Royal Britannia

Rule Britannia!Britannia rule the waves.Britons never, never, never shall be slaves.

Yep, yep, that was defiantly the British view of the world, couldn’t really tell you if that is still their definitive view now, I don’t think they are that deluded to believe they are boss, but it was defiantly their view when they were designing their architecture.

So, in the last few days I have said goodbye to Richmond, rather sad as it is a stunning place, and then spent two nights in London itself. (after much confusion with the damn tube tickets.. and smiling nicely to get past the ticket barriers with invalid tickets.. we got good at that) But its cool. My mum arrived the other day, and after minimal jet lag we have begun our little tour of the so called United Kingdom. (don’t know how united Scotland is feeling with Britan, but it can stay the UK just for convenience sake) we spent the first days exploring Richmond, then set our sights a little higher. There is a lot of see and do in London. I’m sure there has to be hundreds of tourists who go round to each street from the Monopoly board and take a pic of themselves with it. (Ill admit this did occur to me, I just managed to refrain.) Theres lots of old stuff, and normal capital city stuff, like wax works museums etc. and shops to the max. Plus the most brilliant souveniers.. the brits know how to make seriously corny souveniers, you can get ANYTHING with the tube map on it (there is limited use to underwear with the tube map, simply because it don’t tell you the little details like ‘exit only on Sundays’ and then there is the the embarrassment of actually checking if you are on the right line) and red telephone boxes (I have been warned by Londoners, please do not go into a red telephone box, and if for whatever reason you are in one, please do not touch anything.. I write this as a public service announcement as tramps tend to sleep in them at night, and they are also the typical place to go if you want to call a girl who will tell you exactly what she is, or in this case, what she isn’t wearing, and as such they tend to be covered with not nice stuff) and all sorts of models of Big Ben etc.
We came to the conclusion that the easiest way to see everything was to do one of those really embarrassing ride on top buses, where you sit on top, take pictures and freeze to death.

Well I froze to death, we managed to pick the cold day of the week to go adventuring. But we did successfully go exploring, and saw everything we were supposed to. Buckingham palace (big lot of old bricks) Big Ben (uber uber cool), the Globe (also known as the Dysk in my head.. pretty stunning), the Tower of London (Beware people.. its not actually a tower, ie. Something tall, it is more.. well short and squat and looks like you couldn’t pry it off the ground with a crow bar.. but again cool and well defended) umm.. Trafalgar Square, Oxford Street.. etc. oh umm Hide Park and all that stuff. Pretty groovy. I recommend Big Ben and the Globe. And we took pictures and did everything, probably, that we were supposed to as tourists for a day. We even went to an English pub for dinner.. although I doubt Nachos is really classified as proper British food.. I think ill have to have Bangers and Mash at some point.. just because that is sooo English.. and Fish and Chips too when I can get over my issues with cod (they don’t use flake here), the Cod thing goes back to Portugal. They also make a Fishfinger sandwitch.. I also have the suspicion that this fits into the category of must trys simply cause it doesn’t sound like something that belongs on a menu.

So that was pretty cool.. having some time to explore London. Another exciting part of the day was getting new boots.. much as I love my old ones.. they had rather died.. worn on the toe (on the inside of the toe.. anyone who can explain that gets a prize) and through the heel to the metal holding up the back, so I got new exciting (Merryl) ones.. cool cool. And exciting

And today we went to Cardiff (the capital of Wales) by bus. Turns out that wasn’t the wisest move as the M4 (a road) had a major crash on it and all the traffic was delayed so we didn’t leave till much later. And bus stations are not exciting places to hang around.. although we did managed to make some friends (we managed to make a lot of friends over the day). So we waited.. I spent a lot of time looking at choloclate chip muffins and debating whether or not I should get one.. ultimately I didn’t (you will all be glad to know I resolved that issue) because I realised I had a packet of Frosties (the cereal) to eat as a snack (go light fingeredness at breakkie) and couldn’t justify the expense. Then there was the usual long boring drawn out busride.. made slightly more exciting by the fact that I had new music on my Mp3 but that wasn’t really enough to make the whole trip decent. (there is a reason my dear friends, why buses are cheap). We even managed to brave the Cardiff bus system and find the way to our BnB (we had about 3 people, and the bus driver trying to help us to find our way to the hotel, it was rather amusing and very friendly). Oh.. and they tell me (the Brits) that the Aussies won the last round of Rugby in the world cup thingo.. apparently that didn’t go down too well..

So Cardiff seems nice enough.. we are staying in one of those lovely really UK houses.. which in no way shape or form explains what im staying in.. but its lovely. Breakkie looks great hehehe.. and we even managed to start on the Port and Cheese.. there is a lot of port.. A LOT.. but I am doing my duty :P

Tommorow we really begin the adventures.. picking up a hire car and seeing if we can work out the maps.. we are also going to find the place where chunks of Torchwood are filmed (to those that that makes sense to) called the millennium centre..so that could also be amusingly touristy..

Oh.. and of course Welsh is everywhere.. which is hard to explain.. but welsh is one of the most amusing looking languages.. fantastic