london adventure day 2 (wed. 04.03.2002)
originally written 04.03.2002This might show up in ‘zine form in the near future if I have a chance to put it together when I get back to Edinburgh.
despite the odd fealing of sleeping in a strange room shared by strangers, i apparently slept deeply and long enough to remember my dream. i dreamt that erin had become a stoner and lied about that fact to me. i remember being really upset because i fealt obligated to break up with her even though part of me didn’t want to. for the sake of my hostel dorm room’s coinhabitants, i hope i didn’t wake up screaming “Nooooooo!”, but i definitely recall having that “thank goodness it’s only a dream” feeling.
i’ve found the Tottenham Court Road tube stop to be supremely useful. for starters, there are a couple of veg*n restaurants in the area: the thai buffet I mentioned yesterday, Govinda’s, a krishna-run indian buffet which one will encounter on the way to the Thai place, and, one block over from Govinda’s, on Dean Street, there is a veg*n fast food place called Red Veg. This place is like a veg*n, marxist, version of macdonalds with menu items such as veggie burgers, nuggets, falafel, and a variety of fried vegetables. the food’s not anything special, but it’s inexpensive, convenient, and worth checking out if only for the novelty. not all menu items are vegan, but they can be made so. everything’s GM free to boot.
also, a few steps away from the Tottenham Court Road tube stop is Muji, a shop that will sort you on your reasonable, but not inexpensive, travel needs. i got some sandals for the hostel showers for only 5#s. the clever customizable raincoate (tear on the serated lines) looked promising as well at around 10#s. the place was like Urban Outfitters but Japan-style. whatever. a little farther down the road is Easy Everything, a massive internet cafe that tends to be less expensive than most competitors. they have a crazy variable pricing strategy that is cheaper when the demand is lighter, so go during off peak hours to get the most bang for your buck, err, pound. also, next to Easy Everything is a Sainsburry’s Central for groceries. many hostels have kitchens, so you can save some cash by cooking instead of eating out. furthermore, rock venue, london astoria, is also just down the road from the tube stop.
by far the coolest thing, however, that one get get to from the aforementioned tube stop is The British Museum. from the tube stop, go one block N. on Tottenham Court Road and then turn East (right) on Great Russell Street & you’re there faster than you can say “imperialism = rape of culture”.
the museum is enormous & there is really too much to see in one trip. i was pretty exhausted after my day at the museum. i concentrated on the ancient greek & egyptian collections b/c they were so strong. i saw the elgin marbles which are marble sculptures and friezes taken from the parthenon in athens. despite being somewhat incomplete and damaged due to various catastrophies throughout the ages, they are beautiful and impressive. they are also, however, controversial, as the greeks very much want the marbles returned to their native home. i saw an interview on the bbc & the british officials seemed quite indignant about keeping the marbles in london. i suppose having the marbles in london does make them more accessible to the world. still, it’s not really the brits’ choice about where to keep them. the unwillingness to try to make any sort of compromising arrangement is quite stupid.
in many ways, i find the uk to be far more progressive than the states, but i also find remnents of the old imperialist hubris. a few days ago, i watched some programming on the bbc commemerating the conflict in the falklan islands. the loss of life, which i think was like 200+, seems totally stupid to maintain control over such a small outpost of the british empire off the coast of argentina.
the british museum also has free guided tours of the various galleries throughout the day. i went along on two of them, and found them to be quite good. they gave a cohesive picture of the collections which would otherwise have neem missed in the shadow of the glitzier displays.
in addition to the mummies and the marbles, i got to see a very cool exhibit of illustrations of joyce’s ulysses which were not only clever and original, but also displayed a number of cool print making techniques. finally, i saw a completely amazing exhibit of modern chinese caligraphy. caligraphy has always been my favorite art form of the far east and it was really cool to see how the modern artists reinterpreted the ancient tradition. it was enough to make me reconsider that chinese character tatoo.
today, i skated a really cool old park called meanwhile II. to get there, take the hammersmith & city line to the royal oak stop. you should see a big overpass (i think they call them flyovers in the uk). follow the overpass for a little while and you’ll see the park underneath. this park is on the way to the big london park, playstation, so there were tons of skaters on the tube. while i’ve heard that playstation can get crowded, meanwhile II was deserted. this small park has a long, poured concrete mini-ramp type structure w/o coping, but with a waxed lip on one side. it’s gnarly and unforgiving, but really fun. next to the mini-ramp thing is a small street area w/ a long grind rail and a manual pad w/ a metal edge for grinding/sliding. also, there were the omnipresent bread crates. give the british kids enough crates, & scrap wood & they could build you a skatepark. it’s cool to see kids being resourceful instead of bitching about the quality of their town’s spots.
i’ve talked before about the whole “brotherhood of skateboarding” thing, before, & i’ve had another cool experience along those lines. on the way to meanwhile II, another skater aproached me on the tube platform & asked me if i was going to playstation. i said that i was going to meanwhile II. he asked if he could come along, and i said of course. he was this 27 year old, old-timer surfer from up north, & we just had a fun little session, riding and slamming on the concrete in the fading light of dusk. we talked a bit, bit mainly skated. that’s the cool thing about skating. go anywhere in the world, find the local spot, and you’ve instantly found kids who have at least one thing in common w/ you. i think that fact that skaters were somewhat persecuted for so long & the fact that it takes some passion to keep skating creates a certain bond between skaters.
jonesi & i skated until we were to broken & exhausted to safely continue. as we parted at paddington station, he gave me his mobile digits in case i wanted to skate later in the week. i rode back to bayswater, feeling ill after chugging a liter of o.j., but totally stoked on skating.