London Excursion

After my film seminar let out late Friday afternoon, I bussed to the Norwich Rail Station and rode roughly two hours to Liverpool Street station in London, where I met up with Goucher pals Debra (studying at London School of Economics) and Brendan (studying at Westminster). We got pizza, then dropped by Deb's flat in South Kensington. After some deliberation, we decided to take the Tube (subway) to Picadilly Circus, where there was a sweet three-story bar called O'Neill's.

Self in front of horse fountain-- Picadilly.

O'Neill's was a quality establishment and boy was it PACKED. The first floor was a pub, the second floor was more dance-oriented (if I recall correctly) and the top floor featured live music. When we went up there, there was a cover band doing '90s rock songs. The three of us had some fun goofing around to their renditions of tunes by Nirvana, Blink-182 and others. Then they broke out Rage Against the Machine's "Killing in the Name Of" and I sang along to every word. That part was awesome.

Fun fun fun!

The not-so-fun: having short girls marvel at my height, then having two other girls point at and then fondle my hair as I desperately tried to wade through the crowd to the bar for a drink...and the music was so loud in both instances that I couldn't understand a damned word.

We then crashed back at Deb's flat. In the morning-- okay, mid-afternoon, we headed to Portobello Market, where Deb spoke of a fantastic falafel stand. Indeed, it was called the Healthy Vegetarian, and their product had not only delicious made falafel, but oodles of fresh herbs as well. The eating experience was as follows:

First bite...

Stoked!

Needless to say, I bought two.

Needed to be done.

Deb wanted to check out the British Museum and this proved to be a great idea. It's free, camera use is allowed, and the facility is HUGE.

We checked out huge exhibits on Egypt, South America, feudal Japan, Native Americans, and ancient Greece.

Rosetta Stone.

Well, I feel prejudiced against...

I love how the Assyrians did beards.

Philosophers.

This one was on a Wildildlife album cover...

DON'T FUCKING TOUCH SWORDS.

That night I tubed to Covent Garden and met up with Raf, Sarah and Kevin. Kellene was hanging out with her cousin elswhere for the night. The three of us got a reservation at sweet, sizeable Belgian restaurant. As we waited at the bar for a table to open up I realized they would have frambois (Belgian raspberry beer-- the only kind of beer I like) and got my hands on a tasty bottle. The Floris brand seems to be more sweet than Bacchus and whatever brand the Fat Cat (a Norwich pub) had on tap. I wasn't complaining! I also sampled two other Floris fruit beers-- mango and honey. The former was so sweet it barely tasted like alcohol; the latter had a little bit of bitterness in its aftertaste. Good stuff.

After dinner we ordered a white chocolate mousse to share. Barring Mom's ice cream pie and apple crisp and a few select others, this is the best dessert I've ever had.

Deeeee-lishus.

Sarah and Kevin.

Then we headed to a pub to close out the night. Raf and I returned to his dorm and Sarah and Kev to hers at one of Middlesex University's other campuses.

Kevin and Raf indicating how different their time abroad is from that of school.

Kev was flying back to Berlin (where he's studying for the semester) the following afternoon. Raf and I met them at one of the thousands of kebab/pizza places that exist in the UK and had a nice goodbye lunch.

Raf has just bashed Kevin. Note Kev's facial expression.

Raf and I then headed to Camden Market, which is especially populated on Sundays- market day! There were punks, cheap/bootleg merchandise, record stores, tattoo parlors, and t-shirt stands everywhere. We briefly rendezvoused with Deb, who was incredibly generous in bringing along the toiletry bag I'd left at her place the night before. I bought a Sadus "Swallowed in Black" shirt, Voivod's Nothingface on vinyl, and a shirt with a very cool Darth Vader head print on it. We also purchased some gifts for friends back home. We bought a Belgian waffle covered in strawberries and chocolate and it was tasty nugs.

The most humorous moment of the weekend was when I approached one of many generic little shops stalking wares ranging from touristy stuff to bongs, and inspected what I thought to be a Five Hour Energy Shot sorta deal. Then I noticed the big "FLAMMABLE" lettering on the side of the small bottle. The foreign dude who worked at the shop approached me. "How many you want?"

"We're just browsing," I said.
"You want popper?"

Raf and I quickly exited and laughed heartily. Our good friend from school, Peter, had been offered poppers as well when visiting Camden on a high school trip. You can read about them here, if so inclined.

It was time to eat. The solution? Falafel, of course!

Surprise: I bought two again.

I even converted Raf to the cause.

From there, we went to the End of the World pub, another classy establishment. It's gigantic and is connected to/associated with the next door Underworld venue, where I'm going to see Agalloch with Tom M and Mattin a few weeks. Kellene, Sarah, and Kellene's cousin Kelly met up with us there and good times were had.

Afterwards we hung out at Kellene's dorm for a bit, then Raf and I went back to his place, watched the awesome 1990 Night of the Living Dead remake, and crashed. We woke up, tubed to Southgate and decided to eat. The solution? Falafel! I don't have any pictorial proof this time, though.

Raf and I hugged goodbye and I made it back to school around 5:30. What a wonderful trip.

Thanks to Deb and Raf for housing me, and much love to them and everybody else. It was so exciting to see you all.