Jim Travels The World

Sunday 27th Off to tour London a bit more with my host and coworker Nicholas. We catch a train to a market downtown, then a bus to Trafalgar square. There is a bit of evidence of the protests from yesterday, broken beer bottles, protest signs, new graffiti. We walk to the London bridge, Big Ben, and many other buildings that I didn't even know what they were but were damn impressive. not pictured: falling down Walk on more to the imperial war museum. This kind of thing is more my dad's forte, but I hear it's interesting. We spend two hours there and see only about a quarter of it. We're tired and decide to head back home. Riding the train makes me miss Australia. I wasn't too keen on London when I got here, but this place is starting to grow on me. Monday 28th Last day of work in the office, and a busy one. Bus to work is interesting, I see many bikes lane-splitting, dodging in between moving cars. It's crazy Tuesday 29th I'm outta ...

Saturday 26th The big day. Taxi to my bus pickup at 7:30. Bus to Windsor Castle. Grey and a bit rainy out. The tour bus, mostly American and Japanese tourists, filter out to the entrance. The flag is flying which means the queen is at the castle today.  flak vests and automatic weapons. these guys aren't fucking around We stroll through the state apartments, which are a bunch or ornate rooms with paintings, suits of armor, swords, other relics.  adds a bit of regal to the Brown Drab See the changing of the guard. Katy Pery's 'Firework' sounds so beautiful coming from these olde english musicians Bus then on the Stonehenge. The English countryside is pretty, green, hilly. Reminds me of Tasmania; like everything here reminds me of something in Australia. My heart skips a beat when I actually see the rock formations; I can't believe I'm here. Walk around with the audio guide and listen to the theories about why they think it's here. ...

Wednesday 23rd Make it to London via Heathrow. Bags not in London. I am not at all surprised. they will be here tomorrow, apparently. Taxi to my hotel. The city is all brown and red brick, very dark and old. Taxi driver gets address wrong, but I know I'm close by so I get out to walk.  Immediately discover a Brit language quirk: guy giving directions tells me it's 'two streets over' but he means one street over because he's counting the street we're on right now as one of those two streets.  whatevs. Like when an Australian says 'next thursday' and it's Tuesday, he actually means two days from now. Hyde park hotel. Smallest hotel room I've ever seen. The entire bathroom is literally as small as my bathtub at home. Wander around the shopping area nearby and buy some clothes so I can have freshies tomorrow. video chat with the wife then off to bed. Thursday 24th Short walk to the office. More brown drab old buildings. It...

Sunday march 20th To DIA for 4 pm flight to lax then connect in LAX to heathrow. Except the 4 pm flight was delayed so long I would miss the connection. My luggage, however did make the flight. So I got a new flight for tomorrow Monday march 21st My new flight takes me to LAX, and then to find my bags. No one knows where they are. Go to check in for my London flight, and they tell me it's the wrong flight; I wasn't supposed to connect from lax. The supervisor at American airlines in Denver hosed me. And also, my passport has a corner torn, so American won't let me fly with that passport. And they found my luggage, it was sent back to Denver. Stayed at the radisson in LA. At some point in the day I had cut my toe, leaving my sock a bloody mess.  it's better if you don't see it. I only have the one pair of socks as my luggage is in space somewhere. Tuesday march 22nd 6 am cab to the LA federal building to get a new passport. I'm first in...