Thursday, Dec. 14, Day 4 - Part 1(?)

 After what felt like a long ass day of Wednesday, I had mixed feelings towards my exuberance that was ambition.  Since we went to OTF in Tokyo AND Sydney, I felt like I was almost required to attend an OTF class in London.  Giving myself a day to catch up, I signed up for a class on Thursday anticipating that it would be easy enough to attend.  However, after a late night of Wicked, and some lingering jet lag, I woke up at 5:50 thinking, "Eff that.  I'm not going." 

Unfortunately I'm a glutton for punishment, and I knew that if I didn't go, I would be 99.9% ok with it.  That .1% would likely never shut up, and I'd probably have to fly back to London, take an OTF class, and fly home just to shut it up.  So, I literally dragged myself out of bed, drank the other half of my Caramel Macchiato (Iced), and sat down on the floor to dig through my baggage to get my work out clothes.  I recalled packing my workout towel, shoes, socks, underwear, etc.  Bill made a point of asking me if I had packed a towel, which I knew I did.  I was dressed in street clothes, since it was STILL bitter cold outside, and I was going to Uber my way there.  Apparently there's a transit strike happening in London, and I wasn't going to rely on the public transportation.

Anyway, as I'm tearing apart my suitcase, I simply can't find my workout clothes.  Now, I'm reasonably certain I packed them, because I remember thinking "dark is good."  But, I can't find them.  I DID, however, pack a pair of swim trunks, knowing we're going to a day spa in Milan.  I tossed those in the bag, along with a t-shirt, and headed downstairs to summon an Uber.  $25 later, and I was at OTF Fulham, London.  Bully for me, turns out the dang class was a Benchmark class, for none other than the 2,000 meter row.  UGH!!!  I was NOT ready for that, since I was not only jet lagged, I was tired, and I hadn't been on a rower in a full week.  Nothing like jumping in!

The neat thing here is that they have a towel service, so I was able to shower after class, and get dressed and ready for the day.  Feeling like I've been spending a small fortune on Uber's, I clicked on the "Transit" section of Apple Maps when I checked my route back to the hotel, and saw that for a whopping $2 I could ride the Underground and pop out about a block from the hotel.  Score!

The above photo is the walking path right outside OTF.  For some reason it just struck me as being picturesque and I had to snap it while walking.  I popped my airpods in, and set off towards the Underground.  A quick ride back, and I was quite literally there before I knew it.  

Once I was back above ground, I saw a little grocery store that had the pastries above in clear view.  Noting the Christmas ones in particular, I decided to stop and look.  At this point, I was actually feeling really comfortable with London, myself, and I was truly enjoying the morning.  I think it's the first point where I've felt like I was relaxed, and able to enjoy myself.  Maybe it was the fact that I was by myself, or maybe it was the fact that I was able to just stop and take a moment where I didn't have to plan, prep, and know everything.  Whatever it was, I had a great morning.  

I grabbed a couple pastries, some juice, and headed back to meet Bill and Mom for breakfast at the hotel.  

Turns out, Mom had already tried to have breakfast, but ended up making herself sick, so she didn't stay down (and neither did her food!), and Bill was waiting for me.  So, we had a quick bite to eat, and then chatted with the lobby staff.  I had a small agenda, in that I needed to confirm what time we should arrive at the airport, and also needed to ask about laundry services at the hotel.  I knew there WAS laundry available, but I didn't know HOW to access it.  We squared all that away, and I sat myself down to do some laundry and finish up some blog posts.  

Once our laundry was finished, we tried to coax mom into joining us on our day - since our plan was pretty light, I was just going to go to Camden Market, and check out the food stalls, and the small shops and stuff.  For mom, if she was going to join us, I figured we could plop her down in a central spot, and she could people watch, browse a nearby store, and take it easy.  However, she didn't want to push, and still wasn't feeling great, so she decided to stay back and the hotel.

