recap central: on the way to turkey.

wednesday, april 21st, 2010.
Woke up really early after getting just a half hour of sleep to tie up all loose REDFINE-related ends. Looked really quickly at the directions to take the bus to the MAX so I could get to the airport, but because I don’t at all know the layout to Portland, I accidentally take the bus in the wrong direction, wondering the entire time why the stop I’m supposed to stop at never comes. Instead, I just get off on an arbitrary bus stop which connects to the MAX, and from there, I realize that I had gone the entirely wrong direction. It’s a bit late by the time I notice, so I have to call the cab. They estimate a price of $25 to $30, but it turns out to be $35. Fuck. Especially after tip and shit…

I go home for half a day, and Sherry and parents come over. We all head to the SFO International Airport to embark on our Turkey trip! The initial flight is to Heathrow in London, and it is fairly long, but because I didn’t sleep at all the night before, I think Sherry and I watched “The Men Who Stare At Goats” (it was just OK, despite its huge potential), and then I basically just passed da feck out the entire way. Score. I have this note down in my iPod saying, “Parents obsessed with food and pushy,” although I’m not entirely sure what that means now. In any case…

Here’s another moment, copied word-for-word from my iPod: “[A] mom asks if [my parents] can change spots w/ ten yr old daughter and they just flatly say no wtf. [I] pull christianity card. [My mom finally switches with her after the lady says that her daughter is only ten and they've been stuck in San Francisco, trying to return to London, for like, seven days… but that’s not why she switches… she switches because the lady had a fairly logical argument that. Dad initially said the reason he wouldn’t change is because he wanted to sit in the aisle cause he wanted to go to the bathroom a bunch. My mom was like,'“I’m sorry,' half-assedly when the lady initially said her daughter was only ten, and then she said, 'Why can't you just switch with me, then?' to my mom, so that my mom could sit in our row and her and her daughter could sit next to my dad. They finally relented.] [The mom and daughter] say thx twice to receive cold reception [from my mom]. My parents are terrible people. Fuck. Christianity when it is misinformed and when it is midjudged. Where is the heard of service? How many times have people made kind allowances for me as a child? It’s ridiculous. The worst parts are the following: One. Sherry asked if I should ask my parents to change but I didn’t because I figured they would change themselves. Laughable. Two. These people define their lives around Christianity in so many ways. How is the Christian spirit not present [in so generic, so simple a test]?” After switching with the lady, I asked my mom what the big deal about switching was, and she said the problem was that the lady kept insisting on switching… like… big deal. I know a ten-year-old daughter should be able to handle it, but her daughter was clearly upset by it, so big fucking deal. Boo fucking hoo, mom, you have to switch seats with a 10-year-old.

Anyway. We got to Heathrow and had a few hours to kill and basically just sat around in the airport waiting for the Istanbul flight. Sherry and I ate at Pret A Manger. You wouldn’t even have known that the Icelandic volcano had fucked anything up, to be honest, because everything was pretty speedy at Heathrow and there weren’t even really any queues or anything. Remarkable, really. The only thing that was off was that the flight from Heathrow to Istanbul was supposed to supply food, and it didn’t, because British Airways was having a whole bunch of problems with their catering companies supplying food after the huge backlog because of the volcano. Funny.

I have a very vivid dream on the plane on the way to Istanbul, but that will be written elsewhere.
We get off the plane at Istanbul and there are people giving out sandwiches, but I can’t eat them, cause they have meat. Luckily, Sherry and I bought a potato and cheese or something sandwich at Pret A Mangier before leaving. Ah goody. [Man, I still need to write up my journal entries for Korea, England, Scotland, Cash Only, and SxSW. Shit. So many memories! So much funs!]

recap central: england, day eight: london.

tuesday, march 9th, 2010.
Tom and I were supposed to go to lunch after we woke up, but he was silly and totally confused, and Helen told him that they had class and he had to rush off to it at the last minute. Silly boy. So I headed back to London and checked into my hostel (I forget the name).

