Showing posts with label London. Show all posts
Showing posts with label London. Show all posts

Sunday, December 13, 2009

Good Ol' Cold London!

7-12-09

1826 (local time)

Woo Hoo! Home time for me ladies and gentlemen! I'm currently sitting on the plane from Athens to Singapore about 5 hours in and to be honest... pretty bored! Firstly ill tell you about my time in London!

Very, Very firstly! I must say thanks to Lozza and her house mates for letting me crashing in their house for 4 nights! You’re all legends!!!

Right, so I spent the first 2 days just doing some more touristy stuff that I have wanted to do on my arrival to London. Which were the 2 museums, ‘The National History Museum’ and ‘The British Museum’ and ‘WOW’ they were amazing. The first day was just entirely spent in the National History Museum I spent a majority of time hanging out with the dinosaurs then I moved on to ‘the human body’ and how babies are born etc. Parents, if you want your son or daughters to learn about the human body, buy them a direct flight to London and force them into the National History Museum. I learnt so much... it was actually amazing...

After this I went to the Animal part of the Museum, and saw the actual size of a blue whale and numerous other huge animals, it was awesome.

From here I went to another part that explained what the earth is made of etc! It was a bit boring, but by this time it was about 5pm, pitch black outside and I was ready to go home. So I got on the underground and eventually made it back to the flat.

Unfortunately nobody was home, so I had to waste 2 hours in the cold until someone came home with the key to open up the house. But eventually they did and I got warm!

The Next Day! I had a few more things to do, I knew I had to visit the British Museum but it is actually so big that it would take you over 2 days to visit apparently! So I jumped on their website where they had a plan on how the visit the most important things in 1 hour! So I stuck to that plan, and it actually took me 2 and a bit hours to visit it all, some of it was pretty average whilst other stuff was awesome like the Samurai Warrior armour! So after visiting the British Museum I knew I wanted to be back at the National History Museum because there was a lecture with a space astronaut happening and I thought it would be pretty cool to go see that.

So I caught the tube towards the History Museum and waited for the lecture to start... Well wasn’t I in for a shock... because this lecture was way above my educational level, no joke there were people in the lecture asking questions to the astronaut regarding to things about quantum physics! I obviously tried tuning in, but eventually was lost!

Not to worry though, once the lecture finished, I knew I also had to visit what I thought was the ANZ branch in London, so I caught a train to the middle of nowhere to visit a building that wasn’t even a branch, just a building so really it was a waste of time!

Not to worry though. I headed back home and took it easy! I was kind of preparing myself for tomorrow (Saturday) as I needed to get all my bags prepared for my flight to Greece!

I wasn’t planning on going out that night, because I had to be up at 5.30am in he morning because I had a taxi picking me up at 6.30am to take me to the airport.

But, there was a house party going on that a couple of the housemates were going to with free booze! So to be honest, I was never going to decline that offer! Because number 1, house party’s are the best sort of party’s and. Number 2, Free Booze! Happy Days!

The theme for the party was 60’s, I had no clothes that resembled this but it didn’t stop me, I was on a mission. I wanted to catch the last bus home that leaves at the bus station outside the house at midnight, but as the night went on, I totally lost track of the time, so instead of catching the bus I just did a all nighter, which to be honest I think it was the smartest idea!

Don't really remember the rest of the night, but it was great!

This brings me to eventually catching my flight to Athens. I knew my bag was around 23 kilos but every other Easy Jet Flight that I took I never got charged with excess baggage, but this time she wanted to charge me 30pounds because I was 3 kilos over weight... this wasn’t on in my book, so I packed my day pack full to the brim of clothes to ensure that I didn’t get stung to high... on my second attempt to weigh in, I was still over 2 kilos overweight but I used a bit of sweet talking with the lady at the desk, and instead of stinging me 20 pounds I got it down to 10 so it wasn’t too bad at the end of the day!

My arrival to Athens was quite good, it brought back some good memories I checked into my old hostel and spoke for hours with the old receptionist at the hostel, they gave me a bit of discount on my fees so I was a happy chappy!

I woke in the morning and my plan was to get a souvlaki at the first place I went to when I arrived to Athens on the 3rd of April, kind of symbolic!

I definitely wasn’t in the mood for a souvlaki but I forced it down, now I stink of garlic!

It was sad to leave Athens, but I am excited to getting back home... my only probably now is, WHAT AM I GOING TO DO FOR 14 HOURS IN SINGAPORE?

I arrive at Singapore around about 5.55am and fly out at 9ishpm! I'm going to have to leave the airport to avoid going crazy! See how that goes again! Last time I remember Singapore it was so bloody hot and sweaty, I don't want to get like that again!

Anyway, until then guys!

THE JAM IS NEARLY HOME!



The foyer of the National History Museum

Cool Dino Bones!

The Big T-Bomb! T-REX

T-Rex Rep!

Actually Scary!

How Babies Are Born!

The Size of the Blue Whale!

