Trip photos etc

(click on a photo to see it bigger - photos from my trip - long rambling post ahead)

I had a long stopover in Hong Kong so I went into the city. Hong Kong was my first glimpse of life outside Japan. So of course I was comparing it heavily against Japan. And to be honest, I didn't like it. My first thought was that the air was hard to breathe. And that there were a *lot* of 'foreigners' around. (By the time I got to London I stopped thinking of Westerners as 'foreigners'. But here, that's just what we're called.)



Actually I noticed just how multicultural Hong Kong is. There are loads of people from many various parts of Asia and loads of Westerners too. I heard so many different languages. I came out the train station and there were dozens of ?Indian women sitting around on the ground on pieces of cardboard boxes, playing cards and chatting.

It was strange to speak English again. People were a lot louder and more forceful than in Japan. I hadn't really realised how quietly polite Japanese society in general is, until I was in a coffee shop noticing people, for example, leaning on the counter, or forcefully slapping down onto the counter some product they wanted. After six months of Japan it kind of jangled on my nerves.

Also, in Japan, I can go weeks without a stranger talking to me. I was in Hong Kong for about six hours, and I had two people ask me for directions, one person ask me to take their picture, and two guys try to chat me up.

One other thing, absurdly, which stood out was that in a Hong Kong station, I had a long walk through an underground tunnel, and every 20m or so was a rubbish bin. In Japan there's like one bin per city.

***

Anyway, to London!

This is the station nearest my friend's place; the sun was actually out!:


And here's where I changed trains. Fancy seeing that every time you change lines!


So I went to the Tower of London and did a tour and you know what, introducing credit cards into tourist ticket gates is a profoundly bad idea. I stood in line fifteen minutes before anyone moved even one step. I suppose they need them, with the steep prices for admissions. The Tower was around AU$32; St Paul's and Westminster Abbey about $21 (each).

I had wisely arrived soon after the place opened, having heard that one should arrive early to beat the queues. The queue while I was in it was by far the longest of any point that day.

Nonetheless, thoroughly enjoyed the Tower. Also thoroughly enjoyed a rich lamb casserole and orange polenta cake at the Tower cafe. Oh, and I finally know how to pronounce 'Anne Boleyn', which I've read but never heard.

St Paul's!


The whole time I was walking around here I couldn't help singing Mary Poppins:
'All around the cathedral
the saints and apostles
look down as she sells her wares...
Although you can't see it
you know they are smiling
every time someone shows that he cares...'



The season, though the same as Japan, felt about 3-4 weeks old; for example, everywhere there were cherry blossoms and other fruit blossoms, which faded out in Japan about 4 weeks earlier. Also, tulips all over the place. I love tulips!

Sadly I failed to climb to the top of St Paul's. Climbing to the first gallery was painful enough, and I take stairs all the time these days.

Speaking of stairs, this sign in a Tube station made me smile:

You don't need to tell me twice.

Everywhere there were random buildings and doors that made me take pictures:


Russell Square was a glorious blaze of tulips:


I made my way from Russell Square through the places named in the book The Duchess of Bloomsbury Street.

Speaking of which, here's 84 Charing Cross Road:


No longer an antiquarian bookstore 'straight out of Dickens', it's now... well, somewhat changed in atmosphere. Nor is the plaque commemorating the site, there any longer.

I went back to my old haunts around East Putney:


When I was young, I think the stall on the left sold fruit; now it's a cupboard-sized mortgage consultant. Up on the right is a mobile phone stall (literally, stall). Strange.

I wound up at Trafalgar Square about four times during my week:


This was the only time the sun was out, so I wasted no time getting the camera out.

I went to Notting Hill. I didn't see Hugh Grant or the House With The Blue Door. But I did have a cappu. :)


And Notting Hill had quite a few pastel-coloured buildings, all in a row. Now that I think about it, I'm vaguely wondering if I did go there as a 7-year-old. Some half-formed memory is coming back (of a place I'd never heard of and probably didn't understand why we were visiting :)).

Shockingly, the sun was still out, so I went to Kensington Gardens:


The idyllic scene you see here is soon to be shattered by a small, brattish dog running in and snapping at the swans, making them all fly away. While the dog's parents stroll insouciantly by, blatantly ignoring the multiple 'please keep your dog on a leash' signs.

Also went to Oxford. Now Oxford was full of Doors. You could easily imagine a Door like this becoming the entrance to Narnia:


I half-expected Eustace, Jill and Caspian to come flying through it at any moment, brandishing swords.

And Bath:


It's lovely, innit?