Samstag, 11. Oktober 2003
London: Day Six
Finally my day off work! So I had the chance to visit the inner city at daylight and could go on a shopping spree.
I awoke at about 12am, and being quite late I immediately got out and went to the office. There I asked Jose on how and where to get to the city. So he showed me some streets on the map, and I went away. The weather today was really great, about 23 degrees, thus allowing me to only wear a t-shirt (and trousers, of course ).
So this time I went straight through the streets knowing my way. I mostly went on high streets were I already found some small shops. Most of them were still uninteresting, though. But just like the other day, the closer I got to the city's core, the more impressive the buildings got. I first went to King's Crossing, the central train station of london. But it looked so unimpressing that I first thought I was wrong, and I went around the whole train station just to find out, that it was really that boring. That took me straight to McDonald's, where I would take a McChicken and look at the map where I was going next.
According to Jose, my next stop was Russel Square, where I found a nice park and an university.And some impressive victorian buildings and hotels as well: My eyes really went open to the full scale by looking at all those huge architecture.
Now I was finally moving to one of the biggest (the biggest?) streets of London, Oxford Street. It was only about 16 o'Clock, so I thought I maybe could visit every clothing store there. So I went into all of which having male clothing (there were quite a lot for women only, actually). But I didn't found anything which was my style: It seems that most current streetwear is based on ragged clothes or confusingly printed clothes, or all similar looking. However, I did find some nice Jeans, but they are a lot cheaper in Germany, so I'll buy them there and don't have to carry it around as luggage here.
A common phenomenon was, that there were quite a few shops appearing again and again. I maybe counted 15 starbucks, 10 Pret-a-Manger, 5 Subway, 4 H&Ms, 6 Marks&Spencer, 3 Harmonys, 6 GAPs and some other ones I didn't count. So eventually I thought I would have been to a street again and went backwards, when in reality the shops were only arranged in the same way. So the longer I went through the streets, the less new shops I found.
I was also on the lookout for any gadget/souvenir shop, where I could buy some accessoires for my girlfriend Emba or my family, but I really didn't find *anything* worth mentioning. Well, there was this one gadget shop having little elektroshockers, fake barf, speaking litterboxes and such, but honestly: I wouldn't want to bring this home. I already was this sad about not finding anything, that I nearly bought one of the infamous "My boyfriend went to London and all I got is this f*cking T-Shirt"-T-Shirts.
So I just went on the Oxford street, and many of the shops were already closing at about 18:30. I then reached the Hyde Park, where I initially wanted to go on shopping to Picadilly Circus. But as Shops were already closed, I thought I could go through the Hyde Park: But it was already dark, and there was not a single light inside the park, so I didn't dare to walk in there. Instead, I just walked around the whole thing and saw a huge amount of people waiting for their travel-coaches. Mostly germans.
Then I got to the other corner of Hyde Park and many luxurious hotels, like the blue-lit Hilton - really looking great! I stopped there for a few minutes to write some SMSs to my girlfriend and some other people, because I was feeling somewhat lonely. It's really not that much fun, walking the whole way alone and not having a partner to buy clothes for.
But I decided to go through Picadilly in spite of the shops being closed. What I found on the streets where the most impressive buildings for that day, and some really *great* looking hotels, especially from the inside. I hope I can spent some time in there, somewhen! I definitely have to go to Picadilly again by daylight to take some pictures.
After arriving at Picadilly Circus, I remembered quite a lot from my first stay in London in the Regent's Palace Hotel. I walked the streets we walked in those times and even remembered some of the buildings and shops. Well, this was only 4-5 years ago, but I'm still proud of that, being provided with a minor navigational sensability. When my fieldtrip around my known locations was over, I walked over to Soho to find something to eat and somehow got lost inside the Red-Light district...
But after all, I managed to find a Subway-store! Yes! I got myself a Italian BMT (without Ham and Olives) which tasted soooo lovely. One of those stores should be around Jose's home, so I could get to eat more of those.
Being really groggy by then, I decided to try my luck taking a bus back from near the Liverpool street. Actually, this was quite easy and the ticket was cheap. So after about 7 hours of walking, and leaving about 20kms behind, I arrived at home. Wrote my blog-entry. And will now fall to sleep.
