London to Brussels

April 1, 2010

Later London.

We are currently on our way to Brussels via an 8.5 hour bus ride. I brought all the necessary electronics, food and pillow to keep me entertained plus we had to get up at 7:30 this morning and I didn't go to bed until 4ish so I have a lot of sleep to catch up on. I fell asleep a couple of times already while writing about the past couple of days.

This morning we got up, packed and headed out with Rob. Our bus was for 10:30 and we needed to check in by 9:30. On our way to the tram station we stopped at a market to grab some food for the day and Rob grabbed his lunch as well. He got his stuff a lot quicker than us and needed to get to work so we wanted to take a quick picture and then let him be on his way. Well when we attempted to do this in the store one of the guys came up to us and got angry saying we couldn't take a picture in the store, that it was illegal. We've noticed this pattern of not taking pictures in markets and stores a long in London. Not really sure why they are so uptight about it. Our solution was to put our stuff down and walk out the front door to take it on the sidewalk. Well the guy pretty much followed us out and told us we couldn't do it on the sidewalk either. The camera was pointed at us and into the street so I'm not sure why he was having a little hissy-fit but we walked a couple more steps away and tried again. Eventually we gave up, so our 3 attempts were decent but definitely not good. Oh well, at least we have some sort of picture documentation of him.

Everything from the tram station to the bus station went smoothly and we are now currently on the bus. Hilary is sleeping next to me - that girl can sleep anywhere. Every tram ride we've had, the bus ride, at the theater. I swear she just needs somewhere to support her head and she is out. I wish I had that talent. I on the other hand am running on 3 hours of sleep, if that, and am dreading trying to get legit sleep in the bus. Hopefully the earplugs and eye mask will help.

Alright, here are some random observations I wrote down in my journal during our London trip that I haven't mentioned yet.

The advertisements here are much different than the US. The tube is lined with them so we got a lot of exposure that way. I don't think we ever turned the TV on so I'm not sure what their commercials are like. But the posters are sort of confusing. The ones that try to be clever and are obviously done through expensive ad agencies don't make any sense. I'm assuming it's a cultural thing and people from London get them, but I've been here a week and am still at a loss for 80% of them. They also tend to advertise a lot of novels. Way more than in the states. The states are usually a bunch of TV shows, movies and other digital entertainment. I really liked how much they showed novels here and it really made me want to go to a bookstore and read. A feeling I don't know if I've ever really gotten from US advertisements. They are also a lot more open about sex here in their ads. I knew Europe would be, but for some reason I didn't think London would be as open. I'm sure they aren't compared to most European countries, but they are compared to US. There were pictures of women with exposed breasts and posters telling you to Love Your Vagina. It was awesome. I haven't had a chance to yet, but I intend to check out www.loveyourvagina.com (I think it's com) sometime soon. I can't imagine it'll disappoint. It was great passing one of those posters and then hearing people start talking about vaginas and 'vag.' America is so uptight about that we don't even like saying the word vagina. My openness on sex is definitely better suited for America, as I'm sure my friends would agree. :)

While we're on the subject...boys. I didn't really realize until about 2 days ago, but there are some beautful men in London. I was standing on the tube during a really busy time and all the sudden was literally surrounded by guys. I mean in the middle of a circle of men. This was the first time I really started to look around at them and realized that there were a couple of really attractive ones. It was a fun moment. Later that day also on the tube (the tube is awesome for man watching) I also found my husband. Probably the single most beautiful guy I'd ever seen in real life. I had the urge to jump him then and there but decided against it as I'd probably get thrown in London jail for harassment and I don't really know if hormone overload is an acceptable excuse in the UK. It wasn't what I expected though. For some reason I had it in my head that I wasn't going to like the European boys. They all seemed so much more metro and in to their looks back in the states. I like my boys to enjoy sports, meat and a good beer. Not to take more time to get ready in the morning than me. But a lot of the guys here were scruffy and athletic. This gives me hope for countries to come!

The newspapers here are a little different than the US. First, they are actually stapled in the center which makes reading them so much easier, especially on public transit. Second, there are a couple main ones that are given out for free. These have been the only ones I've read so I'm not sure how the compare to ones you have to pay for. I'm not sure how you keep newspapers running when they are free, but it's really convenient for people who need reading material on the tube. The papers here seemed a lot more depressing than back in the US. I'm not sure if that's standard or just that I don't really read newspapers all that much back home. I'm used to hearing about world news, politics, etc etc in the US. Here it was a lot of local news about teenagers stabbing each other and all of the other deaths and fires and such that happened in the city. They also focus a lot more on celebrities. I feel like our newspapers tend to do the celebrity gossip whereas here there are entire pages full of pictures and news about the celebrities and royalty. They also have a man here in some high up political position with the last name of "Balls" so there are a lot of headlines that start with or include Balls in them and it took me a little while to figure out they were talking about a person. My immature humor enjoys those headlines.

Their music here is mainly from the US, but about 5-10 years behind. I've heard this about Europe, but it's still funny to hear in all the major public areas. The really weird part though, is that the songs are the same, but mainly done by cover artists. Even the new popular songs are done by cover bands. I'm not sure if they want the London accent added or if it is just cheaper to play music by cover bands but hearing a white English girl sing Beyonce's Halo is highly entertaining.

Signs here are also slightly different, and comical. Instead of 'bumps' they use the work 'humps' so there are a lot of signs that say "Humps for 5 km" or something of the sort. Hilary got a picture of one. Yesterday I saw a sign on a shop door that said:

We're Open
PUSH IT
REAL GOOD

There are a lot of these types of connotative signs all around here. Like I said, London is a lot more open about things here than we are in the states.

My last bit of exciting news for myself is that my jeans are already starting to get loose on me. I thought it was just because I hadn't washed them in a couple days, but two days ago I was able to wash them in our host's machine and when I put them on again they were still loose. That makes me excited. All our walking has paid off. It could end up being a problem though cause if my pants end up not fitting at some point I don't really want to have to buy new ones. Looks like I'll be needing to invest in a belt. France is our last country though, so there is a good chance I'll gain back all the weight from eating the food there. At the same time, I'll be completely broke by that point so maybe that will work to my advantage.

The French immigration officers just got on our bus and are needing our passports. Once they are done checking them I think we have about 5-6 hours to go. Just enough time to rest up before going out tonight. Perfect! Also - the bus has free wi-fi on it. Awesome.