London Calling

Tolkein said "Not all who wander are lost", but I love getting "lost". I got in yesterday to London around noon. I had a little bit of trouble at customs because I was winging my lodging for the night. Took the Underground to Piccadilly Circus and managed to find my way to Piccadilly Hotel, a nice hostel close to a lot of the major sites. Then came the real fun.

I set out to explore Trafalgar Square, Buckingham Palace, etc. and got very distracted along the way. The ended up taking about nine hours, all walking. (London has a great subway system, but I just like to walk). I just wanted to walk around and observe, to learn about the culture and worldview of the city and people. It was fascinating. Here are a couple things I noticed/experienced:

• Entertaining/Playful: Witnessed a street show in the Market area of Covent Garden near St. Paul's Church. It entailed a guy juggling knives and a chainshaw on a eight foot unicycle while only wearing pink spandex boxers (see flickr picture)
• Different Street Codes: Obviously the people over here drive on the other side of the road, but didn't know that about the escalators, until I tried walking down the up (interesting)
• Expensive: A six pack of Bud cost $15 in the supermarket, while most everything really is twice as much than in US
• Helpful: People were helpful when I had questions...when I was lost around the University of London, the guy said, "Buddy, maybe you should get a map". I had a map, but that is beside the point
• Nice and Clean: The city is remarkably clean and the people dress really, really nice (also drive great cars) Almost all the guys were wearing three piece suits. Crazy. The parks are incredible as well.

I'm met some cool travelers as well. Lots of young people, primarily from Europe, but also connected with a kid from Minnesota last night. Great to meet other travelers and share stories, hear advice about other place to visit/check out. Well, internet cafe time is running out. Until next time