Let me share how I spent more than 5 hours of my life today –
I was wandering around London. Like a real Misses Dalloway (Virginia Wolf) but
without the intention to buy any flowers, I took an afternoon walk in Central
London to clear my mind. For me, it always helps.
My starting point was South Kensington. I started following
a group of French people who were taking pictures of the red phone boxes in the
area, so following their example I took one, not thinking about the fact that I
pass around that particular phone box in front of the Victoria and Albert
Museum quite often.
Anyway, I kept walking towards Knightsbridge, carrying a
take away coffee (to be honest I cheated on Starbucks because I like more the
consistency and the smell in Nero Café) and realized something I always
suspected: the Chinese people are attracted a lot by all kinds of street
musicians. Today there was a huge crowd
in front of Harrods and first I was like: “Oh, Maybe the Disney Café has
decreased the prices but then I realized the crowd was taking pictures of a guy
dressed in Scottish uniform, playing the pipe.
I started thinking that probably in 3 cases almost everyone
will be noticed and to some point socialized:
1.
Play an instrument. If you manage to deal with
the saxophone – the best, because I feel people tend to become romantic when
hearing sax’s pieces.
2.
Buy, adopt, be given a dog – dog owners seem so
self-confident and always have a good starting phrase in conversations “Has your
dog changed any teeth?”…
3.
Rent a bike, but first learn how to ride it.
Anyway, let me go back to my wandering. Some small bakeries
around Knightsbridge are very interesting with spring time approaching, they definitely combine chickens and rabbits
and expose them in the very front to seduce some people like me to eat at least
1 chocolate egg. Although, if rabbits start producing eggs we should be very
careful what a traditional British sausage could produce… My point was – I ate
1 chocolate egg.
Somewhere close to
the Wellington Arch I noticed a group of tourists, so I decided to walk with
the group and guess what – Germans. I don’t speak German but I suppose when
they mention “Buckingham Palace” with very strong H it means that place where
the Queen hangs out, right? So, I was walking with them to the Buckingham
Palace and one of the women in the group asked me something so I said “Ja”,
cause I know this is “Yes” in German and I just hope it was not a nasty
question…
I left them to take pictures in front of the Queen Victoria
Memorial and kept walking. Here is what came to me – why all guards in front of
the Saint James Palace are men? No girls in uniforms in a country with a Queen,
a Woman as a Monarch. For example, I
could be a guard – I am tall enough and could be serious for a while when
needed to and when committed to my Royal job.
Imagining myself as accepted in the Internship programme
provided by the Saint James Palace, I suddenly realized I had come to Trafalgar Square.
Honestly, Trafalgar Square is one of my favorite places in London, I just like
sitting on the stairs and observing people, I like the sound of the fountains
and I like how the Sun sometimes reflects in the water. I felt so optimistic
for a while. By the way, there is a wifi connection in you sit on the first
fountain so you could “Check in” on Foursquare or wherever you are used to show
off. But going back to Trafalgar Square for a while. I’d like to ask you
whenever you go there to think of me and just like that mention “You know, this
is Assya’s place, this is The Globe Wanderer’s place” .
Heading to Leicester Square I realized that there was a new thing
in the middle of the garden in front of the Odeon Cinema. First, I used “the
thing” to fix my hair but then I saw many quotes hanging on it and realized
that a renovation of the Shakespeare monument was in progress.
I turned left and
entered China town. With that decoration, I suppose the Chinese people still
celebrate the New Year… I started
thinking if China Town gathered many of the wealthy Chinese people or tourists
from China, how many iPhones per person could be calculated in that place and
if all of those people connect to the same WiFi spot, was the connection going
to be terminated? Just something to think about…
My next stop was the Waterstone’s book store on Piccadilly.
I love this bookstore, I love to sit on the chairs there and browse different
books. Today I went to the tourism section and the experience through the books really refreshed my mind. When I left I realized a crowd was gathering
again so I went and saw Regents Street flooded. Every time when any kind of
water starts coming in London, people become very anxious. It could be rain, It
could be rain again or it could be like in this case a broken pipe. Anyway,
people like taking pictures of flooded streets. Me too.
The only bad thing when you keep walking on Regents Street
is that at some point you reach Oxford Circus and then starts the smell of
waffles and I am just an ordinary, weak person. So, I was walking on Oxford Street with final
destination Marble Arch where I intended to eat my waffles. In addition, there is
a small Sainsbury’s close to Marble Arch and they sell excellent chocolate
brownies… which deserve to be paid the needed attention.
