London Calling

Friday I made my first foray into the capital of the Olde Empire and what a place it is. My day started bright and early as I had to catch a train from Southend to the city. I caught the 8 am C2C which is pretty much the commuter rail. So all the business type were rumbling and bumbling about on the same commute they have been making for god knows how long now. The train ride was extremely smooth and very quiet, I was really impressed. I took a window seat to make sure that I saw what we were traveling through. It was mostly cowfields and pastures, but it was all new to me so I didnt mind. There was one particular field we went through that seemed to have an old minaret tower that just stood alone, I'm not sure what it was but it looked very cool but it just came and went along with the rest of the scenery. I had to stop off in Upminster which--from the 5 minutes I was in the town--seems very well-to-do. A place where you would find proper Englishmen and Englishwomen. Perhaps the most important exchange of the day happened during my brief encounter with Upminster, I got my ticket for the match later on at Wembley!


The Golden Ticket.

After that brief hiatus my trip got back on track and I got back on a C2C train. Shortly thereafter arrived at Fenchurch Street, London. If I had known any better I would have stretched because I walked all over the place. My first order of business took me to BUNAC on Bowling Green Lane. BUNAC is responsible for producing my student visa which allows me to work over here in the UK. So I bought a day pass on the Underground (Tube) which would be my primary mode of transportation for the day (or so I thought). Once at BUNAC I had to go to a mandatory meeting about the basics of living in England, like the taxes, health care and so forth. To be honest though, I really wasnt all that attentive and I probably should have been. I just wanted to get out and see the city. What I did learn from the session was that London is divided into different zones, with start with Zone 1 (the center of the city) and Zones 2-5 form rings around the center with 5 being the farthest away, like a bullseye. After finishing up at the BUNAC headquarters I had the rest of the day to myself and decided to walk to the US embassy to register as an American in the UK. I wanted to walk rather than taking the tube because I would miss much of the city. So me, my ipod, and map were left to our own devices. The layout of the city is very similar to Boston with the random one-way streets as well as streets that just defy logic or common sense everyway possible. So I felt confident that I could take London head-on. I made sure take in my surroundings and it was amazing to see all of these old buildings, like at the Tower Hill tube station, which features London Tower as well as a wall dating back to when the Romans were conquering Celtic and Saxon tribes. My trek to the embassy led me from the east side of Zone 1 to the west side and it was very much a stop-and-go affair for various reasons. Either I was double checking my map, browsing a store or taking pictures. The first store that caught my eye was a small shop called signedsports.com, which was a football memorabilia shop owned by an enthusiastic Scotsman. He had wall to wall covered with framed jerseys or photos signed by various players. Needless to say, I couldnt afford anything in that store but they were fun to peruse. I made small talk with the owner about how I was going to watch my first football match at the new Wembley and his demeanor quickly changed. He went from the terse Scotsman owner to the fellow football fan in the blink of an eye. He told me how his business partner's son played for the England national U-16 squad and how he watched them play at Wembley a week before. He then told me how amazing the stadium was and how I was lucky that I managed to find a ticket. He then went on for about 10 minutes about how I should travel to the stadium. I appreciated his fervor; I kept the post-it note with his directions as a memento even though I didnt end up going to the stadium his way. After I left his store I made a more concerted effort to make it to the US Embassy. It was fairly straightforward on the map, but once I started walking things just didnt match up with the map. For one thing, streets in London have a habit of changing names depending on where you are, which is nothing new coming from Boston. But one major difference is that there are no street signs on the corners of blocks. Rather there are little signs that are attached to the sides of the buildings on the corner of the block and face the street. So if you want to know what intersection you are at, you have to stop and play a quick little game of 'Wheres Waldo'. And just when you thought you were getting the hang of it, some of the newer buildings dont have signs on them at all.


Oh there you are.

So I finally caught on and was making good time to the embassy (or at least I thought I was doin ok) and I couldnt help but notice all the people holding signs on the sidewalks telling passers-by to visit a store. There had to be at least 5-10 people per block holding a sign telling me to visit some back alley gift shop or visit Subway for the 'Friday Mint Lamb special'. Talk about aggressive adverstising, each shop basically had a full time marketer on every street I walked by. So I made it to the embassy and they were doing construction on the building. Therefore in typical American fashion I was made to walk very far out of the way to finally get to the entrance. Continuing in typical American fashion, I waited in line for about 15 minutes until someone came up to me and told me that I did not even need to register with the embassy and pointed out some small print in the back of my passport. American Government-42023 Me-0. So feeling defeated and hunger quickly setting in I needed to find a place to eat. I noticed on my map that there was a discount for an Italian restaurant that I passed a few blocks back on the edge of Soho. So I put an extra hop in my step back to the restaurant and the extra distance was worth it for the discount. London is an expensive city. Feeling revitalized after my chicken caesar salad I noticed that it was only 3 o'clock, meaning only one thing. I still had 5 hours to kill before kickoff. Browsing my map I found meerkats telling me to get off at the Camden Town tube stop and visit them at the London Zoo. I figured what the hell, I'm going to visit some meerkats. So I took the tube to Camden Town (which is in Northern London in Zone 2) and headed to Regent's Park, home of the London Zoo, with every intention of seeing some meerkats and their animal friends. When I got there I must say I was mildly unimpressed with the Zoo. There wasn't a whole lot to see or do and frankly the habitats left a lot to be desired. I can only imagine how the giraffe feels with his sprawling 20 yards of serengeti (sorry I'm a bit biased, I spent a large portion of my childhood at the world famous San Diego Zoo). But it was a zoo and there are always entertaining animals like the gorillas to make it worthwhile.


Hello.

I took my time and made sure to see everything before the 5:30 closing time. I walked through the rest of Regent's Park, which looks absolutely gorgeous with well-cared for gardens and big oak trees. I wish I took more time to enjoy the park but I was growing weary and I just wanted to fast forward to kickoff at Wembley to be honest. I was running out of gas and I reached the point where the idea of actually getting to Wembley, nowhere near where I was at the time (I know good planning on my part), was starting to detract from my excitement of attending the game. I reached the end of Regent's Park and I took a moment to stop and smell the roses, literally. And you know what? Life has a funny way of working sometimes. Im glad that I took that moment and I'll tell you why tomorrow...Wembley gets its own blog article.