Each country I visit, I end up assigning a broad generalization, such as:
- South Korea is the land of selfie sticks
- Costa Rica has loads of stray dogs
- New Zealand is made of hokey pokey ice cream
- Australia is full of animals in only two categories: murderous or hopping
et cetera…
While this may not be true about the rest of England, London easily earned the title of “Kingdom of passive-aggressive, polite signs.” For example, there’s a sign in my hotel room that says “We’d like to ask you nicely…no smoking (please).” The office was the worst offender, with signs in the bathroom along the lines of “Please flush the toilet, we’ve been getting complaints that people are trashing the joint” and “Wash your hands with warm water, you pleb” to “Don’t use too many hand towels and don’t rip them, we are trying to be less wasteful.”
My favorite was several signs on a wall that looked very clearly like a whiteboard but apparently wasn’t, with at least three signs saying “Do not use as a whiteboard.” Guess it’s just a board that also happens to be white?
Signs aside, I landed midday Friday afternoon after my trans-Atlantic redeye. Though I had been armed with my atomic pink jackets and two blankets, I was really cold on our ice box plane on the way over. Subsequently, London felt warm – really warm – to my midwestern self. As I waited for my car, I removed my extremely pink layers of insulation and basked in the 50 degree weather in my tank top. The locals, meanwhile, were dressed like it was winter: long jackets and scarves prevailed in the airport.
Despite a series of miscommunications with my driver and my phone’s GPS going bonkers in the airport, I found the car and headed to Canary Wharf. The driver cut through the heart of London, past landmarks I had only known through post cards or spy movies. We passed loads of locals in heavy down jackets, lined with fur, and in hats, gloves, and scarves. I even passed an ice skating rink. It’s October and fifty degrees, what kind of sorcery was keeping that pond frozen!? Also: why?! I hadn’t even packed a single hat, and the only scarf I had was from South Korea and was very much not for warmth. I suppose I was just going to have to really (and pinkly) stand out for the next week…
Arriving at the hotel mean I could partake of the sweet post-flight shower and find some food in a sleepy fugue. I quickly learned that my phone GPS was not to be trusted in Canary Wharf, with many of the buildings looking new and same-y, and the tall buildings throwing off the location. Canary Wharf is like a newer, cleaner version of Manhattan’s financial district, filled with people who seemed slightly more polite and a lot of fat pigeons.
I figured I’d take the train to nearby Greenwich (pronounced gren-ich for those who are not familiar with weird English places) since I wasn’t up to being functional for much longer. In Greenwich, I got off the train, picked a direction, and started walking towards the most interesting thing, which was a giant ship seemingly oddly placed in the ground near a park and some shops.
The Cutty Sark had a museum attached, which was closed by the time my jet-lagged, lazy ass got over there. Bummer – it looked pretty cool. I chose to learn stuff from its wikipedia entry instead.
Just behind the Cutty Sark was the Old Royal Naval College. I wandered around until the growing darkness stymied my attempts at being a sleepy tourist and I headed back to my room for sleep.
Saturday, I met up with friends from Sophia University living in London. It’s been nine years since we first met in Tokyo, and I was really excited to see them again (and very grateful they were going to take me around their home city!).
We met in Green Park, near Buckingham Palace and many other things. Because I am habitually late and also easily lost, I arrived quite early – at odds with my true nature. The tube is incredibly easy to navigate, possibly because this is the Country of Signs and the signs in the tube are all quite descriptive compared to some of the city transit I’ve used in the states (I’m looking at you, NYC).
It’s fall here! There are still leaves on the trees – and they are turning a quite nice shade of yellow. Green Park was filled with people who were also enjoying the beautiful foliage. It even smelled like fall, which was great because it had just started to smell like death and winter back home.
I met up with my friends (yay!) who easily spotted me since I was 1 – hot pink and 2 – not dressed like it was cold winter out, unlike the locals. We then took a great walk around all of central London’s old landmarks, which are located conveniently near each other. Clicking the photos below should take you into a larger gallery view if you’re interested in a closer look.
We stopped for some good Japanese food in Chinatown
And after that, we went through the theater district. I found the greatest theater of all time and resisted the urge to break in:
We also saw markets near the theater district, including the actors’ church and loads of street stalls.
We had to part ways since my friends had to prepare for their halloween party, but I did get to see the Sherlock house before we parted ways! 😀
After that, I chose to walk around Kensington Palace and Hyde Park before heading back to Canary Wharf to stuff all my American candy and costume in a bag for the party!
I gave my feet a bit of a rest back at the hotel, and then hustled over to West Acton for the Halloween Party. I brought my best Zapp Brannigan face (but not on the train as the skirt is ridiculously and dangerously short). The American candy was happily and well-received, and I even met TWO other Thomson Reuters employees – weird. What are the odds?! It was an excellent party filled with mulled wine and cakes.
I ended up going back to Canary Wharf at 2 AM, which my body took to mean “go back to home time” and decided to not be tired. Joy. At least the next day was Sunday, which meant museums and markets and more fun! This post has become much longer than originally intended, so I suppose I will save the rest of my weekend fun for next time.