Tuesday 31 July 2012

The 6 day trip to Denmark and the United Kingdom - the evening of the first day (cont.) - London - The 23rd of June 2012


(...)

We walked towards Chinatown so as to look for a Chinese restaurant though I ended up buying some Chinese silk coats before (... every shop seemed to be on sales then ... which I must confess sounded rather odd, as I am not quite used to the end of the Summer sales - three for the price of one sort of, being anticipated but in Portugal ...).























 











We had a buffet dinner which was quite good and then decided to get on the closest tube station to go back to the hostel as it had started to rain quite heavily.

Upon having reached the "Pride of Paddington" we decided to take some photos of the hostel premises and our room for future reference ..., not only was it interestingly decorated (we didn't visit the other dormitories) but had an informative and rather humorous side to it.



































































We both felt we would soon be sleeping soundly ..., Mia because she hadn't slept the previous night and I because having slept for a few hours during the day hadn't been enough ...











Monday 30 July 2012

The 6 day trip to Denmark and the United Kingdom - the afternoon of the first day (cont.) - London - the 23rd of June 2012



(...)

We the walked along the river bank where some street performers inevitably caught our attention. We hanged around for a while watching their performances and relaxing a bit from the long walk,before we prepared ourselves to make our way towards Covent Garden that I have always fancied.






































There was an exhibition of decorated phone boxes which we found rather creative and before we headed out to "Monsoon", one of my favourites shops, now located outside the premises of Covent Garden, we still listened to classical music,  bought some cards in one of the stalls and stumbled into two amazing street performers, one playing a traditional Chinese instrument and another one impersonating Mr. Bean. Both of them were fabulous in their own genre.
























































































(To be continued)








Sunday 29 July 2012

The 6 day trip to Denmark and the United Kingdom - the afternoon of the first day - London - The 23rd of June of 2012




Due to an unexpected abdominal pain I had to be taken to Saint Mary's Hospital by ambulance just two hours after having got to the youth hostel where we would be staying at for the next two days.

I was discharged at around nine in the morning but still being under the influence of the intravenous medication slept all the way through till two in the afternoon until Mia, whom I had incited to go out, despite the fact that she had gone through the whole ordeal at the hospital and had been awake all night, called me to find out if I was feeling better.

She picked me up, as I felt no pain and we both headed towards Oxford Street and then down towards the river Thames bank. We would have not time to visit anything but would at least be able to take some photos near the well known places like Piccadily Cicus, Trafalgar Square, the Houses of Parliament, the London Eye, Covent Garden, Soho and whichever places we would have time for.




























































































































London can be a real nuisance  because everywhere one happens to go to is either overcrowded or one just has to "elbow" people out of the way to be able to get a semi good photograph ... and that afternoon was no different.

I don't honestly know how I managed to walk such a distance, but even if I did without feeling any worse than when I left the hostel I did look rather sick, judging from the very few photos I took, which  I dare not publish.






(to be continued)