-------------------------
During my brief layover at Paris De Gaulle airport, I realized that French men are very tall and some are quite good-looking. Or maybe it was their accent that made them seem better-looking than they really were. :p A lot of dorks probably get women that way.
I want to visit Paris properly one day, with Vence. I think it'll be very romantic, even of it is cliche.
London has many more immigrants than I had pictured. All those Hollywood movies led me to believe that it was populated with Caucasians, but the ridiculously long line at immigration upon arrival at Heathrow was my first hint that this wasn't the case.
Then the trains between North London and Southwest London were also full of people speaking Arabic, Hindi and other Southeast Asian languages. There are also many tourists (and residents too, probably) from China and Hong Kong.
London has many annoying sounds -- the annoying and insistent beeps of airport-staff driven carts at Heathrow airport; the equally annoying and high-pitched beeps of the subway (The Tube) as the doors close. Why couldn't they play cheerful melodies like Japanese trains do?
London has many beautiful sounds--the British accent, especially from those who are dark-skinned, whom I least expect to have British accents.
London has many beautiful sights, including the posh and well-dressed men and women.
London also has many ugly sights, including strange fashions on the (generally) less-beautiful men and women. I know this probably sounds terrible, but some Brits are really not good-looking by any stretch of the imagination--maybe my expectations were too high.
I didn't expect to see garbage in the subways (I think I have been spoiled by the ultra-clean Japanese environment), the prevalence of newspapers and/or magazines on the train seats, which might have been for the better since there's no free wi-fi on the trains like in Japan. Oh, I can already see that I'm gonna have a hard time living anywhere else after Tokyo.
Some interesting observations: British men are very tall, but the ceilings in The Tube trains are not. The ceilings only reach full height at the middle; the sides (along the length of train) are slanted, like in some top-floor/attic apartments, probably because the tunnels were built so narrowly a hundred years ago.
There's a lot of advertising in the subway: framed posters and prints dot the hallways, staircase and escalator shafts, and portions of tunnels in front of the platforms. Interestingly, there are many more ads for movies, plays, and musicals than in Tokyo. The latter has more advertising from small, local businesses.
Apparently, there's a musical version now of "Ghost," the famous movie that starred Demi Moore and Patrick Swayze in the late '80s. I'm kind of curious.
It's already autumn in London, so everyone is wearing coats and jackets, but sometimes just t-shirts and shorts (on women, with or without tights). A lot fewer women wear heels, especially very high heels, as compared to Tokyo. it's amazing that Tokyo women can still walk by the end of the day, especially given that they have so much more to walk to and at train stations. They even shop in those things. Me, I can barely handle a two-hour party in medium-high heels and 10 minutes in the kind of shoes that I've seen them wear.
In NYC, we have the "If you see something, say something" campaign in the subways and buses. In London, they ask commuters to report anything suspicious to a "member of staff." (I think it's funny that the Brits drop off articles like "the" in cases like this, or treat some words as singular when Americans view them as plural, and vice versa. It's English, but it still sounds funny to me.)
Speaking of suspicious-looking bags, when Wanjin, Chun-Hao and I were at Waterloo Station, there was an unclaimed bookbag on the bench we were sitting on. When a woman asked if the bag belonged to us and we said no, she actually reported it. One of the Tube employees came, unzipped it to peek inside, and removed it.
I was surprised the woman actually reported it, but maybe the bombings had shaken up the people more than New Yorkers were by 9/11. But I guess the difference is that the London bombing was in the subway while 9/11 was in skyscrapers. I know someone who was a journalism intern in NY at the time, and she had to interview people in the aftermath. She has since developed a phobia of flying.
// Now at Carlton Mitre Hotel- I'm a little frightened by the security at this hotel. They gave my room key to my relatives when they checked in. That means anyone claiming to be my relatives could just get my room key and go in my room. There's a reason why most hotels ask to see the credit you used to book the room with, as a means of ID and security. It's a little creepy.
On the upside, the hotel itself is really nice, with plush pillows, thick fluffy towels and slippers, wood furniture, and free minibar! Too bad I don't drink anymore. And the hallway carpet could seriously use updating--it looks black in the center, where guests have walked on for probably the past decade.
------------
All in all, a good trip. I wish I could have seen more, but I thought it would be enough to tag along with whatever itinerary my cousins had planned for their parents. It didn't really pan out that way, so I only saw Big Ben and Westminster Abbey from the outside, and took a trip on the London Eye. The latter was about half an hour long, and a cool experience, but a little boring after about 15 minutes. I mean, how long can you marvel at the same sights, even if they are from different angles and heights? It was £15 or so, so I'm not sure I'd do it again.
There was a group of Irish (I think, or maybe some other part of England) women in the same "pod" of the Eye as me, and I know they were speaking English, but I couldn't understand a freaking thing. Accents are so interesting.
I want to go back to London for a visit. What little I've had of British cuisine was generally unimpressive (the fish of "fish and chips" was great, but the chips were just thick-cut french fries, not particularly well seasoned, nor was it at all crispy.
-----
Have I mentioned how much I hate Resona Bank? Long rant but god dammit, I fucking hate Japanese bureaucracy. It doesn't make any freaking sense.
No comments:
Post a Comment