I had decided this morning that since I DID buy the darn camera, I was going to give it another go.  In retrospect, my mind has this great vision, and my camera has a totally different outcome.  The above picture was my second attempt at trying "street photography" which was simply a picture of the street looking back towards our aparthotel, from the bus stop.  I thought if I included the bus stop, it would be kind of artsy, but it looks like it just clutters my photo.

Anyway -since it was just Bill and myself, we opted to take the public transit, and save money on our Uber situation.  We waited for Line 27 to show up, and jumped out the red, double decker London bus.  14 stops later, we finally arrived in Camden Town.

Upon entering Camden Market, we were greeted with the two silver Cylon creatures above.  Super cool, and we checked out the store inside, which turned out to be a Rave clothing store.  They were playing the music to match, which was harsh on the ears, but neat to see.  Needless to say, I don't plan on raving any time soon, given the volume and the style of clothing required!

What was shocking to me, was that while Camden Market has Christmas market/stalls set up, over all it is a PERMANENT situation.  The overwhelming part isn't that, it's just the sheer number of stalls that are there, ALL THE TIME.  In the picture above you can see the line of stalls heading off down the right side of the picture (or maybe, up the right side?)  Anyway, it was like that on both sides. We walked down the stalls on the right, and at the end, we found another section of stalls.  We continued on, and on, and on and on.  It almost felt like it was never ending. 

Obligatory Christmas tree shot.

My pictures are way out of order - this was after turning the corner from the 2nd Camden Market picture.  Going back to my commentary about London being big and historic/old - this whole place was old feeling, and huge, and was, in fact, almost built for this purpose.  You can see all the store fronts on the lower level above.

Every time we got to the end of an aisle, and thought we were done, we were not even close.  In hindsight, I think the above umbrella aisle is highly photographed and plastered all over social media.  Who knew?

Inside one of the many areas, I noticed the decor above.  At first I thought it was just kind of a cool coat of arms type display, but those are all carved and decorated wine glasses.  Pretty neat.

Camden Market is next to this waterway, which at the moment was mostly frozen.  Since the lens I have on is more geared at street photography, I figured some shots were required.

I know what you're thinking.  That looks like Japan, right?  Well, no.  It's actually still Camden Market.  Did I mention how BIG this place was?

We finally made our way out of the Market proper, and onto the streets.  I snapped a quick photo of this intersection, since it felt like it had a good clip of all the buildings, chaotic streets, people, and such.  It was at this point that we ended up following a homeless man, who on closer inspection, was wearing a damn ankle bracelet.  And not the artsy kind.  O.o

Bill and I wandered a bit more, and eventually decided it was much too cold to stay out longer.  We'd wandered several miles worth of shops, and by then, they all looked the same, with the same stuff being sold.  

This time, on the way back Apple told us to take the Underground, rather than the double decker bus.  We jumped down the tube, and started the trek.  From OTF, the process was easy.  From here, not so much.  I don't know why, but my internet died about halfway through the day, and it simply didn't want to connect again.  Once we got Underground, I was disconnected, and couldn't seem to figure out how the eff to get around the Underground.  After some short tempers, we ended up back at our station, and walked back to the hotel.  I downloaded my photos, checked them out, and summoned mom to join us in our room.  

We visited for a bit, decided to grab a bite to eat, and then we all needed to re-pack and get ready for our trip to Budapest tomorrow.  

It took a little arm twisting, but we convinced mom to join us and walk a short distance to a pizzeria express.  One of the reasons I chose our hotel was its proximity to Merchant Square, which is where the floating island picture I took on one of my previous posts is.  It was supposed to have a Christmas Market/Event going on, but it must only be on the weekends, as the only thing we saw were two ducks, and a few Christmas Trees/Decorations.  No stalls, vendors, or events.  

In all of London, since we did, after all, see everything, Pizzeria Express was staggeringly good. I had a calzone, and some dough balls, and Mom and Bill shared calamari, chicken milanese, and lemon-herb chicken wings.  My calzone was amazing, and I didn't get any of my dough balls, as Bill stole ALL of them, claiming they were beyond amazing.  

Once dinner was finished, we wrapped up and went back to the hotel where we packed, and crashed.

And thus concluded our London visit, and Day 4.