First off id like to apologize for the scarcity of my last few postings. Currently I've been camped out in Oxford, England, i'll explain why later but for the past few days ive been trying to come to terms with where i am and get a grip on my situation. So without further adieu let me begin to recount from London where i left off.
After getting off at the Airport i found my way to a very expensive train ride into the center of London. Arriving ive realized in each new place has always put me in a new country or even a new area puts me off balance. Like im having to learn every thing new for the first time. But strangely enough it has landed me in brief but interesting excursions for the first couple of hours i walked in a big circle of where i had come out of the train station hoping to come to grasp with where i am and where are the interesting places to see are. what I came across was some place called the London Museum. Which i decided to enter simply because it would cost a pretty penny to get inside so i bypassed this and took a look around.
Here is where i sat down for a while to catch my breath from carrying such a heavy bag. I soon realized the small and steady stream of local people that are always walking about and find this place that im wondering through to be their home so i had to capture the picture. The two people sitting down seemed like two complete strangers at first. the guy had come first with his book and some kind of jug of juice and started reading away, alittle later the girl sitting across from him came to fill up those jugs, in the cart next to the red door, with water from a hose. Then they began to talk like old friends. I almost laughed at how the visual oddity came to be.
This next set of cycles was taken after looking at the London museum it was sort of an outside expose of difernt artist views of the london bicyclist. Which let me tell you!!! There is a bunch of bikers in this town. I wanted so bad to go into the closest store and buy the nicest bike i could find to join them.
Random, Interesting art just outside the London Museum.
After the first few days of wondering around London i realized that my favorite thing was the TUBE (London's subway system) not only is it extensive throughout all of london. But how clean it is kept, the amount of people that file through. Its such a brilliantly simple system to comprehend that tourists have to try their hardest to get lost.
To begin you start by finding anyone of the many underground symbols for the tube. Enter underground and find your way past the Ticketing system.
Which allows only one person past per ticket. The Tickets are based on a couple of things. One you can buy just a plain one way ticket (expensive!!) which is judged by a zone system on the cost. Basically the less zones you pass through cheaper your ticket will end up being. Because most of the tourist attractions and shopping centers were in zone 1 and 2. I ended up spending a day getting "lost" in London.
Roughly 20 lines to choose from. To top it off each train runs in 5 min intervals or less. When you get off one train there is the easiest directions to the wayout or your next train, which is all color coded. Here are some pictures from one of my many journeys
You can say i was obsessed. Only negative was no Bikes.
Ok well ill add more stories in another post bust for now here are some of the routine photos that i took.
So much smaller than i expected
These guys were my favorite
this guy is in both photos haha...
Buckingham Palace
Hampshire Courts
I should tell people why i decided to come to Hampshire courts and what was so upsetting about the whole place at the same time. I came for the Maze which ended up being so small that i was quite upset and i paid the full admission to get into the whole palace only realy interested in the maze and it ended up that i could have acceced the maze without paying the full price of the whole Court. Which i didnt find to special, besides the fact they kept up the palace quite nicely i felt that there was way to many tourist for my liking. Get this Once i came up on the maze the asked me to pay to get into the maze.... Beyond words. I left. Kinda angry.
I guess i should add the 3 French girls. Which i happened to meet at t he hostel i was staying at in an area called Camden. Kinda like the hipster, long beach shops meet Venice beach sorta outdoor fiasco. Back to the girls which were the nicest , funniest, merry company i had so far. They were in london just to go shopping for two days and were spending their free time sight seeing while they were in town. They were originally from Lyon.
The reason they look so tired was because they had decided to sleep in when one of them had an earlier bus ride back to France that morning. So from the train station we ran for 8 blocks dodging pedestrians and cars.. all while asking for directions to this Victoria coach station. Being the gentleman that i am i offered to carry the huge shopping spree filled suitcase this girl wanted to take back with her. So if you can imagine the sight of 3 french girls being chased by a black american carrying this huge suit case through the streets of London, you too would have given a second look as to what in the world you had just witnessed.
We spent the rest of the day just the 3 of us walking around looking at the changing of the guards, big ben, and Westminster abbey. Just having a great time.
Some cool pictures inside this cafe call Pret a Manger, there is also one of these shops on probably every block in London Kinda like our McDonalds.
After our day was done we headed back to the same bus station with similar issues, they thought we had arrived 30 minuets early, when in actuality the bus was already headed out the station. I started laughing so hard as i ran to stop the bus with the two french girls trailing behind me. What an exit!!
The next few days were typical, just killing time. When i was headed through a park i was hit by a colossal rain storm and took shelter in the conveniently located shop.
I was now in Oxford, England because of a promise with a guy i had met i expected to meet him here but i ended up being left behind. So in light of that i was now in a prestigious college town. So i took in the sights.
Every thing here is like a castle so humongous. I had no intention of using the hostels in the area for 5 days s owith a little searching i found a nice quite area i could lay down my tent without being noticed.
Ruth and Tobi enjoying some breakfast while taking in the sites of Oxford. On my search for a breath taking view they said i had found it. I had seen the area in a post card and thought it would be a nice place to enjoy the morning. It turned out that i wasn't the only one.
