London is BIG, I mean stupidly big. OK so there are several American settlements that dwarf it but nonetheless it is rather massive. I was astounded to see that a train journey from Euston (universal arrival station for us up north) to where I was going to meet up was estimated at a little under an hour - no journey withing the same city confines should take that long!! OK, so it actually took ten minutes, even with changing trains due to cancellations but the point stands.
On arrival at Euston I was greeted (not personally) by several policemen strolling the station keeping watch. I guess this is necessary because of the terror attacks but it is still a strange sight. The only other time I've seen police at a train station was when Liverpool Central went into lockdown because of fire, and even then it was only two bobbies casually leaning on a wall.
The next step into weirdness was purchasing an Oyster Card, London's new travel solution. Not too far from Science Fiction the card is "topped up" and then swiped over a reader on your journey deducting money for your travel as you go along. The most bizarre thing was when the system extended to buses too, you no longer have to exchange words with the driver you just beep yourself in and get off creating a very impersonal feel, which apparently suits Londoners down to the ground.
After meeting up with my friends and perusing the National Gallery one of the first sights of London was to see a large black man unashamedly singing and dancing in front of the historic building. People were passing by absently videoing him, but apparently his rendition of "Billie Jean" really got them going. There aren't many such nutters up north but enough for it not to be a complete shock. It makes you wonder why they do it though, I mean was he just hoping that Simon Cowell was going to take in some art that day or did he have some perverse need to publicly express himself. Nonetheless I got a good few seconds video out of it and moved on like everyone else.
The last negative, fuelled by Oyster Card human independence is the dispassionate nature of people travelling in London. On the tube it is practice to avoid all contact with people on your journey..which begs the question why put all the seats facing each other! Anyway, I managed to get onto a tube train by jamming my bag into the door at the last second. Anywhere else the people on the train would be having a giggle about it and swapping stopries of close shaves for the next few stops at least, but on the tube everyone just stared at the floor. No sense of humour whatsoever just minds numbed by travel on a system designed to be as inhuman as possible.
OK, so it's not quite that bad, and we did have one nice conversation on the tube. And it was a good day out, but nonetheless the big city is a weird weird place!!
Word of the post: Vignette - noun
| 1. | a decorative design or small illustration used on the title page of a book or at the beginning or end of a chapter. |
1 comment:
The oyster card thing is what France has been using for eons. There's some interesting stuff on my blog if you're into Cloverfield.
Not that much of a spoiler.
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