Today is the second day that I’ve worn my sunglasses. It’s a really nice day with a pleasant chill.
After waking up early to pack and checkout before 10am, I headed to The British Library which had a bit of an exhibit. They had a bit of a history of the Magna Carta with examples. They also had historical documents like handwritten Shakespeare and the lyrics to “Yesterday.” They also had some early Hebrew documents including haggadot. See, I’m celebrating Passover. Woo! Freedom from slavery. Woo! God giving us the 10 commandments. That’s enough. Dianu.
The problem with the exhibit was it was really small. So I was in and out pretty quickly, so off I went to Covent Garden. The market was really disappointing. It was 100% meant for tourist. I’d be surprised if any locals ever go there. I did find an Apple store to leech wireless for a few minutes.
I couldn’t figure out what to do with myself for the next few hours. So I thought I’d back to the hotel and pick up my luggage. However when I got to Green Park station to switch to the Victoria line, I thought I’d leave the station and explore. I found a park. It may be called Green Park (Parc vert) and its kind of not exciting, but there’s green space and the wind is nice. I also have Telekinesis playing in my headphones.
However it’s starting to rain, so I don’t know how long I’ll be here.
[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IbGZJ0Mwi_8&w=450&h=259]I had a brief lunch. I ate pasta. What’s more British than having pasta? Oh wait. That’s Italian.
From there I went to get my luggage. On my way to the tube station, I thought to myself, ” I really want to listen to Radio Radio.” I pulled out my phone and lo and behold, they weren’t on there. My phone was
fucking with me. It was saying “No Franco-Nova Scotian music for you!”
I told my phone that I was the boss of it. It didn’t believe me. Radio Radio was still not on my phone. So instead I opted to listen to Tigermilk by Belle & Sebastian. Ahh Glaswegian pop, nothing screams London more than Glaswegian pop.
[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1RShI_-85os&w=450&h=335]On the subway ride out to Heathrow, I realized one thing about these London subway trains. They’re not designed well. The seated passengers are all in two rows facing each other. The distance between the two rows is so small that it’s an area one can barely stand in. As such all standing passenger have to stand in doorways. Even worse the trains’ highest point only gives me a few inches clearance. I was watching someone stick his head out the door at every stop to stretch his neck. However, one great thing about the London Underground is that it got me to Heathrow and once I cleared security, I quickly made friends with a woman from Colorado en route to South Africa for her sister’s wedding. That helped me kill time until my flight boarded, late.
My iPhone was down to 5% battery life. Not great for when I get into Berlin. I was hoping for an outlet (or USB) on the plane, but no dice. Then I remembered my laptop was sitting fully charged, not only was my laptop fully charged, it had Radio Radio1 on it.
[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PV_Tkc4SrBg&w=450&h=335]I plugged my phone in via USB and leeched power off the MacBook Pro, and used it as a giant MP3 played. Not the most portable, but I had a row of three seats to myself so there was some good. There was also bad, I was also right beside the engine, so something to block out the sound was nice. The flight was so short I didn’t get to listen to the full record.
When I got to Germany, I received a text from Moti, my older, but little, brother. He was kind enough to escort me on Berlin’s transit to get to the hostel I’m staying at. He gave me a rundown of the transit and the city and tomorrow he’s leaving, but will be back Friday when we can do something before I head home to Toronto.
I checked in and grabbed one of the two or three empty beds. I’ve never done a hostel before, so I don’t know the etiquette. I kept the lights off for the dude sleeping and thought it would be weird to take the bed above his.
I lay in bed tired, but not tired enough to sleep, not wanting to dig through my luggage to get my sleeping pills, I guess I’ll sleep tomorrow.
- Please note “Radio Radio” is pronounced the French way, like one would say Radio Canada. [↩]