Wednesday 1st, September
Somewhere around one am I woke up, uncomfortable. You know the kinds when you wake up, you are perspiring, and realize that the vehicle you are in is not moving. Yes that was it. The bus wasn't actually moving and a few passengers were making grumbling noises and the rest were sleeping peacefully (now even more so because I had woken up, and as G claimed the passengers couldn't sleep because a certain someone was snoring, ahem ahem). G was staring out of the window in the darkness and most innocently asked, where are we? Its one thing to ask a question like that in the middle of nowhere in a foreign land and specially when someone has just woken up. But yours truly without missing a beat replied, there is a board out there which says har-ki-pauri 2kms (now har-ki-pauri is a famous, religious destination to the north of Delhi, India). Hearing this G and I broke into uncontrollable hysteric laughter. From spurts, to suppressed giggles to throaty laughter. The sleeping passengers were now awake and looked at us weirdly.
Thankgod before we were beaten up, the bus driver announced that our bus had broken down and we would have to shift to another bus, which should be coming by shortly. We cracked few more jokes, remembered a few more incidents and wondered loud that by end of our trip we would be so tired and bored with travelling that we would lock ourselves in cupboard and refuse to go anywhere.
It was dawn when we reached London, we passed through Baker Street and reached the Bus terminus. We freshened up at the terminus only and were now wondering about our place of stay. We had many options, but staying at a Bed and Breakfast wasn't amongst them. We wished we should have kept that as an option too. The friend at Cambridge, who had promised us his place to stay refused to pick up his phone. Next was my cousin in Wimbledon. The husband avoided us like plague and pretended totally oblivious of our coming and staying. Next was Dominic, who I was interacting with over www.globalfreeloaders.com (a network of people across the globe, who host people in their homes), I sent him a few messages and left a voice mail, but no response yet.
London turned out to be cold city and not because of the weather. We were so disheartened and more so by seeing so many people and mostly Indians from Ramandeep Kaur at the Royal shope to the Gujaratis crowd carrying their little jholas of salted munchies, to Sardarjis and Punjabis and a few Bengalis. It seemed India had descended over London so much that the locals looked foreign and in minority. We wanted to run away the same day to Paris and made our inquiries about the Chunnel and the ferries etc, in case we really skipped London.
We messaged Ann of our safety in London and then proceeded to explore the city, not before renting two lockers for our backpacks at the Bus terminus. We really had no other place to go yet. We picked up Lamb Samosas and donuts before stepping out to see the city.
The sky was blue and the weather brilliant, no signs of the famous gray weather yet. Our first stop was at the centuries old St. Paul's cathedral. Situated in the financial district of Ludgate Hill. We spent over an hour exploring this 17th century church. We marveled at the intricate work of the three chapel, which have been witness to some important events over the years. from the funeral of Lord Nelson, Winston Churchill and the wedding of Prince Charles and Lady Diana. We wished to go down to the crypt, but the entry was locked.
We stepped out of the cathedral and off went a flock of pigeons fluttering in the vast blue sky.
We moved around the place at a leisurely pace and asking for directions we reached the Buckingham Palace. The crowd outside the Palace really scared us off and we walked into the quieter museum adjacent to the Palace. After which we just sat at the fountain for a while observing the camera crazy, picture clicking tourists. We strolled across 58 acre St. James park, crossing flocks of colorful birds, flowers, different flora, picnickers and people walking to work. We went past the Westminster Abbey and the London Eye (the Giant Giant wheel) on Thames greeted us at a distance. We walked past the bridge on Thames and right next to the London Eye was the London Tate displaying works of Salvador Dali. Excitedly we bought our tickets and went in. The pieces on display were the melting clock, transposing of the elephant and duck, paintings, sketches, Mae West sofa, statues with drawers built in (some partially opened, some closed), symbolic of people whose life is open or has secrets. Very interesting indeed. As we were exiting, we realised there was another gate open, screaming at us to enter. We entered gingerly and realised it was the exit gate of for the show of Picasso works. We were happy at this discovery and went through the the entire show without buying any extra ticket. The show needless to say, was an worthwhile discovery of Picasso's style of work and history.
Out in the afternoon sun, we crossed tourists, people and more people and few street artists, dressed up as Mummies, Charlie Chaplin, Statue of Liberty, Sphinx, and street musicians playing some nice music to the crowds. We crossed the London Bridge and reached the heart of the city. At a local cafe (our mistake, because of the overpriced simple food, available) we polished of toasted Panini and coke. It was about 5 when we walked to the Trafalgar square, were more lazy people greeted us.
We also joined in that huge sea of people and started wondering about our next course of action. It was approaching dusk and we did not have a room to stay yet and we were still in two minds of whether to run away to Paris, considering we had seen most of London by foot in one day!!!
As we sat debating, one thing was sure, we had to go back to the Victoria Bus Terminus to fetch our rucksacks and proceed wherever. As luck would have it, Dominic replied to one of my mobile messages. I called him up and he in his most enthusiastic tone started giving the directions to his place. He apologized because he had just returned from Poland in the morning and was tied up. Here was this man, in an unknown land offering to give us roof for our stay. Amazing.
We walked back to the Bus station to collect our luggage and then took the underground to Charring Cross and then hopped on to the metro for Catsford Town, thats where Dominic was staying. It was quite late when we reached Catsford and I messaged Dominic of our arrival. In about 10 minutes a pleasant looking Dominic appeared to escort us to his house on Sangley road. Well London wasn't that cold after all.
We exchanged information, our experiences etc during our travels and he shared his. He had already visited India long ago and knew a bit about the country. We spoke at length and then gave us his sitting room to make ourselves comfortable. While G took the couch to sleep, I slept on the floor, promising to alter the sleeping arrangements next night, if we do not run away to Paris.
