Oddly, I sleep pretty good, in spite of the bed. Bernd, who slept on a rollaway bed in the living room, and the two of us have breakfast at the room.
The plan for the day is to head up to the Regent Park area as we've never been that way and I want to see the canal that is there. As it turns out, Bernd's friend Monika, who we almost met up with the night before, lives in the area, so the plan is to meet up with her at a Starbuck's near her place and go from there.
We head out and take the tube up to the Maida Vale stop. (I love the names at the stations in London, so much cooler than NYC). We meet up at a Starbucks there (note, there seem to be as many Starbucks in London as there are in New York), chat for a bit and then start walking around.
Monika is very nice and shows us the area, which reminds me a little bit of the Park Slope area in Brooklyn with the main difference that you find this there:
The closest you get to this in Brooklyn is the Gowanus canal, also known as Lavendar Lake (for its toxic content), so this was much nicer.
We make our way over to Regent's Park, where we wander around for a while too and take in the beautiful day. There are some amazing flowers here and we all have a great time.
We head for lunch next, eating at the Duke of York in the St. John's Wood area (http://www.thedukeofyork.com/index.html) I have a Ploughman's cheese lunch, which is basically a plate of bread, cheese and veggies, making this the healthiest thing I have eaten in 2009. While we were walking to the place, Monika mentioned that we were near a famous recording studio.
I do a search on google maps on my phone and realize we're 3 blocks from a certain famous recording studio.
Hint:
Here's that crosswalk today:
Incidentally, if you are so inclined, here's a live webcam for it:
http://www.abbeyroad.com/visit/# The webcam is from the opposite angle that the two pictures are.
We head to Starbucks (again!) for a quick dessert and we determine the plan next is to meet Monika's friend ZB (which is not the actual spelling, but that is how it's pronounced and it's much easier to type), at the Elephant & Castle station at 6:15 or so to go with him to some sort of Jazz concert at a Polish center. Well, that was the general gist, the actual details seems to be fluid.
We walk around the nice area a bit more then hop on the Bakerloo line south to the last station, Elephant & Castle.
We get out, and, uh, well, the area is not the most pristine part of London. So, we waited for ZB, who was running a tad late. We eventually met up, and we made our way, deeper into the Southwark area (320 Old Kent Road, london). We manage to get to the community center, we we are offered, and take, some much needed wine. The jazz band comes on and plays for around and hour and we chill and hang out.
After, we're starving, our feet are hurting, and the neighborhood does not entice one to walk the long distance back to the Underground in the dark, so we decide to hop a bus a block away. ZB says goodbye to us and Bernd, Monika, and us hop on a bus back towards the Piccadilly Circus area. The bus, is not a double decker bus, but it does have a smell that reminds me all too much of the NY City Transit system. My guess is that somehow, the bus was bathed in sewage before going on it's run. Luckily, windows are opened, and the smell fades into the background, much in the same way that it used to in Staten Island.
Back at Piccadilly Circus, we have a late dinner at Noura (http://www.noura.co.uk/central/) a Lebanese restaurant. From what I can recall, this might be the first time I have eaten at a Lebanese restaurant. Again, the food is very good, we haven't had a bad meal all week.
Tired, exhausted, we stop at a Boots drugstore in Piccadilly Circus (it's Saturday night, so it's amusing to watch the various Bachelor and Bachelorette parties (called Hen parties here - endless jokes abound) wandering around, some barely able to walk. We then walk Monika to the bus stop, say our goodbyes, then head back on the Tube to the apartments for some much needed sleep.
