London

The 9 hour bus journey passed relatively quickly. i got my first bit of excitement about the whole trip when in a motorway service station. After arriving at Victoria Bus Station I found it relatively easy to get to my friend Davit's house in Brixton. Myself and Davit chatted until about midnight then crashed out on the couch. the following day I went on a 13 mile walk round London, stopping for the occasional pint on the way. My preconceptions about London certainly don't bare much truth. The traffic congestion wasn't nearly as bad as I had anticipated, the prices were much cheaper than I thought they'd be and people here have been friendly and helpful. Although nobody has initiated conversation with me everyone's been friendly whenever I've talked to them. I had an architectural tour of Westminster, the riverfront, Piccadilly and to the city then went to Southwark and had a pint. I got chatting to a great bunch of guys who all work with each other in a software firm. It was a really good laugh. The guy on the right (Sam) was in China 10 years ago and had really good stories to tell.

Day two's been eventful. I decided to take it easy through the daytime as my sciatic nerve was feeling a bit tight. I went for a walk in the afternoon to Brixton market, got two t-shirts for a fiver doubling my t-shirt count to grand whopping total of 4 (I left my flat with 3 but lost one). Brixton market's pretty cool. loads of rastas selling reggae CD's, various different food stalls and Caribbean fast food. It's full of hot women. Unfortunately they were all pushing prams. I reckon the average age for becoming a mum here is significantly lower than in wealthier parts of the city.

In the evening I decided to walk to Soho to meet my old friend from primary school Jenny. I really like the drinking culture here. Everyone just drinks on the street outside the pub. Central London seems to be void of chavs and you don't see many people getting in a drunken mess. Of the thousands of revellers I came across I only saw one. We were in a blues bar, it was really packed and he was dancing and bumping into people. A hot girl in front of us pushed him after he bumped into her and he fell over. He got up and after a minute or so I was chatting away to jenny and he smacked me in the face. He got a couple more digs in before he was taken to the ground then the bouncers whisked him away. Everyone was really kind, loads of people asked me if I was alright and were really helpful to me, a girl gave me a plaster and I was complimented by people for dealing with it well. working at Alpha School certainly helped me in dealing with it calmly. I was more bothered about losing my £4 whisky than anything else and my glasses aren't broken so thats the main thing. After a couple more Laphroaigs we went to a tapas bar. The sly bastards gave us a cheeseboard and ham board that cost £13.50 and £22.50 respectively. That was the worst part of the night.

The things I've learned tonight are that Sociology is merely empirical gossip and if I'm in a room with 100 people and 99 are sound, the arsehole will go for me. However, the most important thing I've learned is that no matter which bar in London I go to, someone will always have a better afro than me. I guess I'll just have to live with that. 

On the way home I chatted to some homeless dudes who were camping outside the houses of parliament. I stayed there for half an hour then when nearly at brixton I noticed I had a text from Jenny asking me if I want a pre-asia mojito. I walked for ages and still couldn't find it. I ended up doing a huge walk round south London before eventually getting back to Davit's at approximately 5am.

I haven't left Davit's flat today, just having a chill day. Iv'e made paths on google earth of where I've walked. Not including my walk to Brixton market I've done over 26 miles in 2 days. I was going to be getting up early to go to the British Museum today, never mind, my feet need a rest. I think we may have a meal at a Eritrean restaurant once he finishes work. That's all for now folks. Here's a pic of me with my shiny black eye wearing my sexy $2.50 t-shirt so that you can all laugh at me!