Computer is still giving me problems and I cant get any photos or videos on the net. I am going to have to go to a proper Internet cafe and get this sorted.
We went to Camden Town markets today. It reminds me a lot of Venice Beach back in California. (without the beach of course) Lots of punk rockers, a few goths, and roughly 80% of the shops are tattoo/piercing parlours. The only stand out shop was a place called “Cyberdog” which sells lots of rave clothing. The interesting bits are that it pumps out LOUD music, as well as the mannequins, which have had lots of tubes and wires added in order to look like cyborgs. We did not stay long as any place that requires cash deposits on clothing before you are allowed to try them on is no place for a traveller on a budget.
A store near Baztron’s house was apparently knocked over in the night as the windows were covered on the inside with some sort of white paste. I’m not too sure what is going on there, but on the glass door, someone (I am assuming the owner) wrote “I’m watching you thieving bastards”. I hope the owner is Scottish, simply because someone like Groundskeeper Willy from the “Simpsons” saying “I’m watching you thieving bastards” is far more menacing then Eliza Doolittle or Mary Poppins saying it.
We also went down and walked around Hyde Park and other bits. Hyde park was nice, lots of squirrels, and lots of Parson Russel Terriers trying to kill the squirrels. Good times for all. (minus slow squirrels of course)
I don’t quite understand the Serpentine. The Serpentine (may have mixed up the name a bit) is a long, thin lake in the middle of Hyde park. I’m not too sure why it is called “The Serpentine” though, it has one 30 degree bend in it. I think something like “The lazy L” or “The not-so-straight Line” would be more appropriate for a name.
Another thing that gives me fits here is the coinage. Apparently England has approximately 95 different denominations of coinage. So far I have discovered the two pound coin, the one pound coin, the 50p coin, the 20p coin, the 2p coin, the 1p coin. Oh, and lets not forget the coin in the denomination of pi. I mean, they round it off 4 digits after the decimal, but that still does not make it exactly “spendy.”
In the afternoon Baztron put on a BBQ for us and his friends. Very delicious. C is not used to eating so much meat and had a bit of a stomach-ache afterwards. The weather in the afternoon was very nice, sunny, warm, yet still cloudy.
Sorry again for the lack of pictures. I would talk a bit more about what we have been doing but it is pretty lame to just say “went here, this was cool, went there, that was cool”
Oh, one more thing, went to “Speakers Corner” in Hyde park. Apparently anyone can go there on Sundays and rant about whatever they want to. Which apparently means mostly fundamentalist nut jobs. There was a group of Muslims ranting something about magazines, a Communist who looked suspiciously like the character “Lerch” from the Addams family, a man standing on a ladder carrying several Israeli flags and reading quietly from a book, and an American wearing a cowboy hat, white shirt, snake-skin boots, and black MC hammer pants with “Jesus is LORD” embroidered down the side. Most of the Orators seemed to be more interested in abusing the crowd then actually conveying some kind of message.
Repatriate 