Live from Doha

At the request of "Jason" Zhao, here is how the pretrip London Adventure went. Bear with any mistakes I might make, as I am writing this on the floor of the Doha airport at 2:40 in the morning. I'm a little bit delirious, but I don't know when I'll have another chance, so here it goes.

After I left home, I went briefly to my ranch in West Texas with my family, friends and girlfriend, Val. After that, I flew from San Antonio to Minneapolis, where Val's mom picked Val and I up and took us to her house. Then, on Wednesday, we got on a plane to London Heathrow and my trip really began.

We got into London at 8AM, with more luggage than we could possibly need- we each have three bags, all of which are probably at least forty pounds. We dragged our stuff across the airport and onto the underground, which took us right to our hostel, the Picadilly Backpackers Hostel. Located right off picadilly circus, it was in the perfect location, surrounded by nightlife, tourist attractions, restaurants and theaters (or, in London, theatres) playing everything from Grease to Sherlock Holmes. The hostel itself, however, left something to be desired. It was a run down, very loud, and, as we found out, not that safe (Val and I were both fine, but the same can't be said about our stuff: we were flat out robbed over our last night).

After we lugged our stuff across London and checked in, we dove in, with Rick Steves as our guide. Exhausted from the plane ride, we grabbed sandwiches and yogurt from Tesco (a mini-grocery store) and did the most touristy thing of the whole trip: we took a "Original Sightseeing Tour" on a double decker bus around London's major sights. We saw Westminster Abbey, the Houses or Parliament, Big Ben, Trafalger, Tower Bridge, City Hall, Cleopatra's Needle, Trafalger Square, etc, etc, etc. We got a whirlwind tour of the major sights of London, for 23.50 Pounds apiece. We were tired, and it was worth it, especially because we didn't tour all of the major sites. We didn't go into Westminster. We didn't climb on the famous lions surrounding the towering statue of Horatio Nelson in Trafalger. We didn't tour Buckingham Palace. We didn't see Shakespeare's globe. We never went up on Tower Bridge. Heck, we didn't even see the changing of the guards at Buckingham (not the main show any way...)

What we did do, however, was see Avenue Q, a Broadway musical, with songs like The Internet is For Porn and If You Were Gay That'd Be Ok, as well as puppet sex scenes and saw a London play, The Secret of Sherlock Holmes, acted out superbly by only two men (the secret is that Holmes is Moriarity. Cue dramatic music). We toured the Tower of London for half price, saw where two adolescent kings were likely murdered, gazed at the armor of British kings, and saw the brilliant crown jewels (including the remarkable emerald from King Edward the Confessor himself, from the 11th century). We happened upon a part of the changing of the horse guard, across from St. James' Park, with approximately nil other tourists. We walked down Fleet Street, saw the Cabinet War Rooms, mostly undisturbed since Germany and Japan surrendered in the 1940's and learned about the man who got Britain through the blitz, Churchill. I ate savory pies and mussels, drank cider (the hard kind), beer and ales. We ate at pubs, crepe places and churches, and rushed through the British Museum, what Rick Steves calls the greatest record of civilization anywhere. We also went to a street market, the best I had ever seen with a combination of antiques, food, and new items

Did we do it all? no, of course not. At times we were lost and tired, and Val and I didn't always see eye to eye. But we saw a lot and most importantly, we enjoyed ourselves immensely and left happy about the trip. Apart from a few minor hiccups and one major one (that I am currently not at liberty to elaborate on) Val and I's London adventure went marvelously. It was long enough for us to see London and short enough not to keep us from Tanzania. We left Heathrow happy and healthy, ready to start the next four months.

Now i just need to figure out a creative way to end my blogposts... And that's the way it was? I think that has been used already. Until next time? Over and out? Reporting from Doha?

I'll figure it out. For now this is Caleb Ray, reporting from Qatar, and thats the way it was.

Over and out.

K Ray