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May. 22nd, 2011 05:25 pm
Halloo from London
Flight was a bit of a nightmare. Couldn't sleep on either leg of it, so ended up going 24 hours+ without. Combined with beating up my bod from the travel itself, that meant sleeping a great deal of the next day and a half to try to recover. Kinda expected to lose at least the first day, though, so no worries. Part of why we scheduled three weeks is so we wouldn't feel pressured to do too much all at once.
Did get in a little bit of tourism today, though: Spent a few hours roaming around the British Museum. Which is amazing. Seeing the Rosetta Stone and chunks of the Parthenon in person? 100% win. (Seeing a Primeval filming location? Bonus. ;) )
My very brief impression of London so far: It's a city. A big city. With gorgeous architecture, tiny little streets and insane cabbies. And it kind of smells like pee in some places. And there's something pollinating right now that puts my respiratory system in a major state of Do Not Want. And there's an actual Salvation Army band. Huh. But that's all from a very limited view. Will have a much better chance to see it on the return next week.
There's been a bit of surreal stuff so far. Like not having a jetway when we landed in Iceland and thus discovering the country is accurately named (also: there's such a thing as Icelandic reggae. Who knew?) Kind of freaked out that the place blew one of its volcanoes just a few hours after we were there. Hoping it doesn't mess up our return plans (since we're bouncing back through there again), but that's still three weeks away, so it shouldn't be an issue.
Also surreal: The TV Baftas were held at our hotel tonight. I was just two floors away from Stephen Fry, Matt Smith, Benedict Cumberbatch, Martin Freeman, Gillian Anderson, Russell Tovey, Lenora Critchlow and Sinead Keenan. Never had the guts to go downstairs and try to see any of them, though. If I ever did meet any of them, I'd want it to be in a less-chaotic situation in which we could actually chat for a bit.
Will be leaving in the morning for a couple of days in Bristol (and a Primeval viewing--god, fandom friends are awesome!) but we'll be back here Weds aftn to do more of the cheesy tourist stuff. Then it's off to Leeds next Monday.
It all still seems kind of not-quite-real--jet lag will do that, I spose--but we're here, we have passport stamps from two new countries, and that's damned awesome.
More (and some pics) later!
Did get in a little bit of tourism today, though: Spent a few hours roaming around the British Museum. Which is amazing. Seeing the Rosetta Stone and chunks of the Parthenon in person? 100% win. (Seeing a Primeval filming location? Bonus. ;) )
My very brief impression of London so far: It's a city. A big city. With gorgeous architecture, tiny little streets and insane cabbies. And it kind of smells like pee in some places. And there's something pollinating right now that puts my respiratory system in a major state of Do Not Want. And there's an actual Salvation Army band. Huh. But that's all from a very limited view. Will have a much better chance to see it on the return next week.
There's been a bit of surreal stuff so far. Like not having a jetway when we landed in Iceland and thus discovering the country is accurately named (also: there's such a thing as Icelandic reggae. Who knew?) Kind of freaked out that the place blew one of its volcanoes just a few hours after we were there. Hoping it doesn't mess up our return plans (since we're bouncing back through there again), but that's still three weeks away, so it shouldn't be an issue.
Also surreal: The TV Baftas were held at our hotel tonight. I was just two floors away from Stephen Fry, Matt Smith, Benedict Cumberbatch, Martin Freeman, Gillian Anderson, Russell Tovey, Lenora Critchlow and Sinead Keenan. Never had the guts to go downstairs and try to see any of them, though. If I ever did meet any of them, I'd want it to be in a less-chaotic situation in which we could actually chat for a bit.
Will be leaving in the morning for a couple of days in Bristol (and a Primeval viewing--god, fandom friends are awesome!) but we'll be back here Weds aftn to do more of the cheesy tourist stuff. Then it's off to Leeds next Monday.
It all still seems kind of not-quite-real--jet lag will do that, I spose--but we're here, we have passport stamps from two new countries, and that's damned awesome.
More (and some pics) later!