{"id":11,"date":"2007-09-30T23:45:38","date_gmt":"2007-10-01T04:45:38","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.coreyhulse.com\/?p=11"},"modified":"2011-01-30T14:33:32","modified_gmt":"2011-01-30T19:33:32","slug":"london-day-trip-extravaganza","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.coreyhulse.com\/corey\/2007\/09\/30\/london-day-trip-extravaganza\/","title":{"rendered":"london day trip extravaganza"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"W5Yesterday was a great day.<\/strong><\/p>\n

I got to be a tourist and walk around with my flatmate (a fellow new employee and import from the States) and his girlfriend. We live in Ealing, which is about five miles west of London, but we\u2019re right near a Tube station so it was easy to get into Central London.<\/p>\n

Observations about the Tube: <\/strong> It\u2019s much cleaner\/safer\/more efficient compared to SEPTA (although let\u2019s be honest, not a lot of public transit systems lose in a head-to-head vs. SEPTA)<\/p>\n

Short list of things I hit up today:<\/strong>
\nPiccadilly Circus, Big Ben, Parliament, Westminster Abbey, St. James\u2019s Park, Buckingham Palace, Green Park, Soho, Soho Spice, Bodean\u2019s BBQ, Chinatown, Millennium Bridge, London Eye, Waterloo, Leicester Square, Covent Garden<\/p>\n

Photos from the day’s events are found in the Gallery<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Extended thoughts on things I hit up:<\/strong>
\nPiccadilly Circus<\/strong> \u2013 Not an actual circus, but according to Wikipedia (De Simone will hopefully appreciate the use of Latin), \u201cthe Latin word circus (meaning circle) refers to a \u2018circular open space at a street junction\u2019\u201d. It\u2019s one of the main intersections of London.
\n\"BigBig Ben<\/strong> \u2013 Here\u2019s your quizzo fact of the day: Big Ben is NOT the name of the tower. It\u2019s actually the name of the bell inside the tower. That aside, it\u2019s tall, and it looks cool. When we first saw it, the clock\u2019s hands were spinning really fast, but eventually it spun to the correct time. I don\u2019t know if it\u2019s a common thing for the clock to do that, but it was entertaining to watch.
\nParliament<\/strong> \u2013 Next to the clock tower. Not as tall and not as full of clocks, ergo less interesting.
\nWestminster Abbey<\/strong> \u2013 Beautiful church near Parliament.
\nSt. James\u2019s Park<\/strong> \u2013 Large park you walk near to get to Buckingham. Got some nice pictures.
\nBuckingham Palace<\/strong> \u2013 Beautiful building, but we couldn\u2019t get anywhere close to the courtyard where the guards were (sorry Stephanie), however I managed to get some far-away pictures. Apparently if you go to St. James\u2019s Palace, you can get a lot closer to the guards.
\nGreen Park<\/strong> \u2013 Ate a tuna and sweetcorn sandwich. The Brits like to mix corn in with tuna, and it\u2019s delicious. Made friends with some pigeons.
\nSoho<\/strong> \u2013 Trendy neighborhood just north of Piccadilly Circus.
\nSoho Spice<\/strong> \u2013 Read my lips: Best Chicken Tikka Masala Ever. See sidebar for my rant on Soho Spice.
\nBodean\u2019s BBQ<\/strong> \u2013 Plus: it\u2019s an American BBQ place that also has NASN (North American Sports Network), so I was able to watch hockey and NCAA football. Minus: a can of cream soda cost me \u00a32 ($4). Sidebar: I couldn\u2019t remember the name of this place, so I kept thinking it was called Boolean\u2019s BBQ. Even though it wasn\u2019t, I think that \u201cBoolean\u2019s\u201d would be a great name for a restaurant. You can serve things like Boolean Onion Rings and Pythagorean Grilled Cheese Triangles.
\nChinatown<\/strong> \u2013 This was near dusk, so all of the lanterns that they had strewn over the streets looked really cool. Also, all of the vehicle traffic was prohibited so it was a very festive atmosphere.
\n[Golden Jubilee Footbridge]<\/strong> \u2013 Footbridge that crosses the River Thames. Awesome architecture and a great view of the city from it [Incorrectly called the Millennium Bridge on the original post]<\/em>.
\nLondon Eye<\/strong> \u2013 The ferris wheel located on the south bank of the Thames. I got some beautiful shots of the city at night that I\u2019ve put into the Gallery<\/a>.
\nWaterloo<\/strong> \u2013 One of the train stations in London.
\nLeicester Square<\/strong> and Covent Garden<\/strong> \u2013 A lot of bars, clubs and nightlife. By the time we got here though, it was 11pm and I was quite sleepy from all the walking.<\/p>\n

