london

on tuesday i purchased 'battle studies' by john mayer for an exorbitant price at the local record store. it is a good one, pretty chill and maybe a bit more serious, still good and worth it though. on wednesday, i baked a delicious meat pie, tourtiere as it is called in french canada. and attempted lemon meringue but that was a failure, i will work on that one, still baking is not my area of expertise.

left for london on friday night after work. it was a logistical nightmare, i hate flying out of basel and the basel airport on cheap airlines like ryan air and easy jet. it takes ~1.5 hours to get to the basel airport on train+bus. then 'jamming' to get on the plane cause there are no assigned seats. the flight is only 1:10 or so. london gatwick is a ~45 minute + ~20 pound train to the city center. between leaving work and getting to our hostel, took about 6 hours. next time, flying out of zurich to london heathrow, on british airways or swiss air, i will pay the extra little bit for a little more quality.

in any case, london was absolutely amazing. like one of my favorite places so far. threw down our stuff at the hostel, it was chris' birthday on the friday actually, so had to go out, there was no other choice. met up with rachel who got there earlier in the day and her two friends that are living there, it was very much appreciated as well to have locals show us around. proceeded to eat some MACdonalds which was probably a poor decision, and then wandered the streets of london essentially to get to this one bar. got there at around 2, drum and bass was playing, the tube doesn't start running till about 6, so there was no choice but to stay out until about 7 am. great decision. woke up the next day, went to the natural history museum, there was a skating rink outside, it was funny watching people skate. pretty clear why canada vs. england in hockey has never happened. the natural history museum was so awesome. animals, nature, dinosaurs, pretty much just everything that is awesome that exists was in there. spent a good long time hanging out in there, it was very very cool. after the museum we went out to eat at this local pub, it was kind of out of the way but very nice, the food was just very, very solid. just good, proper food, i got a steak, there was a meat pie, and fish and chips. nothing special, i love just good food though. after this pub, we headed over to camden market, this big permanent outdoor/indoor market that i'm pretty sure sold everything, and it was about infinitely big. vintage clothes, shoes, bags, hats, everything for cheap too. we were only there for a couple hours, although if we had stayed longer, i would have likely bought 100x more stuff. so cool. smelled like food too. good food that was available for reasonable prices, like 3 pounds ~= 5 chf maybe. man, i would go back to london just for proper food. also had a starbucks latte, not like i love starbucks that much or anything, but for 2 pounds ~= 3 chf it was actually reasonable rather than the 7 chf that you would pay in zurich. after the market was a theatre show. took the tube to picadilly circus, there were just a ton of people there. i guess it's supposed to be pretty much like times square so yea there were a lot of people. the show was very good, Avenue Q, it's like an adult version of sesame street, pretty inappropriate but hilarious and very well done. seeing as the previous night had been a late/early? one, just headed back to sleep after the show.

the sunday morning we walked through hyde park, just this big park with trees and a ton of squirrels. lots of people walking their very english looking dogs. guards riding horses. overcast day. very nice walk. went to join this free walking tour of all the palaces and such. got devastated by an intense rainstorm. finished the tour. saw most of the sights. went shopping a bit more. got ready to catch the tube to the heathrow airport to go home that night. yup, pretty much just did not make it to the airport on time at all. completely missed the flight. luckily, there was a little bit of confusion with the flight time etc., and the very nice british airways man changed our tickets to the monday morning free of charge. what a nice guy. british airways is pretty classy. so is the heathrow airport. so rachel calls up her friend and she lets us stay over at her house for the night. went and got some greasy chinese take away. it was probably not the greatest, but i haven't had black bean sauce in forever so it was pretty good. woke up early the next morning just to make sure not to miss the plane this time. ate breakfast and had a pint of cider at the airport. it was great.

just a great trip, read a paper on the way back, missed doing that. understanding what people say, reading signs, doing a crossword, i miss just being able to speak to people. definitely want to go back.

callouses on my fingertips, guitar is so fun. i would rather do that than sitting at work right now.