We finally got to the center of town, and were so tired that when someone handed us a flyer to a hostel right out of the bus station as well as a free shuttle to get there we jumped right in the shady white van without hesitation. False, we hesitated a lot and I prayed the whole way there that we wouldn’t get sold into sex slavery, but we made it and it was cheap and the hostel people were really nice and even gave us our own room for the same price as the 8 bed room. We put our stuff down and slept for about 3 hours before finally leaving and exploring Jenn’s dream city.

We had pre-ordered tickets to go see OBJECTIFIED on its opening day. We were too late to get tickets to the later one that had a Q&A with the director to follow the showing.. Oh well. It was still an awesome movie, and I thought about how much my dad would like it too while I was watching. It really cool and strange how our areas of expertise are overlapping nowadays. (He makes CNC Routers that are huge machines that can cut through all kinds of things for signs, furniture, etc.) We walked all over that part of town after the movie, liverpool and old street, just people watching all the young adults outside the pubs just after work. We got really lucky because London weather was beautiful while we were there. Then we took the Tube back to Notting Hill, where our hostel was, and found a thai restaurant where we spent the last of our pounds on a bottle of wine and a dish to share. We ended up talking to the table that was next to us who happened to be 2 engineering teachers from New Jersey who were leading a summer study abroad trip. They ended up pouring the rest of their wine in our glasses, which didn’t help the strange conversation Jenn and I had previously been discussing:

If you were on Death Row and were choosing your last meal before your execution what would you choose. You get an appetizer, a main course with 2 sides, a dessert and a drink. Also, who did you kill and why?

We went to sleep that night with the light and tv left on and slept like babies.

The next night we spent the entire day in the Tate Modern! They really had some amazing pieces that I had seen in my art history books, and the whole thing being in a big warehouse was really neat too! We spent a good part of the day there, and an even bigger part in their gift shop, which was extremely fair priced! We had all our stuff with us because we had to move hostels, so we made our way to a different part of town, kings cross st pancras, and dropped it all off at the new place and took another nap. On our way out a guy from the hostel told us he had free tickets to a rock show at a bar down the road, so we said we’d be back in an hour from eating to join them. We searched for an ethnic restaurant like ethiopian or something, but settled on a bar with thai food because it was called the Queen’s Head pub. (Which I just read about in High Fidelity!! He went to the same bar we did!!) It was really good and so was the Guinness and we were sad to leave while they were setting up for karaoke night..

The rock concert turned out to be real garage and real bad, but one of the bands was a little Muse-like and more bearable. Very novelty british though, so it was a good time. We left to get ready for Fabric, a dance club Jenn had heard about from friends, and we made a quick stop at an internet cafe where a huge black lady was skyping with a boy/just looking at him typing and vis versa and chatting with 5 people on aim and giggling a lot. Soo awesome.

We got to the club by using a night bus and found the place by following other people. A girl named Tamoko followed us too, and we ended up dancing with her the whole night . Fabric was really awesome, and consisted of a giant room with lights shows and a huge crowd dancing to.. I’m still learning all the genres of music.. but lots of bass and lots of beats, but the DJ’s talked a whole lot which was the only weird thing. Im not of fan of “ok everybody put your hands up and yell ___! woo!” over and over. We ventured to the other room at 4ish and it was much smaller but the DJ was totally different and we had a good time there as well. London is also completely different than Germany in that boys are more like Americans and try to dance with you/talk to you in London. Silly. I can’t hear a bloody thing with music that loud, but that doesn’t stop them from trying. In Trier, everyone just dances because they like dancing. Hardly ever any couple-dancing. Just friends and Lone Rangers.

The next day was Camden Town, where we shopped in the cheap markets and I got a new handmade ring from an artists stand, and Jenn got a fake leather jacket! We then headed to our last “sight” which was Shoreditch and Brick lane, and we walked along it smelling the indian restaurants and looking at the sweet graffiti as we searched for a gallery opening Jenn had found online. It seemed they were late in opening so we went to a different gallery, Whitechapel Gallery, and it had some really nice things.

Turned out Jenn was an hour behind on her time, and we ended up running (seriously running) from the tube to the hostel to get our stuff, back to the tube, and to the bus stop, and made it on time! Krakow here we come.