from Pillar to Post: a traveller's guide to stuff: A week in London

Flying into London was obviously exciting, yet I was, for some reason, also quite nervous.. Arriving in Heathrow airport meant that all of those months (over 12 of them) of planning and organising and talking about our Asian adventure had finally come to a close and our itinerary had essentially ceased to exist. I had now officially entered the realm of infinite possibilities and the unknown.
Something else that bothered me was entering back into western culture.. I say this not meaning to offend anyone, but I see the "western culture" in general as somewhat superficial, especially when comparing it with the extremely functional cultures that we came across in south-east Asia. I didn't particularly care for the people's "need" to be fashionable, the "need" to show ones wealth with a nice car or the "need" for possessions in general. I basically found the place and people quite uninspired and uninspiring because of this. This was definitely a case of reverse culture shock, but I guess I've always felt this way and it was just magnified by my experiences at the time. Nevertheless, as with everything, it doesn't take long to become accustomed to your surroundings and I am now quite used to the culture again, and have even been noticing a few substantial positive attributes within our ethos as compared to the Asian societies.
I say I was entering the unknown.. well, sort of... I have been to London before, a couple of years ago, and so had no trouble in finding my way around the Tube (which seemed a little lousier than I recalled from last time - the metros in Japan and China were definitely better - but in its defence, the Tube is nearly 150 years old, the oldest underground metro in the world) which, let's face it, is pretty much all you need to know your way around London. We had our 2-year UK working holiday visas stamped (phew...) as we passed through immigration and caught the Tube to King's Cross station where we met up with Nic (the Northerner; you'll remember her from my NZ blog). From here Lee and I split up to stay with separate friends.
This short time in London was pretty much one big catchup session for me with a whole bunch of people I hadn't seen in ages (or hadn't ever seen for that matter). Nic, Jode and their housemates were kind enough to lend me their couch for the few days I was to spend here. Man, it was great (and strange) meeting up with Nic again, this time in her own country.. She even took a well deserved day off work and we took in a bit of sightseeing and took the train out to the Prime Meridien and Royal Observatory at Greenwich, where we got the very novel idea (I'm sure) of taking a photo of us standing with one foot in the eastern hemisphere and the other in the western.
I caught up quite a bit with my best mate, Jubby, who I had only seen for 1 month or so out of the past 20. He has the same visa as I and came over last August. Like old times.. Nothing changes.. And that's the way I like it :) No-one can understand what we're on about when we're together - and I think most of the time we have no idea either haha. The first night out we had was spent in Walkabout - a very typically Aussie pub, complete with Foster's flags, a sign pointing to the "Dunnies" and some of the bar staff wearing All Blacks shirts.
Ella, another fellow Adelaidean and long-time-no-see candidate, is also here and we shared a few beers (and double vodkas, right?) and spent some quality time, along with Jubby, standing pointlessly in the line to get into a club hosting Paris Hilton. Stupid £20 entrance fee... Instead of paying this ridiculous amount (equal to about A$45) we headed to a nearby bar - with the best cocktails in the world! - called Archangel.
About 10 years ago, I'd say, when the old chat lines were cool - ICQ, mIRC, etc. - I started chatting with 3 gals from Michigan, USA. I have kept in particularly close touch with Michelle. Obviously with me living in Australia and she in the US, we haven't really had the chance to meet. Until now.. Turns out she and her friend Ami were in London at the same time as I was! What are the odds? We just had to catch up! And how else does one catch up but over a beer? We chose a pub and got to chatting pretty much like we had known each other for years, which technically we have :)
On the 16th of May, our mum flew over and spent a couple of days in London with us, getting ready for her two week trip in Europe.. And when I say Europe, I mean Barcelona!

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