Daily Archives: August 4, 2008

One Day In London

I’ve been here from 6:00 BST until now 18:00 BST — so having spent 12h in London, here are my impressions:

  1. Too much neon orange and yellow. Seriously, have never seen so much in my life. I hate it. So many people where it as part of their jobs, or if they’re cylists, or running, or it’s on police cars and ambulances. Blah blah blah. 
  2. Amazing architecture. Surprise! I’ve barely seen a tenth of the city and I still love most of it. There is a HELL of a lot of red brick. Almost … too much …
  3. It’s not very clean. Call me crazy, but in all seriousness I have never seen someone my age outside of a convenience store or something who finishes a can of whatever and then just throws it on the ground. There was a garbage can nearby, too! Indeed, things are quite dirty. In the core it’s fine, but my hotel appears to be in a rougher area of town I guess? 
  4. This hotel cannot give directions. I have literally spent at least two hours walking around the streets close to my hostel. Supposedly there’s a “The Source” (omg!) and a Postal office. I found neither. Apparently we have mixed perceptions about distance,  
  5. This hotel has a POWERED revolving door. 
  6. There’s something weird about the British and their signage. The primary colours + black + white. I used to like it for it’s simplicity. But now I just find it a lazy and poorly executed means of conveying messages. Almost none of them are graphic. It’s white text on a red background that says “Sidewalk out of service”. That was fine when I only saw a couple, but when you walk down a street you are INUNDATED with them. THEY’RE EVERYWHERE. And some of them are seemingly redundant and a waste of money. Eg: a construction site with signs posted on the 2/3m high fence around it that says “Parents don’t let your children play in here” (something to that effect). D’uh? 
  7. I really like their rail transit system. It looks really complex and crazy, but after you ride it for maybe an hour or two, screw up a couple of times — it’s a breeze. Buses are kind of flawed: seems like you require tickets or a pass to board, but only major stops have tickets. Ugh?
  8. I only saw one homeless guy. 
  9. WAY TOO EXPENSIVE. 
  10. Note to self, they have an equivalent TravelPlanner, called the ‘Journey Planner‘. Wish I knew that sooner. 
  11. Difficult to find places to eat, places to withdraw money.

The Eye TELEPHONE! Buckingham Palace Gate These Are Everywhere The Institute OF Mechanical Engineers

Long Day

A few observatons:

  1. Why can I not see any stars outside of the plane? It’s been dark for ages and the only light I can see is the one on the wing of the plane. Gasp!
  2. Part of me is curious as to what it might look like outside (aside from black) … another part of me knows that if I could see outside I would become tremendously bored with how boring, bright, and blue it would be.
  3. Sleep is difficult, ‘even’ when you have two seats and try to contort your body.
  4. The plane gives times, right now it’s 10:50pm in Ottawa, 3:50am in London. Err … except it’s not adjusting for DST. It’s 11:50 in Ottawa, 4:50 in London.
  5. Yeeesh the air in planes is dry. it wouldn’t be so bad if the inside of my nose wasn’t so dry as a result.
DSC00237

Oh hey! What’s this? A new special meal? TWO MEALS? Omg. I am impressed. I haven’t had to pay for anything and I’m in economy. I got a meal, TWO glasses of water. AND a glass of orange juice. This my friends, is supreme luxury. Ahaha.

OKAY. I’m back. Since finishing ‘breakfast‘ (a partially frozen bagel, frozen fruit, semi-frozen apple juice, somewhat warm yogourt) two things have happened: THE SUN HAS STARTED TO RISE. IT’S BLUISH OUTSIDE AND I CAN SEE CLOUDS. Beneath the clouds? IRELAND. LAND! LAND! I can’t actually verify that, mind you, but according to the headrest TV set things — we are in Ireland. These are the same things that use Imperial units and don’t take into account DST. So … … … for all I know, we’re actually above Jamaica.

Sun Rising

One hour away … 6am in London, 1am in Ottawa. Aghhhh!!!! I’m still royally screwed for tomorrow, but wow! I’m so close now! 300 miles away!

Other observation: HOW IS THERE THIS MUCH FREAKING CLOUD. GEEZ.

Announcement time! What’s this about customs stuff? Huh? I wish I could understand our pilot more because he seems to be talking about stuff that I should know about. OMG PLANE IS TURNING. PLANE IS TURNING. Coooooool. This is too much fun. 40 MINUTES UNTIL LONDON.

Sky … turning … pink.