I'm in London (still)

After 14hrs in flight via Lima/Amsterdam, I finally arrived in London amidst the frenzy of the Queen's 60th Jubilee celebrations. Prepared with an arsenal of documentation, I was suprised at how easy it was to get into the country. The immigration officer only asked me only a couple of questions and not even a fingerprint check. Customs was completely unstaffed and everyone just walked through. It was somewhat reminiscent of Thailand.

While changing train lines on my way to the hotel I had one of those "I'm so not in Brisbane" moments as I walked past the Tower of London and the Tower Bridge...wow! Seriously, there is a freakin castle in the middle of the city!

London Bridge and the Tower of London - on my way to the hotel :-)

It was completely surreal to walk around the city and see so many famous landmarks. I spent a couple of days checking out the sights such as the Tate art museum, the National Art gallery, Piccadilly Circus, Trafalgar Square, St Pauls Cathedral, London Bridge, London Tower, Hyde Park, Parliament House and Westminster Abbey to name a few. It was almost like walking around a giant Monopoly set. Much to my delight there is a Whole Foods in the middle of Piccadilly Circus...yay!

Houses of Parliament

Australian House - aka 'Gringotts Bank' from Harry Potter :-)

The view atop St Paul's Cathedral. I climbed all the way to the top...more stairs!!

The herb garden in Westminster Abbey...awesome!

Westminster Abbey. Wow! I've never seen anything like this in my entire life
*giggles to self as standing in front*

In the Tower of London, I queued up to see the crown jewels which entailed slowly shuffling through several rooms crammed with people, before finally jumping onto an escalator that allows you a glimpse of the crown jewels in passing.

In also saw some amazing artworks from Van Gough, Raphael, Picasso, Michelangelo, Leonardo da Vinci and the life-sized Whistlejacket by George Stubbs (wow!).

The best thing about summer here is that it is daylight until almost 10pm. This has been a major shock to the system. My entire life I've been eating dinner a few hours after dark, then going to bed a few hours after that, or thereabouts. Unfortunately following this pattern means I'm in bed at 2am then up at daylight a few hours later...not cool. While it's pretty awesome for sight seeing I would not like to be here for the flipside in winter.

It's been quite the culture shock coming from Central/South America. Some of the things that have really stood out to me are;

• The level of sophistication. Everything is tidy, 'classy' and no strange smells on the streets or noisy moto-taxis.
• The only dogs on the street belong to the visually impaired. No dogs or cats randomly wandering the streets.
  
• There are no guns or heavy armored vehicles: In South America every street corner or bank etc seems to have a guard kitted out in bulletproof vest and shotgun, or machine gun. No police/military checkpoints either :-)

• Everyone speaks English, but are less inclined to have a conversation. I would say people are generally not as openly friendly, but to be expected in such a big city.
• There are certain 'expectations' around how one conducts themselves in public. For instance, standing on the 'right' side of the escalator in the underground. Standing on the 'left' side subjects one to disapproving noises and comments.
• Everyone drives on the correct side of the road. This has put me in a temporary frenzy as I don't know where to look anymore when crossing the street.
• I can flush toilet paper again. Yay! In Central/South America the plumbing is inadequate so it needs to be put into a bin beside the toilet. Enough said really.
• The public transport system is very efficient and easy to navigate. Seriously this puts any city in Australia to shame.

• Angry people. I've heard quite a few public shouting matches between friends, family, partners etc. This was quite a shock as I hadn't heard any such language in a long time. In saying this however, I have encountered some amazingly warm and kind people, just seems to be a more noticeable difference here.
• In general people don't seem to be as cheerful. One taxi driver randomly asked me "why I was smiling" as I crossed the street (I didn't even realise I was smiling!). Another guy in a shop asked if "I was always this relaxed" (again I didn't think I was particularly relaxed).
• Chavs or 'bogans' in Aussie slang. Yeah they have them here.

Overall, I would say that London is a really, really cool city. It's been a novelty to walk around and see such history and architecture in a relatively small space. Almost the entire time I've been here I've had this Waifs song playing though my head...I just couldn't help it ;-)

As cool as London is, I was pretty keen to get out of the city and decided to head to Bath on my way to Totnes.