Recalling London

Day Three - Leicester & Trafalgar, Hayward Gallery

We slept ten hours or so and woke considerably more refreshed. I was quite pleased with my new sleep mask, and Kerah was happy to wake up without the sound of the neighbors' dogs barking.

On this morning we set out on a great hike. We had received a few suggestions from Tess and John as to where to go, and the guidebooks had given us some idea of interesting things in the area. With springs in our steps and gleams in our eyes, we hit the pavement of the West End.

We set out for Soho in an attempt to find Bar Italia on Firth Street, which Tess recommended for a good cuppa joe. With that in mind, we walked down Great Portland Street to Oxford Circus, then east on Oxford. Unfortunately, we turned south a few streets earlier than we should have, and ended up settling on a little place called Coffee Republic that looked nice. Later we would learn that Coffee Republic would be the U.K. version of Starbucks, if Starbucks hadn't already taken over every corner in London.

With our bellies full, we set off again, and promptly found both Frith Street and Bar Italia. Having found it, we stepped inside, took a quick look around, and decided to stop back again on another day. Thus resolved, we moved on toward the next destination -- Leicester Square.

Leicester Square is a popular entertainment center (or centre, as it were), a dense area of theatres similar to Broadway with cheesy carnival rides set up in the square proper. In addition, Leicester square is where all the big movies debut in the U.K., with the red carpets and screaming fans and velvet ropes. Speaking of velvet ropes, Leicester also sports massive clubs like the Hippodrome.

Kerah didn't get to go clubbing while we were in the U.K., because John, Tess, and I were too tired to go out when Kerah suggested it, and we were so busy with other stuff that it never made it to the top of the list. She wouldn't be denied the theatre, though, which she made clear on this occasion. I'm not a big fan of musicals, but I figured we could find a respectable play that she would enjoy and which wouldn't cause me to break out in hives. We perused the abundant half-price ticket booths and noted a couple likely shows for later in the week.

The Angel of Christian Charity

Continuing our trek, we stumbled a few blocks over to Piccadilly Circus, for no real reason other than that it was close and is a big London landmark. Neither of us really understood what all the fuss is about, so we only dawdled long enough to gawk at the statue of the Angel of Christian Charity, better (and mistakenly) known as Eros, the Greek god of love. Since I've recently become interested in sculpture, I was very happy to learn that there are a staggering number of pieces in the city of London. Angel/Eros is a nice enough sculpture, but we saw a few others we preferred, like the lions at Trafalgar Square, where we headed next.

Kerah with "fucking massive!" lion at Trafalgar Square
Kerah agrees that the lion is indeed quite massive
Trafalgar Square is another one of those big tourist attractions in London. The centerpiece of the square is a statue of Admiral Nelson mounted atop a seventeen-story pedestal. Surrounding the column are the four Landseer Lions, named after their creator. Kerah and I were both quite taken with them, despite the fact that lion sculptures aren't exactly all that uncommon. These were impressive not only because of their setting, but also because of their scale. In fact, as we were admiring one of the lions, a kid about ten or twelve jumped up on it, proclaiming, "this is fucking massive!" His mother didn't chide him for the jumping or the swearing, which was nice, 'cause I don't see the point in getting all bunged up about "dirty" words. The British definitely have that on us... they can swear like crazy without some intolerant blowhard reading them the riot act. Not only do they swear with impunity, they have a lot more style about it, for fuck's sake. Maybe it's the extra practice they get.

While marvelling at the statues, the swearing, and the staggering number of pigeons at Trafalgar Square, we noticed Big Ben in the distance and figured that we might as well check it out. On our way down Whitehall, we passed by some elaborately dressed guards on horses, part of the Household Cavalry. Two of the Life Guards were on horseback standing watch, and their horses managed to stand pretty darn still the whole time. We were allowed to walk through the tunnel of the Horse Guards building freely. While we were there, someone drove into the courtyard, and one guard goose-stepped around following him as he entered the building. Well, there was only so much goose-stepping to be watched, and they weren't very interesting when they were just standing stock still, so we soon continued on our journey toward Big Ben.

