My day in London
Jul. 11th, 2005 11:01 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
I've always wanted to live in a big city, but one day in London was quite enough for me, the number of things that happened to me today is almost unbelievable. (police with guns, being evacuated, getting lost, joining a mob, shouting at the angry mob, running away from the angry mob, etc etc) My cousin from Bulgaria is visiting and today me and a friend took him to London to do all the touristy things, I was a bit nervous about going, but at the end of the day we can't be afraid forever.
So from Euston we took the underground to Piccadilly Circus and walked to Trafalgar Square all the while becoming aware of the above average number of police cars with the sirens on making their way somewhere. It was odd, as we and most other people kept looking around, with a sort of jumpy nervousness hoping that we are just overreacting for obvious reasons. So after taking a few pictures at Trafalgar square we started walking down Whitehall towards Parliament to see Big Ben and everything else there, we were about half way (just after we passed Horseguards) there when just in front of us a policewoman with a big gun (I have *never* seen armed police before) told as to turn back, we did as we were told and watched as they taped off the road and more and more police kept coming. It was almost unreal, we couldn't quite believe what was happening and how can it happen, nonetheless we stood there and gaped as they redirected the traffic and taped off a couple of side roads. I wanted to leave but the others wanted to see what was going on, and it wasn't all that serious yet, we even joked they will close off the road at the other side too and we will be trapped. Two minutes later they did and we were ushered back up Whitehall right next to Trafalgar and under the tape thing onto the other side. We stayed there for a while longer, by that point the police were coming in mini buses, I have never seen so much police, there was also a fire brigade. We asked one what is going on and he said something about a suspicious package and nothing more. After a while they had blocked off the road going around Trafalgar Square and so we were in a sort of island enclosed by police. But then they decided that was not a good place for us to be at (You think! I kept wanting to leave, but they kept wanting to see) and a policeman shouted for us all to move in a sort of high and panicky voice that terrified the crowd. We went to Trafalgar and watched from there, after a while they let traffic pass and we headed off, we managed to learn that someone had left a bag on a bus and there was a sort of mutual decision that we won't be going on buses.
After a couple more normal attractions and lunch we once again attempted to reach Parliament, this time we were more sucessful. We got there only to be greeted with a rather large group of picketing protesters and a lot of police in front of Westminster. The picketing people carried signs which read "Freedom to preach!", "The right to choose and change religion!" and a few with "Freedom of speech", there were people handing around pickets, it was very organised. We had to make our way past them, which in itself was an experience, as they were on both sides of the road and there was a sort of empty corridor between the police and the people in which we walked. They were chanting things I could not understand and some I could "Ole, ole, ole Jesus!", "*question*-Jesus!, *another question* - Jesus!" etc. Through all this we were unsure exactly what they were protesting about and asked someone who informed us that they were trying to stop them from preaching about Jesus, we moved on unsure but then asked someone else who didn't say much but did hand my friend a picket. We were not exactly sure what to do with it and kept laughing, but then walked to the edge and stood there resisting with difficulty from taking pictures. Once there we asked a more sane looking woman what they are protesting about and she said something I will attempt to paraphrase: "You know how there has been an increase in crime and terrorism lately, well we want to show people the way of the lord and open them to Jesus..." I nodded, I diasgreed but she has the right to believe this and then she carried on "There has been a lot of rights given to gays and other bad people and this should be stopped!" I blinked at her for a second or so before getting very, very angry pulling at my friend's arm and proclaiming that we have to leave now and I will not stand there with such people and more things that I can't quite remember right now but which made my friend smile nervously and try to appologise to the woman before giving her the picket and we left.
This meant we couldn't go back that way as angering a mob is probably not my best idea, so we wandered aimlessly down the river and ended up in Tate, where I have not been before. It was lovely, I saw lots of Blake's art and some modern rooms that really impressed me, I took a few pictures before getting told off. So my cousin who is fifteen got bored and walked off without saying anything to us, we spend ages looking for him and after panicking (he had forgotten his phone, had no money and speaks little english) we asked the security guards for help and they radioed off to ask someone to look at all the CCTV cameras and eventually we were informed they'd found someone matching his description in the gift shop. We went there and found a balding man dressed the same, which afterwards we found hilarious (What are the odds??) but right then it just served to annoy us. Eventually we did found him.
You'd think that the rest of the day was all normal, it was not. We went to the science museum and on the way back used the underground once again, most of the Piccadilly line and a few other stops were closed, I was sure that in the morning they weren't closed, Circle line was but not the others. Sure enough they announced that it was due to a fire alert at King's Cross. I don't know more about this and couldn't find anything about it online but it was scary enough when we were there.
I am just glad that I am at home right now, although MSN and AIM are not working for me right now which is pissing me off, I need to whinge about this to various people.
(no subject)
Date: 2005-07-13 02:56 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2005-07-13 06:16 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2005-07-15 10:53 am (UTC)diddums!