London Trip - May - 2008

After leaving St Petersburg I was invited by my friend Georges to stay a few days in London with him at his house there. This was such a great chance to live London with people who were locals and it was a fabulous experience. Georges met me and took me on the tube to the house in the East End. It is a lovely Victorian cottage, three stories with a shop front bottom that Michael (Georges friend and roommate) uses for an art studio. The neighborhood was so classically London that it was quite peaceful and refreshing compared to the dirty hubbub of Russia.
Since I got in at night and it was bank holiday weekend, Londoners were out in droves and Georges decided to test my limits by taking me to Soho and Boys Town (the gay district) for dinner and a night out. It was crazy down there. Thousands of people wandering pubs. Guys walking around with bow ties, spandex shorts, & leg warmers and guys in drag with three foot beehive wigs. Didn’t have the camera unfortunately, since it was just going to be a night of dinner and walking. We had a lovely meal at Balons Restaurant near the windows so we could people watch. It was a great local’s experience.

The full day I had there happened to be a Saturday so Georges roommates Michael and Travis planned a night of grilling which brought us to the open air markets to get supplies. That was a blast in itself. We even brought their Manchester Terriers Tank and Diesel (both female and mother and daughter). At the market we ate fruits and marzipan and crackling pork sandwiches and sausage, etc. Afterwards we went to a classic London pub and had a few pints. Travis and Michael left Georges and I to go back to relax and make dinner ready while  Georges and I toured some of the more touristy sites. It was fun to shoot these locations in HDR and see them again for the first time in 14 years. Hope you enjoy the photos.
That night we had a lovely grilled dinner of pork chops, egg plant, lamb, cheeses and wine. Once dinner was over we settled down to torturing ourselves by watching the Eurovision finals. It was so funny to watch how angry these Brits got over how biased the competition was and how pathetically hated the Brits were in the contest, coming in a tie for last place. It was great to watch each country vote for their counterpart country like Bosnia voting for Croatia, etc.

All in all, it was a wonderful time and a great closer to a long trip. Thanks for reading.