England

Tuesday:
I spent most of today in London's 'East End' and around the Docks. This is an area that has undergone HUGE gentrification in the last twenty years and is now the financial centre of London - surpassing even the City in most regards. However, it's a largely soleless, bleak place, but I'll get to that later.

My first stop was the Museum in Docklands, sister to the Museum of London. It's a fascinating place and I loved it. Most people don't venture out this far, but it's well worth a trip. THe Museum itself is devoted to all the changes that have taken palce along the Thames since the 1200s, from the bridges, to the workers to the warehouses and trade. And I found out more about what my ancestors used to do

From there I ventured across the canal to Canary Wharf, the new financial centre. Everyone I passed acted as if they were late for something and looked as if by just being there I was a nuisance. It was like being stuck in the MLC centre at lunchtime, only far worse. Essentially there is no life at all in Canary Wharf - at 6pm it's a ghost town once everyone has gone home. In contrast to the City, there are no museums, nightlife or restaurants - it's purely office towers. What a waste.

I hopped back on the Docklands Light Railway (DLR) to see the Cutty Sark and walk across the Meridian Line at the Royal Observatory. The Cutty Sark is an 18th century ship that sits in dry dock. The Observatory was far more interesting, and asks the question: 'how do you view time: is it a blessing or a curse?'.

And that brought me to the end of the day. I had dinner with Weikai and went to the Proms with Weikai, Bronwyn and Simon. Was a fantastic concert, although inside Royal Albert Hall it was SOOO hot. Barely any buildings in all of London have air con - it's just not something the city is built for. Instead they have makeshift fans which are useless in 34 degree heat. The tube reaches 40 degrees, and the buses have been known to reach 50 degrees. Argh!! I'm so glad I don't have to wear a suit all day!
The Proms itself was fantastic - we heard all these Italian classical pieces performed by the Symphony Orchestra and a Tenor singing - magical!

Wednesday
I'll keep this brief as my internet access is about to run out, but I went atop the London Eye for a great view of the city, then walked to Buckingham Palace and saw the Changing of the Guard. Stopped and relaxed in St James Park before heading to St Pauls, and the Museum of London. I just got back from visiting the Black Books shop

Till next time, ciao!

Compared to everywhere else I've visited so far (and all my upcoming destinations except Berlin), I'm in London for the longest time - one week.

It might not sound like a lot, and really it's not, but to me it's LOADS of time. I'm having trouble planning it actually!

But that's pretty much sorted now, and as internet access is both sparse and expensive, I'm going to give a run down now to save daily diary entries.

Today: Monday

• Visited the tkts half price booth in Leicester Square, only to find the ticket I wanted (Les Mis) wasn't on sale as Monday is a busy day at the Theatres (!). Apparently this has to do with people doing long weekends in London and staying on Mon night. Ah well.
  
• Visited the tourist info office which was huge and busy, but had loads of great maps and brochures. It's near Piccadilly Circus tube station - towards St James Park.
  
• Did the London Dungeons! Something I've been wanting to do for AGES and finally did. Totally shameless and tounge-in-cheek and so much better for it - had some laughs and learned a lot about the dark underbelly of 16-19th century London. Great sets and actors too!
  
• Tower Bridge & Exhibition - my first (of many) 'views' of London. Saw how the Bridge was built and (luckilly enough) saw it being raised to let a boat through. Amazing considering it was built in 1894.
  
• Got my camera fixed for the extortionist price of £10! But it's done and it's all good now! It was only the screws that were missing, but the generic ones didn't work - so I had to search out a specific Pentax repair place, hence the cost for 3 screws.
  
• Climbed the 300-something stairs to the top of the Monument for my 2nd view of London. Impressive, but the Bridge was just as good. Only cost me 25p though!
  
• Dinner at Subway. I really need to learn how to eat alone! I can do it in my own city fine, but not when travelling ('cept in Singapore, but that's always different).
  

Rest of Week

• Tuesday: Greenwich/Docks during the day. Proms with Weikai, Simon & Bronwyn at night.
  
• Wednesday: London Eye and others during the day. Dinner with Camilla and Les Mis.
  