(Pictures of the trip are already added to the Gallery, where you also can comment on each of the pictures if you like)
So this time I went straight through the streets knowing my way. I mostly went on high streets were I already found some small shops. Most of them were still uninteresting, though. But just like the other day, the closer I got to the city's core, the more impressive the buildings got. I first went to King's Crossing, the central train station of london. But it looked so unimpressing that I first thought I was wrong, and I went around the whole train station just to find out, that it was really that boring. That took me straight to McDonald's, where I would take a McChicken and look at the map where I was going next.
According to Jose, my next stop was Russel Square, where I found a nice park and an university.And some impressive victorian buildings and hotels as well: My eyes really went open to the full scale by looking at all those huge architecture.
Now I was finally moving to one of the biggest (the biggest?) streets of London, Oxford Street. It was only about 16 o'Clock, so I thought I maybe could visit every clothing store there. So I went into all of which having male clothing (there were quite a lot for women only, actually). But I didn't found anything which was my style: It seems that most current streetwear is based on ragged clothes or confusingly printed clothes, or all similar looking. However, I did find some nice Jeans, but they are a lot cheaper in Germany, so I'll buy them there and don't have to carry it around as luggage here.
A common phenomenon was, that there were quite a few shops appearing again and again. I maybe counted 15 starbucks, 10 Pret-a-Manger, 5 Subway, 4 H&Ms, 6 Marks&Spencer, 3 Harmonys, 6 GAPs and some other ones I didn't count. So eventually I thought I would have been to a street again and went backwards, when in reality the shops were only arranged in the same way. So the longer I went through the streets, the less new shops I found.
I was also on the lookout for any gadget/souvenir shop, where I could buy some accessoires for my girlfriend Emba or my family, but I really didn't find *anything* worth mentioning. Well, there was this one gadget shop having little elektroshockers, fake barf, speaking litterboxes and such, but honestly: I wouldn't want to bring this home. I already was this sad about not finding anything, that I nearly bought one of the infamous "My boyfriend went to London and all I got is this f*cking T-Shirt"-T-Shirts.
So I just went on the Oxford street, and many of the shops were already closing at about 18:30. I then reached the Hyde Park, where I initially wanted to go on shopping to Picadilly Circus. But as Shops were already closed, I thought I could go through the Hyde Park: But it was already dark, and there was not a single light inside the park, so I didn't dare to walk in there. Instead, I just walked around the whole thing and saw a huge amount of people waiting for their travel-coaches. Mostly germans.
Then I got to the other corner of Hyde Park and many luxurious hotels, like the blue-lit Hilton - really looking great! I stopped there for a few minutes to write some SMSs to my girlfriend and some other people, because I was feeling somewhat lonely. It's really not that much fun, walking the whole way alone and not having a partner to buy clothes for.
But I decided to go through Picadilly in spite of the shops being closed. What I found on the streets where the most impressive buildings for that day, and some really *great* looking hotels, especially from the inside. I hope I can spent some time in there, somewhen! I definitely have to go to Picadilly again by daylight to take some pictures.
After arriving at Picadilly Circus, I remembered quite a lot from my first stay in London in the Regent's Palace Hotel. I walked the streets we walked in those times and even remembered some of the buildings and shops. Well, this was only 4-5 years ago, but I'm still proud of that, being provided with a minor navigational sensability. When my fieldtrip around my known locations was over, I walked over to Soho to find something to eat and somehow got lost inside the Red-Light district...
But after all, I managed to find a Subway-store! Yes! I got myself a Italian BMT (without Ham and Olives) which tasted soooo lovely. One of those stores should be around Jose's home, so I could get to eat more of those.
Being really groggy by then, I decided to try my luck taking a bus back from near the Liverpool street. Actually, this was quite easy and the ticket was cheap. So after about 7 hours of walking, and leaving about 20kms behind, I arrived at home. Wrote my blog-entry. And will now fall to sleep.
(Pictures of the trip are already added to the Gallery, where you also can comment on each of the pictures if you like)
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