinium so I opted for digs I found via an internet search. It's actually more what I thought all of the hostels were going to be like so I've gotten spoiled by the ones I've been in so far. This one has pretty much all youth while at the YHAs there seems to be a good mix. I've also always been in same sex dorms. Things are different here in the big city. I was the first one in and it appeared I had a 6 bed room to myself. That has happened on occassion. It was not to be. I got back to the room after touristy stuff and the was someone in the shower. I thought about announcing my presence just it case the room had become a mixed gender habitat. I didn't and it was. No worries everyone was decent and the new roommate turned out to be half of a couple from Australia and they were really decent people in all senses of the word. Really neat folks-Trent and Dominica. He's a social worker, she's a dentist and they were on a one year work visa in the UK but can only do temp work and such but it's enough to provide and allow some extra to go off on week long trips now and again. They had actually been sharing a rental house with some other folks but the owner up and sold the place and they couldn't get into their new place for a few days so they crashed at the hostel. The next night we were joined by a couple more Aussies so we then we had a full house. Things were more of less mellow in our dorm room but the rest of the place leaned more towards a frat house atmosphere. I still have a few more days here but I'll be very glad to get back to YHA facilities as soon as I can!

That's the sleeping arrangements. When I'm not in the room (which is as much as possible!), I'm wandering the streets of London sort of. I wander with a semi-sense of direction but I can't seem to get oriented or maybe I've just forgotten how to read a map completely. The subways are pretty easy to figure out cuz they pretty much just go straight. I think I've covered Wednesday-that was my first day here. Thursday was the day to start my visa search. I still need two for later in my trip. I located the embassies I needed on my map. I went to the Vietnam embassy first cuz they were just across the park from the hostel. It was gonna take about a week to get the visa but I paid the extra $ (it ouched a lot to do that) to get same day service on that one because I knew the other was gonna take at least that long, too and I can't stay in London that long. So I had the first visa done before noon and then it was a scramble to get to the Cambodian embassy before they closed. The embassies are only open for a few hours in the morning to take visa applications. I made just in time to get in, fill out the application and pay my fee. They wanted a week to process, too and I was prepared to wait that long this time. I left my passport there and spent the rest of the day exploring the area around the hostel. I could eat out in an Indian or Chinese restaurant every day for lunch and dinner and never eat at the same place twice! Not a fish and chips place to be seen. There's a Greek place, too. Sadly, I haven't tried any of them yet. Eating out is just not in my London budget. I'll try one of them before I leave. Saturday was a blast. I found the Globe Theater which looked like it was going to be tricky because most of the London highlights seem to have their own Tube stop but the Globe isn't really near any stops buy seeing as how it is right on the Thames is made reckoning pretty easy, even for me. I knew I wanted to try to get to at least one play while I was here. I mean that'd be like going to New York and not going to Broadway (OK, I did go to New York and did not go to Broadway but I had been to a Broadway show before). Anyway, I went to the Globe to take the theatre tour. That didn't cover as much as I expected (I had hoped to see backstage) but the tour guide was really good so that made it OK. What made it more than OK was that when I stopped by the box office I was able to get a 'groundlings' ticket for that day's matinee of The Merry Wives of Windsor! Wow-a Shakespeare comedy as it was meant to be seen for only £5! It was a hoot. I felt like I was in a Tom Stoppard movie! (ie-Shakespear in Love). That's actually why I wanted to see that theater so much.

Between the time I purchased my ticket and went to the play there was a few hours to kill and I walked just up (down?) the river a bit to go to the Tate Modern. Here's the thing, as pricey as London is, all the museums are free. I wandered around and did the best I could. I tried to like what I saw (and there were some pieces I could look out for awhile) but my art appreciation has its limit. It's my failing, I'll own that. I mean this little trip is kind of about expanding those aspects of me. I had never seen a real Jackson Pollack before and there I was, standing just a few feet away. It was one of those that I liked looking at for a while even if it was only because it was a name I recognized. Of course it was a very long work so you had to look at for a while just to see all of it, too. Ok ok, I'm showing my ignorance here. The play was the thing and that concluded that days activities.

