Pip, Pip! Cheerio and all of That!

My first day in London!  The irony of the title to this entry is that I have found very few British people here.  It appears to be a complete melting pot.  There are a lot of people from India, lots of Muslim people from the Middle East, lots of people from Asia, and even people from Russia and Ukraine.   Of course, I’ve only been here one day (and in tourist areas), but so far only about 20% of the people I’ve met actually have British accents.

I arrived at 7am this morning.  It took me about an hour to get through customs.  While customs in Ukraine is terrifying yet quick, UK customs were easy but took FOREVER.  The line was just really, REALLY long.  Upon exiting the airport I took the tube to my hotel.

A few words of explanation here:  I LOVE THE TUBE.  If there is any one takeaway from trip so far, it’s how much I LOVE the subway system here.  You can get anywhere so easily…and it’s so easy to use.  I went through Hounslow and it made me laugh because I finally get a bunch of jokes from a play  starred in like 15 years ago (a running punch line about trying to find an office building…but it was <gasp> in Hounslow! <Insert laughs here> I was laughing all the way because now I’ve seen Hounslow. LOL I can’t think of any reason to go there, and that’s sort of the point.

I’m also seeing references from My Fair Lady everywhere I look “I want to own a shop on Covenant Gardens, rather than selling up and down Tottenham Court Road (ironically my hotel is right off of Tottenham Court Road).

Once I got to my room, I had been awake for 48 hours, and just completely collapsed.  I woke up around 7pm here (11am in California) showered, and headed out to see the Thames.  Attached are picks of the London Eye, and Big Ben and Parliament (look kids!  Big Ben, Parliament! – So people will get it).  I toured there until it got dark and I knew I would see more when I came back during the day.  I had a late dinner at a pub I found called “Garfunkel’s.”  Yes, I chose it for its name.  I will probably come back there in April, if I will.  While eating my chicken skewers,  I thought 59 times that I was feelin’ groovy.

Now I am back in my room and trying to get to bed so tomorrow is more productive.   I only have 3 full days here, so it should be action packed.  Have I mentioned that I LOVE THE TUBE?!?!

Jeff:  Aug 12^th, 2017.