Europe 1999: London, England

Tuesday evening we flew to London to meet up with Susan and Ashley. London was best described as shopping, saying the word "buttocks", and singing Abba songs. We actually didn't do much sightseeing, but spent each day shopping. I will say that we collectively now have the coolest clothes in San Francisco. One night Susan and I went off on our own and took a walk across Tower Bridge, along the Thames, back across the London Bridge, then to see the "inside-out" building (all the ducts, ventilation, pipes, etc. are on the outside of the building). It was quite a nice and silly night, and I received an impromptu lesson on historical architecture. Our last night in London we went to a big, cool techno party held in a car park underneath a rail overpass. It was a great location - a maze of brick archways forming many rooms with different DJs and bands and not one naff goth in the bunch. Funny as it may sound, the odd thing about London was that everyone spoke English, and we could read all of the signs. After two weeks in non-English-speaking countries, we had gotten used to the fact that there was always going to be something we didn't understand - it wasn't so much frustrating as it was limiting, but it was also part of the fun and challenge of travelling. And now being in an English-speaking country, it was almost like cheating. London Summary - Many mobile phones, everything is more expensive than home.