Out of London :)

Remember I’d told you about this Big Bus thingy? Well, they also provide out-of-London whole day trips… and we chose a combination of “Oxford- Stratford upon Avon- Warwick castle”.

Its clichéd by now, I know, but let me begin it with “it was a fantastic trip”! :) Venkat, my parents, kichu and I went. The bus was due at some 7.25 am and guess what time we boarded it? Nope! You guessed wrong! We were on the bus at 7.25 am! :) Remember, this is not India? :)

Well, it was amazing to see the other side of England… the smaller towns, huge farm lands, sheep and cow in herds, poultry, simple folks with vegetable baskets in hand in complete contrast to the concrete, straight roads, trendy, fast, expensive, brand conscious London city.

Our first stop was at Oxford university. Unlike what I had thought, Oxford is a series of some 24 colleges. I’d thought its just one institute. And we did visit the main university and saw the halls where the greats like Boyle, John Locke, Oscar Wilde etc were students of this prestigious college. We also saw the grand staircase and hall that in fact inspired Warner Brothers to make JKR's movies (J K Rowling, of Harry Potter fame, for those who don’t know :P)

We also were shown different departments of the college and to everybody’s surprise there was no department of Science! There were departments for grammar, for astronomy(which was not considered science), mathematics, geometry, philosophy, etc, but not science! The reason being: Till the 14^th century, science was not an established stream of study. It was kind of tolerated by some people, but never really encouraged! It was looked upon with scepticism and doubt. :) and this college was built in 12 century or so! Centuries before the American Continent was even discovered, England boasted of the finest university in the world! :)

So, well, after this, we went to have lunch… with the bus troop itself. We had hot delicious yummy pasta and bread with butter, a double scoop of ice cream and hot coffee is freezing cold. Oh, I forgot to mention… it was a few degrees colder up north than in London. :) We paid 10 Pounds per person… that’s close to 800 rupees… for one person for one day for one meal! So you can imagine why I haven’t shopped till now and why you aren’t getting anything from here! :P hehe

After a good lunch, we were taken to Stratford upon Avon, Shakespeare’s birth place. Rather, the birth home! It was a small little house compared to the mansions of London, but yet one of the bigger houses of that street.

During the travel, our guide in the bus recited, and I must say, quite wonderfully, a few Shakespearean sonnets and verses, that if we closed our eyes and listened to him, we felt as if we were actually watching a play! And trust me, we were amazed when we saw 4-5 performers in Shakespeare’s garden who offered a sonnet to kichu, who performed a part of some play for us…! :) They were dressed in some ancient Columbus kind of clothes with swords and hats and the old English accent…! It was brilliant! It’s the kind of thing that I love! :)

As a souvenir of the place, I picked up a little stone… from the ground! :) Because everything else was sold over a counter with a label of 7-10-20-50 Pounds… choose what you like! :P And I wasn’t going to spend any more money than I had to! :)

After this, we went to Warwick castle. There was some festivities going on and it resembled a fair hosted by some king :) lot of merry making and good food :) a river flowed by with a very majestic swan :) I took plenty of videos and photos of the swan :) Remembered ‘The Ugly Duckling’ :D By this time we were all a little visibly worn out and tired :)

The 5 of us at Warwick Castle... (Mom, kichu, dad, venkat and I)

We came back home around 9 after having had dinner at Mumtaz :) then narrated the day’s events to Harish :) played cards for a while, and finally hit the sack! :)

I’m not promising I will be writing much any time soon. I’m kinda hitting a writer’s block soon… I see it happening :) But thanks for reading till now and for all the encouragement.

Until next time, take good care, have fun and stay happy :) Cheers!