I didn’t have that much time, but I decided to go to Camden Market. It was my last day, after all. Sherry and Lori hadn’t really wanted to go, I think, because the descriptions in Lonely Planet pretty much made it out to be a “punk” place — and there was some of that, surely — but the array of clothes was HUGE, the market was huge in general, and shit was CHEAP. Not only that, but it was just fun, like going to night market or something. I went there as some shops were breaking down because it was pretty late, but I got an amazing jacket and dress for pretty cheap. Good times.

Afterwards, I went to the Nedry show at The Social (5 Little Portland Street, London W1W 7JD). It was a good and bad show — and really, really crowded. I was supposed to do a show review but passed because there were some things I had to say that weren’t really nice, and they were very nice people. I chatted with them for a while afterwards, but had to run to meet Neil soon thereafter. I did, however, review their disc, and one of their photographer friends who I met there sent me some photos and we put together a very impressive photo slideshow of the band.

(A photo the photographer took from that show.)

I met up with Neil at a bar soon thereafter, called ____. There was a cover fee — lame! — and I brought Neil a package of double-stuffed Oreos from the States, because he’d mentioned you could only buy regular Oreos in England and that even thn they were like seven pounds a package or something. I had Sherry bring them over! Quite nice! It was very nice to meet Neil after like, five years of knowing him via the internets (he had done a cover for REDEFINE way back when). It was good times even though there was like, no one else in the bar that night! Neil says that I win for weirdest meeting of the year yet, just because the vibe of the place was way weird that evening. Paying cover when there was no show or no patrons? It made no sense! I drank half of a Newcastle which Neil bought me and made him eat the rest. It’s still the only beer I can drink… @__@

I left the next day to head back to the States. Not much more to speak of, although I had to pass through Iceland again on the way back and had a pretty tight connection! But I made it! Yay!

recap central: england, day six: london.

sunday, march 7th, 2010.
Jericho was gone this day, so we made it a shopping day (Lori and Sherry’s idea, obviously). We went to Notting Hill… and I forget where else. Not so exciting. There were SOME cute things, including one really awesome shop I forget the name of that was decorated with all these old Singer sewing machines… but their clothes were too expensive even though I was in love with them. Ah, well.

Not sure what we did for the rest of the day… going to have to ask Sherry.

That evening, I had to make a phone call to Tom [Clarke] because I went to go to Cambridge the next day to see him, so I did that while Lori and Sherry went inside for a drink. On my way back in, some guy stopped me and said that he needed 12 pounds to take a train back home. Blah, blah, blah. His name was Henry Wadsworth, or so he claimed, and he gave me two sets of phone numbers, and seemed like he knew the area. He seemed educated and spoke eloquently and claimed that he had gone to dinner with his brother, left his coat in his brother’s car, and that his brother had driven off and now wasn’t answering his phone. I told him, “You better give me back my money, or else I’ll be mad.” Not much of a threat, but I like to think that some people have moralistic fiber. He told me that he’d meet me in the morning and buy me coffee at Pret A Manger near the hotel (one of the many chain stores we kept seeing around London, in addition to EAT) in the morning. Well, alright then.

To cut a long story short and to keep it in the same day even though it was the next day, I called him the next morning on both of the numbers he gave me, and they were both nonexistent numbers. How he managed to make up two nonexistent numbers on the spot is absolutely beyond me, but he did. The e-mail address he gave me was a faker as well. So, in the end, he jacked me money. But that’s not even the end of it… there’s more!

But in the meantime, after talking to Mr. “Wadsworth”, I went inside, and Sherry and Lori were chatting with some lady. She scoff-laughed when I told them this story. It wasn’t a huge deal to me, though… so whatever.

recap central: england, day five: london.

saturday, march 6th, 2010.
That morning, because our Sightseeing Bus pass still worked, we decided to take a different line to the Westminster Abbey area.

This guy was funny, and somehow his expression here reminds me of Trask. Not sure why. Haha.

Batman shop!

While Jericho and Lori went to the Westminster Abbey, Sherry and I went to Pie Minister (see previous post). I got a Wild Mushroom & Asparagus Pie: “Wild mushrooms, asparagus, shallots, white wine and cracked black pepper in lovely pastry.” DELICIOUS!! It was really tasty. No worker for me to be smitten by, though. But that’s okay.

As we were walking back to meet them, the waterfront was bustling as always.

