From Manchester to London by train
Today was my last day up north, and a lot of driving was required.
After completing my work for the day, I had left myself 3 hours to make a journey to drop off my hire car and get the train that both the car GPS and my mobile with google maps told me would take 91 minutes.
I made the train with 2 minutes to spare, which included running whilst dragging my suitcase.
On the M60 freeway I came to a stop, inexplicably, for an hour, at times I moved ahead a few metres, but in the hour I travelled no more than half a mile. I saw a number of people urinating behind their car door on the road.
There was no accident causing this, Google maps traffic info did not report one, I never saw one. The map did however say 55 minutes remaining, +2.5 hours for traffic congestion!
So I was convinced I had missed my train, but after an hour all of a sudden movement, and never any explanation as to what had happened. The worst traffic I have ever experienced. There must have been 50,000 cars stopped on the freeway.
Now invigorated having run to get my train, which was a Virgin train and apparently the nicest in the UK, I found myself in a cramped seat, facing the people in front of me across a small table they had piled up with their horrible english mayonaise filled sandwiches.
Next up a guy gets on loudly talking, hes a young bald guy in a track suit, cause this is Manchester. Anyway, hes explaining to someone hes doing a job for, that hes running late because he had to knock a pakis teeth out because he refused to pay up after losing some sort of a bet.
He actually described in great detail how many teeth he knocked out and how the Paki crawled around in the street to retrieve them and was almost killed by a truck. To top it off after that story he was vividly describing to the guy on the phone how the job would be no problem because he was going to use a few of the lads he was inside with.
Thankfully he got off the train only 1 stop along the route to London.
My next ridiculous thing on the train ride was when a spoilt family featuring children wearing bow ties decided that radio controlled cars going up and down the floor of the train the full length of the carriage was fun for everyone on board.
Everyone else was annoyed because the car kept bashing into them, and an old guy trying to find his seat nearly fell trying to avoid it.
So when the woman across from me complained that the parents should be told to control their brats, I decided to confiscate the car. Next time it came along I just picked it up, found the switch and turned it off. Then put it on the little table in front of me whilst I contined to study how to speak Chinese on my phone in silence.
It stayed there for about 10 minutes, the father came to have a look and said nothing, which was amusing, beacuse then a few minutes later the mother came down and apologised and asked if she might be able to have the car back on the condition they dont use it again on the train. So I handed it over.
My Virgin train, does about 200kmph I think, so a semi bullet train. It seemed to stop a lot.
This is England.
My room in London is right by the Euston station where the train arrives, which is very near Kings Cross on the northern edge of central London.
The view out of my window however looks away from the city.
The familiar shops and streets of Oxford
2 updates today.
I set off for a long walk, first of all I had to find a laundry to do my clothes washing tomorrow morning. I found one I used years ago, still there. And they still dont have a change machine.
So I had to buy a series of things for under a pound to get 4 pounds change each time, I estimate washing and drying one load of washing will cost 9 pounds! Which is $18.
The hotel laundry service would cost 50 pounds, but doesnt operate on weekends.
I noticed on my walk that I was highly familiar with everywhere I went, the cross city tunnel is still not finished, it had been started last time I was here. There were a huge amount of people out, mostly standing outside bars smoking on a Friday after work.
It is also warm, 20 degrees, and perhaps the first warm day of the season, so many people seemed to be getting drunk to celebrate.
I saw a group of idiots walking about singing a song to the tune of what is probably a football song, but they had replaced all the words with BEER!.
Every now and then someone would yell something at the crew, but every sentence would end in lads, as in LETS GO THIS WAY LADS! or CHECK OUT THE JUGS ON THAT ONE LADS!
London has not quite worked out how to make apartments.
The buses have been replaced since I was last here. There seems to be a lot more of them too.
Rubbish continues to be huge piles of bags.
I think this is new. Buildings made of lego. Quite pleased with this photo.
I found a great spot for dinner. Its take away gourmet authentic organic something Korean food. But you can also eat in store, which I did.
It was delicious. I especially like that you can select little side dishes to go with it. I got the Kim Chi and of course Gochujang. It was very delicious and quite cheap.
Harry Potter is a play now. Also the mouse trap is still playing, 64 years straight.
Chinatown hasnt really improved.
This is your average place in Chinatown, its all 10 pound buffet featuring chips. I made the right choice with the Korean.
Picadilly circus was packed out with people watching people. The English flags are for a holiday on Monday for the Queens birthday, I think? I wont be here Monday.
There were also some freaks to entertain me.
And a gypsy band distracting people whilst their children pickpocketed the tourists.
Oxford circus is also flagged up to the max. I enjoyed the food halls of the various stores where I made purchases for 1 pound or less to get washing machine change.
And then once I saw the BT tower, I knew I was near my hotel and it was time to go home.