Days 6&7- Lords, Museum, Harrods :)

:) Hi... so sorry for the delay again! Have been very very tired and worn out... Today toh we dint do much at all! :P

Hmm let me begin with yesterday... :) We went to the very famous "Lords Cricket Ground". Needless to say, it was fantastic! :) We went on a guided tour... saw the "Writing room" where the dignatories would sit and enjoy the matches, the adjecent bar cum dining room. (They are not allowed to carry alcohol into the writing room! :P) the home changing room, the visiting team's changing room, the "Long room" where the both teams sat at long tables at either end of the room and the umpires and refrees and other pl sat at a table in the middle of the room and there was little communication between the teams in the lunch room... :)

Some players, we were told, have special preferences in the place where they changed in the changing room... and there are wooden boards in the changing rooms mentioning all the batsmen who scored centuries at Lords, all bowlers who got 5 or more wickets at Lords, etc.. I think it was some Australian bowler who always chose to change under the "5 wickets or more" board hoping he'd get some inspiration from the board... :P there are some 4 floors in the huge imposing building... and the inlay is all very ancient English type- both the furnishings and paintings. We were not allowed any photography inside, so I dont have any interesting pics of the interiors... however we were allowed to take pics outside and I will put up the pics when i get back to India :)

We then went to the place where the queen and other royalties would sit and watch the game. We were told Queen Elizabeth isn't a great fan of the game and neither is her son, Prince Charles. We were taken to the "Media room" where all the authenticated broadcasters would be there... this room was on the 2nd floor... and it stood out among the rest. You'll see in the pictures. Well, this room had slanting glasses as it directly faced the pitch and the batsmen would have had a tough time trying to hit the ball while the afternoon sun blazed and reflected from the glasses of the Media Room. The media people also requested that some provision be made so that the noise of the crowd is there in the back ground because otherwise the Media Room was built in such a way that the noise form the ground or stadiums did not reach there. Upon the request, the constructor of the ground made a special window which allowed noise from the cheering crowd inside. This and the added excitement of the reporters in the Media Room sometimes got very high and the mood would become extremely tensed. Thats why they chose a light blue colour to paint inside the media room. It is supposed to be the most calming and soothing colours. (All this is almost verbatim of what the guide told us) :)

After that, we were taken to the ground itself and I stepped on to the turf by mistake... and the guide asked me to be careful and said that if the groundsmen had seen that, they'd fine me and and may even prosecute me! :P Well, am happy I wasnt caught! :) We took some pictures with then, with the ground in the background... Our tour ended shortly afterwards and we decided it was time for food! :) We were thinking of going to Woodlands again but I found this place called "Mumtaz" on the way. Expensive it luked form outside was pretty decent food and great quantity :) Much better than Woodlands... :) Shifting loyalty :) :D

After food, we went to the Natural History Museum... (mainly cos it was a free entry thing :P) and we were kinda bored after the initial excitement of seeing dinosaur bones and stuffed animals... :) This was the same place where "Night at the Museum" movie was shot. If you've seen the movie, u'd relate to this place very well. The entrance is just like in the movie. Begins with this huge dinosaur at the entrance... :) it's beautiful. After wandering around for sometime, we got bored and tired and exhausted.. :) We decided to come back home and cook dinner :) We made my favorite tamarind rice and brinjal-onion ka curry, which i usually hate but it was great yest... :) Guess i was just hungry :P Hehe...

Later played a game of cards with kichu and Harish, fooled around for sometime, and hit the sack. :)

Today got up late (becoming a habit now! :P) Had a leisurely shower, late breakfast, lazy morning, basically! :P We decided we;ll go shopping today... but not actually shopping, just window shopping. Venkat had told us of this place called Harrods, my fren aditi also had told us abt Harrods, (pronounced as Hair-eds :D I used to call it Hair-odds)... it the costliest ever place I have been to. A cermaic horse about half foot tall with some work on it - 11,000 pounds! thats almost 10 lakh rupees! and some plastic like shiny shirts - 3800 pounds... u do the calculations...! its freaking costly here! So, eventually got bored of seeing all the shiny stuff and jazzy things and went for lunch... after lunch, dad said he was tired and had a back ache.. .we decided to come home, rest for an hour or two and go out again. Anyway, sunset is only around 9.30 pm.. so its like evening only till 8.45... :) surprisingly all of us slept off and got up at 7.30 only! We must have been really tired and didnt realise it. Our bodies ached and muscles throbbed... :( Mine sure did! We pulled ourselves out and called venkat... he had an official dinner tonight... and his friends had other plans... so we went to Mumtaz again and had good dinner, got back home, played cards with Harish and Kichu again... and for the record, i've always come 2nd.. never 1st, never last.. :P hehe...