• Thursday: Cambridge w/Claudia.
  
• Friday: Comedy of Errors & tour at the Globe Theatre during the day. Clubbing with ex-NUS exchange students at night.
  
• Saturday: Unplanned, although I leave around 4pm for Amsterdam!
  

Cheers,

Tris.

PS: It's been great to hear what's been happening in Syd - keep me posted!

Since I haven't posted for a few days, and I only have 7mins remaining on my internet access here I will try and cover everything in brief.

Orkney:
Continued being fantastic - a very welcome break from the first two weeks of my trip which were hectic to say the least!!

I had one perfect day of weather, in which I visited Skara Brae, Maes Howe and all the other main sights. But the highlight was definitely seeing my grandparents and all my other relatives that live up there. For many it was the first time we'd met and it was great!

Trip down to Glasgow
The trip down was delayed but fairly uneventful...pretty much the same as the trip North actually!

Thanks again Fiona & Jamie for dinner, drinks and getting up at 5:30am to take me to the airport for London - my plane was delayed an hour so we didn't need to rush after all!!

London
Flight was OK, arrived in London yesterday morning and found my accomodation fairly well - it's in Sth Kensington (Sth Ken) and is FANTASTIC!!! Soo cheap (£25 a night) and it's all brand new.

Yesterday I went to Lovebox Weekender with Weikai and saw Jamiroquai, Gogol Bordello, The Feeling, Larrikan Love and others - all were fantastic!! All the more better because I didn't know who they were before the concert! Flis you must buy their albums!

Now I'm in the tourist bureau thingy because I forgot to bring my London map with me Clever Tristan!! All is good now and I'm off to the Dungeons!

Ciao!

(Beautiful weather btw!)

Today was the first day that I've travelled on my own in the UK. All the other days so far have been with family and in the car.

So off I began getting a train from Warrington Central to Manchester (£5.55 return), arriving in Manchester at 11am. After some minor issues with the train (namely it not running according to the timetable I had seen, nor reaching Piccadilly station), I went to Urbis. Urbis is the museum of cities and it's brand new. I loved it, but I think that has more to do with me liking cities than the museum itself being good. The highlight was the exhibition on he IRA bomb in 1996 and the repecussions of that. Many believe it was the catalyst for cleaning-up and rebuilding the city centre into the bustling, modern place it is today. Others in turn find it impossible to see how you could say such good things about a terrorist act.

Whilst the jury is still out, I tend to agree with the exhibition in that it wasn't a good thing, but the response was. Manchester bounced back very quickly and very professionally and made the most of a bad situation.

The other big thing I got out of that museum was the notion that all cities are quite similar - most have similar structures, networks of roads and rail, rivers, buildings etc. Quite profound when you think about it.

For lunch I walked through the town centre, deliberately avoiding going shopping, as I can do that anywhere, and you're only in Manchester once! Eventually I settled on a pasty (Cheese and Bacon - mmmm!) and headed on the tram to Stafford Quays. The Quays are relatively new, and very modern. They house the latest housing developments in Manchester, the Lowry and the Imperial War Museum North. It seems to be obligatory that all museums in Manchester look imposing and are made of steel or glass to excess.

Regardless, the museum was brilliant and focused on the effect of wars on people - both directly and indirectly. I love that sort of stuff so it was great!

And then I got a call from Camilla, who I met in Singapore last year. She lives in Manchester, and it had always been an aim to see her and say howdy. So we went for a drink and caught up. It turns out she's just graduated and is heading down to London to work - look who has a couch to crash on after all! Thanks SOOO much Camilla - I'll take you out in style with all the money I'll save!

After all that I was spent, so I got the train back to Warrington and had tea at Helens house. We watched the World Cup Final in between looking at photos and discussing the ever-confusing family tree which Mum is writing up as we speak. I also heard loads about many of the places I'm planning to visit in Europe, as both Andrea and Helen are avid travellers.

And just before I went to bed I got to speak to Flis, which was great as I hadn't actually spoken to her since I left.

Tomorrow its off to Wales so I better head off now. Ciao!

PS: For photos of Manchester, click here