London

I met up with Vicky in London a few weekends ago (I've been quite lazy with blog posting).
We started by checking out the Tate Modern which wasn't as thrilling as I'd expected. Although there were some random bits or art like a giant spider towering over masses of bunk beds with books chained to them in the main foyer. There were broomsticks hanging from the ceiling, flattened cutlery and crockery hanging from the ceiling. There was a giant wooden double adapter (again hanging from the ceiling) and what looked like giant poos scattered around the floor. Although the strangest by far was a movie of couples rolling around in their underwear as if they were making out but then I realised that they had raw chickens and fish stuck between them and they were rubbing them on each other using their bodies... strange.

We stayed in the Dover Castle Hostel. It is a pretty cool place, friendly, stinky and run down but with interesting people and cheap drinks in the bar. I found cider at the corner shop for just under 3 pounds. It was 2Ltrs with 9 drinks. After the cider, half a bottle of cherry wine, smirnoff red and some magnas Vicky and I were well on our way.... to Wicked. We made the show just in time and had the most amazing experience of our lives (though Vicky ended up in the wrong row at the other side of the theatre, I don't know how). So we made our way back the hostel to check out the bar and find a dance club somewhere. Vicky introduced me to aftershock shots which tasted nice at the time but definitely not the next day when it came back up on a tree outside the hostel.

Saturday started with a lovely fry-up at the nearest Witherspoons (cheap, scrummy pubs all around the UK) before we headed to Piccadilly Circus to check out the shops. We got off the tube, couldn't see any shops and walked straight into the Ripley's Believe It or Not museum which was an awesome 3 hours of amazement and amusement. We had a go in the mirror maze which wasn't a heap of different mirrors making us look funny but a maze of identical mirrors which freaked you out when you saw yourself straight up to you when you thought you were walking down a straight corridor.
The London inner city is awesome. Pubs and bars everywhere and so much to see and do. We walked around till we found china town, walked straight through it and into an Irish pub at the end of the street and had drinks in the middle of hundreds of Irish and scotts cheering on the rugby.

The next day Vicky left back to Ireland and I wandered around the Victoria and Albert Museum and the Natural History Museum. Both are worth seeing particularly the Natural History Museum. It's quite interactive with some amazing exhibits including an (estimated) life size tyrannosaurus rex and an actual scale model blue whale.

It was a packed weekend and there is still tons more to do next time.