London Town (or I love Cadbury Spread on Toast)

July 7-12th, 2009

"I'm saving up my money

Gonna fly back to London Town

Don't think that I should

But I can't help myself right now

Cuz if I make it

Back to London

I may never

Make it out." --Chris Seefried, "London"

The two things I loved most about London: easily navigable public transit and Cadbury chocolate spread on toast.

I arrived in London on a Tuesday afternoon, tired from my flight from Athens but excited about being in London for the first time in a decade. I found my hostel easily (located a block from Hyde Park,) and thanks to advice from my friend Pete from high school bought an oyster card for the public transit. My hostel had free wireless as well as a common room, and since I was staying in a shared room with 7 others, it was a welcome amenity. I took it easy the first night, treating myself to an Italian dinner and a good glass of wine.

The next day I went for an early job in Hyde Park; it's not every day I get a chance to run past so many historic things, but I found myself wondering what it would be like to run past those each day. It was something, I thought, I could get used to.

After making plans to meet up with Pete the next day, I began navigating the buses and Tube. I passed by Big Ben and gave him a wave, and then took a ride in the London Eye, since that wasn't there the last time I was in London. Having nothing on my hands but time, I took in the Dali exhibit and made my way to Trafalgar Square, treated myself to coffee, and ducked into the National Gallery for a few minutes.

It was freeing to be able to make decisions on a whim, traveling alone. And I wasn't lonely due to the large amount of people around. I was loving London, and it seemed to be sharing the love right back.

My next decision: going to Lion King in the evening, which was fantastic and I had never seen it before. I ended up sitting next to a Canadian women in her early 20s who was nannying abroad, and hoping next to go to Spain.

View from/of the London Eye.

Hello London.

There's the Big Ben.

London Archy architecture.

Boy conquers lion in Tralfagar Square.

The following morning I headed out to the Campden Market and found some used Wellies to take back with me for the monsoon season in India. I spent most of the day wandering, taking photos, and eating fish n chips before busing it to the Hampstead Heath area and walking to the highest point in London. Finishing a book, I watched a handsome guy flying a kite before heading back down to meet Pete for crepes and a beer. It'd been years since I'd seen him, and it was great to catch up. Soon we were heading to the opposite side of town, to go to a party with some of Pete's friends who are professional symphony musicians. A few had played in the Mumbai Symphony, so it was especially fun for me to talk with them (though I couldn't help wonder how I happened to be crashing a party full of professional musicians, when I quit the clarinet in 10th grade and can't play a bar chord clearly on my guitar). I had to run to catch the tube back to the hostel before it stopped for the night, and as I reached I spilled my purse on the ground, the token/security man took pity on me and helped me gather extra change before the last train left.

Wellies from London, left in Mumbai. Such a pity I didn't bring them back.

Can you believe I held out and did not buy a wig? Loved this store though!

View from Hampstead Heath.

I continued my touristy trail of London the next day by strolling through the British Museum in the late morning, finding it odd to see art and sculpture from India and Greece when I had just been there. I did see a mummified hippo, the Rosetta Stone, and an outdoor garden exhibit on Indian plant life. I met Pete and two of his friends for lunch and we had, of all things, Indian Thali, which was delicious. I found a copy of High Fidelity in the afternoon in an old bookstore, and found a phone to call to change my flight back to the U.S. I wandered through the National Portrait Gallery (fantastic) and failed in my attempt to find a small photography museum.

Later, again in Tralfagar Square, there was a live art display taking place where each individual spent an hour on this raised pedestal in the square and could do anything they wanted, as long as it was legal, and they were alone. I saw a woman reading a book--not aloud--followed by a soccer mascot dancing to a boombox.

That is one OLD hippo.

My buddy.

Art display near Indian restaurant in London.

I soon made my way to the Aldwych Theatre where I upgraded my seat for Dirty Dancing (and yes, I had the time of my life). At the bus stop back, I was asked for directions from a young couple. Surprisingly, I was able o help them. I guess it only takes 3 days in London to seem at ease (and avid use of public transit).

LOVE that I got the random 80s girl in with the hot pink signs!

