August 15-16, 2014: In the Home of the Union Jack - Keep Calm and Carry On
After a long day of travel on Friday, including a 3 hour layover in Athens, I landed in London's Heathrow Airport at about 3:30 in the afternoon. My mother's dear cousin Nader picked me up outside of customs with a small sign with my name on it. It's nice to be recognized when you face the anonymity of traveling alone.
The customs and passport check had been more difficult than I'd expected. They were scrupulous. At least they didn't rifle through my bag.
As someone who most often is the driver when I ride in a car, I found sitting in the driving spot but riding as a passenger, quite nerve wracking. I kept glancing at Nader driving to reassure myself that I wasn't riding in a driverless car. To make matters worse, I found that central London was full of one way streets, so trying to figure out which lane we should drive in, or turn on to, seemed mysterious. I will never, NEVER, drive in London. Never.
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| British fashion on Oxford Street |
I immediately got a sim card for my cell phone, and bought a week-long transit pass, then I was on my way out the door to explore Oxford Street, which was a few short blocks away from the room that I'd rented. I found Oxford Street to be a bustle - a mix of so many people speaking so many languages. I barely heard any English actually; mostly Arabic, with some Turkish, French and German mixed in. Is this Istanbul or London? Young Arab couples rode on the back of bicycle buggies that were blasting Arab music, and singing along to the music. There were many, many women in Islamic veils, and I passed by cafes where men were smoking water pipes, just like I had done the night before.
I was really impressed by the area right around my building on Marylebone Lane. Narrow, cobblestoned streets and fashionable clothing stores. And the young men in the pubs, they were all dressed in great looking suits and button up shirts. I really liked the fashion I was seeing.
All the restaurants look popular: pubs and a super fish n' chips place just two doors down. When I woke up Saturday morning I used Yelp to find a great breakfast place and had the most attractive set of poached eggs that I've ever soon, along with a roasted tomato and portabello mushroom, bacon and a sausage. Terrific.
I freely jumped on whatever double decker bus that came by, and got off whenever I felt like it. The line 23 passed by most of the major sites so it was like a low cost London tour! It turned down Regent Street, with its posh shopping spots, and passed by Fleet Street (synonymous with Britain's national press), Trafalgar Square, Leicester Square, and St. Paul's Cathedral. Wow.
Saturday I visited Harrod's department store, Big Ben, Buckingham Palace, the House of Commons, and the Winston Churchill museum. My feet are aching!
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| A gold car parked outside of Harrod's in Knightsbridge |
My Aunt's sister, Leila, got in touch with me and took me out to dinner to a bustling Lebonese restaurant. She explained that after Ramadan, many Arabs travel. Those that are wealthy ship their fancy cars over so they can show them off, such as the gold car we saw outside of Harrod's. It was actually gold. I'm off for more adventures tomorrow....
is a quaint maritime town with lots of attractions making it a popular day trip for tourists based in London. It's main attraction for me was its location at the prime meridian, located at longitude 0°, the line separating the Western and the Eastern Hemispheres. Not a big deal, right? But I must admit there was something magical about it. I was reminded of visiting the Four Corners Monument in Southwestern U.S. back in 1997, where four states meet at one point: Utah, New Mexico, Colorado and Arizona. Standing on the prime meridian I imagined the two halves of the earth sewn together in this one place. The earth felt very small and fragile in that moment. Greenwich is also the place where world time is measured (as in Greenwich Mean Time). The Royal Observatory in Greenwich houses many tools developed for sea navigation in the 17th century.
