Sooo...actually it's been a week again, since I came back from London on last Friday. I went there for 6 days (with a friend of mine who knows London pretty well, having visited the city for 6 times already), for a short but fine trip. Let me tell you what I saw and did...
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We stayed in a youth hostel, cheap and fair. Nothing fancy, pretty small, but cheap - and for sleeping there only, it was fine. It was near King's Cross, too, which means it's easy to reach (Public Transport in London seems to work pretty well, it's a bit expensive maybe). Upon arrival, we immediately went out to see the Buckingham Palace and a bit of Green Park. Since it was getting late already, we decided to find something to eat - and so we did, in Soho. Afterwards to Picadilly Circus, the bright center of London...
Note:
Great Britain doesn't really have a special cuisine, right? Therefore, I don't feel bad for having eaten at "non english" Restaurants all the time, like Indian, Asian or Italian Restaurants (and even McDonalds, I admit it). BUT - I had my portion of Fish and Chips and english Breakfast, so I guess I didn't really miss anything.
The next day (Monday) we already left London - to visit Brighton. What's so special about that small city? It's on the Coast! Which means, I have seen the sea (or rather "The Canal")! For the first time in years...beautiful. Later on, we went to Camden Market (a weird...collection of weird stores...with weird [and all kinds of] goods) and visited Camden Town a bit.
Note:
Nearly EVERY single shop near Camden Market has a Tattoo Studio or is searching for Tattooists. Great Job opportunities if you happen to be one.
On Tuesday I went into the great city alone. Only to lose myself. Well, first I saw the Tower and all that jazz (Crown Jewels). THEN I wanted to cross Tower Bridge and I KNEW, if I turned right, I would get there. But, I decided to turn left and head for...somewhere. I just followed the path and went into London's Business Center, City of London. Many busy people there, I was rather a lonely tourist (nice skyscrapers there! And Leadenhall Market - if you know The Imaginarum of Dr. Parnassus, the beginning was shot there). BUT: a childhood's dream came true. I found Lloyd's Building by mere accident - and I was happy. Always wanted to see that in reality...
I did find my way back and went on to go along the Thames, over the Tower Bridge, towards Tate Modern. Great museum! Then along the Thames again - the London Eye is pretty BIG! - and on to Westminster (my God, I saw and heard the BIG BEN), up Whitehall and towards Picadilly Circus again. Great, but exhausting day.
On Wednesday I visited Oxford. A must as a student. The City itself seems rather...made for studying (charming but nothing really spectacular), it offers two nice museums (saw a great Steampunk exhibition) and many colleges, a ruin of a castle...but that seems to be it. Well, I WAS THERE. (And I ate Fish and Chips there - much cheaper than in London, actually.) Back in London I visited Baker Street (yeah, Baker Street 221, Sherlock Holmes Home) and got lost again, this time following the signs towards Lord's Cricket Ground.
Note:
"getting lost" means I found my way using my map after just walking randomly around for a while...
Thursday was the second day alone: and another exhausting one. I was really done for, after visiting St. James Park and watching the Changing of the Guard at Buckingham Palace, seeing 3 museums (Science, Natural History and Victoria & Albert - the latter one is FREAKING HUGE, and everything for free!), the Imperial College, Royal Albert Hall, walking through Hyde Park, visiting Harrods, looking at St. Pauls and Westminster Abbey, walking through China Towns (the density of Asian restaurants there is absolutely ridicolous - there is nothing else but asian restaurants---everywhere!)...and paying a lot at a local Pub for a simple Burger. I mean, come on, 9 pounds for a cheeseburger?
Friday was the last day already - I saw a tiny bit of the British Museum (nice architecture!) and the National gallery (another awesome collection of paintings). Up to Leicester Square and back to the Hostel and onwards to Heathrow. There, after some last minute action at the airport, the trip ended in Vienna again...and was over pretty damn quick.
Note:
London is still getting much prettier. There are tons of "Improvement Works", e.g. repairs of the Tubelines (the subway), buildings, monuments...I concluded: almost every important building seems to be in need of repairs in London. Nice for the city but rather disappointing for tourists and photographers.
That's pretty much everything for now. I was really glad to get some other breakfast again (Toast EVERY day can be...boring) and to sleep again. I was a pretty hardcore tourist, maybe it doesn't show here but I mostly walked all day around (getting up at 7 AM) and that IS exhausting. So, no exciting nightlife adventures only being in the hostel, writing down what I did, chatting with the people there and going to bed.
Actually I wanted to see Greenwich, too...but I didn't have the time to =/ (and Madame Toussaud's, and The London Dungeon, and and and...)
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Note:
This week I saw the new Sherlock Holmes Movie. It was...funny to see the places I just saw in reality on the big screen.
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Other than that: Life's going on. Nicely.
Just need to do more for the university, finishing my studies in a year or something. And do more creative stuff, I'm currently fighting a lot with some 3D and rendering programms for various technical reasons. Which is not really funny, but necessary and I'm learning a lot about the software I use. So, don't expect results soon...they will come, though.