On Saturday I headed to the Portobello Market in Nottinghill where I was met by Pete and his friend Elizabeth, another delightful American. We wandered, ate churros, people watched, drank beer, basically, it was fabulous. In the afternoon I headed to see a Kate Nash show at a literature festival in Queen Elizabeth Hall that was a combined book release/signing for Laura Dockrill, a friend of Nash's releasing a book called "Ugly Shy Girls", and met Pete and Elizabeth again that night for a drink, though with the early closing of pubs in London it didn't end up being a late night. I did manage to get slightly lost finding the correct bus back to the hostel, but was able to sort it out, only getting slightly drenched in the rain.

Portobello Market view.

Please give me a key to your pastel house, where I will while away my days and water your plants.

Pete and I: Holla for SD!!!

Elizabeth is awesome!

I spent my last morning in London doing laundry and eating my last breakfast in a long time of toast with Cadbury chocolate spread (DELICIOUS!) I headed to the Serpentine Gallery in Hyde Park which featured art from American Jeff Koons and his work about Popeye and also inflatables (it was cool, trust me). I headed to the Natural History museum to see some dinosaurs, but since it was Sunday it was packed and being prone to claustrophobia, I split to see the Victoria & Albert Museum (or V&A) nearby and eat lunch by a pond outside. I highly recommend going if you are in London!

My last stop before the airport was to meet my friend Becca who I volunteered with at One! International in Mumbai. We had a beer and it was great to see her before I headed back to Mumbai. I told her I would be moving into the volunteer housing--where she had stayed--and she laughed, hoping I would be prepared, as it would be much more bare bones than Sunitha's house...so we would see!

Turns out, British dinosaurs RARRR just as loud as American ones.

Outside the V&A Museum pond before returning to Mumbai.

Earthquakes, microbrews, and mini-penguins

Wednesday March 18th - Friday March 20th

I spent the morning having a smoothie (I ate a LOT of fruit in Australia as it is a much safer option here than back in Mumbai) and walking around Bay Street, looking at all the little shops before catching a bus a short distance to the South Melbourne Market, where I picked up some tools to fix some broken jewelry and met S& G for lunch where I indulged in a treat reminiscent of my time in Spain in 2001, chocolate y churros.

That afternoon I decided to take a ferry trip to the small town of Williamstown. I bypassed the portion of the tour that involved sitting inside the boat and spent the two hour trip on the back of the boat with the wind in my hair, chatting with a couple from Germany who has lived in Melbourne for 3 years working for GM but is slated to go back soon to Germany as their contracts are ending.

Unfortunately, the last two river cruises of the day were cancelled, so I did not get a chance to walk around Williamstown but I did get some great water pix, even though I did not garner any historical information from the tour.

Pic of one of the many bridges in Melbourne.

After I got off the boat, I had a call from Sarah telling me there had been an earthquake--I had not noticed because I was on the water, but apparently this is not an uncommon occurrence. I can now say I have experienced my first earthquake, though I am not sure it REALLY counts if I didn’t feel it.

Before meeting Sarah I headed over to the Eureka SkyDeck, which is a deck on the 88th floor of a building and the elevator shoots you up in 40 seconds (I videotaped it on the way down; it’s true). I really just wanted some aerial shots of Melbourne. However, while I was there Gareth phoned and I then realized it was probably not the smartest idea to go to the tallest building in the city directly following earth tremors. I soon descended and met Sarah and we trammed it over to the Mountain Goat Brewery.

View from the Eureka SkyDeck.

The Mountain Goat is only open on Wednesdays and Fridays, and a woman is the head brewer and two women were working behind the bar. After being in India for two months and finding almost 0% of women working in any public service industries, it was an interesting change. Plus the space was beautiful, lots of brick and high ceilings, and we got a short tour where we were highly encouraged to bring our beers along with us.

Sarah with her sampler.

I would not be a good friend if I let her drink alone.

Following pizza and some gazing at some handsome Australian men at the brewery (yes, for Patti and others wondering, one of them was even red-haired and bearded) we trammed it to try and make it to St. Kilda Pier to see the Little Penguins in the wild. This turned out to be more of an adventure than first planned, as the tram was broken and we had to bus it over and then re-tram it. I was very grateful that S&G were willing to put up with my desire to see the penguins--they come out at night only, and it is no guarantee we see them, but we saw three! No photos allowed, but it was awesome and totally made me happy.

