United Kingdom

The Walkabout Tavern is a place where Aussies and Kiwis can come together to enjoy some of the finer things life has to offer;
like pints of Fosters, cricket, rugby and a general aptitude for drinking.

By the time Matt and I had made it there the other NZers were already hard into it; which came as a bit of a surprise seeing it was only the 3rd over and 1:30 in the afternoon. Fosters is on tap everywhere here and I have a hard time trying to explain to Londoners that in Australia people just don't drink it, but here it's cheap and emphasises the point that your Australian, so you do.

Snakebite; 'snakie' a new drink I was introduced to; is a mixture of cider, lager and grenadine and is harsh, very very very harsh.

NZ destroyed the poms and the afternoon of drinking began to develop into a night of drinking. After leaving the Walkabout we caught the Double Decker Bus home; the novelty of which has yet to wear off. Stopping for a traditional Londoner's meal; chicken kebab. £4 sets you up with a huge kebab served subway style with your own choice of fillings and gets you ready for the night ahead.

There's only one thing I hate about going out in London, its usually about a 15 minute walk to the club your going out to, and at any time after 6:00pm the outside air temperature could be as low as 3 degrees. Easily solved by wearing a nice big jacket, however once your in the club jammed in the middle of a dancing mosh of 500 people, a nice big jacket is not exactly what you want. Solved again by a cloak check-in room costing a further £1 and involves a 15 minute wait in line.

On this particular friday night; Fosters were selling at £1 so we managed to set up a pretty good collection of labels at our table;

Danced the night away until 5am when it was time to make the long COLD walk home; with a quick stop over at the pizza place across the road; where you meet crazy eastern europeans and two guys from Margaret River, it's a crazy place the UK.

When you wake up in London with a hangover and your really desperate for that greasy McDonalds/Hungry Jacks fix; then be prepared;

....are you man enough to pay $13 for a regular whopper meal?..
Remember, when coming to London, bring money and lots of it.

Garrett in London.

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.

Two days ago I was sitting on a Fremantle beach looking at my last Australian sunset; deeply wondering what had pushed me to want leave the easiness of Australia with its 30 degree days, blue beaches, consistent surf and friends and family.

For a city on the otherside of the world in a country i knew no one and a climate that every time it gets over 13 degrees at this time of the year everyone is beaming and sits outside soaking up the scattered sun rays.

The trip was long; with the QANTAS food making me feel like I'd just eating something cooked 4 years earlier. 2 hours in Singapore and some cheap sushi with a girl from the UK on her way to Cairns from Cambodia and I was beggining to realise just how many people you meet travelling alone.

The thing about Singapore is that no matter what the temperature, it is ALWAYS humid, very very very humid. Lucky however they have built a tropical waterfall in the very centre of the airport.

In an attempt to combat the humidity I headed to the Airport bar on the roof of the airport and in the overwhelming heat had a middy of Tiger and sat with two french girls who were returning home after several weeks on the Gold Coast. After my 2 hour Asiatic experience I boarded my 12 hour flight to Paris.

After being in darkness for over 15 hours you get a real sense of relief when you finally see the sunrise; and luckily for me when I arrived at the Paris airport raced from terminal to terminal in an attempt to not miss my flight I saw this sunrise over the Parisian Airport.

After flying for over 24 hours, sleeping for 2 hours, eating airline food and making it to the otherside of the world. The last thing you want to hear is;
'I am sorry sir, but your baggage has been left in Paris, but it will be sent to London on the next flight and delivered to your address this evening.' But I did; so I decided to hop on the Underground and make my way to Picadilly Circus to try on some £200 clothing, drink the famous Starbuck's; 'Spicy Chai Tea Latte with Vanilla' and yes ride on a double decker bus;

I was told to expect to see a lot of people with money in London; and I wasn't dissapointed. The number of BMW 4wd's for a city that barely even has a hill is incredibly; and some Kensington apartements at a lovely £1,250 a week. One thing that left me shocked and broke was London public transport with my first day of buses and trains leavin me $50 poorer.

All in all the weather has been great since I've been here; blue skies and a supposedly warm 16 degrees. I'm still waiting on my luggage a day later and hopefully it arrives so I can get a change of clothes and see how badly damaged my surfbaord is.

Garrett in London.