Big BenBy the time we got to Big Ben, we had built up so much momentum that we barely tarried at all. We walked around the outside of Westminster Abbey, looked at Parlaiment and Big Ben for a couple minutes, and then we were off across the Westminster bridge. We passed by Yo Sushi and a couple other restaurants, but it was tough since we hadn't yet eaten lunch yet. We were keen to see the Hayward Gallery before it closed, and it was starting to get late, so we just grabbed a bite in the gallery's snack bar.

The Hayward Gallery itself was very cool. They were featuring an exhibit called "Facts of Life: Contemporary Japanese Art." It was quite enjoyable. There were lots of great pieces on display, but I think my favorite artist was Shimabuku. His installation was a video that depicted him taking a live octopus from Akashi on a tour of Tokyo. It's really pretty entertaining. As he took the octopus around, lots of people came and talked to him about how it looked like it would make a nice snack. If someone did that in the states, I seriously doubt that many people would bust out with a "them's good eatin'!"

The runner-up for best exhibit was Ryuji Miyamoto, who fashioned giant pinhole cameras that looked like makeshift shelters of the type that homeless people build. He then set the "pin-hole houses" up amongst actual shelters where homeless people were gathered, covered the inside with film and took large format pictures of the often spectacular vistas which could be seen from the homeless camps. Because he was inside the shelters, each of the pictures has a life-size silhouette of the artist, which evokes the feeling of a lost person curled up in the shelter. A couple of the photos were mounted on the wall, and there were three that were taped up on the inside of some actual pin-hole houses so that gallery-goers could better visualize the process. Overall, it was a very creative idea.

With our heads full of contemporary Japanese art, we set off to return home. We crossed the Waterloo bridge, and then had to take a slight detour when Kerah noticed the huge Dr. Martens store in Covent Garden. She had a mission to get a pair of Docs while we were over there, and I thought I might want a pair, too, so we had to make the stop. This was to be the first of many stops to peruse Doc Martens and lots of other shoes, but in the end, neither of us bought any shoes at all. We had fun trying on weird shoes, though. Have I mentioned that they sell kick-ass shoes in London? And it's not just Doc Martens, they have all these really funky European styles that we both really liked. Unfortunately, the extra style comes with an extra price. My favorite crazy shoes weren't even Docs... they were X-18 Genetics from Iceland, which have rubber fangs all the way around the sole. I would've bought a pair, but they were sort of uncomfortable (through no fault of the fangs).

After the Doc Martens store, we set off for home to meet our hosts for dinner. On the way, we found Seven Dials, a circle where seven streets meet, with a column in the middle bearing six sundials (the seventh dial is the column itself, since it casts a shadow, too). It's a cool little area, and we saw a few places where we wanted to stop, so we vowed to return when we had more time.

Two things we should have had this day for sure were our camera and a pedometer. Not bringing the camera was just silly, but we didn't want the extra weight, and we figured that we could return to places of interest later. That we did, but we definitely missed out on a few interesting extemporaneous shots. As for the pedometer, we don't actually own one or anything, but it would be nice to know just how far we walked.

Mari Mayans absintheTotally famished, we arrived back at Tess and John's flat, where we all decided to have dinner at a local Indian place. It was quite tasty, and we retired home with full bellies. John has built up quite a bar, and was a very good host, offering us drinks every night when we returned home. On this night, he offered us some absinthe, which I have long wanted to try but hadn't had the opportunity. He mixed us up a couple glasses with sugar and water, and it was interesting.

For those who aren't familiar, absinthe is a strong (70%/140 proof) liquor distilled from wormwood, and tastes like licorice. It was a favorite drink of the bohemian crowd, enjoyed by many artists like Van Gogh, Degas, Gaugin, Manet, and Picasso. It also contains thujone, a compound that may psychoactive in ways similar to marijuana. Absinthe has been banned in a number of countries, but is legal in the UK.

When we tried it, I was hoping to get a buzz like one gets from puffing on a joint, but it wasn't anything nearly as noticable as that. Of course, the whole time that we were drinking it I was thinking to myself, "Is it working?", just like my introduction to marijuana in college. Of course, back then something actually happened after a little while. This time I just got a little more talkative, but that might have just been from drinking 140 proof booze. Kerah didn't report any particularly strong effects, either, but she was swearing like a sailor. After much merriment, we turned in to prepare for another "fucking massive" day.

> Day Four - The City, museums, and pub crawling >