Londontown

Jolly Olde England was the location of my most recent adventure. I headed out from Al Akhawayn last thursday to start the long trek to Marrakesh, where the cheapest flights to London leave from.

 

 

I had received a joking invite from a good friend to come and visit England over the weekend, and I, never one to pass up a ridiculous sounding adventure, took him up on it! I touched down in London Luton around 1:40pm Friday afternoon, and spotted a lanky character with a mischevious grin on his face and my name on a bulletin board. We headed back towards town, to a subburb named Enfield. I get the feeling that Enfield is like Whiterock in Vancouver, the argument being whether it’s a suburb or a town unto its own right, but all I knew is that the whole area is so incredibly British. Brick-lined streets, white shuttered windows, humorously named pubs, the whole deal. In my mind it was like the opening credits of a video series from my childhood, the “World of Peter Rabbit and Friends”.

That first night there was a party to attend, as well as the second night, when I got my first introduction to english pub culture! The first difference that I can tell between Canadian bar and British pubs is that the pubs seemed more relaxed and casual (which may have just been the pubs we were at, you never know); whereas bars are a little grittier, with more energy by the patrons, they’re less of a place to hang out and more specifically there for you to get trashed.

 

On Sunday I went out with my friends’ mother and brother to Camden Market, a great little outdoor market where you can get everything from printed tees to hippy beads to techno/goth/rave gear to vintage photographs. That, plus every ethnicity of food stalls and a historic “horse hospital” makes this a pretty neat place. Highly suggested alternative to doing the typical touristy stuff. It really reminded me of the souks in Marrakesh actually, so many little winding alleyways and overstocked tables. I got some awesome Indian jewelry and ogled neon hotpants in Cyberdog, a rave gear outlet with go-go dancers in cages on the roof.

Monday rolled around quicker then I would have liked, my last day in  London. We went out to see all the typical touristy sites, all in a day. It went something like this: London Bridge, Big Ben, London Eye, Trafalger Square, and Oxford Street. We went into a few museums to see a brief taster of the art and culture London has to offer, and got turned away from the British Museum by a geriatric guard. All the time I was regaled by the slightly abbreviated version of English history, which was vastly more amusing then your average history lesson. We rounded off the day by consuming a gigantic version of that English classic: fish ‘n’ chips. I even got a sample of mushy peas, which wasn’t as nasty as it sounds. The British certainly have a way with food names: mushy peas, fish n chips, toad in a hole, bangers and mash, bubble and squeak (the latter two I did not get to eat, for better or for worse).

Early Tuesday morning I trucked out by 3:30 am, to start the long lonely trek back to Al Akhawayn.

I have decided that these little taster weekend trips are not nearly enough to properly see a city. Both of my european jaunts have left me just wanting more: more time, more money, more fun! You need to dedicate a proper chunk of time to really see an area, I’ll never understand those people who “do” a whorlwind tour of Europe in two weeks. London was amazing, I left a bit of my heart there.

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