Ealing Broadway

March 27, 2010

Saturday was our last day in the hostel. We had to checkout at 10am and then we were meeting up with our CS host, Jit, at 11am. He lives about 30 minutes outside the heart of the city by tram. Before we left we went to the ticket office at our hostel to see if we could find any cheap theater tickets while we were in London. We got really lucky and found some tickets for 12.50 (I don't know how to make the Pound symbol) for Tuesday night. The show is called Petticoats and Dreamboats. It is supposed to be a Grease-like production that is fairly new, I'm really excited.

After we checked out we headed to Jit's place. However, once we got to the station it was absolutely packed so it took us forever to get a ticket and get on the Tube. Then we had to make a transfer and we waited about 20min for the next train to come. By the time we got to Jit's it was 12:30pm, we were only an hour and a half late. At this point we figured Jit wasn't at the station anymore but we didn't have anyway of getting a hold of him. We tried by phone but it went to his voice mail. Finally we got fed up with waiting at the station and decided to try to find an internet cafe. There was one right around the corner in a Kebab shop (random) and the owner was really nice and let us use the internet for free. Through a series of failed and successful attempts we finally were able to meet up with Jit.

Jit has been in England for a year and lived in Holland for a few years before that. He works as an engineer for Shell and does some amazing projects for them. He is an amazingly generous host who has been making us food, showing us around the city and letting us invade his household without the slightest hesitation. The town he lives in is called Ealing Broadway and it is really really pretty. I'm really glad we have been able to stay at a place that is more like the suburbs of London rather than just being in the city center the whole time. Getting to see how normal people live in London has been really fun. There are pubs all around and little boutiques that neither Hilary nor I have the money or the space to buy things from, but there are great to look at. The city has a main street that is pretty active and then a bunch of tiny streets that are dead quite where all the people live. The houses here are absolutely beautiful. I love walking past them and trying to peer in without seeming to creepy.

Alright, back to our day... Jit took us back to his place, let us put our stuff down and then offered to make us lunch. It was early afternoon by this point and we had eaten pretty early so we were all for it. About an hour later I was eating the best chicken curry of my life. It was absolutely amazing. In case anyone didn't put up on it, Jit is Indian and had his mother's homemade recipe so the food was authentic and delicious. This is another huge plus about CSing, we get to eat food made from a kitchen instead of having to eat out constantly. I love it!   

Once we had our fill of deliciousness, the three of us set out back in to London. Hilary really wanted to check out the Victoria and Albert Museum so we headed down there. It is a unique museum that a lot of people recommended. We got there pretty easily -- the transportation system here is so easily, I really wish more of the states had subway systems. We spent a couple hours in the museum, I spent about 15 minutes of those completely lost trying to figure out where the hell I was supposed to meet Hilary and Jit at. So far at the museums we've been to we tend to go at different paces and are interested in different things which means we usually end up getting split up. We were at the V&A until it closed and when I tried to get back to our meeting place everything was roped off and the people there were telling me I couldn't get back to where I wanted to go. After wandering aimlessly around playing the lost tourist card very well, I eventually got someone who worked there to let me past and get to our meeting point. Hilary was there thank goodness.

After the museum we went to see the Kensington Palace and Gardens. These were outside and it was a really nice night. We've actually had great weather while we were hear. It's rained a little bit here and there but since we are from Seattle it hasn't bothered us at all. There has been a lot more sunshine and warmer weather than I was expecting. The Kensington Gardens are located in a huge park in the city which is pretty comparable to central park. It was huge and beautiful and really fun to walk through. There was a really random gazebo in one of the sections which made me think of my Nana and Grandpa's place. They passed away when I was in middle school but they used to have a gazebo that I'd play in when I was over at their place. It was my favorite place as a child. It was in the center of their housing complex and there was never anyone around. It became sort of my own secret garden. It's been awhile since I've thought about them, never thought London would bring up their memory.

After walking around for awhile we stopped to eat at a place called the Stock Pot. Hilary has done quite a bit a research on London and this was supposed to be one of the better priced places that actually has decent food. It wasn't too bad. I had fish and chips, figured I needed to have that at some point while I'm in London. It was good. Except fish and chips traditionally comes with mashed peas which looks like disgusting baby food that babies wouldn't even eat. So of course I didn't. :) This picky eating thing is going to become an issue later in the trip I have a feeling.

On our way back from eating we passed through a major square in London which was filled with people. Since it was a Saturday night the city was alive and buzzing at around 11pm. There were limos everywhere. I've never seen so many in one night. Black, white, pink, stretch, hummer, you name it and there was a limo like it on the streets on London. I'm not sure if this is normal for it local citizens or if it is just all of the tourists traveling in style. At one point we saw a party bus -- apparently they have those in London too! It was essentially a double-decker red bus full of drunk college aged kids all dressed up. I had a huge urge to jump on the bus and join, or at least take a picture, but before I could move it was driving down the road far far away from me. Oh well, London party bus will have to be checked off my to-do list at a later date.

At this point it was pretty late and Hilary and I were still pretty tired so we headed back to Jit's city, grabbed a couple of beers and started planning to rest of our stay in London and finding more CouchSurfers in our upcoming countries.