Wet Waste of Time and a Haunted London Uncannily Disappointing

Alright, big delay, I know. Sorry about that. As it recently was my mother's birthday, I was back in Germany for just one night over the weekend, hence the neglect. Sure it was nice being home for a few hours - so to say - but I almost could not wait to be back in London again. Love it. Oh yeah. Try getting from Hamlet on the Street... erm. alright, the dump that is called STREATHAM to Liverpool Street Station and then to Stansted in the middle of the night. Good luck with that. I got up at 2:40 AM, walked up to Becmead Avenue hoping for the night bus to come who was supposed to take me there. I actually was assured that the night buses are just as reliable as the buses at daytime - but that might not mean a lot. I looked up the route on the tfl website. Two days prior I already went up to Becmean just to make sure that I know how to get there (not difficult - found the station right away). The bus came on time - it just did not serve Liverpool Street Station (which was to be the final destination). Awesome. For some reason it ended at Elephant and Castle. Nobody knows why. Nobody. I had the chance to enjoy that feeling that I might not make it to the airport on time and that I honestly don't know how to get to f*cking Liverpool Street in the middle of the night - for about 12 minutes. That's when the next bus arrived. To Liverpool Street Station. Thank. God. It was the second time now that the London transport page gave me the wrong information while it should actually be the most trustworthy source. It is always busy here. Never would you have believed that it was 3:00 am (despite the two foxes I saw). People. Cars. Streetlife. Open stores and restaurants. Once I arrived at the station, everything went smoothly. Although I was not aware that a ticket to Stansted costs 20 Pound one way, or 30 with return. Ridiculous. The bus only takes 8 Pound when you leave at the first station and 10 when you get off at - say - Bakerloo. It might take longer but it is cheaper in the end.


That was what is to say about my last weekend.

The Sunday before was supposed to be Regent Street Festival with "Fashion and Food" being the Motto. I was there, yes, but there was no festival. Well, there HAVE been a few stalls and a very sad looking merry-go-round - but it was literally ruined by the rain. It was beneath a tent with people trying to avoid the water rather than listening to the music where I heard the saddest rendition of Billie Holiday's 'Summertime' ever. The women that played the tune probably felt the same way - just look at their faces...

I just walked pretty much through Regent Street up to a suprisingly empty Piccadilly Circus straight to China Town for lunch. A decision I regretted afterwards. I settled for a newly opened all you can eat buffet restaurant with a 10 pound offer plus one free drink. Most restaurants - and there are plenty of them as china town pretty much consists of places to eat - offer buffets. I might have been the fact that I was alone, or that I might have looked like a gluttonous pig to them - who knows  - but they gave me the crappiest table in the restaurant which I only realised after sitting down after the first walk to the buffet with a hardly filled plate (that's the concept of all you can eat - you can come back to the buffet for more). I noticed that if all seats around me were taken, I would have been pretty much caged. It's not like the place was really full, they just always put you to the front so it looks like that from outside (many people = good food). It is rather awkward to always ask people to stand up for you while they are trying to eat (if I'd been that person, it would have bothered me as well), so I just got up once again, coming back with an embarressingly full plate. The food was okay, but I just wanted to finish ASAP and leave - what I did. That was that Sunday (26/09/10).

On Friday the 1st, I attended one of those many so called London Walks - guided walks through  areas of London based on a certain theme - together with Katja. I had high expectations. And was rather gutted. This walk's theme was "Haunted London" and I expected a creepy tour with well told, dreadful stories. The stories were dreadful at times, but the guide was a dislikable guy hastily telling them in a way that made it easy to realise that he did that way too often already. No atmosphere, no nothing, It was nice walking through Central London (it started at Monument) in the evening through the rain, sure, but it surely would have been nicer without the guide and without wasting the 6 pounds we paid (8 if you aren't a student). Not too much, but still.

The Gherkin and the Lloyd's building are impressive, nevertheless. Too bad we were in such a rush due to the guide that there was no good moment for taking decent pictures...

                                                           

Day 16-24: You really get Portobello Mushrooms at Portobello Market!

Just something to get started: This is what I see when I look out of the window at work.

I took this photo in an all sneaky manner, so that (hopefully) nobody noticed. I'm cool with taking pictures of my food in public now, but at work it's kinda awkward and and tourist-y. I cannot really complain about work. People are talking to me more and more and there a some that I like and vice versa, so I'm quite fond of going to work everyday, actually.

