A little art a little marching
Sunday. The day of rest. The day I discovered Jetlag and slept in until 2pm.
It's not that bad, I almost fell asleep at 3am and I'm pretty sure I made it there by5am. Any advice on the lag from you seasoned globetrotters would be appreciated (my plan so far involves setting my alarm clock and just being sleepy for a while).
Saturday was great. I'm in the city, but off the map, so to get things going I start with a train ride into Victoria station. I thought I'd begin my saga by touristing it up hardcore (hardthemuthacore) so I headed via tube (crazy amazing tubes of people carried on sooty wheels of progress!) to Big Ben, the houses of parliament, the London Eye...it started of fairly innocently. I walked around, felt dwarfed by the old stuff, photographed the old stuff, got lost in the old stuff. Then I noticed a bobby in a yellow vest carrying an automatic rifle. And then I noticed a few more, increasing with frequency as a made my way back to parliament, where the entire area had been redecorated with massive posters baring logos like "Bush: The real terrorist" and a guy using a megaphone shouting "Good morning Vietnam! Good Morning Kandahar! Good Morning Lebanon!!!".
Neat! So I found a pub, had some lunch, and as I was leaving I bumped into the crowd heading towards that square, around 20,000 people walking and protesting the war in Lebanon. This was the first time I've ever stumbled into a march that massive, so I went with the flow. We marched for a few blocks, but as the square filled up I was part of the overflow and allowed to just sneak across the safety rails into the podgyfaced and startled entity that was the crowd. The protesters manged to get airtime on BBC 1.
So, I'd protested against the Zionist agenda (check. - there were many agendas actually, the protesters had a hard time agreeing what they were protesting, but seemed to agree on a formula that goes roughly "Bush = Bad. Blair = Bad.") and decided to head to Trafalgar square and check out the free art, free Gougin, free Van Gogh, free everything. I think I'll head back there (and to Picadilly and oxford circus, its lik an enless maze of things I can't buy).
Right then, 3:30, time to start my day.
posted by Ian at 7:06 AM
4 Comments:
Vive le revolution! Sorry, I just rewatched Top Secret. That sounds amazing.
Once upon a time, I was at Big Ben. Sigh. So envious, enjoy it all! Glad to hear you're having a good time. Don't forget to check out the Tate Modern for more great FREE art.
10:54 AM
Ian! Your adventures sound fantastic so far - I am jealous. To beat the dreaded jetlag, you must force yourself to get on the local schedule immediately. Even if it sucks at first (which it will), just make yourself get up and go to bed at the normal times and soon you'll be in fine form. Best of luck with all your London shebazzery!
11:15 AM
Sarah has it right, go to your normal schedule in the time zone you are, suffer - only if you have not enough or to many pints.
Have you tried the coffee? Know wonder the English drink tea! The Tate is great for modern art, have a gander at the National Museum for all the world art from everywhere and everytime.
1:39 PM
sounds like a great day.
i'm a third on sarah's advice. avoid napping and try to wake up in the morning...you'll flip soon.
take care.
9:59 PM
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