AROUND THE WORLD IN 80 DAYS........or so

On Tuesday night, myself and my 2 room mates decided that sure we are all moving on tomorrow, lets say goodbye to London in Style. A vote was taken and Camden town was the choice for that nights drinking. On the way to Kings Cross Station to catch the tube we said we would kick start the evening with a quick pint in O'Neills Irish Bar (just up the road from the hostel and tube station). So 1 turned into 2, 2 turned into 3 etc., etc. "Right are we heading to Camden or what?", "eh no, its 1.30am!"

So it turned out without us realising that we had spent the night in O'Neills. Turned out to be a really good night.

Following morning was not easy, we only had about 5/6 pints and all our headings were, well not the best. Couple pints of water and were back on track. My plane was'nt till 10.30pm that evening so I had the entire day to spend in London. The only 2 places I never got to were Maduam Tussads and the Imperial war Museum.

Tussads was grand. More aimed at the young I'd guess. Kinded reminded me of the School tours to the Dublin Wax Museum. After that I caught the tube over to the Imperial War Museum. I spent about 3 hours in this place. I must say the Exhibition on the Holocust is something else. They have some really disturbing pictures and videos on Display.

Right thats it from London. I must say it is certainly an enjoyable city. Lots to do and see. I shall certainly be back at some stage now that I know the main tourist spots to avoid so you won't get ripped off.

Thats it for now

Take care

Colin

This photo was taken at the Royal Observatory in Greenwich overlooking the city of London. So close to the city but you would think you were miles away in the country side.

Hay all,

Well I am just after arriving back in the hostel of spending the day in Greenwich. Tomorrow I depart for Thailand but firstly in the morning its a quick trip to the Imperial War Museum, been meaning to get to it all week.

Since I last updated I've managed to get around most parts of London that were worth seeing. Well apart from Sunday when I just sat in O'Neills watching the Dublin Game!

Harrods
Over those few days I managed to pay a visit to the over-rated, over-priced Harrods Department Store, the jolly old guy on the door would not let me in as I was not dressed suitably......can you imagine some stoping you at Pennys saying you can't get in because your were wearing Tracksuit buttoms and I taught the Beerkeeper was bad! Anyway paid another trip back on Monday to which I was greeted with a gleaming smile as he opened the door for (nice chap!). A glorified Shopping Centre would be the best way to describe Harrods.

Around the Parks to Buckingham
The walk around the parks, both Hyde Park and St. James's, I really enjoyed. It took the best part of 2 hours but was well worth it. When you come out on one side of St James's park you see nothing but bus after bus full of Tourists looking to get a peak at Buckingham Palace. Why? Its just a bland building. If you really want to see what a palace should look like they should check out the royal Palaces in Brussells or the Palace of Versaille in France, at least they have a bit of character and life to them. However I must say well done to the Gardners who keep the avenue leading up to the palace looking really well.

A 10 minute walk around the road and you reach Westminister Abbey and Houses of Parliment these are are impressive buildings that really stand out amoung the modern London Buildings that surround it. Next time your watching Brian Dubson report for RTE standing outside Houses of Parliment don't be fooled by the size of Big Ben in the Background, he aint that big!! Another 5 minutes down the road and you'll come to the famous No.10, Gordon was'nt home to take my call unfortuantely.

The London Eye and Soho

After stuffing my face with a lovely Strawberry, mint-choc and vinalla Ice Cream I head for the highest point in London - The London Eye. Now thats something else....It took me almost 1 hour to wait to get on but it was surely worth it in the end. You can see for miles from the top, must say well worth the £15. Sure after all that excitement a wee drink was in order and what better place to chill out but in Soho, relaxing in a Jazz Cafe with all pints £1.50. Class.

My Last day

Today, Tuesday, was the last full day in London, I was going to just check out Maddam Tuasads and the Imperial War Museum, but that can wait till morning. I decided instead to head for Greenwich. On the way out that direction I took a stop off at the infamous Millenium Dome, quite a site, but I can understand why it failed at the start. Its not in the best of areas and it still looks dirty in certain places. I took the estuary walk around the dome which you can see all the impressive buildings across the Thames at Canary Warf.
A bit of lunch, I then caught the bus and headed for Greenwich village to check out the Maritime Museum and Royal Obervatory. It was extremely interesting and I'm delighted I decided to go. The obervatory host an excellent exhibition on Time and Navigation Travel, it also has a small piece on Summer Time, which is celebratin 100 years in exsistence this year.

So thats more or less it for the moment. I will be updating photo's from a few of the above sites when I get to Thailand. Time to go and get ready for my last night out in London. I think were hitting Cambden tonight.

All the best for now

Colin

Here a just a handfull of photo's....it to takes way to long to upload

check out my widget on bebo for more......

Hay everyone,

Hostel Pub Crawls - Avoid!
On Thursday night I decided to join the Hostel Pub Crawl in the Camben area. Now I'm not a big fan of Hostel pub crawls as they are usually sh*t and of course this was no excemption. They should change the word crawl to Marathon as there was a good 15/20 minute walk to each pub. One of the pubs we did check out was The Dublin Castle, its kinda a Spirit Store type pub playing up and coming bands everynight. Its were Blur, Madness and Coldplay all started out apparently!

Agony

All my walking on Thursday did not really help the aul legs on Friday, they were killing me. So it was either stay in bed or get up and do things fairly slowly at my pwn pace, I decided to do just that. I head for the tube and decided to check out Covent Garden. Now this place is fecking class. The market is not really up to much but the wide range of street performers is just amazing. You could spend your entire day here watching the street entertainment.

I came across a band called Lotus, they were kind of an mad classic band, but really good. Check out the video recording I took of them. (It might take a minute or two to load!)

I'll think i'll leave it at that for today. The plan now for the rest of the day is to chill out before hitting Picadilly Circus later on for a night on the town.

All the best.

Colin