Somewhere around one am I woke up, uncomfortable. You know the kinds when you wake up, you are perspiring, and realize that the vehicle you are in is not moving. Yes that was it. The bus wasn't actually moving and a few passengers were making grumbling noises and the rest were sleeping peacefully (now even more so because I had woken up, and as G claimed the passengers couldn't sleep because a certain someone was snoring, ahem ahem). G was staring out of the window in the darkness and most innocently asked, where are we? Its one thing to ask a question like that in the middle of nowhere in a foreign land and specially when someone has just woken up. But yours truly without missing a beat replied, there is a board out there which says har-ki-pauri 2kms (now har-ki-pauri is a famous, religious destination to the north of Delhi, India). Hearing this G and I broke into uncontrollable hysteric laughter. From spurts, to suppressed giggles to throaty laughter. The sleeping passengers were now awake and looked at us weirdly.
Thankgod before we were beaten up, the bus driver announced that our bus had broken down and we would have to shift to another bus, which should be coming by shortly. We cracked few more jokes, remembered a few more incidents and wondered loud that by end of our trip we would be so tired and bored with travelling that we would lock ourselves in cupboard and refuse to go anywhere.
It was dawn when we reached London, we passed through Baker Street and reached the Bus terminus. We freshened up at the terminus only and were now wondering about our place of stay. We had many options, but staying at a Bed and Breakfast wasn't amongst them. We wished we should have kept that as an option too. The friend at Cambridge, who had promised us his place to stay refused to pick up his phone. Next was my cousin in Wimbledon. The husband avoided us like plague and pretended totally oblivious of our coming and staying. Next was Dominic, who I was interacting with over www.globalfreeloaders.com (a network of people across the globe, who host people in their homes), I sent him a few messages and left a voice mail, but no response yet.
London turned out to be cold city and not because of the weather. We were so disheartened and more so by seeing so many people and mostly Indians from Ramandeep Kaur at the Royal shope to the Gujaratis crowd carrying their little jholas of salted munchies, to Sardarjis and Punjabis and a few Bengalis. It seemed India had descended over London so much that the locals looked foreign and in minority. We wanted to run away the same day to Paris and made our inquiries about the Chunnel and the ferries etc, in case we really skipped London.
We messaged Ann of our safety in London and then proceeded to explore the city, not before renting two lockers for our backpacks at the Bus terminus. We really had no other place to go yet. We picked up Lamb Samosas and donuts before stepping out to see the city.
The sky was blue and the weather brilliant, no signs of the famous gray weather yet. Our first stop was at the centuries old St. Paul's cathedral. Situated in the financial district of Ludgate Hill. We spent over an hour exploring this 17th century church. We marveled at the intricate work of the three chapel, which have been witness to some important events over the years. from the funeral of Lord Nelson, Winston Churchill and the wedding of Prince Charles and Lady Diana. We wished to go down to the crypt, but the entry was locked.
We stepped out of the cathedral and off went a flock of pigeons fluttering in the vast blue sky.
We moved around the place at a leisurely pace and asking for directions we reached the Buckingham Palace. The crowd outside the Palace really scared us off and we walked into the quieter museum adjacent to the Palace. After which we just sat at the fountain for a while observing the camera crazy, picture clicking tourists. We strolled across 58 acre St. James park, crossing flocks of colorful birds, flowers, different flora, picnickers and people walking to work. We went past the Westminster Abbey and the London Eye (the Giant Giant wheel) on Thames greeted us at a distance. We walked past the bridge on Thames and right next to the London Eye was the London Tate displaying works of Salvador Dali. Excitedly we bought our tickets and went in. The pieces on display were the melting clock, transposing of the elephant and duck, paintings, sketches, Mae West sofa, statues with drawers built in (some partially opened, some closed), symbolic of people whose life is open or has secrets. Very interesting indeed. As we were exiting, we realised there was another gate open, screaming at us to enter. We entered gingerly and realised it was the exit gate of for the show of Picasso works. We were happy at this discovery and went through the the entire show without buying any extra ticket. The show needless to say, was an worthwhile discovery of Picasso's style of work and history.
Out in the afternoon sun, we crossed tourists, people and more people and few street artists, dressed up as Mummies, Charlie Chaplin, Statue of Liberty, Sphinx, and street musicians playing some nice music to the crowds. We crossed the London Bridge and reached the heart of the city. At a local cafe (our mistake, because of the overpriced simple food, available) we polished of toasted Panini and coke. It was about 5 when we walked to the Trafalgar square, were more lazy people greeted us.
We also joined in that huge sea of people and started wondering about our next course of action. It was approaching dusk and we did not have a room to stay yet and we were still in two minds of whether to run away to Paris, considering we had seen most of London by foot in one day!!!
As we sat debating, one thing was sure, we had to go back to the Victoria Bus Terminus to fetch our rucksacks and proceed wherever. As luck would have it, Dominic replied to one of my mobile messages. I called him up and he in his most enthusiastic tone started giving the directions to his place. He apologized because he had just returned from Poland in the morning and was tied up. Here was this man, in an unknown land offering to give us roof for our stay. Amazing.
We walked back to the Bus station to collect our luggage and then took the underground to Charring Cross and then hopped on to the metro for Catsford Town, thats where Dominic was staying. It was quite late when we reached Catsford and I messaged Dominic of our arrival. In about 10 minutes a pleasant looking Dominic appeared to escort us to his house on Sangley road. Well London wasn't that cold after all.
We exchanged information, our experiences etc during our travels and he shared his. He had already visited India long ago and knew a bit about the country. We spoke at length and then gave us his sitting room to make ourselves comfortable. While G took the couch to sleep, I slept on the floor, promising to alter the sleeping arrangements next night, if we do not run away to Paris.
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