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London, home of the Queen, the Rolling Stones, Monopoly, Chelsea and Arsenal and for the next week...Adam Neylon and Chloe Sirca.
Arriving into Londontown all the way out at Stansted airport meant we still had a bit of a journey into the beating heart of the city, so we enthusiastically jumped on a bus and enjoyed the scenic drive into the city. We met up with Renee and Dale (for those who don't know Renne is the sister of Luke, who is dating Chloe's eldest sister Renee...haha so these weren't just two random people we were meeting). They were kind enough to offer us to stay for the week at their sharehouse in Fulham (which is rivht near Chelsea in London). Words cannot thank them so much for putting us up, we had a little base in London to go from and they actually made us feel like we were at home (especially because they had vegemite ohhhhhhh yeah!!!!)
Pretty tired from traveling all day, we crashed early that night after a pasta dinner with Renee and Dale.
The next morning after a leisurely breakfast we decided it was time to head out and explore, we got off the tube stop at Westminster Abbey. So literally our first view coming out of the tube was Big Ben..incredible! Right past us zoomed red double-decker buses and black taxis, on the pavement around us were red telephone boxes, the river Thames was to the left of us and in the distance there was Parliament and Westminster Abbey...talk about an awesome first experience of London. When we finally got our jaws off the floor we headed to Buckingham Palace (or buckpal as we liked to refer to it) hoping to catch the daily changing of the guards. We somehow forgot to factor in that it would probably be packed with tourists, and arriving just as the ceremony started we rocked up. Not accepting the crappy hand of cards we had been dealt, we both weaseled our way through the crowd and picked up prime positions.
Pretty sick of crowds, we headed off from the buckpal not knowing where to go now...time for a coffee. Being massive fans of Monopoly, we were both pretty excited to actually see the properties we had been buying for years and building hotels on...unfortunately Adam's deed on the monopoly of Mayfair and Park Lane wasn't offically recognized in London..damn hahha!
We took in the sights of Trafalgar Square, Picadilly Circus and Leicster Square before getting into a massive line for the London/Millenium Eye...
What was only like an hour in line felt like 3 or 4, as London was treating us to one of its hot days..which was suprisingly hot haha! But the views from the London Eye were spectacular, and well worth both the wait and cost. We were planning to call it a day when we made a slight detour from our journey back home to Hyde Park. Slight detour it started off as....mega long detour it ended up being! Walking around Hyde Park we made our way to Harrods. Think of Myer on steroids, that's Harrods haha, it is sooo extravagent there..they display chocolate and lollies as if they are jewellery...now imagine what their jewellery displays are like haha. They basically sell everything too, including real estate, but still they didn't have a Cherries so they ain't got nothing on the Werribee Plaza. We strolled through Mayfair mapping our way back to the nearest bus station. After an exhausting day walking all around London we arrived back at Renee and Dale's.
The following day we had a bit more a plan of attack for the day instead of just wandering around in circles like the previous day (no thanks to Adam's less then boy scout quality navigational skills haha). First on the agenda for day two was the Tower of London (TTOL). We arrived there just in time to jump onto a free introductory tour of TTOL, taken by a guard of TTOL who was even decked out in all his official gear haha (although we thought he was a little less of a guard and more of a comedian!). After an express tour, we spent the next few hours checking out the church in TTOL, exploring the dungeons, visiting the weapons exhibition and even seeing a collection of the Crown Jewels!! Just for reference, there is no way George Clooney and the rest of his Ocean gang could smash through the vault these jewels are locked behind haha. Exiting TTOL we caught a glimpse of Tower Bridge.
Pretty hungry we made a beeline for Brick Lane in Whitechapel to sample a famous London Curry. Getting out of the tube at Whitechapel was like entering another world, the sidewalk was covered with market stalls selling everything Indian...Bollywood movies, more Bollywood movies, dodgey mobile phones, Indian food, Bollywood music, toys and more toys, ohhh and more Bollywood movies haha. So trying to find Brick Lane wasn't an easy feat, especially when we started off walking in the complete wrong direction (Chloe was really giving it to Adam about his navigational skills by this stage!!). After we negotiated our way inthe right direction back through the street markets of Whitechapel Road. Now the hard decision was trying to actually decide which Curryhouse was just right for us...it was made a little easier when we saw 'Currymaster of Brick Lane for 2008 and 2009' above the signs of one restuarant. Just as we were about to walk in, we noticed something else on the sign that we had neglected to see at first glance...the words 'runner up' in small print under the 'currymaster of 08 and 09' line. Haha we nearly got stooged by the tricky indian adverising, that's when we began to realise that heaps and heaps of other restaurants proclaimed to hold similar 'runner up' and out of date 'currymaster' titles haha (for example 'currymaster of brick lane 04 and 05....runner up' Sneaky sneaky!!!).
After a bit of exploring we found the current reigning Currymaster Champion and decided that was where we were to dine! We had the best Indian, words cannot describe how awesome this meal was nor how much Chloes mouth was on fire when she consumed a chili she confused for a bean haha. Needless to say our seemingly simple idea to get Indian for lunch, wasn't that simple.
The rest of the afternoon we spent walking over the Thames via the London Bridge, seeing the Globe theatre (famously the theatrical home of every high school students nemesis...you know who I'm talking about... William Shakespeare), admiring/laughing at the 'art' collection of the Tate Modern, strolling up Fleet Street and before we knew it we had to wind up day two of sightseeing to catch up with Renee and Dale for a movie.
