Wednesday, September 7, 2011

9-7-2011



Continuing the documentation of our daily free breakfast, in addition to toast and jam, today I discovered that there are also digestive biscuits! It's important to eat a good breakfast before going sight seeing all day. Taking pictures (with other people's cameras) is hard work. Horses. This is Buckingham Palace by the way. I just didn't want to put the typical touristy building pictures on here.

Messenger hipsters look the same no matter where you go. This is Trafalgar Square I was a little bummed out that there aren't swarms of pigeons there anymore, but I guess I'm happy that I didn't get pooped on (I'm speaking from experience). The monument is too tall for one shot. Oh yeah, we had just gone to the National Gallery and the National Portrait Gallery, but ironically for a place all about pictures of people, you aren't allowed to take pictures in there.

Now you are allowed to take pictures in Hackney, but considering it's recent news making as the cool place to riot and go looting, I was a sissy and kept my camera in my bag. Well, really I wasn't a sissy for being dumb enough to go there in the first place, so maybe I was smart enough to keep my camera in my bag. In any case, the only picture I took was of the Burberry Outlet Store which ended up being a big let down. Kind of like the lack of rioting and looting in Hackney that we went to see.

I mentioned before that both Paris and London are full of shops full of things I'm specifically interested in. This one was pretty extreme. I didn't really take any pictures of the cases full of every kind of camera I've ever wanted, mainly because I was shy, but also because I was seriously considering selling organs to buy a Leica (I'm still not sure I made the right decision). To try and distract me from my camera lust, Nicole took me to the British Museum. The Musee d'Orsay is in a cool converted train station, but equally cool architecturally, this museum has a giant glass ceiling that connects its separate buildings. The buildings are full of ancient old stuff like holy cats, fancy hieroglyphs, statues that are this tall, and more holy cats. People in Paris and London both like drawing sculptures. In preparation for Paris, I really wish I ordered one of these from the late night infomercial that promises to teach you other languages. I don't think that this is the French version though. I liked how this room looked, like we should be smashing the floor with Indiana Jones or something. I bet this would have fit me since it's sized for Asian people.

I've already forgotten what this fancy building was, but I'm pretty sure it was just a random fancy building that we passed while chasing dragons and walking down Fleet Street. Johnny Depp made a musical about making meat pies out of people on this street. I tried not to think about it when I ate my meat pie yesterday, but it was pretty cool to think about while we were walking down the street today.

We did a lot of walking this trip. We rode trains or walked everywhere, which makes you very tired and hungry. I'm understanding this pub thing more and more every day. They're the best place around to sit down and eat food when you're tired. And there's beer there. I had more beer even though I don't really like it since I still think that's the right thing to do in pubs. Another thing I don't really like to do that I figured was the right thing to do since we were at a pub was eating fish and chips (with my beer). I really don't like fish. I eat sushi because it's raw and tastes good, but I'm pretty sensitive to any form of cooked fish as being fishy. Well, much like rude French people, and London only having gross food, I was pleasantly surprised to find that I really really like fish and chips. I like fish and chips way more than I like beer. These guys sitting next to us liked hearing themselves talk way more than they liked beer. And they liked beer a lot. I should point out that this was all at a super cool pub called the Cheshire Cheese that's been around since forever.

This is a literal tourist trap. The whole time we were in London, I felt that traffic was out to kill us and sang Nicole the Smiths song about ten ton trucks and a double decker bus killing the both of us pretty much every time we crossed the street. This is the only solid proof I have that this theory is valid, but it's pretty solid. I was going say that I wished Cleveland had a river we could walk along at night because I really enjoyed the Thames and the Seine, but well...yeah, Cuyahoga...step your game up. All three places have rivers and I have 20s from all three places.