June 12th:
Got to London, nice flight again on Iceland air. Arrived 8pmish so customs was quick. Made my way over to Treys and then had no clue where to go because he gave me shit directions… Finally called him from the credit card phone booth since I didn’t have any change yet.
June 13th. Slep in a bit and then went with Trey to meet up with his boyfriend Phil. Had lunch at a Vietnemese restaurant, pretty good; I had some noods and beef or something. Made our way down the canal of Hackney and into a market. Had a few drinks then went down to a pub to watch the US/England soccer game. Had several more strong drinks and started to pass out a bit by the end of the game. Red bull and it was off to my second wind. Went to another pub…another pint, then onto Bar23 or whatever where we ran into Trey’s friends and hung out until about 1 am. Walked back to the flat and passed out I guess…
June 14th (Sunday)
Woke up and went to go meet with Trey’s friends for lunch About 10 people showed up (all girls) and it made me realize Trey is the gay guy from Sex in the City. I’m not sure if they thought I was one of his gay friends or not but whatever. Had a nice big roast beef lunch then went to a pub I the park for drinks the rest of the afternoon. Watched a little soccer, drank a jug of Pimms and a few pints of beer. Hit up a fish and chip shop on the way home then ate well at home while watching the Matrix. Crashed out at this point.
June 15th:
Woke up and sorted out some things on the computer for a while, then made my way down to Southampton to visit Paul and Emma (old friends from my clubbing days in London 9 years ago..). Showed up a bit early so wondered around some local shops and ended up at TGIF of all places to have a couple of beers while waiting. Paul picked me up and we went back to his place. 2 kids now….4 and 2, girl and boy. Quite different surroundings, but Paul and Emma were much the same otherwise. They had a little party/DJ room downstairs that we hung out in after putting the kids to bed. Had a pizza and some beers, smoked some spliffs, caught up on things… Walked down to his dad’s place a few blocks away, met his brother and cousin…cool local folks. Picked up a mountain bike to go on a ride the next day. Went back and played with the turn tables a bit…have a better appreciation for it, but would love to play more at some point in life (thought the same thing 9 years ago when I tried it out…)
June 16th:
Paul took the day off, we got up, had a full English breakfast cooked up by Paul, then took off for a 15 mile bike ride through the forest. Damn I’m out of shape! Fucking awesome bike ride for sure. All kinds of roads and forests and paths and crazy English countryside. Stopped at a pub along the way and actually had a sprite instead of beer as I had my ass kicked by the ride. Made our way through even crazier woods and dropped a foot into some deep/nasty mud. Ass was starting to hurt. Ended up at Paul’s G-ma’s house for tea and biscuits. Chatted about random things and checked out her garden. Took the train back and headed home for a full dinner which was great (thanks Emma!). Had to take off back to London, but got hooked up with some awesome mixes and a few movies for my ipod.
All in all a fantastic meet up with locals…hope to have similar experiences elsewhere couchsurfing. They extended an invite to meet up with Paul’s mom down in Greece which I hope to take them up on…
Chilled out back in London, ordered a pizza with Trey, caught up on some internet stuff and crashed out.
June 16th:
Got up in the morning and packed up my wrinkled (but clean) clothes to go meet my mom. She was about an hour late. We were both meeting up with the mother of a former exchange student from Prague. Quite nice, quite tall as well. We all walked down to Hyde park and had a bite to eat at the café, saw the Princess Diana memorial, then over to Harrod’s to browse…saw a $300k necklace. Went back through the park and said goodbye to Jana. Mom and I went down to Trafaleger and ate at they crypt. Giant bowls of pudding and soup which were pretty good but more than I was interested in at the moment. Went over to Leischter sq and got tickets to Priscilla (a musical about Australian drag queens). I didn’t think I would like it but actually it was damn good. The little kid in the musical was annoyingly cutesy and I wanted to throw something at him.
June 17th:
Woke up early for full English breakfast at the hotel. Went on a walking tour of some of the big British sites that I had actually not seen before. Kind of not that interested as it turns out. Not really into the touristy thing at the moment….was questioning my trip motives and having trip identity crisis (here I was in one of the funnest cities in the world to party in and I was hanging out with my mom on walking tours). We had a bite to eat then went to the Tate Modern which is a great Modern art museum and is free. Afterwards we walked down and had a drink (snakebite at the Temple Walkabout, one of my favorite drinks ever…) then over for some pub food which actually kind of sucked and was over priced because it was near Covent Garden. Then we went over to see Stomp which was definitely good, but not great. Something I had always wanted to see but never had anyone to really go with. Mom fell asleep 3 times in both musicals (this in spite of a cup of coffee right before we walked in). Overall glad I went to the musicals as these are not usually my thing. I probably wouldn’t pay to go see them myself in the future unless I was taking a girl or something. Came home and watched the season finally of Breaking Bad on itunes. Fucking amazing…stressed me out. In the process of jailbreaking my iphone, but still need to sort a few things out. Impossible without proper internet access to read up on things. I have found that internet is not nearly as easy to come by as I thought….basically everyone has passwords on their wifi and its annoying.
I did notice that internet is like $10/month at home here…fucking cheap. Cable is only like $20 also. I guess they make up for it in gas prices (like $8/gallon). Starting to hate American tourists more than ever as they fail to get out of the way quite often.
Leaving London tomorrow, but I guess going to try and see a Musuem and meet up with Trey to get his phone back to him. Feeling like I need to get a bunch of logistics sorted out still, but not as stressed about it as when I left….just looming over me, kind of wish I still had my old phone number, but ultimately I don’t really need it that bad, I have everyone’s numbers, but hate the hassel of everyone not having mine…whatever. I’ll worry about it some other time.
