London - There and back again

London, a place filled with marvelous architecture and wondrous arts. I was thrilled when I arrived in a bus. Everywhere I looked, I saw streets lined with colonial white buildings and beautiful churches. There was so much history in the air. It was really overwhelming. I didn't think I'd enjoy london so much really. I'm really glad I went.

It's great to go to a place where the first language is actually English. I could finally understand the signboards, menus and of course the people, with their nice british accent. I didn't feel that lost. The unfamiliar wasn't that unfamiliar... if you know what I mean. I had such a good time going on the big bus tours... going round and round the city... watching the world go by. We were quite suay the first day though... it snowed quite heavily and it was like the first time in eleven years to have so much snowfall. We had the teeth chattering experience of going to the second deck of the bus and taking photos whilst it was snowing. Now that I think about it... I think we were pretty much insane.

We had a glance at all the touristy attractions the first day... big ben, westminister abbey, london eye, st paul's cathedral, tower of london, tower bridge, london bridge and the list goes on... We saw notting hill too! We walked quite a bit just to see the travel bookshop where hugh grant and julia roberts met in the movie. Notting hill's really quite quaint. We headed down to manchester at the end of the day and visited the Man United place of course. I'm not a Man U fan... well, I'm not a fan of any soccer club but I still enjoyed myself. It was nice being at a place where lots of people dream to go to. It was fun running out into the field (kind of), pretending to be one of the soccer players. I dropped by liverpool as well... and I actually recognized the places that I visited before. Fleeting memories. Anyway I realized that manchester and liverpool are pretty racist places -_- They're not really tolerant towards asians... and it's very frustrating really. It sucks to be part of the minority... to be undermined at looked down upon. To think that racism is an ongoing phenomenon is scary... to be a target of it makes me shudder -_-

When we returned to london, yuxian and I stayed at this place called Picadilly's backpackers hostel. It wasn't too bad... but the most eeeeeeeky thing was, there was no hot water when you wanted to shower. I almost died when I showered there. It was so bad for me cause I usually shower in damn hot water (if anyone really knew me, he/she would know). Anyway the best thing about Picadilly's was its really central location and close proximity to chinatown! I had SOOOO much chinese food when I was in london. All the duck meat, char siew and fatty pork. Wahhhh. I was in heaven. The duck meat at bayswater was damn nice lah. Thinking about it makes me salivate. I don't think I'll be able to get duck anytime sooon.... booooo. Oh and the most unfortunate thing happened... our hostel actually had a fire on the last night of our stay there lol. When the fire alarm sounded, we thought it was just a drill... we actually wanted to stay in our room. When were got out.. people were taking forever to get out. It was quite funny... well in a morbid way. The fire (presumably a small one) got put out very fast though... so nothing catastrophic happened =D

Ohhh... I watched TWO musicals in london! Les Miserables and Wicked... both were soooooo gooooood. If only musicals were as common in Singapore... I'll just watch every week lah. They weren't very ex to watch in london cause we had student prices... and the seats were actually very good. I really loooooveeeeeee watching musicals. If I have the money, I'll watch all of them! Another thing that I learnt about myself... I actually enjoy going to the musuem... well the British musuem anyway. I was very intrigued by all the egyptian artifacts; the mummys and intricately carved walls and sculptures. Egyptian history is so rich and mysterious.

For the whole trip, I was trying to improve my photography as well. Taking photos from different angles... fiddling with the functions of my camera. I still have a long way to go hehe. At least I've developed a new interest! Whee!

What else did I do in london hmm... took a cruise, visited emirates stadium, tate modern, shakespeare's globe, southwark gothic cathedral...went to hyde park and shopped at harrod's! Soo many nice things at harrod's =D I bought four bags there lol. Oh yessss... I went for a strip show at Soho! We got conned at the place... bah. So dodgy. We only saw one dance... and I felt sorry for the woman (she seemed quite old -_-) Can you imagine life being a stripper? I think it's so difficult to even respect yourself then. Saddening. And how can I forget eating krispy creme donuts?! They're heavenly lah. I've never tasted such nice donuts in my lifeeeee. Someone should get the franchise in Singapore. I'll never get sick of themmmm.

Ohhh wellll, enough blabbering lol. To wrap things up (sounds so essayish), I can honestly say that I had a fulfilling trip. Though it was tiring... and we had severe lack of sleep for some nights, I had loooads of fun. I wonder when I'll ever go back to london. Will I? No idea. I'll be looking foward to it anyway =)