Catching up - Having a London time

What I really don't like about writing in my blog after a long time without doing it is the fact that I forget almost everything... And the details are very important for me... But I'll try anyway.

When did it start? Oh, ok.
September 28, Wednesday - Ronaldo's arrival

Ronaldo and Paula arrived in the morning and he took a ride home with her. I was looking forward to seeing him so I left school and rushed home. When I got there they had just arrived from the airport. I had made the huge mistake of telling Grant that I was avilable on Wednesday night to work. I didn't want to go! Ro and I spent some time together, walked around the neighbourhood and had some coffee at the Ethiopian place around the corner. And talked and talked...
I went to Hobgoblin and Ronaldo bought a tube day travel card to go to Oxford St.
Man, I hate that pub... I hate that people, I hate serving them. A football match was to be shown on TV and the place got crowded. The weather was cold and rainy. Ro went to pick me up at 10pm, I bought a few beers and we stayed in the kitchen talking.

September 29, Thursday - London sightseeing

We woke up early and I was supposed to go to class, but decided to skip it and we walked around downtown. We went to Soho, but in the morning everything is still closed (those shops there usually open at 11am) so it wasn't so much of a fun time. We started taking pics (the best ones are in Ro's camera, of course) and had the first of a million sandwiches that we would have throughout the next 4 days.

Anyway, we knew that we wouldn't have so much time to spend in London because of our upcoming trip to Paris, so we wanted to do some sightseeing. I hadn't done or seen almost anything before Ronaldo got here so it would be just as news to me as it was to him. Where should we get started?
We took the bus 159 - the classic route - and got off at the London Eye and Parliament Houses and Big Ben. Pics all around... We went towards the Saatchi Gallery, where a Salvador Dali's exposition was taking place. It's right beside the London Eye. On a whim, we entered the queue to buy the tickets for the Eye! I have an Oyster card (which is the one you have to use in the public transportation, either tube or bus or both, and now there's a campaing to encourage people and tourists to use the buses and tube without any fear after the July bombings) and we had 50% off, so the price was £6.25 each. Not expensive at all!
I was a bit aprehensive and so was Ronaldo. The thing is fucking huge!







The queue moved fast and in no time we were inside the wheel. The view is awesome! We saw everything and even found the Buckingham Palace, our next place to be.

I spoke to Tiago on the phone for us to meet up and we arranged to meet at Trafalgar Square at 3h30pm. We had time so we went towards Green Park to find the Palace. Everything was so fucking cool, the park was quiet and peaceful, people sitting in banches or on the grass drinking coffee, reading, talking to friends. Some people were going home and others exercising. Buckingham Palace is beautiful. We weren't able to see the "change of guards" with their traditional long black furry hats and red suits, but we took pics with a policeguy standing in the main gate. He was totally cool with that. In fact, policemen that work in the Palace are used to tourists taking their pictures, so there was no problem at all.



We met Tiago and went for a coffee. We talked for a while but Tiago had to go to work (he's working at this sushi place) so we didn't spend much time together. Ronaldo asked him a lot of questions about living in London and how much it costs... a possibility for the future?
At the end of the day we were looking miserable and starving to death. We had been thinking of having a burger the whole day and it suddenly came to me the idea of going to Bodean's! That would be cool...
We took bus 88 towards Clapham Commom and got there at about 6pm.
There's this really good-looking bartender working there so not only is the food good, but also the view!!!
We had the traditional cheeseburger with fries on the side and water... Man, the best burger in London (I'm not gonna say this was the best burger I've ever had because I'll never forget the one I had coming back from Disneyland two years ago... That was incredible!)

We were beat and still had to pack and sort everything out for the trip.
We decided not to check-in any luggage so we had to put everything in bags. It was heavy but totally managable.

September 30, Friday - Off to Paris!

I went to class in the morning along with the luggage and Ronaldo got to see the neighbourhood. We went to the supermarket and bought some stuff for the trip (sandwiches...). We went all the way to Bond Street station carrying that heavy load and got the tube to Heathrow. We had to make a connection at Green Park station to get the Piccadilly line.
It's about an hour journey from downtown to the airport and the single ride costs £3.80 - not too bad. We did the self-check-in and went to find the boarding gate.
We flew BMI (kind of a British "Gol") and the flight was full, but enjoyable.
It's less than an hour flight from London to Paris and we arrived at Charles de Gaulle airport at 6pm. I was afraid of the immigration but nothing happened whatsoever. The immigration official (it was a woman) said two sentences:
- Bon soir
(looked at my passport, stamped it)
- Aurvoir
Indetermined time to stay there... can you believe it?
We made it!
Now the problem was to get out of the airport and get to the hotel...