England update

Posted 07-06-2011 at 01:34 PM by Phylum
Updated 08-11-2012 at 05:27 AM by Phylum

I'm currently in England and loving it.

The flight over was hell. I slept for 4 hours during a 23 hour flight. The seats were uncomfortable and I had no leg room. I relied on movies and tv shows to pass time. I saw Norwich as we were touching down. Did you see me waving, Will?

We're staying with relatives in London right now. It's a lovely area. The houses are charming and there are local shops just around the corner.

The amount of independent shops I've seen here are amazing. There are so few back in Australia. One bakery has been around since 1642. Captain Cook wasn't even born then!

On Tuesday I went to a flute shop, Allflutesplus. I spent about 1.5 hours playing flutes and I found 2 that I really like. I'm considering buying one, seeing as my current flute has been played to death.

We also walked down to the Brittish Museum after exhausting my lips playing flute. Mummies are creepy. The statues made to guard tombs were obviously shoddy.

Today we headed off to the Natural History Museum, but we didn't enter. I recorded a video of the queue which ended up being 2 minutes long. We went into the Science Museum instead.

After arsing around the exhibit of the evolution of household appliances for 40 minutes we decided to move around a bit faster. We looked around the crowded space areas, but I eventually convinced my parents to skip ahead to the maths and computers sections. The mathematic shapes and drawing apparati were unbelievable. The computers were even more absurdly compacted. I took lots of photos of calculators.

The public transport infastrucure in London is brilliant. After living in Adelaide all of my life I am simply blown away to see how smoothly everything runs. With the help of a street map and a tube map I am now feeling confident that I can navigate around London. The roads, however, look confusing as fuck.

I'm having loads of fun and we have more excitement to come, on Monday we're catching a train out to Bristol to see my brother and his family.

Once I arrive home, I'll post some photos and summarise this whole trip a bit better. I also appologi for any incoherancies in this post. I'm still a bit jet lagged and I'm not used to the touch keyboard on the iPad I'm using to type this.

Posted in Not Crap or Music

Comments 13

Total Comments 13

Comments

	I did read this, and it was a good blog. I just can't think of anything to say, but it entertained me sufficiently to deserve a comment... Glad you're enjoying my country. That's all I could think of.
	Posted 07-06-2011 at 03:35 PM by Splat

	If you're in London and you got some spare time PM me if you like! I'm surprised you like the public transport, everyone here thinks it's shit.
	Posted 07-06-2011 at 04:01 PM by STM

	There are independent shops in Australia; most are run by poor Asian immigrants who are willing to work absurd hours for little pay.
	Posted 07-06-2011 at 05:15 PM by moxco

	But there aren't many that are just on the street anymore.
	Posted 07-07-2011 at 12:02 AM by Phylum

	: I'm surprised you like the public transport, everyone here thinks it's shit. So imagine how much worse it must be in Adelaide. And Melbourne too, given that I absolutely love the London Underground.
	Posted 07-07-2011 at 02:30 AM by Nate

	You poor poor people!
	Posted 07-07-2011 at 04:35 AM by STM

What STM is saying is true - I can imagine that if you don't have a proper infrastructure where you come from that you'd see London's as being fantastic. Yeah, it's a decent system, but it's not really good enough for London's needs and could be a hell of a lot better. It's overpriced, often crowded (especially during peak hours), there's often delays... Plus the staff seem to go on strike often. It's a bit better than it was, but it's still naff.

Still Phlym, welcome to the UK - Having been lucky enough to visit London's museums often during my childhood, I don't remember them as ever being as insanely crowded as they are today, and that's a big shame - The Natural History museum has some awesome stuff inside it that you missed out on.

The trick is to visit the museums in the middle of weekdays during spring, autumn and winter, although I know that's probably not an option for you now it's something to bear in mind if you decide to come back here and happen to pass through London (they're good, but not worth coming back here specifically just to see them).

Posted 07-07-2011 at 06:51 AM by DarkHoodness

Updated 07-07-2011 at 06:57 AM by DarkHoodness

	The Natural History Museum is pretty awesome. Good to hear you had a nice time anyway.
	Posted 07-07-2011 at 07:28 AM by MeechMunchie

	: It's overpriced, often crowded (especially during peak hours), there's often delays... Every train system in the world has these problems. At least your trains are reasonably reliable, come with decent frequency and have routes that cover a good proportion of the city without leaving wide swathes inaccessible.
	Posted 07-07-2011 at 04:24 PM by Nate

	Only London is well covered by the unnecessarily labyrinthine transit system.
	Posted 07-08-2011 at 06:48 AM by STM

	Public transport in Toronto is the shit. Also, I've never seen a queue for the Natural History Museum except for my visit on a school trip. Alternatively: I've never seen a queue for the Natural History Museum that I did not simply bypass. PROTIP: use the side entrance.
	Posted 07-08-2011 at 10:27 AM by Bullet Magnet

	: Only London is well covered by the unnecessarily labyrinthine transit system. Given that we were talking about London, what's your point?
	Posted 07-08-2011 at 05:21 PM by Nate

	Ah, when you said 'at least your trains are reliable' I thought you had broadened the spectrum a bit.
	Posted 07-09-2011 at 02:50 AM by STM

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