Posts tagged london

Sunday afternoon

I was still jet lagged this morning and pulled myself out of bed in time to meet my coworker, Mike Walker for a walk to the East End of London. I wanted to take Mike back to Brick Lane for a taste of salt beef bagels that I had eaten the last time I was here.

On the way to Spitalfields, we walked by this tower. This tower doesn’t appear from the outside to be religious in nature - or at least it lacks crosses and any religious description. The city has sprung up around it and a large police station is on the right. This is a strange site in London with tall buildings and a jarring mix of old and new. In my (limited) experience, London city planners have tried to make the old and new mix more harmoniously.

Many of the entrances to the old city are marked by dragons. This one is up on the northeast side, near Liverpool Station.

All streets and alleys have addresses in London. Last time when I was with Doug, we walked down Catherine Wheel Alley. Why? Because Doug thought it would be cool to see what was there. It doesn’t look very inviting, but I convinced Mike that it would be a good experience. The alley curves to the left and then opens into a bigger passage where cars can park. On Sundays, vendors set up temporary shops and thousands of Londoners come to see what is on sale.

This is an example of why one would walk down an alley. Far away from everything, deep away from the streets and above a locked door is this beautiful tile chicken. Such beauty is not unique in London, but each alley, street and crevice has it’s own secret beauties for those who want to explore.

After eating our bagel, we headed over to the London City museum. This section of wall is part of the original Roman wall built around 600 AD. The sections we see here are actually walls built on the ruins of those walls, built hundreds of years later.

The City of London museum was really good and I noted something of interest that made me feel very lucky to be working here. When you enter the museum, there is a large exhibit about the great fire that took place in 1666. In the exhibit is a map of the city at that time. While some of the streets survive today (like Pudding Lane, site of the fire’s origin), the street-scape has changed. This is not something I would have noticed without living and working here. I have enjoyed getting to know some people and feel the energy of the city firsthand. Seeing the map and recognizing change gave me a satisfied feeling that I have learned some things about London.

Saturday morning in London - Part 1

Today I was supposed to get up and go to Oxford with my wife’s cousin and husband. The plan sounded great until I couldn’t fall asleep last night. After 1am I realized that a.) I wasn’t going to make it and b.) I had no way of communicating back to my hosts other than by email. Needless to say I got a very annoyed phone call one hour after I was supposed to be there asking where I was. Steve was really nice under the circumstances…I hope they’ll still get together. But I would understand if they didn’t call. That left me to fend for myself. The plan had been to drop off a load of laundry and go. So, now I had to find a laundromat , get there and figure out how to get my laundry done.

London in January on a Friday night

Americans have an idea that British people drink more than they do.  Is this statistically true?  I don’t know, but being in London on a Wednesday, Thursday or Friday night reinforces the stereotype.

London no longer allows indoor smoking as many cities in the US.  The result is a cloud of smoke and crowds standing outside of the ubiquitous pubs on Cannon Street, in Soho, or other places in London that are in my imagination.

Britain has launched a multi-million dollar ad campaign to fight binge drinking.  From my own personal experience, people in London are at least more open about stopping off at the pub than their American counterparts.  There has never been a Thursday or Friday at the office where I haven’t heard about groups of people leaving for the pub.

So what is Friday night like in London in January?  I went to London’s Chinatown tonight for dinner and walked back.  The streets are filled with people - hipsters, business people, punks, gay couples, snogging youths.  Every alley has fun-seekers walking out and the curious walking in.  The non-Christmas, snow man decorations are suspended above the streets, even though the days are too warm for snow to stay on the ground.  Friday night in London looks like a joyous occasion.

The subways are filled to the brim with people cooler than me on their way to have more fun than me.  I have to push my way in.  The people have haircuts combed forward and are fumbling with their Blackberries and iPods while holding the most modern books.

The British speak a language that is similar to my own, but different.  I still cannot cross the street here without help from a local.  Like the late-week rituals, I cannot interpret the subliminal cultural signs that tell me when it is safe to cross.  I can observe, but barely partake.  I never feel more like a foreigner than on a Friday night walking the streets by myself.  I am a stranger in a strangely foreign land.

Tonight I walked the streets of Soho.  I passed Judy Dench staring out at me from a theater.  I passed the empty stalls of Covent Garden Market.  I saw the smoke rising from cracks in the street.  I felt the damp chill of the January air.  I saw the modern and ugly hotels rising out of the empty brownstone streets.  I saw the palm reader sitting in front of the pub while a man stood nearby wearing a television on his midriff.  The city moved around me and I passed through on my way back to my temporary home.  That is Friday night in London.