The city of dreams, or so they call it! Day one of my stay in UK was in London. I arrived there at 2.30pm. The driver who picked me up turned out to be chatty fellow. The one question that I asked him got him really talking. I just asked him-"Is London a safe city?"-like any tourist/first-timer would have asked! To this he replied-"Ma'am I thought you have been here before from your friendly demeanor" (excellent English by the way!). I told him it was my first time to UK. After that there was no stopping him. He told me all about the city, what to do and what not to do, about how I should not travel alone and NEVER appear as a tourist to others. According to him, London, with a massive population of 20 million (yes!) is home to people from many many nationalities. If I didn't behave like a tourist (that would be hard with that camera of mine I thought to myself) no one would even realize.He showed me around those areas of London which are known for their hustle and bustle- Oxford Street, Piccadily Circus, the place with the Victory Statue (I forget the name). It was almost like a conducted tour of the city. He asked me really genuine questions about India and Indians and he seemed to know a lot about us. He asked, apologizing for sounding rude, if it was normal for Indian girls to travel alone to another country? I laughed and told him it would have been rather unusual 15-20 years ago, but now a days, Indian parents have become relatively more liberal (Thank God!) He wanted to know how Indians are so good in the IT industry and why I had not joined the same instead of becoming a Mechanical Engineer (yes it does seem like an interview, and yes I did divulge a lot of details)? They were sensible questions and I did my best to answer them sensibly.
Anyway, once I finally got to the hotel, it was time for the 5 of us to go out and explore the city (read paint the city red!:P ) Two things you notice first about London- one, that there are a lot of people there; two, that a lot of these people are Indians! :) With that homely ambiance we set out! We first went to the Trafalgar Square. There was a celebration of some sort going on. There were a lot of people out on the streets, but we realized only later that most of them were tourists like us. We saw the National Museum but only from the outside. It is a beautiful place, and the skies were clear so the view was excellent too. The chilly winds ruffled my hair, but having got a heads up about the weather there, I had gone prepared.Over coats and jackets filled a major part of my luggage to London.
A friend, who was more familiar with the city
showed us around. We went to see the Big Ben, the Westminster Abbey and the London Eye! They all look gorgeous. They form a very pretty picture adorning the pensive River Thames. We had almost gone up the London Eye but the long queues made us change our minds. After spotting a brawl on the streets and getting chills of cold winds shake us up (this due to the cold not the brawl!) we took the Tube to Piccadilly Circus! This is where you must be on a Saturday night in London, and that's where we were! From troupes of dancers chanting mantras of "Hare Krishna Hare Rama" to people dressed in what you would call fancy dress competition costumes, we spotted everyone! Its one of the most lively places I have been to. Other than the huge masses of people thronging the streets, everything there looked rather neat. We grabbed some ice cream (which we realized later, was a bad idea in that cold! ) and explored the area. It had finally started raining as the day came to a close (for us, because we were 4.5 hours behind time).
We had the Buckingham Palace and the famous Tower of London (which is often misquoted as the London Bridge) to explore the next day. The exciting part was that, 22nd April happened to be the day of the London Marathon! Wherever we went we saw people cheering the many marathon runners. The "London bridge" was the most festive place that day. The excitement was contagious, we cheered the runners too :)
After a fine lunch at Zucca, an authentic Italian place, we set out to leave for our next destination in UK- Exeter. We passed the Baker Street station on our way, which was adorned by silhouettes of Sherlock Holmes on the walls. Our train took off from the London Paddington station which strongly reminded me of the train station from "Dilwale Dulhaniya Le Jaenge" :P
London in one and a half days was hectic! It was more crowded than I had expected but the Marathon, the lively ambiance of the Piccadilly Circus and the Roman and Victorian skylines of the city pretty much made up for it. I knew I would be back here during my return journey, and I saved my shopping plans for then! :)