In front of the Westminster Abbey / Big Ben, there were these tents and stuff. I stopped to ask one guy why some company was evil (I forget which) because one of the signs said that, but he kind of crotchily told me that wasn’t his sign. So I left. But I guess he felt bad, because he came after me, saying, “Young lady!” and I talked to him for a very long time about how war was bad and how horrible the government is. It was a good talk. Again, though, most of it slips my mind :[

After this, we were in the grassy area in front of Westminster Abbey for what seemed like forever. Sherry and Lori took a million hundred thousand photos of themselves jumping around. I’m not sure what we did right after. We eventually ended up near Chinatown and tried to get some food to eat, but weren’t sure if Lori could eat it…

Eventually, we headed back to our hotel. This is a radical rug we kept passing on our way back to the hotel. Look, it’s only 450 pounds plus VAT:

That night, we tried to go to a club and ended up at ________, which was recommended. It took like 15 pounds to get there and was another 10 pounds or something to get in. It was pretty weak and there were three electronic rooms and a lot of people, but the music SUCKED!! There were also some extremely, extremely amusing characters, including one guy who was like, Peewee Herman dancing around. He was love, love, love.

That night, Jericho pulled an all-nighter at our hotel, because he had to take the bus at five in the morning to get stuff from his aunt’s house, then needed to head to the airport or something. Boo!

recap central: england, day four: london.

friday, march 5th, 2010.
So in the morning, Jericho didn’t show up when he was supposed to. We called him a zillion thousand times, and it turned out, he said his aunt and uncle had fixed him breakfast (he was staying with them), so he couldn’t just peace out. The frustrating part was, he sent us Facebook messages telling us he couldn’t make it, even though he knew we didn’t have internet. In total, I must have spent like 5 or 6 pounds that morning trying to call him. Really kinda frustrating.

First stop was St. ____’s Park or something… which is supposedly the most beautiful Square in all of London… except we found St. ____’s Park or something, which was a teeny tiny little square… and we were like taking photos in it and thinking, “This thing sucks. It’s quaint, but… what the hell!” Then we realized we were totally off base and the real park was actually pretty good. Images from the real park:

Someone was feeding birds and freaking Sherry out.

More bird. This bird was a total homie and kept following us around ^__^

We then went to Buckingham Palace, where Jericho met up with us. I mean, I’d seen it before and wasn’t particularly impressed, but this time was major boredom times a million zillion thousand hundred million. It went on forever, and Jericho and Lori had pressed up to the front while we stayed at the back (we had both seen it; they had not seen it), hoping we could leave but not wanting to rush them in case they were actually enjoying the abominably boring procession. If you’ve never been to London, take it from me, motherfuckers: THE CHANGING OF THE GUARD AT BUCKINGHAM PALACE IS BORING AS HELL AND CROWDED AS HECK. DON’T WASTE YOUR TIME!

These ladies, in their various stages of bag-holding, really amused me…

After that, we tried to walk to the bus stop where we could partake in the Big Bus Sightseeing Tour! Woooo. Since Lori and Sherry didn’t have much time, it was the quickest way to see everything… we just did one loop all the way through.

Eventually, we landed near Big Ben and tried to go to Westminster Abbey, but there was something keeping us from going to it, so that was slated for the next day, bright and early. We wandered around a bit and walked kinda aimlessly and ended up going to this random restaurant to eat Fish & Chips. It wasn’t particularly delicious. I had a veggie burger and it was hands down the worst veggie burger ever. Blah. Afterwards, the other three wanted to go on the London Eye, but I didn’t want to cause it was expensive, so we made an appointment to meet at Tate Modern (Tate Modern, Bankside, London SE1 9TG). I was pretty convinced that they would take longer than I, but we ended up arbitrarily picking a time to meet. I ended up going to a nearby coffee shop and working on my laptop. One of the workers there — whose business card I got but I think I never emailed him, oops — wanted me to work with him cause he said it was difficult for him to find quality graphic designers to work with, blahblah. He didn’t realize I didn’t live in London, but figured it out… when I told him. Haha.

So finally I left to go meet the friends, and the sun was starting to set. I was kinda in a rush cause I was late, but it turns out they were very late as well. I walked along the waterfront, enjoying myself, for the most part.

