13th. TRAVELOGUE

2 month ago...13th JUN 06 my journey started...and a month ago it ended...
I gave myself a month to digest the journey, at this moment i think i pretty much failed to digest, my digesting system is really weak i find (or is it too strong) things get flushed out of my system before i really absorb all the nutrients, or maybe i will get things right once i start to recap and write this all down on my blog...

Ok, lets rewind.

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15 JUN 06
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(Diary)Starting from day 03, diarrhea has really been the main event since I got here, haven't really got my mind off it. It is London here, it is summer, but it is cool, the sun is up from 4am to 10pm, we are wide awake at 5, but we fall tired at 5 too. People here are so beautiful, they are like elves and we are like hobbits, we are seen in the Waterloo station scampering around trying to dodge the long long legs of the Elves, each of their strides means 5 steps for us it seems. Strange it may sound, i have lived in melbourne for most of my life, i have seen big people, but i haven't really felt more like a hobbit, maybe the londoners can cast spells...like the elves do...
First impressions (and facts):
- At the airport, smoker's smokes smells of melbournian smokes.
- Tube ride from Terminal 3 to Waterloo gave us a view...cottage, old fashioned houses, huge parks, nothing here looks very commercial
- Dry lips / blisters
- Some tube carts barely have air in them, talking about 1% oxygen in each cart, will die of suffocation if left in cart for too long
- Palace of Westminster from the other side of the River Thames looks extremely good after the 'monsoon' which welcomed us to London.

Day 02 was about antique and art. Camden passage market (wed/sat only) - wasn't thrilled, maybe the fact we weren't just in our form or there was nothing to look at. TATE modern - Excellent!! Dali, Matisse, Picasso, Warhol, Munch, Mondrian, Lichtenstein, Cezanne, Miro, Hamilton, Klimt, Monet, Beuys...everyone!!! To see their brushstrokes close, I wonder if i could be considered a pop surrealist...

Day 03, Picadilly Circus, it has much commercials and we felt relieved (we were in several occasions where we felt it felt very odd, bland sorta because there were no commercial material anywhere, there was bland colour, grey concrete, dull brown bricks) There were animated billboards for cocacola, mcdonalds, etc. The place was like and old piece of victorian china served with ketchup and mustard...it was blue and white buildings, red buses and yellow and black crossing lights.



Royal Academy of Arts featured Damien Hirst (if it was well enough remembered) and graduates 2006 exhibitions...Now...the National Gallery - more more more and more art, stuff we learnt and seen in books, stuff from 1250 to the 1700 soaked the living daylights out of us, but the others were bloody ace...the sunflowers, and...hm...maybe i should stop writing about this already.



Elephant & Castle - can u think of a dodgier name for a place, and yes, this is a dodgy place. It is a DISGUSTING PLACE, GROSSED OUTTTTTTTTTTTTT! Never thought a trip to Tescos (a supermarket we love) could cause this much shit...I should have known and turned back to our bus stop when the black men passed us by and said "Ni Hao"...Don't get me wrong on judgements on any particular race, but i think that area had so much racial diversity it meant for trouble... We were in a short queue to pay for our groceries and the alarm at the door went off at least twice...crazy crazy place. All our senses had to be on full alert, too much stories we have heard, and too much distorted thinking and hallucinations...we went nuts....

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TO BE CONTINUED...