Thinkin’ Ahead

[Blisschick]

Okay, so my best friend and I were brainstorming…

There’s no way we can make this year’s DJ, so we decided to make it a summer vacation for us next year. I did some rough calculations, and figured I’d better start saving now for a 5 day weekend. She pipes up and says “No, no, no, let’s stay a week or so, jet lag, stuff to see, let me look into my timeshare, etc., etc.” I agreed, since there are a few things as a stereotypical American tourist I’d like to see — The Tower of London, Big Ben, and Buckingham Palace. (Yes, I know…yawn.)

Apart from the obvious, we also like to explore the unusual stuff off the beaten path, stuff the locals know about and would be considered “gotta see” or “gotta do”. We’re adventurous, so as long as it’s not too bizarre and will possibly involve us getting kicked out of the country, what would you suggest we see or do?

Also, what foods would you suggest we try we might not find here?

[Ben Paddon]

McDonalds are pretty good.

[Blisschick]

Thanks, Ben. I know how hard they are to find. I hear their burgers are to die for. Or is that die from?

[Ben Paddon]

It’s both, obviously.

[pfm]

Ronnie Scott’s jazz club in Soho. Unless you, er, don’t want to go to a jazz club. Though if you do either go there or the Jazz Cafe in Camden just up from Regent’s Park. Decent food there during the day too.

Oh and don’t forget to go to the Tesco on the corner in Trafalgar Square.

[Blisschick]

Live bands are always a plus, no matter what kind of music. That sounds like something we’d do.

What’s special about the Tesco? Super-d-duper sized with all kinds of schtuff?

[genericnerdyusername]

There’ this club I went to which has live music. I forget it’s name, where it is when I went there, but do keep an eye out for it. :)

I like the National Theatre at South Bank and I’m not even posh. It’s a good place to go as long as you know someone who can afford a spare ticket. Well, actually to be honest I can’t remember how much it costs, haven’t been there in a while… But I’m seeing They Might Be Giants in June who are also in south bank so I could check the prices while I’m in the area, if you’re that bothered lol.

Also, it doesn’t matter what you see, but go to IMAX and see whatever is out in 3D. I guarantee you’ll have a strong reaction, whether its to be amazed at Ice Age 2 or horribly bored to the max at Avatar.

And I’m assuming you know about the London Eye. If you go on it, only go on it at night when London lights up and is actually pretty to look at.

If either of my bands have a gig in London round about the time you must also come to see us. Free ticket obviously lol. You’re in for either heavy metal or acoustic pop/rock. Hopefully the latter, seeing as I literally (well not literally) suck at playing in a heavy metal style.

When I first read this post a load of ideas sprung to mind but when I started to type they all left me. Hmmm. If I remember them throughout the day I’ll write them down and post them later on.

[Seb Patrick]

>If you go on it, only go on it at night when London lights up and is actually pretty to look at.

I’d say the opposite – if you go on it at night, you can’t see half as much!

If you’re coming to London, there’s one handy hint for all tourists to remember – when you’re on the Underground, and heading to your platform, work out which direction you want to go in BEFORE you get there (it’s fairly easy, you’ll have a 50/50 choice between “north and south” or “east and west”), so that when you get to the bottom of the steps, you don’t stand there like a fucking moron reading the route map and blocking everyone else’s access to the platform so that they MISS THEIR TRAIN.

Not that that’s ever happened to me, of course.

[Ian Symes]

And if you want to stand still on the escalators, do so on the right hand side, you fucking cunts.

[Tanya Jones]

The Londonist website: http://londonist.com/ is handy for those non-touristy recommendations. Being a transport geek, I’d recommend the London Transport Museum: http://www.ltmuseum.co.uk/, but London has loads of great museums: the Imperial War Museum: http://london.iwm.org.uk/, the Science Museum, http://www.sciencemuseum.org.uk/ and the Natural History Museum, http://www.nhm.ac.uk/ which are all FREE, with the exception of special exhibitions. The London Transport Museum isn’t, but is reasonable, given that you can climb onto old buses and tube trains, and get a good 3 hours entertainment.

If you like art galleries, the National Gallery and National Portrait Gallery are free: http://www.nationalgallery.org.uk/ and I would endorse the suggestion of the BFI and National Theatre on the South Bank: http://www.bfi.org.uk/whatson/bfi_southbank, especially the BFI, because you can use the Mediatheque to browse their TV archive. You’re bound to find a film you fancy during your stay there.

Dirty foreigners can only tour Parliament during the Summer break, but it’s well worth doing if you can: http://www.parliament.uk/visiting/visitingandtours/summeropening.cfm (you’ll probably need to check back next year) I did a tour when I was about 18 and it was brilliant. You can also queue to buy a ticket for the public galleries when Parliament is in session: I’ll wager it’s more interesting than Buck Palace, to be honest! Just looking at the building from the outside is impressive, though, and you can go on a river cruise that goes past Parliament.

Oh, and yes, don’t block other people’s way on the Tube. It’s only polite: you can normally find a place to stand out of the way if you have to look at a map in any case. You’ll have a blast in London, I’m sure!

[Pete Part Three]

>you don’t stand there like a fucking moron reading the route map and blocking everyone else’s access to the platform so that they MISS THEIR TRAIN.

