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- travel - + europe grad trip - 13 June  Woke up freezing in the wee hours, when it had been too warm to get under the covers just hours ago. Designated laundry morning soon arrived, and sel and I plonked three pounds (not including washing powder) to wash our clothes in the laundrette next door. Spin dry [1] (30 pence for three minutes) was a new experience for me, and I can full well understand why cats and dogs might be fascinated by the sight. That took us the morning up till eleven-plus, and by the time we arrived in central London, our original breakfast had all but deserted us; what else could we do but order a Full English Breakfast [2] as lunch? It was sure filling, I'll give them that. After a couple of distractions, including being handed a brochure from the International Church of Christ by a young Asian adult (which I added to my collection), and buying a new Urban Sport daypack to put my old bursting-at-the-seams daypack in (the most logical response to running out of storage space) for 12 pounds, we arrived at the world-famous British Museum at about two. The museum was just too huge to cover in detail, and we settled for going through the Chinese, Indian, South Asian and South East Asian collection [3] slowly, going through a hall dedicated to life and death. Poring at statues and figurines of various materials and in various states of degradation after going through jade, ceramics, and coins among other objects soon lost its attraction, and we hooked back up with alvin at the entrance at four. It's amazing how many of London's major attractions can be covered in an evening on foot, and we saw Trafalgar Square (with a performer doing the limbo rock beneath a pole at knee level), 10 Downing Street (admittedly at a distance) [4], Big Ben [5], Westminster Abbey (with a horrible entrance fee of over 20 pounds!) [6], the London Eye [7] and the National Portrait Gallery, among others. Nothing life-changing, just some hard walking. Searched for a cheap dinner in Chinatown [8] by Leicester Square, and located an All-You-Can-Eat buffet for below five pounds, at an establishment named Mr Wu - not a great selection of dishes, but it was as good as could be expected. Sated my craving for carbohydrates (especially rice, but also noodles), but their sweet-and-sour pork, chicken wings and fries [9] weren't half bad either. Ate just over three plates of food and drank three bowls of soup, after which I restrained myself remembering the 八分饱 rule of thumb. The inn was hosting some event, probably a wedding, when we dragged ourselves back. Judging from the drunken guys raising their voices menacingly even a couple of hours after midnight, as I struggled to put together the previous blog entry, the party was a resounding success. Cheers. 14 June  Lugged my ever-increasing assortment of luggage (inching towards the 15kg mark) onto the train and metro to the Liverpool Street station in the morning, where for eight pounds the Excess Baggage Company scanned its contents, demanded that I extract my netbook for a second scan, and agreed to hold my check-in bag for a day. Temporarily freed from our burdens, sel and I went down to the tkts official half-price theatre tickets outlet to scope out the day's offerings, and with sel's first choice Mamma Mia! unavailable, we set our sights on Stomp (not the Straits Times online version). Following guidebook advice, we went down to the Ambassador Theatre (right by the St. Martin's, where Agatha Christie's The Mousetrap has been ongoing for 57 years [1]). Since alvin said that he would be walking the streets with his local friends, we got two good tickets for 20 pounds each [2]. With time to burn before the 3 p.m. start, we went on a stroll through the immediate area, taking in Cleopatra's Needle [4], before we had to return, popping into a manga store (where I got to know a new song [video]) to pass the final ten minutes or so. Our seats were right in the middle of the first row of the Circle (top tier), and gave a quite magnificent view in the modestly-sized theatre. As an added bonus, it meant that the water and sand sprayed by the performers couldn't reach us. Let it be known that Stomp is a very high-energy show, and might be more closely related to carnivals than regular theatre. It was worth the money, if only to discover what music could be produced by items such as brooms, trash can lids, trash cans themselves, rubber tubes, chairs, and above all the unaccompanied human body.  