Fitbit is showing 31346 steps, and 11 active hours (always was aiming for 11 hours, but never got more than 8). Feet are burning. It's day 5 and a golden mean of my trip. And I can't collect my thoughts together to write this post. The reason why is the fact that I'm trying to think about everything that happened today and also at the same time how to get a chance to see more before I leave tomorrow. The number of pictures I took today is enormous, not as high as the amount of step though.
Where do I start though? Oh well, my airbnb apartment is conveniently located almost in the center of the London, which makes it really easy for me to get to Piccadilly Circle around where I'm actually spending most of my trip. Not sure if I mentioned it yesterday, but if you don't know the trick, subway here is really expensive, like 3 times more expensive than in New York. The trick is some oyster card, that you can buy for 5 pounds and put money on it, and in that case, it will cost you pound something, but if you don't know the trick it will cost you 4,9 best case scenario, depending on the zone. I had no idea about it, and even less idea I had about all the zones. But walking makes you really healthy and saves you money, but also makes you very tired at the end of the day. Make a note about the oyster card. For me, it was not that relevant since I've been told about it today and I'm leaving tomorrow, but this card can save you a lot of money. Also even though yesterday seemed like it happened a long time ago with all the experiences I had today and places that I visited today, I noticed one thing here. You have to pay for everything here. Even for the program at the Broadway show. Really? Maybe I'm too spoiled by New York.
Where do I start though? Oh well, my airbnb apartment is conveniently located almost in the center of the London, which makes it really easy for me to get to Piccadilly Circle around where I'm actually spending most of my trip. Not sure if I mentioned it yesterday, but if you don't know the trick, subway here is really expensive, like 3 times more expensive than in New York. The trick is some oyster card, that you can buy for 5 pounds and put money on it, and in that case, it will cost you pound something, but if you don't know the trick it will cost you 4,9 best case scenario, depending on the zone. I had no idea about it, and even less idea I had about all the zones. But walking makes you really healthy and saves you money, but also makes you very tired at the end of the day. Make a note about the oyster card. For me, it was not that relevant since I've been told about it today and I'm leaving tomorrow, but this card can save you a lot of money. Also even though yesterday seemed like it happened a long time ago with all the experiences I had today and places that I visited today, I noticed one thing here. You have to pay for everything here. Even for the program at the Broadway show. Really? Maybe I'm too spoiled by New York.
Anyway, I had 2 tours planned and a meeting with the co-worker from a UK office. I planned everything out. I withdrew the money yesterday for the tip for the free tour, I bought croissant yesterday to have it in the morning for breakfast. The only thing I was missing was coffee. Apparently, it is unusually hot in London this summer. I even thought that I brought the hot weather with me from New York. So it was logical enough that I wanted a cold drink. Imagine my face when the person at Pret A Manger told me: "We don't serve cold drinks" I mean I understand that most of the time it's really cold in London and even subway doesn't have AC, but for iced coffee you literally just need to add ice, it's easier than to build AC in. Forgot to mention missing AC in the subway part in the yesterday post. Anyway, I was not about to have a hot coffee on top of being already hot. I then joined the free tour that was also known as Roal. I can't say I was a big fan of the tour guide, I thought he was kind of rude at times and his jokes were corny, but he did show us all the main historical places and told us some interesting stories. We saw the house where Charles lives. Learned that by the type of the flag which is on, we can recognize if he is home or not. The regular UK flag was on, which meant that Charles was away. When we moved to Buckingham palace we saw a different flag, which meant the Queen was at home. Did you know that there are 775 rooms in the palace? Who on the earth needs that many? We learned the story about how it was built and how was bought from Duke. Also the story about how some crazy homeless guy decided that it was not fair that regular people could not go inside and see around and how he climbed the wall and basically had a conversation with the Queen, and became very famous shortly after that. We saw Big Ben and Trafalgar Square with Nelson on it. The actual name of the tower that we call Big Ben is Queen Elizabeth Tower and Big Ben is the bell inside, but for the convenience and coolness, we just call it Big Ben. Traffic lights at Trafalgar Square are looking pretty unusual after the Gay Pride Festival. "Officials said the seven different same-sex symbols were designed to show Transport for London’s “support for lesbian, gay, bisexual and trans diversity” in the capital." We saw London Eye and St. James Park with all unusual animals and heard an interesting story about it. Obviously saw Westminster Abbey and the private club that Churchill was a member of. Also saw Churchill's bunker, which was never supposed to be a bunker. We ended up at the place where used to be Scotland Yard (that's right, Sherlock's reference), that's where we had our lunch break and I was trying to figure out what the hell happened with my phone and why I'm not able to use the internet or even call anymore. Yep, not a day without some kind of "event" in my life. So you understand, not having the internet here for me meant that I should have headed home before I got lost. And I have a huge experience in getting lost everywhere. No matter how hard I tried I was not able to fix the phone, renewing the balance and switching sims and other tricks didn't help. But I decided I won't let it ruin my day. I texted my coworker to agree on the location where we were going to meet in advance while I'm still on wifi. Google it, took a screenshot. Googled how to get back to the circle where my next tour was supposed to start and headed out there desperately hoping I'll catch wifi somewhere on my way or my phone will magically fix itself. Magic didn't happen. But I was able to get to the next tour. I would hate myself if I missed it. It was a Harry Potter tour.
