Mel's Travel blog: London

It's been a long time since i've been to london. I really didnt like it last time so i planned to spend most of this trip away from the city. So i only had a few days in London before and flying back to Sydney via Singapore.

I must admit i was feeling quite road weary after travelling for the last month. So i just wanted to take it easy in London... sleep in and not do too much.

First full day in London, i slept in... then Celeste and I decided to go shopping. First stop Leicester square to have a look at theatre tickets. Will had wanted to see Sweet Charity... but by the time we decided there werent any tickets left... So next choice was Billy Elliott... I havent seen it in Aust and thought it would be good to watch as it is set in the UK - actually Newcastle which is where I had been.

We actually got a bit carried away with shopping (although i didnt buy anything)... and at 6pm Will was calling us trying to figure out where we were... we realised it wasnt 4pm as we had assumed but it was 6!! and we needed to scoot to the theatre... And i hadnt given poor Clive directions so he had to scoot to make it to the show as well... but all good as we snuck some food in...

I notice that there are lots and lots of West end shows on sale. Certainly more arts life than in Sydney...
But... this production of Billy Elliott did definitely disappoint. I have no idea why they decided to try to put on such a bad Jordie accent (the Newcastle accent)... but couldnt understand half the time. The singing was bad but the dancing was quite good. Victoria theatre was quite an old theatre which wouldnt have mattered cos the Capitol theatre in Sydney has a similar rustic feel. But... if I wasnt aware of it being a major London production I might have guessed that what i watched was an amateur community hall production put together in some suburb in whoop whoop Sydney. Definitely not worth the money...

The next day I decided to go shop a bit more and sightsee. I really like Gap clothing and there isnt a store in Syd (well actually one opened up whilst I was away... but there wasnt when i left). First stop was Harrods cos it's kinda iconic. The things in Harrods were pretty expensive so I didnt actually buy anything... just browsed. I loved the food court in the basement of Harrods. Windows of cakes... yummmm.... bought some cupcakes for Celeste and Will.

Went to the biggest Gap store in London that was in Oxford St. before deciding to go on the London Eye.

Then met Celeste and visited Tate Modern for a bit but I dont really understand abstract art. I've a very what-you-see-is-what-you-get girl so anything too deep just goes right over my head...

We then went to the Borough Markets that are near London Bridge which is absolutely LOVED!! Reminds me of the section of Queen Victoria Markets in Melb that has the food - fresh cheeses, pastas, meats, breads etc... yummmm
Celeste and I were quite naughty and bought heaps and heaps of handmade chocolates... yummmm

mmm chocolate...

I do know quite a few people from Aust. living in London... but anti-social me didnt really contact many people as i thought i would be tired and it would be too tough to be running around catching up with people. But I am glad that I did manage to catch Naomi and Tim for dinner cos it's been ages! Went for dinner at Brown's in Mayfair... the baked Camembert entree was soooo good!!

Sat 30th Oct:

ok I am a geek!! Not many tourists go to another country and visit an Anime/Sci-fi convention. But I love anime and Sci-fi so twas awesome!!
I do draw the line at cosplay though... no cosplay for me... but this weekend coincided with Halloween which is also quite big in the UK... so it didnt look too weird to have heaps of people dressed up. And some of the costumes were awesome.

There was an expo so i did have a look at some of the merchandise but didnt want to carry any of it home so didnt buy anything. And the dvd's would be the wrong region anyway.
Didnt stay that long as I was getting a really bad headache. I did stay long enough to hear some interviews with some people who had been on Star Trek - Tony Todd who played Worf's brother Kurn in TNG and also John de Lancie who played Q in a few of the ST series...

yes some cosplay crazies... although they looked pretty real...

Went home for a sleep in the arvo... which was a pity as it was such a beautiful day in London... but i had a really really bad headache.
Went out to dinner with Kelly and Greg in Soho... (we might have been the only straight people in the restaurant though... which was funny... but the food was great!!). Good catching up and hearing about their adventures in Europe. Will definitely miss them over the next 2 yrs...

Sunday 31st Oct was my last full day in London as I fly out to Singapore on Mon 1st Nov. Decided to go get some culture...

Absolutely LOVED the British Library. There is a literary museum inside and was just so awesome looking at all the literary history in the museum.
There were letters written by Shakespeare himself as well as first editions of his plays. There were letters written by Jane Austen as well as original music scores such as Handel's Messiah. There were 2 copies of the Magna Carta (I had already seen one in Salisbury Cathedral)...
There were letters written by Lewis Carroll and a bit of history. I didnt know that Alice in Wonderland was written after Charles Lutwidge Dodgson (pen name Lewis Carroll) had a tea party with 3 sisters, one of whom was named Alice. He entertained the ladies with fanciful stories and eventually penned one for Alice...

So loved the British Library... took a walk around the area past St. Pancras church and then down Gower St. looking at all the houses. The British historical society has put plaques outside some of the notable houses... such as the location of the first anaesthetic delivered in London.

British Museum

Headed to the British Museum... it's HUGE and i think you could spend days even weeks there looking at everything. I only really looked at the 3rd floor that had some exhibits on the history of England and Ireland. It was quite interesting as I have just learnt so much history during my travels.
The ground floor has a heap of Egyptian exhibits and then there are Chinese exhibits... I figured I'd leave that until i travel again as my head can only handle so much history atm...

Decided to go to Camden Markets with Clive as he was looking for shoes... It's a trendy?! but i reckon dodgy part of town. So looking for shoes and I was wanting to get him to try on some ugly shoes but no fun as he wouldnt do it... Found shoes and then walked around a bit more taking stupid photos.