Fritz’n the UK
Well, it’s 4 in the afternoon and I’m riding the train back to Tring to see Wil. Today was my first excursion into London, which was rather interesting. Unfortunately, it rained on me while I was touring the town.
Let’s start with my flight over though. Very nice, British Airways, I like these guys. I mean, they give you free wine with you meal. That’s a great business strategy to make sure that your customers are happy: Give them alcohol. Cheers!
The first thing I saw before I left the airport in Vancouver on my over to Heathrow was pretty humorous. See photo to the left: This was one of the flight information screens in Vancouver Int’l Airport. Need I say more... go Windows... boo!
Unfortunately, the people that I sat next to on the plane were not particularly nice people. I was already feeling slightly disappointed because I went through the effort of checking in online so I could pick better seats. I usually find that Exit row seats have more leg room, but not on this plane. :( At least not in the center of the plane, so I got the shaft on the one. Then I got myself situated and sat down, naturally saying hello to the people that I was going to sit next to so that there would be some amiability between us for the next 9 1/2 hours. Nuh uh... not this flight. They did not even respond, except with a slight instinctive shift of the head towards me as if their brain caused their head to turn because it heard a sound, but the over arching instinct of rudeness took over and they quickly snapped back to whatever they were doing without a word. I was rather shocked. So, I took that and never talked to them again. It turned out later that they were French. I’m sorry, I’m not racist and whenever I meet french people, I treat them as I would anybody else, but most of my experiences with french people have revealed a common rudeness. So, let’s say I wasn’t so shocked anymore. I hope they didn’t feel polluted by my American presence. :-p jerks.
Well, after my all night flight, I arrived and made it through customs after a full hour and there was my beloved Wil waiting for me :) Oh joy of joys... we went straight away to his parents house where I met them. Sara, quit fussing about Tring, so far I like it better then London. :-p It’s a sweet, idyllic little town. Alas, I found a familiar sight though. Oh Wil is going to kill me for this one, but yes... here is Wil’s room in his parents’ house and it had the same ordered clutter that I experience of my roommate last year. I was home :)
I got such a kick out of his dad. I’ll try to get a picture of Wil’s family up here soon enough, but Wil’s father is a trip. I like his family and his mum is a sweetheart. They are all very loving and hospitable. In fact, 
they even have this little cottage that Wil helped his father build in the backyard. It’s really fun. Like a clubhouse for hiding away from people in the house if you need privacy (pron. pri-va-see here). Wil took us out there to chat. I felt like we needed big sheets and flashlights so we could make forts. :)
they even have this little cottage that Wil helped his father build in the backyard. It’s really fun. Like a clubhouse for hiding away from people in the house if you need privacy (pron. pri-va-see here). Wil took us out there to chat. I felt like we needed big sheets and flashlights so we could make forts. :)Those were my first two days, today was my first time in London. I wandered around an area called Oxford Circus
. I’m not certain why it had that name, but it certainly was that. It was a circus of people and I found myself pretty overwhelmed which is not a feeling I’m used to having whilst being in a new place. I think it had to do with being alone. Just trying to remember to look to the left before crossing the street was difficult enough, but this area of town was simply so busy.
I eventually just relaxed and wandered at my own pace even though everybody else was in a horrible rush. I wanted to eat at some cool little authentic restaurant or a side street vendor selling kabobs or something, but the whole areas was just full of fast food or posh places. It was overly commercialized. 
Wil is telling me, now that I’m back, that that area of town is exactly that and he never goes there. So, when I get back to London next week, I’ll go play around in the more interesting places rather than just the trendy shopping areas.
Something else I noticed whilst in London, I’ve never been in a town that had so many monuments erected to people of the past. Well, that’s not entirely true. I mean, I’ve traveled Europe before and it’s the same story there. For whatever reason though, this particular attribute really struck me. Probably because I was 14 when I visited Europe and still didn’t know how to tie my shoelaces.
Thursday, April 26, 2007