Starbucks; The Religion;

The weather is still really good for London with sunny skies and again around 17 degrees; but the money side of things is killing me. So much so that it really isn't worth going out here because you end up spending at least 40 quid; around $100. Where as in a week I will be in Morocco paying $10 a night for accomodation and food for $3 and it will be warm with good surf haha....

I'm currently at Picadilly Circus and just doing the touristy things; by riding the buses, checking out Trafalgar Square and the London Eye.

Went into a Quicksilver surf store today and met a dude from Gisborn in New Zealand who is working in London to save some cash; over the past few days I've begun to crave the ocean and a surf and it was sweet to finally talk to someone who was feeling the same way. Tommorow night he and I are heading to a kiwi/aussie pub which should be sweet fun. Surf gear here is a joke; with boards costing £375 around about $950..Quicksilver shirts around £40 = $100.

Starbucks in the U.K. is a religion; theres one on every corner and then another one between the corners; the coffee's pretty good and the atmosphere reminds me a lot of Dome and expect to pay around $6 for a flat white.

I finally managed to find something free to do in London; I went to the national art gallery and saw some works by Picasso and Van Gogh which was interesting. The atmosphere outside the gallery was amazing with the sun shining across the thousands of people scattered along the gallery steps.

I headed down to the London Eye where from the bridge there is also an awesome view of the Thames and Big Ben;

There were lots of buskers along the banks of the river and even a couple of 'PUNK LONDON ACID TRIPPERS' who were keen to play my digeridoo. One of the girls could actually play really well and when I asked her where she learnt she replied;
'I was in Amsterdam and was on a massive acid trip and my friend had one there so I just started playing for like 5 hours.' After that i cleaned the didgeridoo, very very very very very thoroughly before playing it again; but they gave me a sweet photo;

The polic presence in London is huge; with policeman on every corner. In front of the Big Ben security was even tighter with most of the police yielding a gun or two, just in case one of the fanatical tourists decides to take one to many photos.

One thing you notice walking around London is jsut how many people have 4WD's as big as an F250 Ford; and they all look as though the closest they have ever come to 4WD is accidently hitting a curb in the tight London streets; like this one jsut outside Piccadilly Circus;

After heading back to the Quicksilver store I had to head back to the train station at London Waterloo which was back past the London Eye; there were still a few buskers around and I had my didgeridoo with me so I decided I'd give busking a shot; and sat by the Thames with my aussie flag folded out on the pavement and jammed on the didg for around half an hour; I had a lot of curious people and a group of french girls on holiday gave me a few euros for when I get to France; haha. I ended up making about £5 in half an hour which is around $11 so I was stoked; it paid for my train ticket home but before I headed off I had a jam with 2 guys from amsterdam on acoustic guitars and one guy from London on an electric;

On the whole it's a crazy city with crazy people; and you definatley need a lot of money to live here; I had a sweet third day and am amped to head out tommorow night;
Garrett in London.