By Lucy

Days in England: 21

Over the weekend I went to buy chips, or ‘crisps’, for the first time since I got to the UK. They don’t have Lays, they have ‘Walkers’, which look to be the same thing. Doritos “Cool Original” instead of Cool Nacho. The texture of the chip is different as well. Well, it says corn chip, but I couldn’t find normal Doritos. Possibly due to the fact it’s a small store instead of a larger supermarket. I also bought a small bag of self-raising flour to use up some brown bananas in banana bread. The tiny size of everything here continues to boggle my mind.

On Tuesday the 20th I hopped on the train to London to see Damocles again. He was kind enough to agree to let me stay overnight and paid for my food as well. I wish I had gotten to spend more time with him on this trip, but then this trip didn’t go exactly to plan (perhaps a second trip to the UK is in order in the future). Check out his Twitch, sometimes I’m there!

We started at Victoria Station at noon and walked over to Buckingham Palace. We walked past, I believe, St James Park, which had all kinds of waterfowl crowded around it. The tulips were in full bloom and the sun was shining, so it was quite lovely. Damocles complained that I didn’t bring the snow with me – he’s always been enamored with the perfect snow day. He wanted to get a picture of me in front of the guards, because it’s cheeky, I suppose.

We walked up the road a bit more and caught a bus to Baker Street. We passed the Marble Arch, which was unfortunately under repair. We decided not to stop, but as we passed it I regretted not getting a picture of what they’ve done to cover it while it’s being worked on. Instead of the usual ‘scaffold and tarp’, they covered it in a giant box, with advertisements all the way around for an underwear brand! So instead of this dignified piece of marble, it’s just a giant picture of a woman in a bra. Excellent.

We stopped at KFC for lunch. It’s funny, me and Rich have eaten at the chicken shop around the corner from his place and it’s exactly like what I’d expect from KFC, but this KFC in the heart of London was not like the usual. The chicken sandwich had a hashbrown in it, for one. The fries came with seasoning salt, or at least I think it was seasoning salt. The gravy was more like water that had been tinted brown, which I assume was a quality issue more than a cultural issue, cuz Brits love their gravy. Overall it was good!

Now we were on Baker Street proper, we walked up the road to the Sherlock Holmes Museum, naturally. We didn’t go in – I didn’t think it was worth it. The London Beatles Store is next door to it, for some reason.

We walked across Regent’s Park next. We crossed Clarence Bridge into the park, and walked around to Queen Mary’s gardens. I presume it’s a rose garden – even with the barest hint of green on the bare branches, the whole place still reeks of roses. I was surprised to find a Canadian goose hanging around the place, but of course the British kidnapped some to bring back to their island of rain and misery. And good luck to them – they’re like weeds, except violent. There’s a reason someone called them ‘cobra chickens’ (the other reason being he was not fluent in English and didn’t know their name). We cut across to “the Broad Walk” and went up it to the north side of the sports fields. If you follow the path there, you can easily see into the London zoo, for some reason.

We crossed Prince Albert’s Road and walked up Primrose Hill, which is quite a hike and crowded with people at the top, but totally worth it. What a view!

After that we called it a day. We hopped on the Underground back to Damocles place. We got sushi for dinner, and some candies – Squashies were new. They look like erasers, but they taste good and have a more typical gummy texture that I’d expect than the Jelly Babies.

We watched Nimona (cuz I love rewatching Nimona, it’s free on Youtube now if you don’t have Netflix!), and “The Sea Beast”, and played Mario Kart. I also got to finally meet his girlfriend in person, which was part of the reason I didn’t go back to London sooner. We’d been trying to organize a day when Ana could come out to London with us, because she works a more typical 9-5 and we had a limited number of weekends. Ana is great but also a more private person, so I’ll limit what I write about her out of respect.

In the morning, I got up before him, which isn’t unusual cuz he’s a total night owl. I found a nice breakfast place down the road, but before I could sneak out he got up and insisted on accompanying me. Since the characteristic British rain had finally showed up, he also insisted on holding an umbrella over my head the entire walk. The restaurant had a ‘Canadian Breakfast’, which of course I had to try. I assume it’s “Canadian” because the ‘smoked bacon’ is vaguely like peameal bacon? It isn’t proper peameal/ ‘Canadian’ bacon, and the syrup wasn’t even real maple syrup, but it was still a good breakfast. They also put grill lines on the pancakes for some reason.

We walked back to his place, played some more Mario Kart and watched some more Netflix and generally had a chill day before I had to head back to Chatham.

This will be my last post for England, besides the one about the trip home. I’m sorry it got sort of cut short for you guys. My plane gets in to Pearson on February 27th, so as this is published I’ll be in the air and arriving home. I managed to book a window seat this time! I’m staying overnight in Barrie and then leaving for Thunder Bay when I wake up in the morning, so arriving in the afternoon on the 28th. That’s a lot of travelling within 2 days! Then I have to sort my belongings into my storage locker and arrange things with the union hall and all the rest. I probably won’t be able to sit down and write anything until Saturday, but I’ll do what I can!

On to the next chapter!