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*