Flying from Barcelona, I was looking forward to landing in the famous Heathrow airport to kick off my 10 days in London. Little did I know that London actually has like 12 international airports or something like that, so we arrived in some place called Gatwick, and flew out of some place called Stansted.
The weather in England is always mocked as being grouchy and changeable, and if anything the stereotypes under-rate the amount of different climates you can experience in one day - it gives Melbourne weather a run for its money! As a result of the weather we had our first quintessential London experience, stuck in an underground tunnel on a badly ventilated peak-hour tube train with hundreds of British business-people due to the rain - this is an almost daily occurrence for London dwellers, and in a weird touristy way was quite fun. One thing I don't understand about British weather is how nobody seems to carry around umbrellas on the street, yet as soon as it starts raining everyone has one instantly. Where are they hiding them?! There must be some sort of British utility belt complete with umbrella, bangers and mash and a Beatles CD that I missed out on.
On the topic of the Beatles, we had our second quintessential London experience on a Beatles walking tour where we basically stalked Paul McCartney for 2 hours, stopping to pose while crossing Abbey road, much to the annoyance of the cars who I'm sure are a bit over the novelty by now. A third real London event was the day Zac and I spent cycling around town playing monopoly board bingo, finding everything from Old Kent Road all the way to Mayfair. Well almost everything - we never found the elusive free-parking, but I hear you get 2 hours at Westfield so that must be it. When I saw uncle Briany was staying at a place called The Mayfair Hotel I almost didn't want to stop there in case he would charge me a fortune. Alright I think that's all my monopoly jokes done.. Thanks for your patience.
On our cycle around town we visited London's awesome parks, from Regents Park with its giant and quite obnoxious ducks, to Green Park which is nice and green (no surprises there) and lastly to Hyde park to see the famous Speaker's Corner where anyone who wants to can get up on a step ladder and start talking about whatever they want. Originally an example of the freedom of speech it is now just a funny place to hear Christian nut-bags yell urgently about how much Jesus loves you. There are also strange old men who mumble angrily and incoherently at the speakers, and athiest cyclists who stop on their way to throw provocative comments into the mix and the leave the crowd behind to yell about them.
One of the main things to do in London is visit the various markets from food to clothes to random junk.
There is Campden, the dodgy one featuring CyberDogg the rave themed shop with lots of pumping trance, UV light and moonpants, Portobello Road full of awesome, awesome food and art galleries, and Brick Lane, which isn't really a market so much as a street of curry restaurants although there's plenty of cool street art around. It was on Brick Lane where a German lady approached me and offered a free haircut to prove her skills to a local hairdresser where she was applying for a job. Baaaaad decision on my part. I'll be wearing a beanie for a few months until that conundrum sorts itself out. Was free though...
Zac and I took advantage of London's cheap and good live music on the East side, seeing both The Drums (where I met the lead singer of Australian band Cloud Control in the audience) and a night called I  Live, a very different scene full of rap and hiphop acts with a very funny open mike hour.
London was a place to see family and friends for the both of us. I saw Addy and Briany, who took us to the football (Arsenal-Swansea) and to the most amazing restaurant ever which really puts the backpacker cuisine we rustle up in its place. I had some thai food with Russel and Hayley, coffee with Zara's dad Ernest and the famous Uncle Merv, and shabbat dinner with the Mann family who put us up in Marbella. I met James Mann's friends over poker one night, and it turned out to be one of our best nights in London.
A few things I loved about London that don't fit into the rest of what I've said: We saw a West-end production of Wicked, which was aweeesome, and we spent 3 hours in the 6-level toy store Hamleys, which was awwwweeeesome, and I visited the original Fitness First, which wasn't to awesome - kinda small and lame - but had free coffee! Score!
By the end of my time there I decided that if I was to live in any of the places I've been to it would be London. Where else can you show up to a street art exhibition, realize you have the date wrong, walking 15 metres down the road before finding a free Italian film festival?
Thanks to Addy for the free accommodation. An absolute life-saver. Good luck with the couch - I know how much you love it.