Amen.

[Blisschick]

Trust me, nothing annoys me more than the morons that stand in the middle of the walkway and carry on a conversation like they’re the only people that exist. Take it to the side, people!!! Houston doesn’t have a subway system, but my friend has used it in New York, so she’ll have a better idea of what to do than I will. She’s pretty good about figuring how to get from A to B.

We have a couple a few IMAX theaters in Houston, but I haven’t been in awhile, much less to see anything in 3D, so if I don’t get around to it before then, we might go. The last 3D movie I saw (I kid you not) Amityville Horror 3D. Not much in the movie actually scared me but the pipes going through the windshield. My grandma was snoring through the whole thing. BFI sounds real good. :)

Gen — I forgot about the London Eye. An absolute must. We’re big into amusement parks, so that will be done, regardless. Also, if you’ve got something going with your band when we’re there, we’d love to come. Both of us are nominal musicians ourselves, so we’d love to see what you’re doing. Neither of us are much into heavy metal, so we’re all good. :)

Museums are always cool…they’ll be a change from seeing the same ones we have here. I don’t even go anymore because everything is boring now. I’d like to see the National Portrait Gallery, for sure.

Great suggestions, everyone, keep it up. I’m making a list…

[genericnerdyusername]

Awesome :) It took me an embarrassingly long time to figure out that I’m Gen lol. Not on the ball today, not yet anyway. Has anyone suggested the London Dungeon or Madame Tussauds, by the way?

[Pete Part Three]

Having lived within 25 miles of London my entire life, I can state that I’ve neither been to the London Dungeon or Madame Tussauds, or ever had the inclination.

[Tanya Jones]

I’ve heard that they’re both overpriced, but not been to either. Blisschick, if you’re into amusement parks, Thorpe Park is just outside London. The London Eye may be a bit sedate!

[Seb Patrick]

I sometimes go and do touristy things when my parents visit. Madame Tussauds is utter rubbish. The Dungeon is quite good fun if you like seeing drama students on their Saturday jobs being extremely hammy.

You should take a walk up Primrose Hill. It’s windy there, and the view’s so nice.

(no, but seriously – the view’s so nice. It’s one of the best places to go in London. There’s nothing THERE, but if you want to take a picnic or just sit around on the grass, it’s awesome.)

[Blisschick]

>Having lived within 25 miles of London my entire life, I can state that I’ve neither been to the London Dungeon or Madame Tussauds, or ever had the inclination.

I can say the same for the Johnson Space Center, NASA’s headquarters south of Houston. I’ve passed it hundreds of times, the kids have been on a few field trips there, but for some reason I’ve never done it myself. Mom went a few years back and said that it’s really neat, but the TV commercials make it out to be more of a kid thing.

Come to think of it, that really explains a lot… /rolleyes/

[redhead85]

When I head out on a Saturday into the city I love going to Borough Market (the food market near London Bridge – where they filmed a load of Bridget Jones too) then walk along the southbank, past the Globe (you might be able to get a ticket to a play if you’re going in the summer) then across the river to Kings College London (woot!) which links to Somerset House, along to Covent Garden then back to the Strand to walk up to Trafalgar Square for the galleries, through to Leicester Square and then drinkies!! A fab walk which takes up the day nice and lazy.

If you’ve got time come to the east (mine and Seb’s part of town) where you have shopping in Canary Wharf and most importantly Greenwich! Gorgeous in the summer, picnic is a must.

If I’m about (and you actually want it, you can tell me where to stick it, I won’t mind!) I can take you around for the day. Let me know.

[ori-STUDFARM]

I went to London once…..bit pricey!

[Blisschick]

Would I survive the day with two crazy redheads? O_o LOL

That would be great, and probably much more fun! :)

[Alex]

I’m always surprised at the amount of overseas tourists that get tickets to shows at the BBC. There always seem to be a load around somewhere when I go to the Now Show or Have I Got News For You for example. I know they’re free and all, but on the topical shows you have to wonder how much they get out of it.

[redhead85]

> Would I survive the day with two crazy redheads? O_o LOL That would be great, and probably much more fun! :)

Hehe YAY! I mean, ahem. Of course, it would be a pleasure. Drop me an email closer to the time with your dates ^__^

[Blisschick]

Wow, I forgot about this thread while digging around for another one. (We talk about a lot of…stuff…here. Yeah. Finding stuff in the forums is interesting when you can’t remember exactly what to search for. :P )

Well, obviously, that trip never happened, but my bestie is looking to ditch her worthless cheating husband, is looking at coming into some money apart from her divorce, and has told me that as her gift to me, she’s getting my passport. She wants to redo a trip she took with his family to Germany (visualize taking the Clampetts to Neuschwanstein Castle, and the MIL complaining about the lack of handicap ramps, and citing the Americans With Disabilities Act…they were that clueless and horrible) so she can get the bitter taste out of her mouth, but we also are planning England still, and maybe France and/or Scotland/Ireland. I’m hoping (fingers crossed) that we can plan our trip to coincide with this DJ, since we didn’t make the last one. I know circumstances for some of you have changed since then, but I would still very much like to connect with a few of you should we make it there!

[Karnie]

Well, this will be my first time at DJ, so hope to see you (and your recently single friend) there!! =)

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