Summer Vacation Part 1 - London

After a lot of debate on where to go for my summer vacation, I finally decided that spending five days in London and five in Paris sounded like a pretty solid idea. Its really too hot to travel in the region, and I wanted to see Bryan before he moved out of London, and I had never been to Paris before... so that was what I decided.

London was awesome once I got there. Travel out of Doha was an adventure which shall be documented in a separate entry at some point in the near future.

When I finally got to downtown London, my high school friend Bryan came to meet me at the station and take me to his home! It is in central London, super-convenient location, and such a great apartment. We (Bryan, Manuel, and myself) immediately went off to meet their friends at an outdoor reggae concert by Tower Bridge. We danced and enjoyed the weather and it was so much fun. The sun isn't setting until about 10pm in London these days, so after waking up at 4:00am in Doha, flying all day, and then being in London during the middle of summer, my body had been awake for about 20 hours and the sun had been up the whole time. It was very confused and sleepy, but I pulled it together enough to have a couple drinks with their friends at an outdoor cafe, then we went home and crashed.














My plan for London had been to just hang out, since I had been there and done most of the touristy stuff before. Bryan was working my first full day there, so I decided just to walk around the Knightsbridge area and go to Harrods. I also went to Harvey Nichols, just 'cause I like people-watching in fancy stores. The one thing I said I wanted in London: rain. I hadn't seen any since December! Oh well I got it. That first morning, London got more rain in one hour than it does in an average month, and that's a lot of rain for that city! There was so much that it flooded out some bus lines and tube stations, and yours truly was caught in the deluge. Lesson learned: be careful what you wish for, you just might get it.






Bryan and Manuel's back porch in the rainstorm.











I did make it to Harrods, bought some tea and went to the bookstore. In the main staircase they had a woman singing opera live, and I thought that this was pretty cool, since your average person is much more likely to go to Harrods than to the opera on their London vacation. I walked around Knightsbridge some more and looked at all the pretty window displays, then headed back to Bryan's flat. He wasn't home yet, so I took a walk around Battersea Park, which is right next to his place and overlooks the Thames.



The view from Battersea Park










That night we went out with two of Bryan and Manuel's friends from the arts festival in Zimbabwe - two Welsh lighting designers who were quite entertaining. After drinks we got some food at this place called Wagamama which was pretty delicious, then we went to Waterstone's Bookstore at Piccadilly Circus to look at all the people in line for the Harry Potter release at midnight. Oh lord it was crazy. The line went all the way to the Ritz hotel, almost a kilometer I'd say. And there were news crews and other madness.














The next day was Saturday, and I walked around St. James Park and the surrounding neighborhoods (still in the rain) and took these very touristy pictures:

































I then met up with Bryan and Manuel for some coffee and grocery shopping to stock up for their drinks party that evening. They have very nice and very entertaining friends. The party went pretty late but I think a good time was had by all.

The next day I woke up and went to the National Gallery, and Trafalgar Square, where there was a steel drum band competition going on and it had finally stopped raining! Then I met up with Bryan and Manuel to go to the Tate Modern for the Dali exhibit that included his paintings, movies, and sculptures (in general I try not to say this about artists, but wow, he was a strange guy...). There was also an exhibit on urbanization and cities of the world that Bryan wanted to see that turned out to be really cool. After the museum we went to get dinner and then we just hung out for the rest of the evening. I woke up very early the next morning to catch my train to Paris!

Overall the best thing about London was being with Bryan and Manuel. I did do some touristy things, but for the most part it was a chance for me to see what its like to actually live there. Aside from the astronomical price of everything, I think I would love living there. Its really a great city, with lots to do and lots of people to meet, fun random events... and even though I complained about it by the end of this trip, I really do love the rain.

Stay tuned for Part 2 - Paris. It will have more pretty pictures :-)