Day three was loosely planned out..first thing, Abbey Road. After taking 3 differnet trains on the tube, we finally arrived at the famous Abbey Road. Two things we had forgot to factor in when we created our plan..other tourists and Abbey Road traffic made it a little harder to get that perfect Beatlesesque Abbey Road photo. Literally it was that busy we took almost an hour to get a couple of seeminly easy photographs. We detoured then passed Paul McCartney's house (only to be snobbed when we friendly/creepily called out for his presence) and onto 'the home of cricket' Lord's Cricket Ground (Seriously it must have been the only day that summer that no cricket game was on there, not even a county match..damn!!!). Next thing on the daily list of fun, Camden Town Market. If your in the market to purchase some new leather threads, studded/spiked jewellery or get a new tatt then your probably a punk, and in any case Camden Town Market I'd for you, but we aren't punks so not suprisingly we went home from Camden empty handed. Although the trip out to Camden wasn't a complete fizzle, we had some delicious vegetarian food and Adam got the best milkshake of all time...a Milky Way Shake ohhhhhhhh yeah!
With time left in the day we decided to head to Hyde Park. After chilling in le park with a friendly squirrle, we headed to nearby Oxford Street. Primark caught Chloe's attention and before he knew it he was being dragged into the superstore. There was literally 2000 people in this two level store, maybe even more..you could barely move!! And what did we stupidly decide to do with only one phone between us, split up to look in our respective gender section...oh and of course we neglected to set up a meeting spot/time in the store haha, genius! After picking out a few items each we both spent ages circling the stores (presumably in opposite directions to one another) looking for the other. Happily ever after we found each other, and then quickly paid so we could exit the stampede that was Primark Oxford Street. Bags in hand we called it a day and made for Fulham.
Day four of London sightseeing wasn't actually spent in London...we instead decided to do what every Londoner who wasn't working/in school did when the weather hit 30degrees celcius, make for the beach. Our destination, Brighton....oh we also went there because we heard on the grapevine that good old English Fish'n'chips from Brighton were spot on!
We arrived in Brighton late morning after our hour-long train journey from Fulham and followed our noses to the water. When we got to the beach we were blown away by the Brighton Pier, which is basically an amusement park on stilts over water...very cool! (although none of the rides were extreme enough for the adrenaline junkies Adam and Chloe). What we weren't amazed by in Brighton was that the beach was covered in rocks!!! After spending a week on rock-covered beaches in Croatia, we were craving sandy beaches...our thirst for sand was not to be quenched in Brighton :-(
Stumbling down the beach on the rocks we made it down to the water, which was just a tad too cold to qualify as swimable (although there were still plenty of brave swimmers as London was in the middle of a 'heat wave', seeing as it was 30degrees haha).
After a bit of a wander round the beach and pier we indulged in fish'n'chips down on the rocky shoreline. The rest of the afternoon in Brighton was spent walking 'the lanes', laying in the park, enjoying cream tea (scones and tea) in a dog-friendly/hippy run/antique selling and decorated cafe, and admiring the Brighton town hall (which looks like the Taj Mahal, it used to be an Indian Military Center if my memory serves me correctly). It's not hard to see why Londoner's escape the crippling heat waves of summer in Brighton! We headed back to Fulham and had a good old fashioned Aussie BBQ with Renee and Dale that evening.
Day five of London sightseeing again didn't involve any sightseeing of London itself, we headed out on a roadtrip with Renee and Dale, this time to The Stonehedge and the former Roman-town of Bath. For anyone is planning to go to London, a common misconception is that the stonehedge is located relatively close to London itself..wrong! It's a good few hours away by car, and there is basically nothing else around it, so make a day trip out of it if your planning to go! Ohh but please don't let that deter you, the Stonehedge (while it is only a pipe of rocks), it is amazing!!! It's hard to really out your finger on why a trip to the hedge leaves you with this feeling, it could be the mystery surrounding it's existence, the many theories as to it's purpose, the possibility it means nothing at all, the rolling green hills that surround the hedge or maybe just the stones themselves and the hedge they create. We strolled the hedge, listening to our audio guide to the many theories of why the hedge is..well a stonehedge. Of course we took our obligatory photos of us with the hedge, and in many poses so it seems we are holding it in our hand, leaning against it, pushing it and even standing on (lots of fun!!).
Next stop, Bath. This town is not your typical English town, it doesn't look like Harry Potter could be leaving under the stairs inside one of these homes, in fact the town looks like we had been transported back to Italy. With it's winding cobblestone roads, Romanesque style buildings and even Roman baths, Bath was truely unique. We spent the rest of the afternoon wandering the streets of Bath before making the trek back to London. Our final evening in London, before heading off to Edinburgh to begin our Scottish Highland Adventure, we spent down the pub with Renee and Dale enjoying Pimms, Bangers & Mash and Pea Soup.
The following morning we were up early (way too early..7am yuck!!), departing Fulham for King's Cross to catch our Scotland-bound train...next stop Edinburgh.
And so ends another chapter of the Sirlon (Sirca and Neylon) blog, until next time peace out bloggers!
Love team Sirlon
Xoxox
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