One homeless guy stopped me and said all he wanted was money for a hot cocoa. I told him I didn’t want to give him money, but that I’d go with him even though I was in a rush. He said there was a shop right nearby, so we went to Pie Minister (24 Stokes Croft, Bristol BS1 3PR, London), a really super adorable pie shop that also sold drinks. They were closing, but the guy who was working there — a very extremely nice chap — let us in. He was so nice! I saw that I was buying the guy a drink, and he made the drink and tried to make small talk, and made this really nice hot cocoa — quite lovingly, I’d say — and gave it to us for free. I was quite smitten with him but I ran outta there quite quickly Had a schedule to keep ~__~

Except the road along the waterfront was closed — the worker told me this — so I had to make a detour around the bridge and it took quite forever to get to Tate Modern. I called Jericho along the way to tell him I’d be late, but they were all late, too. I got there and was in the gift shop forever, and they finally found me but said they had entered somewhere else. Of course.

And so it went, hanging out at Tate Modern. I can’t say I remember all of the stuff we saw, unfortunately. Shit. I have a horrible memory.

recap central: england, day three: london.

thursday, march 4th, 2010.
Took the overnight bus, as previously mentioned, and when I got to Victoria Station in London, I called Jericho. Jericho had gotten a local phone, which turned out to be quite handy for him, sure, but also quite handy for us. Anyway, he met me at the coach station (since I went on this trip I definitely call busses coaches… it’s funny) and we just wandered around. The goal was just literally to wander aimlessly and wander aimlessly we did. We started by picking a random bus stop to get off of: Embankment Tube Station.

Wandering around led us to Somerset House (Somerset House, Strand, London WC2R 1LA) where there was a Michaelangelo exhibit going on. It was a bit pricey, but we went anyways. Wherever the wind blows us, after all.

Michaelangelo did about a million renditions of this here piece, The Dream, and many were on display here (Michaelangelo’s Dream was actually the name of the show, after all). Here’s a detail pic I took:

Up next, more wandering, where we saw some funny sights, including this poster! Can you believe Zombie Nation still exists?!!!!

And male Lady Gaga — excuse me, Let’s Go Gaga — body-building. Z O M G.

Some ruined-ish buildings:

We putzed around forever and finally, Jericho decided he wanted a smoothie, so we tried to get him one. But it was major fail; all these cafes and restaurants would have photos of smoothies on their windows, but then we would go in, and they would deny us. Finally, we went to some major coffee shop chain — I forget which — and we were able to get him one. Woooooo! The line was insanely long, though. I should also mention I had my backpack from Iceland this entire time — that wasn’t super fun.

Finally, we decided to head towards the hotel area where we’d be meeting Sherry and Lori. We were slated to meet at like, 2:00pm or something around there, and we got there early and were waiting around the front forever. Finally, I suggested that maybe there was a back entrance, and Jericho went off to check it. Of course, when he left to go check it, Lori and Sherry came around the back entrance where they had been waiting and found us. Miscommunication galore! Sherry booked the hotel with her reward points, so we all kinda crammed up in there. Weeee.

That evening, we pretty much just went shopping. We went to Harrods (87–135 Brompton Road, Knightsbridge
London, SW1X 7XL):

Harrods is kinda too expensive to really buy anything, but Sherry got some cookies — what’re these called again? I forget — to give Tinwin because they’re Tinwin’s favorite things ever. They were like 2 pounds apiece or something ridiculous, though, so I didn’t even try them. [Poor as fuck.] Jericho bought one, though, but he crammed the whole thing in his mouth at once and declared it was delicious, and we were all like, :0 — “You ate it already?!!!”

That evening, we ate sushi across the street. But it was in this building with all these mini fast food conveyor belt things… including a fast food LEBANESE CUISINE conveyor belt! OMG! But Lori is allergic to peanuts, so feeding her miscellaneous foods is kind of impossible… I think she could have eaten like, Indian food, for instance, but she’s never had it ever…

I reckon we went home that evening, and Jericho was supposed to meet up with us early the next morning. Bright and super early. It was Lori’s first time out of the country, so we had to make the most of things!