Jolly good!

The flight to London seemed endlessly long. And it was filled with children. Actually, that part wasn't so bad, but it could have been. I managed to keep myself busy mainly by just thinking about stuff. That's what I often do to beat boredom. When I got tired of that, I watched several of the in-flight movies, viz. Frost/Nixon and Gran Torino. I didn't sleep. Basically, 2 AM jumped to 7 AM, cutting out some prime sleeping time. I wouldn't have been able to sleep anyway because the plane was too noisy.

Anyway, we landed in the UK on Wednesday morning without a hitch, and the weather was typical: cold and overcast and slightly rainy. The four of us made our way into London before deciding to head for our own lodging; Mark and Dan went to a hotel while Andy and I trekked to Andy's relatives house in Mill Hill, Barnet, Greater London. After much frustration in trying to take the underground and overground trains, we made it to Mill Hill, and from there we asked locals how to get to the right street. Finally, we found the house and were greeted by one of Andy's relatives.

After settling in, we thought we would kill some time (and keep our jet-lagged selves from dozing in the afternoon) by taking a train into London and walking around a bit. But it was so cold that we didn't stray far from the station where we had gotten off. There wasn't much to see around there, so we went home but got kept taking the wrong trains. It was pretty confusing because some of the trains passed by our stop but didn't stop there. All the while, we were trying to beat the jetlag by not falling asleep. Even I was nodding off at that point.

Finally we were home, and we met more of Andy's relatives. There are three of them in all, parents and a son older than us. We finished the long day in a very British manner: by eating Indian food (which was delicious, by the way) and watching soccer on TV. Then we went to sleep. Ah, beautiful sleep...

On Thursday, Andy and I woke up well-rested and ready to see all the sights. We took a bus to Oxford Circus and planned to mosey down to the Palace of Westminster. I kept getting distracted by monuments off in the distance, and before we knew it, we were at a road lined with British flags and a lovely park on the opposite side. Toward the end of the road there was some kind of monument, so we decided to see what it was.

It turned out to be a monument to Queen Victoria, and behind it was none other than Buckingham Palace. We stuck around for a little while before continuing to Westminster.

We were getting hungry at this point, so near the Cenotaph and Downing Street we stopped at a cafe for sandwiches. And we continued on to Big Ben. It was pretty cloudy that day, so I didn't think the pictures would come out well, but it looks like they have.

We crossed Westminster Bridge to go to County Hall and the London Eye. We thought about getting on the Eye, but we decided to wait until the weather improved. So we went toward the Tower Bridge, crossing London Bridge and passing the Monument and the Tower of London along the way.

We couldn't actually do a lot of stuff at this point because it was getting late. We were also very tired, so we went home. Andy cooked some stir fry, and then we tried to make some Pasporta Servo contacts in France before we went to bed.

On Friday, we went into town again. The first thing I wanted to do was go to Abbey Road, famously shown on the cover of the Beatles album of the same name and home of the studio where they did most of their recording. As I had expected, there were a few fans there, and the wall outside the studio (also called Abbey Road) was covered in brand-new graffiti from visitors around the world.

The people there were also trying to get photos of themselves making the famous walk across the street, so I didn't feel so cheesy about trying to do it myself. Anyway, I wouldn't be able to live myself if I hadn't done it.

After that, we went to the London Eye because it was a sunny day. We stood in line for about a half hour, and the ride (or "flight") itself lasted as long, so it wasn't that bad. It was a great opportunity to see the city.

We had some time to kill before the meeting of the London Esperanto Club that we had planned to attend. So we went to Camden, near were it was supposed to be, and walked around a bit while having some fruit from a local market. We made our way to the London Irish Centre, where the club would meet, and sat outside because we were still early. I had never met other Esperantists before, so I was kind of nervous. Finally, we went in and had a seat near some of them. They were mostly older folks, and they welcomed us heartily. We chatted a bit, always in Esperanto, and then went upstairs for the meeting, also in Esperanto.

One of the members was compiling an Esperanto-English dictionary and showed us some entries he had come up with (and some he had decided to exclude). He was having some issues with trying to decide between British English and American English words, so it was fortunate that there were American visitors there. We talked about words and such, and when that was over, we introduced ourselves to the group and mentioned how we started an Esperanto club at our school. They weren't all old; the president was younger and an American, and another member was a Slovak who looked to be in his twenties.

We went downstairs to chat with the twentysomething guy (in Esperanto), and before we knew it, it was dark out and almost everyone had left. He treated us to dinner at a vegetarian Chinese buffet in Camden, where we talked about our Esperanto-related plans for the summer. Then he presented some of his Esperanto raps (oh yes, there is such a thing). By then, it was getting late, so we went home, whereupon I fell asleep.

We haven't planned anything for today, so maybe we're just going to take it easy. Before we leave, I would like to check out Westminster Abbey or at least go to a pub and have fish and chips. We'll see how things unfold...