The last few days in London were utterly fantastic. It was so nice to catch up with my very good friend Stef. As always, she gave me a place to crash the first 2 nights I was there. We met up at the Oval tube station Saturday afternoon, after flying into Gatwick airport. She did warn me that the weather was pretty awesome, and man she wasn’t kidding. It was well in the high 70’s, low 80’s when I got to Stef’s.
She lives in a different flat now than last year. It’s a bit smaller than the one she had before. So I was only able to crash in her roommate’s room for the weekend, since her roommate was out of town. Not a problem for me, of course. Stef needed to run out that afternoon and visit a friend, so I took advantage of the downtime to catch up on some catch-up sleep. I also wanted to get in touch with Berina, a London pal who I actually met last summer in Budapest. We had kept touch via email sporadically over the past year, and she was in town this summer, so we agreed to meet up.
Stef and I had dinner at an Ethiopian restaurant just around the corner from her house. Then, we headed over to Covent Garden. Berina met up with us at a pub not too much later. It was really nice seeing her again, and she and Stef got on well too. Lots of fun drinking and talking about travel, and other stuff. Berina, her friend Sheila, and I all had a great time last summer in Budapest. When I got back to London on my way back to the states that time, Sheila was there, but Berina was not. So it was just Sheila and me. This time, it’s the other way around, since Sheila’s in Singapore.
We hung out at a couple of pubs, and then walked over to a couple of late night clubs. Stef got pretty tired, and headed out a little early. Berina and I then hit a place called O’Neill’s and closed it down dancing to everything. I’d almost forgotten how much fun London nightlife is. Well, not really…
After getting thrown out of O’Neill’s, we hit a chinese place that was still open. We had some excellent late-night chinese grub, with a really interesting crowd of people around us. By the time we got out of there, it was well past 4:30 AM and it was time to go home!
We had all made a plan to meet up the next afternoon for a curry festival going on not far from where Berina lives. It took me a little time to get up that day, since I’d gotten in pretty much by daybreak! After a slow session waking up, Stef and I made it to where we were supposed to meet Berina. Berina had met up with her sister’s fiance’, a big Scottish guy named Mark at the airport that morning. He had just gotten back from traveling in Asia for 6 months, and was spending one night in London before heading back on up to Scotland. So he joined us for the afternoon.
It was a VERY crowded festival. The weather definitely drew out droves of people. There was music, beer, food, beer, food, and more music. It was a really nice afternoon. Although we were supposed to eat curry there. Stef and I opted instead for a booth that had some very delicious looking polish sausages. After having a few beers and stuff, we moved over to a pub just off the festival. We spent the rest of the afternoon having beers on the curb outside the pub, basking in the fantastic afternoon sun. Nice…
That night, Stef and I went down to a small jazz club in Brixton where her boyfriend, Spesh, was playing. They had already started playing when we got there. The club was not packed, but there was a nice, lively crowd. Spesh and his band played some fun improv jazz through the night. Cool stuff. I left Stef and Spesh at the bar, after they wrapped their last set, and headed back to Stef’s flat. I was still tired from the previous night’s antics. Because of a Red Bull I took earlier that night though, I was wired and didn’t get any sleep whatsoever. So I just jumped online and finished my mom’s story and did some other stuff, until I fell asleep about 5 am.
The next day, I had the whole place to myself until Stef’s roommate came home. I still had to book a room for Copenhagen, my next stop, and had some rotten luck finding anything. Sjelle had arranged with her friend Bergljott to let me crash at her place for the first couple of nights. So that helped. After a couple of hours of searching for something nice AND affordable, I managed to eek out a room for 2 nights in Malmo, Sweden, which is just across the bay from Copenhagen, and then my last 2 nights back in Copenhagen. So that worked out. After doing this stuff, I packed, and headed over to Earls Court, where my cheap hotel room awaited.
Now, I wasn’t expecting anything nice. Because in London, you really do get what you pay for. But this was ridiculous. The hotel itself was basically ok, considering that I paid just 25 pounds (about 50 bucks, which is CHEAP for London) a night. But the bed in the room I got was absolutely HORRIFIC. First of all, it was a very old, NASTY mattress, that was nothing but metal springs, NO padding. Worse, a few of the springs were just sticking through the mattress cover, in a totally hazardous way. I ended up having to lay out the pillows under my back in order to get a decent sleep. Like I said, horrible, and I was stuck here for 2 nights.
Needless to say, I wanted to stay out of the room as much as possible. Stef skyped me earlier that day and told me she can meet me at 7:30 at the hotel, then we’d go get some dinner or something with Berina after she got off work, about an hour later. Stef showed up, but said she can only hang out for a drink or so, because she had to go and be with Spesh that night since he had taken it off. So we had a drink outside a pub just down the street from the hotel until she had to run.