Thats all for the moment, folks! So long and thanks for reading! :) Take care and keep visiting! :) Until the next post, have fun! :)

Days 4 and 5 :) London Eye, Madame Tussauds :)

First things first- my apologies for not updating earlier... was very very tired... and lazy... :P

So, well.. yesterday we went to London eye... the giant wheel that I mentioned was amazing! :) we went there around 11.30 I think... and we started feeling hungry... :D Venkat said he'd join us for lunch.. so what we did was stand in the queue, got tickets for the London Eye, and we were told that we were getting a discount then if we bought Madame Tussauds wax museum ticks too... so obviously we bought.. it had one month validity... :) we bought some yummy delicious veg cookies... one was dark chocolate(imagine how heavenly it had to be if I loved it! :P) and one was coconut cookie I think.. and then there was one of cashew and walnuts... :) well, this was our idea of "snacks" :D so, after our light snack of 5 cookies among 4 of us, we finally got into the London eye.. its almost 30-35 mins ka one full circle... :)

Yeah, the giant wheel was inaugurated in 2000, as the millennium landmark in london, upon Prince Charles' suggestion! It is being run and operated by British Airways and there has not been one casuality in 8 years.. since it was launched!! :) me totally amazed! oh another thing I noticed in the underground railway system- notice on almost all trains "please stay away from boarding line. Number of casualities last year: 32"!! Just 32.. but see how much they care!! And back home, we have millions of accidents everyday! Oh another thing I just remembered: pedestraints are ALWAYS given priority... normal crossing roads we have to be on our guard.. but if you have a zebra crossing anywhere around, you can close your eyes and keep walking... the vehicles HAVE to stop for u to pass... even if they are travelling at 90 mph!! :) this includes huge buses and trams...! It is true... I tried yesterday !! :D

I just remembered sumthing else...! Aditi...! woah! I know i'm going really haphazard... wait... i'll try to put it in order from now on.. :P

Well, we were on the London eye... in our “capsule” or whatever they call it, we were almost 15 ppl.. :) it was spacious and all.. so no issues.. :) and kichu and I started clicking away to glory- like there was no tomorrow! :P and the poses we took! :P hehe... everybody was smiling at us politely... if it were u, am sure you'd have laughed at our clown-like acts! :P hehe... by the time I thought we'd done enough fooling around, I saw that we were at the top most point from where one can see London... it's "panoramic view" :D i told kichu "we self obsessed people dint realise how far we've come... see, lets live the moment and not lose it all in taking pics!" :) we stood in awe for a few mins as the whole scene sank in.. we could see the Big Ben in all its brilliance, the Thames river (pronounced "Te-m-s" :P), the Buckingham palace, the Parliament, the train lines, the straight roads... it was magnificent... :) we began our descent and we started clicking away to glory again! :) it's really a sight to behold... :)

oh fish!! just rememebred... Prabhakaran's dead... and there has been a HUGE massive sri lankan ppl's protest just outside the parliament in Westminster... scary to see such crowd... police vans were all over the place, the mob was angry and agitated... but there was no actual outbreak of violence... slogans about saving srilankan tamils were in the air... some tube stations were affected and buses were also diverted due to the agitation... no casualities so far... thankfully!

Hmm Aditi now.. :) Aditi is a fren from pune.. and like i said, she introduced me to Nicholas sparks.. :) and well, she works for a research company here... HR role... and she did her masters from LSE(London School of Economics...!!) way out of my league! :P hmmm so what? I can at least say I have big shot frens! :) yeah, so i called her and she came down to St Johns wood and we met up and had coffee at Starbucks... her treat! :) and we had a nice time cathcing up on old times and hostel gossip and who's gotten married and is settled where kinda news.. :) kichu was there too... then I brought her home.. introduced her to Venkat and my parents … we basically had a nice time :)

Later at night, harish taught kichu and me a new card game.. called 5-3-2 :D we loved it and played till 12 or something... by them everybody else had gone to sleep! :) it's a 3 player game.. :) will teach you when I meet u :) :P

Then comes... today! :) got up late, very late...

