London

When my good mate Rob told me that he was going to be in London for two weeks for a training course, I knew that I had to go there and meet up with him. Our friend Tom is studying in London at the School of Oriental and African Studies, so we knew that we had a place to stay. It had been a few months since I had seen either of these guys and a year since the three of us had been together, back in Venezuela. In addition, both Rob and Tom had birthdays coming up the following week, so we had to celebrate!

I left Newark Thursday morning for a quick trip across the pond. The flight went rather painlessly (except for the movie selection) and I did some reading and got a little sleep before arriving in Gatwick. Once on the ground I contacted Tom from the airport and then proceeded to his dorm room. Luckily Tom was prepared for me with a mattress and sleeping bag because I was uncharacteristically unprepared. Tom and I talked until late in the night but Rob had to go to sleep because he had class to attend early the next morning. I tried to pawn off... uh... give Tom a hideous mask that had been given to me when I left Venezuela, but he graciously declined. I later tried to give it to Rob but he denied the gift as well. (I ended up leaving it in his pack when he wasn't looking so I had the last laugh!)

Friday I slept in late before exploring London with Tom. We started with a tube trip to London Bridge and walked around in the sunshine on the South Bank of the River Thames. We just wandered through the old buildings, including Shakespeare's Globe Theatre. Tom and I went to the Tate Modern Art Museum and the British Museum in the afternoon before meeting up with some friends of his at a pub. We saw some great art at the Tate and only had time to view the mummies and the new African exhibit at the huge British Museum. I had only been to London briefly once before on my way to Egypt, but the longer I was there the more it felt similar to New York City to me (except my friends weren't in New York). Rob met up with us at the pub in the evening and we all went out for a sushi dinner in the drizzling rain before going back to Tom's to discuss the weekend's plans and catch up on old times. I've got to tell you that it delights me to no end to have friends living in London and Cairo discussing the possibilities of moving to Moscow and North Korea in the upcoming months. I love these boys!

Rob's training course was pretty intensive and he had to present a lesson on Monday, so he had to work Saturday morning instead of hanging out with Tom and I. I am sure that we had more fun because while he was in a stuffy library we were out under clouded skies… visiting the grave of Karl Marx! I assure you that this was Tom's idea, as he is far more red than I am (he didn't even like Red Dawn). As interesting as Marx's grave was the number of "comrades" buried around Marx. We also took the opportunity to explore the quaint town of Highgate during our adventure.

After lunch we hopped a double-decker bus back into London and went to another Tate Museum (with traditional art). Later on we met up with Rob and drifted through Leicester Square and Piccadilly Circus before eating a nice Belgian dinner of steamed mussels. Rob had a good time looking at all of the beautiful, hip girls from all over the world as we tried to dodge rain drops. I am sure that they are a welcome change from the hijab veils that he is accustomed to seeing in Cairo. After dinner we took the tube to Brick Lane in the east part of town. One of Tom's friends, Ayako, had a friend who was playing flute at a club called the Vibe Bar. The music was Brazilian drum and bass, but somehow the traditional Japanese flute was successfully fused with the techno-esque music. We danced until the club closed at one in the morning. I broke up the evening by buying drinks for obnoxious British girls. At the end of the evening Tomi's skillful navigation guided us home through the cold night air in just a shade over two hours (as opposed to the fifteen minute tube ride to arrive). The tube doesn't run at night and the night bus schedules just proved too much for our crafty Belgian friend. Eventually we did make it home though.

After the late night on Saturday our Sunday did not start until almost noon. Once we all stirred from bed we met up with Ayako and again and all took a train to the countryside town of Shepperton, located along the River Thames. This was a side of England that I had never seen before and it was quite different from suburban London. The plan was to eat lunch at Thames Court, a pub that Rob worked at several years prior. I found the atmosphere much more British and thus, much more obnoxious. The speed of service left something to be desired and we were at the pub most of the afternoon, but I was happy to be in the company of friends… and there were some really cool cars in the parking lot! Notable vehicles not found in the States included a Nissan Skyline GT-R, a couple of Lotus Elises (Elisi?), an Escort Cosworth, and a rally spec Corolla. At six in the evening we caught a train back to London in order to meet up with Tom's friend Kris (another temporary resident on Tom's floor). The five of us braved rainy skies to eat Indian food in Soho before returning to the dorms. I was feeling adventurous and ordered some strange drink called a Kashmiri Kulfi. It consisted of red syrup, ice cream, and noodles. It was... interesting. Then it was off to bed before leaving for the airport Monday morning. A few short hour on a plane and I was back to a beautiful day in New Jersey for another week of work.