Won't see this in Singapore The show ended after an hour and a half, and we continued our walk only to be greeted by a seemingly never-ending line of marching protesters, flanked by a small number of marshals. They appeared to be concerned with the plight of Tamils in Sri Lanka (where the Tamil Tigers have finally been routed), and despite their numbers were quite orderly. We had seen a small contingent yesterday, as well as a separate group distributing anti-Chinese communism material, which was probably the most eye-opening experience I had in England. We have the towering skyscrapers, the traffic, even a sprinkling of monuments, but heaven forbid somebody wear a T-shirt with a political message in Orchard Road. Swept past St. Paul's Cathedral [5] , and passed by the outside of Shakespeare's Globe Theatre [6] as we continued on our merry way. Ate another burger, this time a fish filet, for dinner [7] (yes, it may not be the healthiest diet, but we do have a budget). Crisscrossed the River Thames, encountering the moored HMS Belfast [8], and walked both the Millenium Bridge (far less grand than I had imagined) and the Tower Bridge [9]. London Bridge paled in comparism, and it's no wonder generations of kids have been calling for its collapse. Rounded the Tower of London (with no obvious towering structure in sight), then made for the distinctive missile-shaped building in the eerily-deserted business district as dusk approached. The streets were so empty that it almost felt like being in some post-apocalyptic film. Buckingham Palace was the only key attraction that I wanted to see but left out on this visit - next time, perhaps. Arrived back at Liverpool Street, claimed our left luggage, bought a milk chocolate bar from Marks & Spencer for the long night ahead, rode the Stansted Express back to the airport, didn't manage to get free Wifi despite a tip by a Hong Konger, and staked out a good piece of floor to doze off on with the assurance born of experience. My new daypack made a much better pillow than the old one. As this is the last entry on England, it seems proper to mention some errata, concerning our arrival in London - we parted ways at King's Cross and St. Pancreas, not Seven Sisters. Credit alvin for the discovery. That was hardly the only discovery he made in his stay here, as we took care to sample a different newspaper each day whenever possible, given England's rich journalistic tradition. Here's the rundown:
* Not, in fact, bought ** It might be described as a paper full of interesting Page Threes 15 June  Woke up in the airport feeling slightly miserable, after a few hours of poor sleep on the hard floor. Thankfully it was the last time I would have to do so on this trip, but the lack of breakfast didn't help. A two-hour Ryanair flight took us from Stansted to Treviso airport, where we brunched on a slab of pizza [1] and a bottle of Coke after a bus into town. A long wait for Bus 15 was followed by disappointment as we realised that we could not buy tickets from the driver, causing us to return to the restaurant where we took brunch for the tickets. It was smooth sailing after that, and four stops after the Marco Polo airport, we found ourselves at Camping Alba D'Oro [2], our home for the next two nights. There would be more waiting before we got to the head of the queue at reception, and we were assigned the Number 7 bunk [3], which happened to be just behind the reception building. The insides weren't that back, consisting with a red double-decker of the type we have become accustomed to, and a single. No free Wifi either, sadly, and I was forced to purchase an hour of access for three Euros [4] (concentrates one's mind wonderfully though). That done, we took a short walk into the campsite (which had two outdoor table tennis tables and a beach soccer court) before catching the 3 p.m. bus (four Euros return, nothing's free here) into Venice itself. Venice was canals [5], as fits its popular image, but not as many as I had thought. It was crowded with tourists, and without much time remaining we decided to have more food (more pizza [6] from a supermarket at a low two Euros, with mineral water at 39 cents for 1.5 litres) by canalside before just walking about. I verified alvin's friend's warning about the lack of reasonably-priced toilets, as I broke my 30p record in Manchester and London, paying 0.80 Euros at the train station; determined to make the best of it, I lingered rather longer than necessary in the loo, which was nothing exceptional. Window shopping, observing the rising tide levels [7] and a tub of ice-cream [8] later, we were about ready to call it a day when who else would we meet by sheer chance but the other three Europe-trippers, plus occ!  Heroes meeting at Ruga Vecchia S. Giovanni What could be do but swop tales and have dinner (pasta with ketchup and cheese [9] for me) together? twm, pnut, csq and occ very nicely showed us their hotel room in Venice, as well as their new penchant for speaking in Chinese only (many conversations unprintable). Watched the sunset as a big group, then hurried back to the Piazza Roma to catch the 10:30 p.m. bus back to the campsite. We'll be coming together permanently finally in a couple of days, so stay tuned. Next: A Tent In Florence
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