Around 11.30 we all finally got ready, and went out.. .for lunch! :) our very own woodlands again! :) I only had nimbu pani as my 4 slices of bread for breakfast was still heavy... :P so after a good lunch, we headed towards Madame Tussauds... I am getting very good with the tube stations... I know what line goes to what stations... :) so I am automatically the group leader.. when Venkat is not there... :P

So, we reached Madam Tussauds successfully... and it was great, to say the least... tom cruise, brangelina, biran lara, sachin tendulkar, gandhi, nelson mandela, obama, julia roberts, daniel radcliffe... :P amazing time we had... kichu and I posed as if we were giving President Bush a penny... he had his hand outstretched.. as if begging... :P and obama had the president's table in front of him but was only standing next to his chair... so all of us sat on the chair as if he's our secretary and took pics.. :) I took pics as if I'm strangling aishwarya rai.. :P I also tamed albert einstien's hair... :P posed with the queen... I shot saddam hussien with a gun, jim carrey danced with me, i kissed spider man, leonardo hugged me... :) amazing!!! :) (Check orkut album, u’ll know it all! :P :D)

So after that we took a train to Charring street and had a cheese burger, then went out to Trafalgar square, took another million pics! :) roamed around for sometime, took a train to some place called baker street, took another train to St Johns Wood... bought some groceries form a near by store, walked home.. washed and changed... and sat down on a chair with my lappie... am still in the same position! :)

I hope u liked this post... :) dont be jealous... :) will share all my pics with the celebs generously... :P :D :) hehehe

Chal until next post, take care and have fun. Thanks for dropping by :)

Day 3- Exploring on foot :)

Hey :) Thanks for all your responses and comments. Its really overwhelming... :)

Yeah, so... the 3rd day was a fantastic adventure... the 4 of us left home around 10 am... went to the closest bus stop and waited for some 20 mins for our bus "82" to come so we can go to our destination "Victoria" (Buckingham palace). After 20 mins, of shivering in the cold, our bus finally came.. Kichu, Amma and I got into it.. and the bus moved.. we turn around and find Appa standing outside waving and telling us they dint let him inside!! They have a fixed number of people only they will take on board a bus and they stick to it like glue! There is no conductor and the driver checks passes or tickets... :) I asked "her", the driver, if we could get off and she said no.. only in the next stop! We were a little panicky... anyway we got off at the next stop...

Now multiple ideas... shud we cross the road and take another bus back to the old stop, do we just wait here? Do we proceed to Victoria and finally meet Appa there only? We decided that the next 82 will take some time to come and we'll walk back to the previous stop... and we do. And half way down the road, we see an 82 go by and Appa waving to us from inside! :P we cursed the bus and the other curse-able things and started turning around and running to our stop from where the 3 of us got down... :) I was leading... :) Kichu semi-ran behind me and Amma walked.. :) The bus moved again before we reached and thankfully, Appa had spotted us and had gotten down at the bus stop.. :) so we were all re-united!! :D:D hehe

We waited for the next 82 wistfully... we took another bus finally... after almost 45 mins of waiting in the cold... so by now, its almost 2 hours since we left home... and we are still at one stop away from home! :P we decided to eat lunch at our very own "woodlands".. :) and after lunch, we finally decided we'd take a "tube" (metro) to Victoria (that’s the stop closest to the Palace) {wondering if such details are boring...! :P} yeah anyway, all of us continuously had the “lost” sort of expressions and I was the one to ask passers by "hello, good morning, where can I find a tube around here?", they'd smile, and politely direct us and end it with, "have a great day. I hope u like london" ! :) my point here: We seemed lost, in spite of Venkat's clear directions, it was drizzling and cold! Yet, the directions the people gave us were so warm and friendly... it felt so nice... :)

Hmm so we discovered the Palace.. rather re-discovered the palace.. :D and wat a brilliant sight!!! :) Amazing, breath taking.. i'd love to upload pics.. but I dont have the time and patience to sort and upload them now.. will do that when I get back.. :) hmm so we took plenty of pics... PLENTY! :) Different poses, different angles... then we strolled the palace gardens... imagine this: you are standing in a place... and around you, you can only see green... different shades, but only green.. all around you, for miles... for as far as you can see... on all sides!! :) neatly maintained lawns, little white flowers growing in patches, huge trees evenly spaced out, big doves and crows "hopping" and walking in the lawn.. unlike what we might expect- flying! :P and oh I forgot to mention- quiet!!!! Its so peacefully quiet.. you cannot hear a sound! Except the strong winds blowing thru the trees... it was so heavenly... and then it drizzled... :) brilliantly... the skies were grey, the sun peeked form somewhere, the drizzle was there, the lawns were green and I was in heaven :)

