London Week 2

Week 2 in London it was nice to be a bit more settled so we could focus on the job hunt as well as doing some sightseeing. Sunday we decided to explore the local neighbourhood of Islington. Very nice shops and plenty of Cafes and restaurants. Nice to just sit out in front of a restaurant drinking a beer and watching the world go by.

We decided we should get into some proper job hunting and sightseeing this week. Most mornings consisted of scouring the internet for jobs and calling up agents to see what they had for us. Afternoons were for sightseeing. Monday we went in to look at Buckingham Palace from the outside. Jess wasn't particularly impressed. What sort of palace doesn't even have turrets? We then went on to wander around the neighbourhood and see Westminster Abbey, Big Ben and the Houses of Parliament. Once we had the perspective from the ground we wanted to see if they looked any better from up high so we made our way across the Thames to the London Eye. It certainly was big and we found it amusing that a trip on the Eye was called a "flight". Overall it was a worthwhile experience but there probably wasn't quite enough to see as we would have liked. Also it was quite slow. Good chance to soak up the views in every direction. Worth doing but I don't know that we will be going back. More interesting were all the buskers lined up like statues along the riverfront. You put some money in their container and they perform away to you. Don't see too much of that at home. Must take a lot of perseverance to stay that still and with all the competition it is surprising they earn much more than it costs to apply all their makeup every day.

Tuesday was another day for getting on a high. This time we went to visit St Paul's Cathedral. Nice to just walk around and looking at all the architecture statues and tombs. Particularly interesting to see that a number of other cathedrals had stood on the site and it was only the Great Fire of London which gave us the current incarnation. We had a try at the whispering gallery. Marcus could hear Jess but not vice-versa (for a change...). We were able to get up to the Stone Gallery and have a look outside around London, but the Golden Gallery at the very top was closed so we will have to make another journey back one day to have a look at that.

The next few days was all about interviews with recruitment agents during the day so no sightseeing. Also with the G20 protests on in town (vandalism of a bank included) we decided it might be best to stay around Islington. However we did manage to get into the city in the evening to have dinner with Robin and Mary near Leicester Square. Was good to learn some tricks for new arrivals in London and hear what they had been up to.

Saturday we met up with Emma and Tim and had lunch at Covent Garden. It was the sunniest day we had seen and there were plenty of people around there. We then joined them (along with Tim's rugby mates) at The Southerner. That is the Speights Bar in London. Was nice that we had seen it when it was a container in Mosgiel and now it is a fully operating bar in London. Complete with Speights, Super 12 and Burger Rings. We thought we would last a little bit longer before visiting an ex-pat bar but we had fun nonetheless.

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