I remember how I got my first Harry Potter book. I didn't know what was all the big fuss about this book, I was just very excited to get it. I didn't read much then and it was a huge deal for my mom if some book got me interested. I actually think that "Harry Potter and the Philosopher's stone" was the first book ever I read like in 2 days. I was reading nonstop. Everywhere I go, every free minute I had, no matter what other stuff I had to do and instead of sleep too. The story of a little boy, who was moved from the very dark world to very magical one. By the time I got my first book, JK Rowling released the 4th one already. I read 4 of them in like a week. So I'm sure you can understand why I couldn't miss the Harry Potter tour. Getting older I started to realize that all the magic aside those books are actually about our life, our history. That Lord Voldemort is clearly Adolf Hitler and the time of terror was the time of the WW 2. All the true blood theory was exactly the same that Hitler had. People in charge who were oblivious to the tyranny coming to the power, were same people who oblivious when Hitler became a leader. Those books were not just kids books. They were so much more. They had real life problems, division into classes of people who are rich and who are poor, people who are more talented and who are just average. I never shared that understanding of those books with anyone. Imagine my surprise when our guide started our tour from exactly the same idea. I enjoyed this tour so much more than the morning one. How important it is when the person truly believes and enjoys what he is doing. He told us different interesting facts like for example: when one of the movies were about to come out, Daniel Radcliff was the main star of the Broadway show and he couldn't attend the premiere which actually was meant to happen at the Trafalgar Square with a red carpet and all the fans invited to it. In order not to let down his fans, he bought all the tickets for that Broadway show for 2 weeks in advance just so he could attend the premiere. Guide showed us streets that Rowling had in mind when she was writing about Diagon Alley and Knockturn Alley. The very exciting fact was the Ministry of Magic, Rowling wrote about, is actually Ministry of Defense in the Center of London. It was a very interesting tour and I made a note to myself that now when I've seen Harry Potter part of London, I have to reread all the books and rewatch all the movies to compare them to real life places.
I remember how I got my first Harry Potter book. I didn't know what was all the big fuss about this book, I was just very excited to get it. I didn't read much then and it was a huge deal for my mom if some book got me interested. I actually think that "Harry Potter and the Philosopher's stone" was the first book ever I read like in 2 days. I was reading nonstop. Everywhere I go, every free minute I had, no matter what other stuff I had to do and instead of sleep too. The story of a little boy, who was moved from the very dark world to very magical one. By the time I got my first book, JK Rowling released the 4th one already. I read 4 of them in like a week. So I'm sure you can understand why I couldn't miss the Harry Potter tour. Getting older I started to realize that all the magic aside those books are actually about our life, our history. That Lord Voldemort is clearly Adolf Hitler and the time of terror was the time of the WW 2. All the true blood theory was exactly the same that Hitler had. People in charge who were oblivious to the tyranny coming to the power, were same people who oblivious when Hitler became a leader. Those books were not just kids books. They were so much more. They had real life problems, division into classes of people who are rich and who are poor, people who are more talented and who are just average. I never shared that understanding of those books with anyone. Imagine my surprise when our guide started our tour from exactly the same idea. I enjoyed this tour so much more than the morning one. How important it is when the person truly believes and enjoys what he is doing. He told us different interesting facts like for example: when one of the movies were about to come out, Daniel Radcliff was the main star of the Broadway show and he couldn't attend the premiere which actually was meant to happen at the Trafalgar Square with a red carpet and all the fans invited to it. In order not to let down his fans, he bought all the tickets for that Broadway show for 2 weeks in advance just so he could attend the premiere. Guide showed us streets that Rowling had in mind when she was writing about Diagon Alley and Knockturn Alley. The very exciting fact was the Ministry of Magic, Rowling wrote about, is actually Ministry of Defense in the Center of London. It was a very interesting tour and I made a note to myself that now when I've seen Harry Potter part of London, I have to reread all the books and rewatch all the movies to compare them to real life places.
My feet hurt, but it's London and I had limited amount of time, so I went to meet my coworker. Without the internet and phone, it's so not easy to meet someone near the very popular place. But Thank G, there are Starbuckses with free wifi in it. Interesting fact: right next to St. Paul's Cathedral people are casually drinking and smoking and enjoying themselves and each other. Anyway, we met and even though I was tired and Marina was after long work day I asked her if she likes Harry Potter and if she minded to taking me to Kings Cross. I would never forgive myself being in London and not taking pictures of Platform 9 3/4. Marina was not into whole Harry Potter thing, but she was happy to take me there. There was a loooong line. But hey! I got pictures and letter of acceptance to Hogwarts. Now I'm officially a witch. Hahahaha... And then we walked home, that's where over 31K steps came from. The picture with the Red Phone Booth - checked. We also saw The London Bridge from far a way. Marina mentioned it would be on my way to the airport anyway so if I want I can stop by before leaving tomorrow.
It was a very good day full of new experiences, meeting new people, visiting new places. I'm going to bed happy :)
It was a very good day full of new experiences, meeting new people, visiting new places. I'm going to bed happy :)
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