Hello again

[Xantar]

Hey everyone. I'm back in the United States again after one heck of a vacation. First stop was London. Some great stuff there. I got to sample the truly international cuisine that's available in the place which is good because I'm not all that fond of the actual British food (although roast lamb with gravy turned out quite well. I just wish the British would stop boiling all their vegetables). The only problem was I was travelling with my grandparents who refused to eat any Indian food, and I had heard that London was the best place to get real Indian food. My grandparents were probably avoiding Indian food for racist reasons, too, but there's no way to change them now.

Among the sites I saw were Kensington Palace, the Tower of London (with the Crown Jewels. Very nice), the British Museum, the Victoria and Albert Museum and lots of men wearing funny hats.

Overall, it's a very nice place, and I would definitely visit again. I only had three complaints:

1. The streets are terrible. I don't think I saw more than five or six streets that intersected at right angles, lots of them are one way (and consequently I didn't know which way to look for oncoming cars when crossing them although some of them have helpful signs) and the street names are pretty poorly marked. I didn't see any street signs anywhere, so I basically had to navigate by landmarks (e.g. two streets down from the Albert Memorial, take a left).

2. The weather was pretty cloudy. I hear London is usually like that, and now I can understand why British people always head for a sunny place when they go on vacation.

3. Smokers everywhere. I know I'm probably being really picky, but I can't help it. I was raised in a smoke free environment. That makes me so sensitive to cigarette smoke that I can actually distinguish a smoker from a non-smoker even if the smoker hasn't lit up in three days. And I can smell a cigarette being lit on the other side of some streets. And if I accidentally inhale a good whiff of smoke, I'll get a headache. In the UK, there are no non-smoking sections in restaurants, and there are a lot more smokers than in the U.S. At one point, some of my food tasted like smoke. Oh well.

The people are generally pretty nice. The London population is a lot like New Yorkers with better manners. As I said before, I didn't see sdtPikachu anywhere. And I didn't see any Muslims who carried around a baby named Mohammed or referred to his wife as Haylay, so I probably missed Shadow_Link as well. But if either of you saw two Asian teenagers along with two Asian senior citizens and one Asian adult and one big white guy, that was us.

Tune in next time as I tell you about my adventures in Sweden. And yes, quiet mike, the girls were very good looking.

*walks away and ignores all the gasps coming from everyone*

[Jonbo298]

*ga...* errr Hmm....*goes in search of the swedes* I'm sorta like that too about the smoking thing. I can't stand it. Makes my eyes get really dry and whatnot. But I wish I could go to England or whatever. But meh. You had fun. and Welcome Back.

[Jason1]

sounds fun, but it wouldnt be my first choice for a vacation. There is still so much I havent done in the USA!

[Ravishing Rick Rude]

England is like The States, But If You Go Down South In England, you aren't confronted with shotgun carrying posse's with the leaders name being " Bubba"

[Joeiss]

I want to travel Europe after I travel Canada..... But just one thing. Isn't everything very expensive in London? That's what I heard. Plus, the exchange rate is horrible too.


Glad you had funny, Xantar. But I think that you could've had more fun with a little thing called alcohol.

[Angrist]

Europe sure has a lot beautiful women.

[Happydude]

welcome back xanny...

i wanna travel all across the world...and then the galaxy

[Shadow_Link]

Originally posted by Xantar

3. Smokers everywhere. I know I'm probably being really picky, but I can't help it. I was raised in a smoke free environment. That makes me so sensitive to cigarette smoke that I can actually distinguish a smoker from a non-smoker even if the smoker hasn't lit up in three days. And I can smell a cigarette being lit on the other side of some streets. And if I accidentally inhale a good whiff of smoke, I'll get a headache. In the UK, there are no non-smoking sections in restaurants, and there are a lot more smokers than in the U.S. At one point, some of my food tasted like smoke. Oh well.