We decided we'd head back home as the palace it self is not open for public this time of the year.. only in august or something they open it for public.. at least parts of the palace.. :) hmm so we start walking towards what we think is Victoria junction... and we walk and walk and walk... turn around corners, talk to passers by, we are a little tired and worn out, we continue walking... Amma's really tired.. me leading the troop.. :) we reach a junction.. we think its Victoria, we discover its Piccadily! :) hehe.. Appa was all panicky... and I just kept on asking people how to get to St. John's wood (thats where we stay)... Appa called Venkat, got the directions again and, we got on the right bus.. now the only thing was to get down at the right stop... and it was a task!! at one of the stops, to our great relief, we found Harish, Venkat's roommate, board our bus.. :) now we could breathe a sigh of relief.. we'd know where ot get off! :) hehe

We got home, changed, sat for a while, changed again and went with venkat(kichu and i) to a near by store to buy some grocery and other stuff... we cooked at home.. :) ready made chappatis but sabzi mom and i made.. :) and everybody loved it.. 9 of us ate.. :) more credit to mom.. :) me dint do much :)

Then peacefully retired to bed... got up late this morning... was contemplating whether or not i have the time to blog now.. so here! the 3rd adventure... exploring london on foot comes to an end... :)

Until the next post, take care, have fun and keep smiling. Thanks once again for all your responses and comments. Hope you continue to enjoy London as much as I am.

Cheers! :)

Day 2- Getting Acquainted :)

Am guessing that you have voluntarily agreed to subscribe for my service :)

Well, the 2nd day was all packed... and leisurely at the same time.. :) venkat was on leave, so he came with us... they have this thing here.. called THE BIG BUS. What this bus does is... it sort of takes tourists around the city.. all the major tourist spots... and there are like hundreds of those buses traveling all around the city... so you can get on a bus, get off at, lets say tower bridge, see it, spend some time, come back and wait for a min or 2 for the next BIG BUS to come by... its all linked... and its great!! :)

Yeah, so we took this bus... and oh i forgot to tell you... the bus is this double decker thingy.. and the first floor is open air.. no roof.. :) and we sat there... and the temperature was around 10-12 degrees.. freezing cold.. :) and i dint want to zip my jacket.. cant tell you how i LOVED it!!! :) ek toh, i think i was luking kinda... cute.. :P and cool.. :P well, wait for the pics.. :) and the whole climate was awesome! and then there was this commentator- LIVE! he talked to the crowd, told us abt the places, a little bit of history, and was a very funny man... he made witty conversation and actually conversed with us... i felt it odd that he spoke to me thru the mic.. that too in a public transport...! imagine a conductor using a mic and asking you how u are and do u like the place... i felt it odd... and then liked it! he was cool.. no, dont worry, he's kinda old.. like dad.. :)

Well, we chose not to get down anywhere.. we just sat in the bus and traveled all around the city just making mental notes that we will come here and here and there sort of thing... other people got on and got off... :) at the end of the trip, we got off at tower bridge... (the tower bridge is often confused with the london bridge..) this is the one we always see.. the one with 2 towers and blue railings... london bridge on the other hand, is plain and sort of flat.. :) ok, so we got off there, went to London tower, saw all the ancient kings' armors and bedrooms... and their crowns and the history behind them.. :) it all was so mersmerising! :D and we saw the famous Kohinoor diamond... it shone so brilliantly!!! i've never seen anything as beautiful...! i swear! seriously... and we were talking to each other- wah, wat a state! we pay, stand in queues and walk with the crowd to see a rich diamond these britishers stole from us only...! but i will give the devil it's due- amazing the way they have maintained their museums and palaces and grounds... and streets... and trees...and just abt anything! :)

