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December 26, 2005

Dispatches from London - An English Christmas

The first lesson I've learned from my travel to London is to get a neck pillow when flying on the Red Eye. I used to have one from when I toured, but it didn't quite occur to me to acquire one for this (the touring one I had was a terrible blow-up $2.99 Target special, but it was still better than none at all).

Once I sat down on the plane I called my folks to relay that I was preparing to take off. They asked if I was sitting next to a cute girl? As luck would have it, I was. I got talking to her in the morning - her name is Katherine and she works for an architecture firm in Georgetown. I gave her my card at the end - I doubt she'll call, but we talked the whole way from Heathrow to Paddington when we took the Heathrow Express.

From Paddington, I took a cab to Belsize Square where Lauren & Jacob's flat is. The Cabbie asked me what I normally do on Christmas - my answer was "Eat Chinese food and go to a Movie." He didn't quite catch my drift, and seemed a little confused. But it was amusing nonetheless. And he said something so wise, only a Cabbie could say it. "The only major difference between Americans and Brits is Americans think 100 years is a long time, and Brits think 100 miles is a long distance." Truer words were never spoken.

I arrived at their flat, dropped my things and we started to celebrate English Christmas. Now what are a couple of nice American Jews doing celebrating English Christmas you may ask? As I quickly discovered - Christmas is to England what Thanksgiving is to the US. So it made perfect sense.

Lauren & Jacob whipped up a fantastic traditional English Christmas meal including Turkey, Brussel Sprouts, and Stuffing. And we had Christmas Crackers - which seemed to be a bit of a misnomer to me since they weren't Crackers but Quasi-Firecrackers.

After this large lunch we decided to take a walk. And off we went to the Hampstead Heath. The Heath is a large park in the middle of London. It supposedly served as an influence for Narnia, but I failed to notice any crucified Lions about.

No the real purpose of the Heath became abundantly clear - the Heath is a magical playland for Dogs. People bring their Dog and let them off their leash. The dogs run around, frolic, sniff other dogs, and have lots of great mud to play around in. Many puddles to jump in. If I were a dog, this would be the most wonderful place in the world.

After a nice brisk walk through the Heath it was time for a Pint. So we made our way over to the Freemasons Arms pub. The place was quite full, but we sat down at the bar and enjoyed a drink to help warm up from the cold. And for the record, the beer was actually cold - I'm not sure where this rumour of warm British Beer started, but it appears to be unfounded - much like the rumour of extrua "u"s addeud intou everuy wourd.

As we were enjoying our drink, I noticed a couple of familar faces standing at the bar next to us.

and

Yes - David Schwimmer from Friends and Joey Slotnick from The Single Guy and Every Brief Character Actor gig not done by William H Macy or Paul Giammati were standing next to us at the Pub. However, since I didn't actually know them, and admittedly meeting actors became a lot less exciting after I started meeting politicians we didn't acknowledge them. But it was quite amusing to have American "star" sightings in England.

We headed back to the Flat and watched the new Doctor Who and Creature Comforts before heading off to sleep. I managed to stay up for about 48 hours with only an hours worth of sleep in the middle. I actually managed to adjust fairly easily to English time.

The next day we Lauren & I headed off to do some shopping. I was thinking - Day After Christmas, must be a good day for Sales. But those wacky Brits! Calling today "Boxing Day" and having many of the stores closed (Paul Frank - I'm looking at you!). We first walked through another park, and stopped by a Coffee Shop. The clerk was very confused when I said "a to go coffee" to which Lauren quickly corrected as "Black Coffee to Take Away". The excuse that I was quite tired didn't make me feel any less like an idiot tourist.

Some shops were open over in Camden, which is the equivalent of Greenwich Village. A lot of the stuff there was clothes I would've worn in my goth heyday, but now didn't really appeal much. There were a few good stores we went through briefly - I'm going to go back later in the week when more stuff is open.

We then headed over to Trafalgar Square on our way to Covent Garden. It is absolutely beautiful there, even if there was the largest gathering of Pigeons I've seen this side of...well...ever.

Quite a beautiful area, I must say.

Then it was onward over to TKTS at the Covent Garden. Most of the shows running you can see in New York - a bit of a disappointment I must say. And The Producers had a cast of No-Names. I'd rather see that in New York where I might have a chance of seeing it with someone I've heard of. We selected Mary Stuart for this evening, which we'll be heading off to shortly.

We then went on to the Covent Garden to browse the shops. As I said earlier, Paul Frank was closed - which means I will have to return to this area. Another discovery I made - Urban Outfitters is EXACTLY THE SAME in the UK as it is in the US. I suppose I shouldn't be surprised, but they even carried the "Idaho? U da Ho!" shirt that would only really make sense to sell in the US. The prices, on the surface, appeared to be exactly the same. It was as if they replaced the $ with a £. Wait a second - that's not the same at all! I think I may be able to form a lucrative career as a Urban Outfitters T-Shirt smuggler - buy it in the US, and return it in England. Hmm...

We moved on down to Oxford Circus, after a brief rainy walk to the British Museum only to discover it was closed. This was the only part of town that was completely mobbed. We stopped by both The Top Shop and H&M. Top Shop was quite expensive, and the clothes didn't strike me as any different than H&M. We then got back on the Tube (passing the Street Evangelist who asked us if we wanted to be "Winners or Sinners".) A quick train ride back to the flat, which a quick Donkey Picture taken for good measure.

Tonight we're off to the theatre, with a brief stop at Picadilly Circus. Then perhaps a pint, and back home to watch some DVDs.

Happy Christmas!

Posted by MikeSager at December 26, 2005 12:05 PM