Yesterday's Token Day Through London

Growing up in the Nation's Capitol, I have seen my fair share of tourists. And I can't blame them for wanting to take in the city's many attractions. I can't even lie, before I left for college, I went around DC and did all the "tourist-y" stuff (i.e. Washington Monument, Capitol, Lincoln/Jefferson Memorials, Smithsonian, etc.) I had forgotten I'd done in my formative years. Anyways, yesterday was my first full day in London and I was going to be "that guy".

And what a beautiful day it was...

First and foremost, mind the street...it just may save your life. As an American, you'd be surprised how helpful these are when crossing the street (since they drive backwards out here)...and how fast they drive on London's narrow-a** streets.

Yeah...they ain't even got one in DC yet.

The menu at McDonalds. Multiply everything by 2 and you'll get the price in American dollars. If you look very close, you'll see that the price for a small fry is $1.78 and a "medium" Big Mac (tm) value meal is $7.38. According to Chris, doing the conversion to dollars in your head when purchasing just isn't worth it cause it'll just make you depressed and/or go postal.

This is Park Street. It runs along the east side of Hyde Park, which is London's equivalent to DC's Mall. See the buildings on the left, their ground floors contain every single luxury car dealership (foreign and domestic).

Token Buckingham Palace shot. I also have a shot without the "Sound of Music" taxi, but I personally think it gives the picture character.

Definitely a finalist. You got the Parliament, Big Ben and London Eye all in one shot on a beautiful day...that's what's up. And they say the weather's supposed to be like this all weekend.

The section of the Parliament that was (re)built in the mid-1800's. The only things missing are the gargoyles and dracula in the window telling you to come back later on tonight.

This is the section of the Parliament that was built around 1,000 years ago.

Wonderful shot of the London Eye over the River Thames (IMO, the clouds make the pic).

Wonderful desktop shot of the London Eye.

This pic was for Tres.

Along the walkway by the Jubilee Gardens, they have these street performers that go all out. This was one of 'em. It's kinda hard to see but if you throw some change in the bucket in front of the bike, he/she starts pedaling like an arcade game. Otherwise, it's as still as a statue.

OK, so here's my thing. I've seen this setup plenty of times in NY, the only difference is that instead of the "lb." sign in front of the 2 and 5 its a "$". Look, value is value. These same cheap earrings should not cost twice as much just cause I crossed the pond. Yes I understand that the British economy is doing better than the American economy right now. And I'm no arbitrage theory expert. But shouldn't there be twice as many tourists in London than in New York willing to buy this isht in order to support prices at this inflated level? I doubt that's the case.

The bathroom in Selfridges--sort of like the Bloomdales or Saks 5th Ave ON 5th Avenue in New York ON steroids. As I explained on the tape, the 2nd floor Selfridges contains EVERY men's designer label known to man. Anyways, I'm not sure if this is a London thing or not, but the toilet paper in the stall comes out of a dispenser like tissue. The result is the above if you're trying to drop a deuce.

Finally, in London they have this place called Argos, which is basically like a WalMart without the "Mart". It's basically like the area in Circuit City where you pick up the big electronic device you just bought, with a bunch of kiosks that have catalogues (shown above). Each catalogue, which is about 4 inches thick at least, contains every single item found in your neighborhood WalMart. You thumb through the catalogue and enter what you want to buy on a keypad (shown below...)

(the booklet shown above the catalogue, to my understanding, has coupons you can use). When you're done, I believe it gives you a receipt and you go to the "Circuit City" counter and pay/pick up your merchandise (home-delivery extra).

Well, those were the most informative shots of my first day in London. I got, I'd say, 5 hours sleep last night. Not because I stayed up late last night so much, but because its now 9:30am and I've been uploading photos into and typing this blog for the past 2 hours. But you know what...I'm finna take a shower and head to Brixton to get my hair cut<--I'll put you up on it tomorrow.

Cheers.