Hmm so after the London Tower, we traveled half the way across the city to an expensive "Woodlands" Indian restaurant.. :) and it was nice... the travel also! :) we took wat they call "tubes"- something like Metro... underground.. :) and i thought i'll draw a comparison between the tube and the indian trains.. like amritha express, for example, then decided its really not comparable.. u dont compare an Oberoi and Punjabi dhaba...! :) well, i'll leave the discussion for another time.. :) Well, we had good indian food.. :) and then we went to a cruise(well, they call it a cruise! :P) on Thames river...:) brilliant... mind blowing wind... and numbing chill.. and open boat thingy... no roof over the first floor... and the same commentary thingy again... :D we must all visit london once in our lifetimes... :P just like i told u about Dubai AIRPORT... :) :D

Some interesting things i noticed about London-ers :D

1. Unlike in india, colour of hair is absolutely NO indicator of age! (I've seen almost all shades except green and yellow, i think... think of a dazzling blue, or blood red, or glowing orange...! i've seen it all! :P)
2. During our travel of some 10-12 hours in the city, we spotted 2 bikes. JUST TWO. and both were racing bikes...! :) we saw a few racing cars now and then too ... :) so generally, there are hardly any two wheelers! :)
3. They have a million varieties of BREAD!


Well, took plenty of pics, then got off, took a bus and came back home around 7.30 pm, and the sun set was around 9.15 pm... :D sorry, i cant stop talking abt the time thingy.. i'm still not used to seeing sun rise at 3 am and sun set at 9 pm!! the days are like really really long... :D after we got home, we ordered dinner and hung around with venkat, his roommates and other frens... very nice fun loving chaps... :D:D

i slept off around 11.30 in the night... :) and got up around 7 today morning... :) and venkat said he'd be a little tied up today so he helped us with planning our travel for the day.. motto: Buckingham Palace! :) "I'm goin to london to visit the Queen! " :).. er... her palace only, actually... :P

Chalo, so long then... Until the next post, take care and have fun! :)

PS: I appreciate comments! :)

Touch Down- Day 1

This is a mail I sent my friends the day I reached London for a 2 week holiday... Then I decided I will blog my travel log! :P So here it is... Day 1. Touch down. What will follow in the coming weeks is the continuing adventures that will come my way during my stay in London. Thanks for stopping by. I hope you have as much fun reading my experience as I did in experiencing them :)

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Reached here at 8.30pm local time (1.30am IST) was awake for almost 20 hours straight! :) was fun, and very tiring.. Dubai airport was simply magnificent... if nuthing else, one shud go there just to see the airport! :) We waited there for almost 3 hours... during which my best friend and i had a rocking time... (am not referring to you... :P) i was talking abt my camera :D:D hehe as if i'd gone just to the airport for a vacation, i was clicking away to glory...! briliant place! will write in detail abt it later when i come back to india.

Reached home, ate and slept around 11.30-12 i think... around 5 IST... :D I was not so excited abt the time zone difference thingy... but wow!! when we were in Dubai, we changed our watch timings first... :) actually, mom dad and kichu did.. i dint.. :) me somehow still keepin Indian time only.. :P Dunt want to change! :P hmmm and when we heard the announcement tat we were landing in London Heathrow airport at 7.48pm, trust me, i thought they made a mistake.. they must have said 7.48 am!!! it was that bright outside!! like 2.30 pm in ASB campus... :)
:)

8.40 am now :) and 1.10 pm in india... like u guessed, me still not over my amazement at the different time zones... yesterday was literally, factually and truly, the LONGEST day of my life.. :) i think this is the maximm a person can love one's life... ofcorse u must know that wat my life seem the most lovable is so much thinking, apart from living the moment.. :) during the travel, i had a lot to ponder upon, many memories, many conversations... many people... events, happenings, places... and then the flooding of new experiences.. international airport, foriegn faces, new languages... kids in bright clothes, funky hair-do's, brilliant colours, the hustle of a busy world, the worry of ensuring all bags are there... a check, a quick re check, one more check, last check...checks and more checks!! :)

Will be heading out in an hour or so.. my cousin, venkat( remember for reference in future mail:) ), with whom we are staying, and dad have gone out to get some bread and other "English" breakfast.. :P hehehe

I hope i have not bored you... i'm planning to keep updating u almost everyday... maybe every alternate day... :P you are required to tell me if u want to unsubscribe from this service! :D:D:D