Whats meant to be a Brush Tail Possum!

The Good ol 3 Toed Sloth1


Cute Little Animal!

Outside the British Museum!

The stone they used to Decipher the Egyptian Hieroglyphics

The Game of UN!

Actual Samurai Armor!


NEXT ONE SOON!

Saturday, November 7, 2009

The Motherland! Abbey Road, Lords, St. Clement Danes

7/11/09

1458 (local time)

Well I have made it too the mother land! And Crikey its expensive! Like really really expensive! But I think I'm doing alright!

BEFORE I START! I have realised that not all but most people are pretty depressed and upset with their lives, SO! My plan whilst I'm here in the U.K is too smile at as many people as I can, and then see how many smiles I get back! So in this blog, I have had 15 people smile at me in 2 days! AWESOME!

I'm getting looked after really well by Laura Slater (photographer from Vass) and her house mates Tom and George, they are all legend!

I have been here for 3 nights, well really 4 but I slept my first night in Luton airport, which was actually quite a nice sleep.

It was the first time for me, where I got into my sleeping bag whilst in the airport, used my bag as a pillow and fallen asleep properly, and then when I was woken up by the lady over the radio saying “Please don't leave your bags in an open space” etc. I looked at my watch and realised it was 7am, in which I was still pretty comfortable that I went BACK to sleep again... I had a good dream too! HAPPY DAYS!

OK so once I got my arse into gear I made my way to Lozza’s house... she wrote down some amazing directions in which I didn’t follow and made my own way there.

The next day I was going to do a little bit of the touristy stuff, so I headed off to St. John’s Wood which is an underground station in which I got off and now had 2 options. I could go straight to Abbey Road studio where the Beatles were recorded, or I could go left on my way to Lord’s Cricket Ground! So I thought I should start off with Abbey road as I listened to the Beatles on the train trip in. I wandered to the actual Abbey Road, took my standard photos, then I thought, I'm here, at Abbey Road studios I may as well go inside and see how far I can actually get. Well I got to the receptionist and said

“G’day mate, well so this is it ey”

To his reply of “we don't do any tours for the public”

“Oh thats ok mate, I'm just here for a bit of a chat” I said

He replied “well you can have a chat to the security guard”

So I took the hint and went outside to console my losses.

Again, took a few more photos and found my way to Lords Cricket Ground, ‘the home of cricket’ It was closed when I went there but the security guard was a bit of a legend so he let me see the ground under one condition, as long as I wont hop on the ground. I told him not to worry and headed off. It was a pretty surreal experience having no one in the stands.

After walking around the ground I then went to the worlds oldest sports museum, paid my 4pounds ($8AUD) and set off. It was awesome, reading about how cricket first started. I finished walking around the bottom floors then I made my way to the almighty top floor!

I started walking around, and in front of me was a small object in a glass container... on closer inspection it was “THE ASHES” I knew it was small, but seeing it in real life... was unbelievable, it was just a pity that Australia wasn’t holding it. Pretty awesome site, after I saw this I saw the trophy I walked around the corner and saw the trophy that the cricketers hold once they win... this is the one that should be in Australia.

After wandering around the museum for a while I got a phone call from Lionel who is one of the blokes that I sailed with when I was in Dahab. He wanted to catch up for a few beers at 4 so I made it too the pub and ill be honest the rest is history... English beers are big and strong!

The next day 6/11/09 it was a... late start up, feeling quite hung over I made it out of bed, we woke up Lizzy and Lionel and Lizzy who I might add, is an absolute legend cook me an amazing egg and bacon breakfast... it was definitely well needed!

Once I got my life back together, I jumped back on the tube and got off at Chering Cross station turned left then left again at the station, walked 10-15 minutes rocking out to tunes on my I-pod. The aim of the trip was to visit St. Clement Danes Church. The reason why I'm visiting this church is and where families and friends can pay their respects too all the WWII RAF pilots who lost their lives in the war. Fortunately my Grandfather that fought in the war is still alive and kicking, he was able to tell me what squadron he was in.

The squadron number is 180 and on the floor of the church there are tiles dedicated to all the squadrons in the war. Both my grandparents have visited this church 50 so years ago, so it was quite a weird feeling to be standing in the same place as my grandfather and grandmother were. It will be interesting to compare the photos to see if the church has changed over the years.

After spending a good hour and a half in the church there was still some light left, so I put on my head phones again and headed off to the National (Art) Gallery, now most of you know that I know NOTHING about art, but it was good just to wonder around look at the cute girls and the paintings!

I breezed through here, and got hungry so I headed back home and had a quiet one and organised my trip to Liverpool! GET EXCITED!

That’s it from me!

Till next time ill be in Liverpool!



Lozza's House!

Abbey Road Studios!

The Zebra Crossing!

Lords Cricket Ground

The Ash's Urn!

Cheating Poms!

St Clement Danes

Squadron 180

The beautiful church!

St. Clement Danes from the outside!

The National Gallery!

THATS ALL FOLKS!