After we walked over to the Esplanade AKA Espy Bar, where we watched some live rock music but more interestingly, a woman dancing who was some peculiar combination of ballerina/Broadway dancer. I also had my first and most likely last Alcopop--pre-mixed Jim Beam and Coke.

Senor and I were not fans of the Alcopop.

The next morning I had an adventure today trying to find a post office to send off a few postcards, and by the time I got them mailed off, it was almost time for me to meet Sarah for lunch one last time and grab a coffee. After a great lunch we said goodbye, and I headed back to the Queen Victoria Market to get some pix of some of the meat market. Perhaps also it was some sort of subconscious telling me to hang out with meat as much as I could now, before returning to my mostly veg diet, but I also wore my hot dog shirt, so I was a big hit at the market.

I then headed over to the Australian Center for the Moving Image, but most of their exhibits were closed for renovation, so I then headed to the Ian Cooper Australian Art Museum, where I was able to take in some interesting art regarding space and stars and some great Aboriginal Art. I then trammed it over to St. Kilda again to go to a small art gallery that has an exhibit every February-March called the postcard exhibit, which is over 2,200 works of art that are small-ish. Since I did not know if I will return to Melbourne again in these two months, I took the opportunity to see it and was not disappointed.

Gareth gave me a ride to the airport around 6:30 that night, and thus ended this chapter of my time in Australia. Though I spent all my in Melbourne, it is a beautiful city with many friendly Aussies and I could see myself returning here or living here, or in a city like it. It was so great to see Sarah and Gareth too and have the Colorado connection back.

Whilst (as the Aussies say) in the airport, I was asked to complete a 15 minute survey about Australian tourism. Being a researcher, I can never turn down when people ask me to do a survey, and I happily complied, only to realize that I definitely do want to return to the Land Down Under. I also realized that Australian chicken flavored potato chips don’t, indeed, taste that much like chicken.

Once on the plane to Singapore-Dubai-Mumbai, I tuned into the Nicole Kidman/Hugh Jackman flick “Australia.” As corny as that sounds, the movie was even cornier, but I enjoyed every minute of it.

I finally arrived back in Mumbai around 3 p.m. on Friday, and instead of taking a cab was determined to find a Rik--not such an easy task walking with my pack and having some blisters on my heels from my new lavendar shoes. But I was able to locate one, and the minute I stepped off the plane I welcomed back the Smells of Mumbai; very distinct and always, always there.

I spent the rest of the day unpacking and repacking and organizing, as my friend Jessie from Denver was to fly in the next night (Saturday March 21st) for a week stay here! Reports of adventures to come…

FAILURE

As most of us know, yesterday was Valentine's Day. My roommate Laura had heard about an art opening called, most appropriately for the occasion "FAILURE" that was occuring at The Lab in Bel Mar (which is in Lakewood, a western-bordering suburb of Denver). So of course, we went. With promises of love songs played on the oboe, cheese fondue, readings of bad poetry, and Ms. Pac-Man to be played, who could resist?

To be sure, it did not disappoint. An added plus was Laura running into an acquaintance with an adorable three-year-old who I had the pleasure to converse with regarding her amazing ability to slide in and out from under a picnic table carefully placed on Astroturf. The art was interesting, featuring work from I believe 34 different artists and their interpretations of failure. They also had two old-school typewriters set-up so patrons could type their own messages of failure--or whatever else their heart's desired on this loved-filled day--and place the cards they typed on in a box for others to peruse.

In addition, mini 7-ounce bottles of Miller High Life, yes, that great Champagne of Beers, were available FOR FREE. I also was able to snag the Ms. Pac-Man joystick for seven straight games, where I was unable to get past 8,610 points, but which my friend Jason (a pleasant surprise he ended up attending the same event) promptly beat into the ground with a score of around 15,220, to claim the High Scorer prize. It was really great to have that love for Ms. Pac-Man revitalized, let me tell ya. Oh! There was also life-size shuffleboard a la retirement homes in Florida. We played with a lovely older gentleman with a kind of white mullet who was afraid he might spill his pinot.

Overall, a quite enjoyable Valentine's Day evening, with several things I love: good friends, mini-Miller High Life, and Ms. Pac-Man.

(On a side note, Laura and I did go to another bar after the art opening, on Colfax, where we nearly got puked on by a stranger. But perhaps that is a story for another day).