A Self Guided Walking Tour

Day Five: 5/14/09 Part B
A Self Guided Walking Tour

…Nicole had a meeting for work that she expected to last to 10 am, so I decided to take a shower and a power nap while she was gone. When she returned we decided to go for a stroll around her general neighborhood. We walked primarily through Regent’s Park and the neighborhood of Prim Rose Hill. The park had a few very pretty gardens that mom would have enjoyed. The streets were also fun to see. For those of you who haven’t been to London, you can picture the street scenes from the movie Notting Hill. While we weren’t in Notting Hill, the store fronts and pubs etc. all felt similar to that. On our way back through the park we decided we were hungry, so we stopped at a little park restaurant and had “pork porkers” which was basically a hot dog.

We had to be back to Nicole’s around 1 pm because she had an interview with NBC Universal regarding a summer internship at 2 pm. I decided with the remainder of the daytime I would just walk around London and take in the people and the sites.

London is a pretty city. The old architecture, differing building facades, parks and gardens can make for a nice walk. When you add in all of the colorful British characters it becomes downright fun. British people as a whole are not a particularly attractive bunch. They do, however, take fashion very seriously. Most of the men I encountered on the street were wearing handsome suits with winning shirt and tie combinations. Unlike say NYC, the men wear lots of color in their shirts and ties, which I enjoy. I commented at dinner about how I liked how the men dress here and it was quickly pointed out to me that “clothes are only packaging. Once they are off, they are still unattractive British guys.” Regardless I enjoyed looking at the packaging throughout my walk.

Just for posterity’s sake I walked down Oxford street, through SoHo, the theater district, around West Minster Abbey, Big Ben, the London Eye and down the Thames. I stopped at a little collection of market like shops called Gabriel’s Wharf and an amazing savory crepe. Typically the English are knocked for having bad food, but this was REALLY good. The crepe itself was delicious and it was filled with chicken, ham, sweet corn and salsa. I hope to get back to try one of their desserts crepes.

After my crepe I walked across Blackfriar’s Bridge. As I was waiting for the light to change at the end of the bridge a cop came flying up on a motorcycle and told me I was going to have to wait a second. There weren’t any other pedestrians around. There were a few cars but not a ton for a Thursday during rush hour. About 10 seconds after the cop pulled up he said something like “the bridge is secure” into his little helmet walkie talkie. Not five seconds later a motorcade approached. It included three cops on motorcycles, a cop car, a very fancy car, a cop car, and three more motorcycle cops. The fancy car in the middle had two tall white men in the backseat. The car was moving around 30 mph but it is entirely possible that the person sitting closest to me was Prince William. I have no idea how he travels around town but the entourage seemed to fit a Prince. Oh yah, and the man looked a whole a lot like him. The only thing that gives me doubt is if I were Prince William and I was driving around London I would use a car with tinted windows.

After the passing of the motorcade I continued on my way to St. Paul’s Cathedral. On my previous trip to London I saw the outside but I didn’t remember going inside. I wanted to see the inside in person. I was not disappointed. It is truly a beautiful church. Many of you have likely seen the inside, as this is where Prince Charles and Princess Di were so famously married.

At 6 pm I returned to Nicole’s apartment. She wanted to me to attend a “Sundowners” social her school was hosting to celebrate their victory in some European MBA sports competition from the previous weekend. Her sales pitch was that it was all the free alcohol one could drink. Clearly this wasn’t a huge selling point for me but I did think it would be lots of fun to go see more of her school and meet some of her classmates. She said everyone was going to be wearing their “red” school supplied shirt and that I had to wear one so I wouldn’t feel uncomfortable. I wasn’t wild about the idea, but she wanted me to wear the shirt, so I did. Low and behold we were two of the ten out of 200 people who wore the red shirt.

My favorite NON-RED shirt at Sundowners was worn by another student. It said “when the sun goes down everyone gets hotter.” You know you are in an MBA program full of partiers when the school MAKES shirts that say that.

Nicole and I left Sundowners a little early because I made plans to meet another friend of mine named Adeline who lives in London. We went to a very fun little pub within walking distance of Nicole’s flat. We all had burgers and “chips” aka fries. The food was good and the company was even better. After we finished our meals a friend of Nicole’s named Don stopped by the pub to drink with us. Per the usual I was nursing a coca-cola light. Adeline and Nicole had a bottle of wine and when Don arrived they ordered another.

After the second bottle of wine was finished (which included Nicole chugging Adeline’s nearly full glass) we decided to head to a different pub a little closer to the flat. At this point I think all of my cohorts were feeling pretty good. Adeline didn’t order another drink at the Volunteer. Don and Nicole had beers and I had a glass of water. At the conclusion of Don’s beer, he decided it would be a good idea to put his empty glass in Nicole’s shirt. Don is Nicole’s best friend at LBS and also gay. I think the placement of the glass was just a way to annoy her more than anything else. The struggle that ensued resulted in the glass in Nicole’s hand getting broken and all of it’s contents spilling all over me. I am certain I was wearing at least 12 ounces of beer. Fortunately I had on my Northface Gortex Trenchcoat. Thankfully not only do Northface’s repel water but they repel beer as well. At this point we all decided heading home might be a good idea.

After we returned to the flat another LBS friend of Nicole’s came over. His name was Fardeen. He also clearly had been out enjoying the pub life of London. I’m not sure why exactly he came over. I think was to trying to talk someone into doing his Econ homework for him. That or he was there to check me out. Nicole said he had asked earlier in the week if her friend was “cute” or something like that. We all spent a while chatting and much of the conversation was not appropriate for this forum. What I can tell you is that it would be more likely for hell to freeze over than for me to date Fardeen. He was a nice enough guy but our beliefs on things are at seriously opposite ends of the spectrum. For instance, I “HAD to smoke dope” when I went to Amsterdam because “you only live once” and you have to try everything! More than anything I think this evening reiterated two things for me: 1) the reason I don’t yet have a guy is that most of them in my age demo are immature tools; and 2) I have mad A LOT of really good choices in my life and someday I will meet a guy that appreciates them.

I’ll write again from tomorrow from Amsterdam.

Katy