The next day was a whole day of free stuff (that still wound up somehow using up the daily budget!). First there was the British Museum-a massive collection of anything any Brit has ever had anything to do with since the beginning of time. I used one of the audio guides with an accompanying map to lead me to the highlights. Bear in mind, they indicated on the map these highlights. Of the first 18 highlights I chose to look at (highlights selected from over 6 million objects), 4 had been removed for various reasons and 2 were in rooms not opened for some other reason! Not a good batting average but what are you gonna do in the off season? It portends a lot of my trip, I suppose. Well, the Rosetta Stone was still there. The even have a replica of it in another room that you can pose with. I did. Egyptian, Roman, Greek, and Iron age artifacts-most of it from all over the world, some of it from Brittania-If a Brit had anything to do with the discovery if was in there. I was there for a little over three hours. I might even go back. From there it's just a stone's throw to the Cartoon Museum. They call 'em cartoons, we (Americans) call 'em comics or the funnies. The museum covered the whole history of cartooning starting way back with political satire and editoral cartoons in the early days of the press right up to today. The only ones that were familiar to me was Andy Kapp and Fred Basset. The next museum was the John Sloane museum. Sloane was an architect and possible (and obsessive compulsive collector). I went here because two gals from Liverpool I met in one of the hostels talked about this place but they made it sound like the Mutter Museum in Philadelphia. Mutter has a collection of specimens used in medical research way back in the day (yes, I'm being vague because I'm not sure what day). The Sloan house has mostly architectural related objects but it's the sheer quantity that is amazing. There's one room of just paintings but ever there the quantity is actually surprising because the paintings are actually hanging on walls that are hinged and will swing open to display more paintings hanging on the other side and behind the swinging part. Every available horizontal space is used to display something; every window opens out onto a courtyard filled with columns or vases or monuments. The place is so packed, you are not allowed to carry any purses, packs or bags with you because you will knock something over and it will be a chain reaction. This apparently was a lesson learned by the museum some time back!

I was pretty much museumed after that. I'm not sure where my funds went since everything was free but a little bit of breakfast here, a snack there, a quick lunch-it's adds up. And I've started making my wardrobe alterations in preparation for the winter on the continent. I wanted to wait until I got there but it was either some new clothes or do laundry!

And now it's today-Sunday. I'm able to spend so much time today because I'm actually at an internet cafe in the middle of a shopping mall just a few blocks from the hostel. It's one of the least expensive one of these I've come across although it has a minimum of a two hour session so I thought I'd go for. It's a rainy day out and I was out in it for a good part of the day. My original plan was to follow the Rick Steve's tour guide suggestion and take one of the sightseeing buses that ends its route at Buckingham Palace right before the changing of the guard. I decided to nix the bus tour because I think I'm going to get to all the places I want to see by the tube and the the tour would have shot my budget for the whole day! So what I did instead-I went to Mass. Now, that would make Mom happy except for the fact that I went to Mass (actually just Matins) because you can get in Westminster Abbey for free for worship services. Otherwise it costs £12. Of course, you can't stroll around, take pictures and there are no docents to answer questions but you still get to see inside, there's a free music performance and a chance at salvation. Two out of three ain't bad and it only cost 23p (that's all the change I had in my pocket when the collection plate was passed) plus it was a place to get in out of the rain for 35 minutes. And I was out of services in time to walk up to Buckingham Palace to catch the changing of the guard--had the ceremony actually taken place today. It didn't. I'be been to England twice in about 32 years. Neither time did I get to see that particular ceremony. I might give that another shot, too. However, my visit to the palace wasn't a total bust as I went down the street to visit the Royal Mews. This is the place in charge of tranporations for the royals whenever they travel in an official capacity. Lots of occassions require horse and carriage so I saw a couple of Clevelands and a couple of Greys and lots of ornate carriages including a multi-tonned gold plated coronation carriage! Oh, one of the three Rolls are there, too.

It was still early by the time I was out of the Mews but I didn't fancy doing too much more out in the rain so that's how I ended up in this mall. There's a movie theatre here. I took in a show and now I'm here and this is as caught up as I've been! Wooo Hooo. Sorry to drag you through so much in one sitting.

Looking ahead a bit, I have four more days in London and then I'm on the continent beginning Friday evening. I'm getting as eager about that part as I was about the beginning of the trip!

Hasta la bye-bye for now.