The people are generally pretty nice. The London population is a lot like New Yorkers with better manners. As I said before, I didn't see sdtPikachu anywhere. And I didn't see any Muslims who carried around a baby named Mohammed or referred to his wife as Haylay, so I probably missed Shadow_Link as well.

In the UK, there are some restaurants with non smoking sections .

It's a shame you couldn't visit any Indian/Pakistani restaurants, because I know two of the very best in the UK, and they happen to be in London .

The Italian and Turkish restaurants are also some of the best around, though nothing can beat Italian food down in Venice...*Drools*

Oh, and my wife's name is Hayley .

But it's good to hear you had a nice time in London .

Joeiss, everything is VERY expensive in London. It's not just the properties, but the cars, food, drinks, TV's, consoles etc... I guess the exchange rate would be horrible since the '£' is very strong .

[Joeiss]

Originally posted by Shadow_Link
Joeiss, everything is VERY expensive in London. It's not just the properties, but the cars, food, drinks, TV's, consoles etc... I guess the exchange rate would be horrible since the '£' is very strong .

Yeah. I think 2.6 Canadian dollars is like 1 Euro dollar!

[BlueFire]

Heh..looks like you had fun.


Welcome back, Xantar.

[Shadow_Link]

Originally posted by Joeiss


Yeah. I think 2.6 Canadian dollars is like 1 Euro dollar!

1 Euro dollar?

Yeh, $2.6 canadian = £1 (English pound).

The Euro is a diferent currency.

[Joeiss]

Oh my bad. I thought all of Europe changed to the Euro.

Yes.... The pound, then.

[Angrist]

Some countries didn´t wanna join us with the €uro, like UK and Danmark. Now Danmark regrets that choice ( I guess it takes some time to prepare it), dunno about the UK.

But it sure is handy, not having to change money!

[Shadow_Link]

Originally posted by Angrist
Some countries didn´t wanna join us with the €uro, like UK and Danmark. Now Danmark regrets that choice ( I guess it takes some time to prepare it), dunno about the UK.

But it sure is handy, not having to change money!

What's Danmark? Is that how you spell Denmark in Holland?

As it stands, most people in the UK want to stick with the pound.

[Xantar]

Originally posted by Joeiss


Glad you had funny, Xantar. But I think that you could've had more fun with a little thing called alcohol.

As an 18 year old, I was legally able to drink alcohol in Europe. They wouldn't have cared if I was actually 16 anyway. I won't say whether I did drink any alcohol, but it's something for you to think about.

I also didn't pay for anything, so the exchange rate didn't bother me a bit.

Three more more funny stories/observations from London.

There are advertisements everywhere for the French Connection. Nothing wrong with that in and of itself. But this particular branch is the French Connection UK. Still nothing wrong with that. But for their advertisements, they insist on printing just the company initials in big letters. So very often as I walk around London, I am confronted by "FCUK." Surely it's not just the American who sees something wrong with this?

I said before that London's population is kind of like New York with better manners. Well, that's not entirely true. As I was touring the place, I kept thinking that I could mistake the place for an American city except something was missing. Then it came to me. There are practically no fat people. Once I caught on, I realized that I could pick out all the American tourists just by looking at their paunches. Fortunately, I'm not fat, but there are other ways to tell that I'm out of place (the fact that I kept looking the wrong way when crossing the street was probably a giveaway). So to all you Americans out there planning to visit London, if you happen to be overweight, don't be surprised if the locals mark you out immediately.

My last story takes place in a phone booth. I had put in the coins and dialed the number. As I was waiting for the other person to pick up, I glanced idly around the booth...

And realized that I was surrounded by advertisements for prostitutes. The world's oldest profession is legal over there, in case you didn't know. So there were these advertisements pasted all over the inside wall promising French models, Brazilian exotics and all manner of other things with a corresponding photograph. And these photographs didn't usually bother to cover anything up either. I'll let you imagine what happened next.