London Town

After the heat and humidity we thought we would be relieved to reach London. We were over it pretty quickly. It was 10 degrees, windy and raining for our arrival early on a Sunday morning. Our hosts Rebecca and Chris picked us up, took us home and made us a cup of tea to revive us. Freezing. Not quite summer, though the conversation always rolls around to the weather and how great it was just before we arrived.... We arrived on Chris' birthday and there was a big party on that day. We were very proud, we managed to stay up until 7:30pm before crashing that night. Party was fun, met lots of new people and had some great food and drinks.

We only a had few days in London and we thought we had better have a look around at suburbs to see what we like before settling in one. Our expeditions didn't last long as we weren't really equipped for the wind and rain. Soaked and freezing we only lasted outside about 3 hours before buggering off back the warm house for a nap! We ventured back out on Monday night to meet Warrick, Lawrence, Matt and Starsia to go for a curry on the infamous Brick lane. It was an adventure just deciding which place to go into. The staff barter with you to make you come in to their restaurant, free drinks or discount on food. The more people you have the more you can play. So we got a round of beers for the boys and a bottle of wine for the girls for free and a top meal for pretty cheap. Getting home from North London was a bit of a trek, considering we got on the wrong tube and went the wrong direction. After an hour and a half and about 4 or 5 tube changes we did manage to find our way home.



Tuesday we all meet up again and went to Windsor Castle. We caught a train which took about an hour from Clapham. The castle was great, the history is amazing. Though the most fun was taking stupid photos with the beef eaters or guards of the castle. We were a little afraid that he might shoot us, but it didn't deter us from having a go. In a mad dash we headed back to town to meet Rebecca, Jill and David and Piccadilly for drinks. We thought we would try to find this pub that a mate, Murray worked at. We only had a name and a vague area, not helpful. We wandered around the Strand and Trafalgar for about 30 minutes before stumbling across the pub. Only to discover that Murray was off sick... We were still glad to stop off for a drink.



On the Wednesday we amused ourselves running around St Pauls and Oxford st. We had a look at the cathedral and popped into the pub that Belinda worked at about 8 years ago. Very ye oldie English type pub, still a smoky, dodgy hole. It was really. We had a ale (not good) and there wasn't anyone familiar so we left. Then we met up with our brissy friends again and went on the 'Jack the Ripper' London walk at night. The guide walked us through the streets where the murders occurred and told us about them. Little gruesome, but interesting. We really enjoyed it. We might do a few more London walks, it's nice to wander around and learn about the history. That's all we had time for and it was off to Sweden.