Fun story of the day:<\/strong>
\nAfter all of our adventures, we got on the Tube at Leicester Square, where a small group of women who had to be in their early 40\u2019s were waiting on the platform, all very inebriated and all dressed like they had just gone clubbing. They had open cans and bottles of whatever they were drinking, and of course they got in the same train car as us. While on the train they started doing cadences, where they took turns shouting things about each other like \u201cHere\u2019s a lady in purple | And she (insert inappropriate comment here)\u201d. This went on for a few minutes, and then they broke into a doing the various chants of \u201cShout\u201d (\u201cHey eh eh eh\u201d). Everyone on the train was very entertained. Troy (my old boss) had a term for people like this: \u201cTrain Wreck\u201d. This phrase took on new meaning given that we actually were on a train.<\/p>\n

\"ChickenSidebar: Soho Spice
\n<\/strong>Hands down, the best chicken tikka masala meal I have ever had. It\u2019s located on Wardour Street in the Soho section of London (In case any of you ever come here). My meal started with some crispy bread items and some dipping sauces, which included mango chutney, mint sauce, and something delicious that I think was a vinegar\/vegetable pur\u00e9e. Complimenting the meal itself were two side dishes, one a spicy bean dish and the other a tangy zucchini dish, plus rice and naan. The flavors of everything were so overly rich and delicious. The plating was also very interesting, including the small half-sphere of rice which completely fell apart when I put my fork to it. While I was sitting there, I had one of those moments of reflection. Here I am on the start of my post-college life, sitting in a restaurant in a foreign land far away from my home enjoying one of the best meals I\u2019ve ever had, and all I kept thinking was that my life is incredibly awesome, and I’ve been very lucky in the things that have happened in my life so far. Plus, I was wearing a tweed jacket, so clearly I looked good too. Overall, the entire thing was one of the greatest meal experiences that I have ever had.<\/p>\n

Well, that sums up my day trip. I hope you enjoyed.<\/p>\n

PS, I want to give a shoutout to Amanda for recommending the Rick Steves’ series of guidebooks. The one I bought about London was immensely helpful as I half-haplessly stumbled around London.<\/p>\n

PPS, Patrick Stewart is starring as MacBeth. Patrick Stewart Owns You.<\/p>\n

\"Patrick<\/p>\n

PPSS, Stormtroopers are taking over London. Patrick Stewart + Stormtroopers = Ownage.<\/p>\n

\"You<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Yesterday was a great day. I got to be a tourist and walk around with my flatmate (a fellow new employee and import from the States) and his girlfriend. We live in Ealing, which is about five miles west of London, but we\u2019re right near a Tube station so it was easy to get into […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[3],"class_list":["post-11","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-day-trips","tag-london"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.coreyhulse.com\/corey\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.coreyhulse.com\/corey\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.coreyhulse.com\/corey\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.coreyhulse.com\/corey\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.coreyhulse.com\/corey\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=11"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/www.coreyhulse.com\/corey\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1038,"href":"https:\/\/www.coreyhulse.com\/corey\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11\/revisions\/1038"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.coreyhulse.com\/corey\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=11"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.coreyhulse.com\/corey\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=11"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.coreyhulse.com\/corey\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=11"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}