Berina showed up about an hour later, and off we went to dinner. She knew a good Belgian restaurant not far from Earls Court, so we went there. It was a good call. The restaurant was really nice, and we had a great dinner of salmon and mussels. Just what I needed, that’s for sure. Berina and I had a good chance to catch up some more, and I gotta say I really enjoyed dinner with her. Listening to her tell me about her life growing up in Singapore in a Punjabi-Indian family was fascinating stuff.
We laughed alot during that dinner over some really funny anecdotes. After a real Belgian dessert, we headed down the road to a cool-looking bar and had a couple of drinks. Berina had to make it an early night though, because she was leaving for a trip to Venice the next day. So after seeing her off at the tube station, I headed back to the hotel. And just in time I guess, because it started pouring rain!
The next day, I woke up a bit late again, but not too bad. I had to jump online to chat with Sjelle a bit about meeting up at the airport the next day, and some other logistical stuff. Also talked with Stef about meeting up later that evening after she was done with some function for work. I told her it wasn’t a problem, and for her to just send me a text message when she was free and where to meet.
After taking care of some stuff, I went down to a part of London that I really like. The Banks. It’s a great part of the Embankment area of London, right on the river Thames of course. On both sides of the river, there are numerous places to walk, people watch and just hang out. There’s the London Eye, the HUGE ferris wheel thing that you have to book hours if not days in advance to go on. Parliament House is down from there on the other side of the river. There are parks, museums, bridges and lots of open markets and cafes. Last summer when I was here, I really got to know it, and it’s been a fave London spot of mine from that point on.
I roved the book market looking for some good deals. But unfortunately prices really went up since last year, so I didn’t go for anything. The weather was still phenomenal, so there were lots of street players, and performers on the riverwalk. It was such a great mix of people, that you never felt out of place or even like an outsider. I had a snack over at Charing Cross, just outside the station, and after taking lots of pics, and walking a good few miles, I headed back to Earls Court via the tube. I figured I’d take a break, and wait to hear from Stef on where to meet.
Interestingly enough, after I took a bit of a nap, I got a text message from Stef asking me to meet up with her at Embankment! That’s where I just was! No problem for me though, just had to jump back on the tube and I was there. Stef showed up not long after, clearly having had a few. She went on to tell me that this function she was at was really generous on the champagne, and… well… she accepted their generosity freely. Nothing wrong with that, I told her.
She still had to meet up with her boss at this very old wine bar not far from Embankment station. So we walked, or rather, I walked, and she kinda just swaggered to the place. Her boss, Rick, a really nice guy showed up a few minutes later. Stef had gotten a bottle of white and we finished that bottle off pretty quick. Rick headed onward after the bottle was done, and Stef decided she needed one more drink. I didn’t question it…
There was a bar on the other side of the station that looked nice from the street, so we went in. But after seeing the price of the drinks we had there, both Stef and I vowed we would never set foot there again. Well, after that round, Stef did admit that she was “pissed”, which I did not disagree with. It as actually quite funny watching her go this route. Not a usual thing for me.
We bid our goodbyes, and she staggered onto the train home. I took a bit more of a walk around The Banks to see if any of the nightspots were going. Tuesdays were a bit of an off-night, so not much was happening on the river. I was quite hungry not having had dinner yet, so I headed back to Earls Court, and ended up hitting BK out of desperation since everything else was closed. When I got to the hotel, I had asked the desk clerk for one more pillow (so I can put it under me while I tried to sleep on that health hazard mattress). Lucky for me, he had one, so I managed to get a decent night’s sleep after all.
The next day, it was time to go, thank god. I checked out of the hotel, and headed down to meet up with Stef for her lunch break. We had a quick lunch at a ready-to-eat joint, and got to have a little goodbye session. These London visits with Stef had really become something I really look forward to. I hope that there will be many more to come.
As we were walking out of the place, back down the street to where she had to go back to work, we ran into Laura! Now, Laura is the South African girl that Stef was traveling with through Mexico when I first met them back in Isla Mujeres in 2004! Though I’ve kept touch with Laura via email, I’d never had a chance to see her because she was never around when I was in London.
So here we were meeting on the street. Love it when that happens. Stef had to run because she was late for work, so Laura and I chatted awhile before I had to head off to the station. She indicated she’ll be in town when I head back to London for a couple nights before my return flight to the states, so hopefully we can all meet up then, that would be nice.
After a horrific check-in process at London Stansted, and a delayed flight, I made it to Copenhagen. Sjelle was at the airport, exhausted from waiting. It was really nice to see her again. I’d really missed her, shocking but true! We got on the train back into town, and she took me over to Bergljott’s place, where I would spend the next couple of nights. Sjelle’s staying with her parents right now, and their place is quite small. So this was a better move for the first couple of nights. I’ll then have hotels from Friday on, so all should be fine after that.
Copenhagen is proving to be a wonderful city so far, but that’s for another entry…. =)
In the meantime, Mom’s ashes remain intact with no issues or incidents. Let’s hope things stay that way.
