This trip was always going to be special and it didnt dissapoint one bit. Completely and 100% more than what I wanted it to be. A great great thanx to Dipti for all the help and company when I was in London.
Yes, London it was.... the land of the queen, a land of dreams and A Land of DESIs!!! SO MANY of them, for a while it almost felt like home.
My first reaction was the conversion rate, as if the euros werent tough enough on me at 1 @ 57 Rupees, the Sterling just kills you with its 1 @ 85 RUPEES conversion rate. I dunno how much the Londoners earn but they must do it pretty well or you sure cant live in that city.
I travelled alone this weekend, taking the scenic, longer and MUCH cheaper route to London by crossing the English Channel on a luxury steamer. The total trip there took me 12 hours and the one back took me 20 with little help provided by the TGVs in France which had no reservations on Sunday.
I was excited from the very beginning, knowing that I would meet 2 people who meant a lot to me. Divya and Vicky, for those who know me well both names are not new and for the others, ill just leave it at this: they are both as important as family.
I reached London on thrusday and put up at the Youth Hostel in Holland park, a gret place the park has a football ground, a small chateau and the huge youth hostel. Its amazing how much greenery London has packed into itself.
It was one of the best youth hostels I have lived at and also the most expensive at 22 Quids. Hoever my stay there was worth it as I met 2 students who were Indian and had just graduated from Oxford completing their MBA and about to start woking in London. Sunil and Gaurav were both were nice, even offering me home made parathas and gave me a youngsters perspective of the city and what I can see and what I can miss
With so much in store in London, you need to first decide what you WONT see, then squeeze in what you wanna see into the time avaialble. I was sure about one thing, no paying to go to any of the OLd Man's attractions.
So my day began Friday with a gr8 breakfast comprising beans, cheese, bread, cereal, juice, yoghurt...easily the best of this trip. Heading straight to the Portobello road street market, I took my time having a look around the entire area with people selling fruits, antiques, chcoloates, clothes, jewellery and a flea market of its own.
After this looong looong walk, I headed straight to her Majesty for the FAMOUS Changing of the guards at Buckingham Palace, which in my opinion could be done simpler :p, just get the next shift on and get them to start working, why all this taam jhaam in the first place :)
After thi I felt my calling were the banks of river Thames, rounding it up with the London eye, the Westminster Abby, BIG BEN (how can we forget that) and London bridge. All of which were as beautiful as they are in the thousands of pictures, though I thought Thames was very dirty and I mean really dirty.
NEXt stop, HARRODS. A visit to Lodnon for me was incomplete without a visit to this GIAnT store, which I felt was heavenly. Every window shoppers dream and parents nightmare... you just wannna buy everything they sell and Believe me when i say it THEY SELL EVERYTHING!!
From a pencil set to a Ferrari, Toys to Food, Clothes to sports goods.... you name it and they would have it. Exteremely beautiful on the interiors and toilets that are Oh la la.....
My trip to Harrods was also empty handed with me choosing to tide over a couple of very very tempting buys.
I then headed back to the hostel and waited so I could meet Divya who was on her way back from Manchester and Dipti at whose place Divya was putting up. We met and headed straight to Rasa Samudra, which I musst say is a a great Indian restaurant and of you ever throw in a visit there do drop in to speak to the owner Mr Das. A great person and a perfect host. He could not be more warm and welcoming. Its one of 8 Indian restaurants the Rasa chain has in London.
After that we headed to Leacester square and trafalgar square to go clubbing and see the night life in London and I personally think that Mumbai tops it all. WE guys really rock and London was slightly disspaointing though I must say , I can hardly say I even checked out the clubbing scene there with just this single visit.
NExt day was spent in running around from one hostel to the other, a great day of roaming around Hyde park, which are old hunting grounds. visits to Starbucks and burger king for great great food as always. Btw the spicy bean burger at Burger king is gr8 and so is the hazelnut Hot chocoloate at Starbucks, Than again to Dipti for introducing me to them :-)
NExt we hit Oxford Circus and the entire Oxford street, picking up some cheap stuff from here and there along the way and topping the trip with a Ben & Jerry's Belagian Waffle alongwith Hot chocolate and whipped cream. That was my dinner :-) During all this our very own Vicky had landed in London and gettin ready to hit the city with all he had
We headed back and met up with Divya who was free and again sat up chatting away tilll late talking about how we were in London and not Lokahandwala.... :-)
next morning saw me leave early to catch up on Vicky and his colleague Soumil who were slughtly lost and a final cup of starbucks hot chocolate and Burger King burger, which was my lunch for the day :-) . It was really nice meeting him like we do back home in Matunga or worli and just hanging around for an hour at the coffee shop. A truly special memory
An AWESOME AWESOME weekend, a gr8 city and gr8 people. A trip which will be hard to top over but lets see... right now I have held my breathe for Switzerland, cause after all have seen and heard about it, its sure to take my breath away...... and welll I am all prepared........... ;-)
My online photo album remains on picassa and you can always login to see the pics I took in London, though most are simply London through my eyes as a majority of the weekend I wasnt carrying my digi with me.
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