Last Saturday I went to Portobello Market. It was right before my mother's birthday so the plan was to get her something from there. Located in Notting Hill, Portobello Market is a generic vegetable street market during weekdays but expands to an antique and vintage market on Saturday. The best way to get there is from Notting Hill Station and really just by following the crowd - hard to miss then and it's honestly not far. I read somewhere that it was supposed to be open until 7 pm, so I did everything but hurry and arrived at about 4. Too bad that it went actually until 5.30 with the good stalls already starting to pack so I was rather stressed after realising that - thus so little pictures as my main goal really was finding a present.
The majority of antique dealers actually had their constant shops inside and when looking at the facades of the buildings it is actually hard to imagine how deep they actually go. One antique market hall next to another, so to say. The atmosphere reminded me very much of Camden Market, but less crackhouse chique and more posh. Oh, and really really expensive if you really want to go for the antiques. I expected something resembling a fleamarket to be honest but what you find are actual antiques and porcelain merchants so be aware of that. May it be jewellery, silverware, china, furniture, vases and so on - it's at Portobello's and it's pretty - it really it. Along with vintage clothes and accessories as well as new creations that fit into that kind of style. I actually was really really stressed and slightly panicking as finding something nice, thoughtful and affordable turned out to be more difficult than expected (I always put a lot of thought into giving presents as I really want the other person to like it. Still feel uncomfortable reveiving presents, though). I started to get pissed as all those other people seemed to be so terribly slow and rude, always purposely standing in or crossing my way! That was of course all in my head and I was very aware of that - it's just how it seems to be when you are in a hurry, right? ;)

After finding something, I was finally able to relax for a second and get myself something to munch on. I settled on a delicious vegan falafel wrap with aubergine/eggplant for 4 pounds (3.50+aubergine), sat down on a traffic refuge - there weren't that many cards passing, anyway - listened to troubadour singing Elvis songs and trying to avoid the sauce dripping from my dinner. I went on buying myself about a kilo of tasty and fresh grapes for 1 pound or 1.20 - actually not too fresh, slightly brownish at some areas but still very very yummy - for later, passing a shop selling super expensive, delicious smelling hand-made soap and other things. Lushy it was called and the soap looked like broken parmesan with something like a honey-coloured, comb-strucured  glaze on top - and cost a fortune.

I spent the whole Sunday with Katja. She had an appointment in Shortlands - south-east London - and I came along. Believe me, getting from Streatham to Shortlands really is an adventure, but one worth the effort. It was Sunday and I wrote down a route the tfl - transport for London website - suggested me. It later turned out that there would have been a probably longer but assured way - but nevermind. I only went by bus with one change. Taking the bus is a rather tricky matter here in London - they might not show up, be late or just ignore you (what happened to me today and that fucker of a driver looked me write in the eyes... There are some stations the buses only stop when you wave at them and so I did. Greasy, bloated, dumb-looking little bastard). In my case, the first bus I had to take not only had a different destination than what the tfl said  - that later thankfully changed directly into the one I needed to get off - it did not even stop there. Actually the destination the bus was supposed to stop turned out to be right around the corner, but if you are unfamiliar with the route, you wouldn't know. I was supposed to change at Crystal Palace and the bus right after the one I just had to leave was named that way, so I hopped on it and asked for a zone 4 ticket as my final destination was there and my oyster cards only reached zone 3. I tried to get that one on the first bus as well but the driver refused to sell it to me and I still don't know if they really just don't or if he was not in the mood as I saw him selling SOMETHING to somebody else later, but nevermind. Anyway, the busdriver of the one I just got on not only asked me where I actually wanted to go, but took me with him for one station for free so to say and told me exactly how to get there and which bus to take. Friendliest. Busdriver. Ever.

That reminds me of an incident the Czech girl that lived here on my first week told me about. A bus stopped right next to her with the driving lady shouting "hey". Not realising that she meant her, the girl went on, with another "hey" following. It turned out that she dropped her pullover a few metres before and the driver just wanted to tell her. So some busdrivers really are nice here.

After Katja's appointment we went on for lunch in Brixton. Again I ate at Bamboula - the place I've been before twice - but this time I was rather disappointed. We were really hungry so I was not in the mood to extensively search for the entry of the market so we went there almost directly. Maybe some other day I will find the place P recommended me when they actually jerk the chicken fresh outside.

This time I had the simmered goat which honestly turned out to be a disappointment. While really tender, the meat was spare with many chunks of bones and not really distinctive flavour-wise so I would honestly put it in the category of mystery meat again. Katja opted for the jerk lamb and while finding it delicious, she said that it was nothing she could eat everyday, what is okay with me. As I suggested the place I was worried that she would not like it at all. Frankly, last time I ate there I was not even sure if they actually served plantain or just  bananas and they first bill the waitress gave us was only handwritten so I asked whether I could get an actual one (I get a certain amount of subsistence at my internship when handing over receipts) and the price on there was lower than the first one - although service was included as well. Pretty shady if you would ask me and I think that it is about time to find a different place for Caribbean cuisine. Nevermind.

We went on to see the new Resident Evil in a cinema close to picadilly circus that turned out to be the shittiest cinema I have ever been in, While looking rather fancy from the outside, the actual theatre had not even stairs but only a slight lowering of the floor so you pretty much had a nice view of other peoples back of the head. It might sound weird, but I like the fact that I saw a film in London - which was actually the first one I saw in 3D - and the cinema turned out to be the way it was.

After a short side trip to Chinatown afterwards (where I bought unsweetened bottled green tea - very refreshing) we called it a night.

The following week was not too eventful. I went to a pub three times with some colleagues which may be a bit too often but worth it. :) I don't know why but I don't feel like writing too much about work- or colleague-related topics on here.

If I find the time, tomorrow I will write about my spontaneous but AWESOME walk through Central London I took today, finally being up to date again!