8 Mile (Part II): The Afternoon

Following the ceremony, EN and I made our way down the Mall, passed the Horse Guards Parade, and on to Big Ben and the Palace of Westminster. (EN had yet to capture any photos of either of these places, hence the stop-over—rumor has it, I may have snagged another photo or two myself!)

Clark Kent says: "Boy, the way you blowin' up my phone won't make me leave no faster, put my cape on faster, leave my gays no faster!"

 From there, EN and I crossed the Westminster Bridge, and proceeded to head northeast along the Thames, passing such things as the Millennium Eye and the National Theatre. It was a fun little walk (albeit a touch cold). We shared a cup of roasted peanuts from a street-vendor (couldn't help it--they smelled so good!), and visited an open-air book market stationed under the Waterloo Bridge, before making our way back across the bridge and on to Covent Gardens.

Covent Gardens is a charming little neighborhood! One website described it as follows:

"Covent Garden, London is famous for its shops, street performers, bars, restaurants, theatres and the Royal Opera House. Covent Garden is an Italian-style piazza packed with restaurants, bars and fashionable boutiques. Surrounded by Theatreland, in the heart of London's West End, the area is recognised as the capital's premier entertainment and leisure destination." ~  Covent Garden Life

Now, I wish I could say that we hung around to enjoy the shopping and take in some street-performances or theatre but, alas, my growling stomach protested too loudly. So, we tried to find a reasonably-priced, not-too-busy pub in which to get our chow on. What we instead found was a place on New Row. This place was about the size of mine and Nic’s studio apartment, had ‘Italian’ décor, paintings of Paris on their menu, and items on said-menu that were all prefixed with ‘Texas-.’ It wasn't quite the atmosphere we were looking for, but we settled in out of necessity. (For the record, I had a ‘Texas-Egg Burger’ and an unnamed German lager because they didn’t serve Guinness.)

 It…sufficed.

From Covent Garden we moved into Soho, which is somewhat like the Boystown equivalent in London. It was the middle of the day, though, so there wasn’t much to see or do. But I can say I was there! (And I was there again on Monday—hence yesterday’s hangover and the story for later.)

Brief stopovers in Piccadilly Circus—in certain respects the Time Square of London—and along Regent Street were next. Not too much to say about that bit, though EN and I did work on our ‘Texas oilmen’ personae as a means of gaining access to some of the exclusive, overly-priced stores on Regent Street (e.g., one shop wanted £12,000 for a silver spoon). I mean, seriously, these were the kinds of shops where you couldn’t enter unless someone buzzed you in. Something tells me that no matter how well-perfected our ‘Hello, m’am, we’re wealthy oil men from Texas’ spiels were, they still wouldn’t have allowed EN and I entrance…

Mind the...Gap?

The shops of Regent Street

Most of this time was spent in-transit, walking around. Following our visit to the shops on Regent Street, dusk was nearly upon us...

TO BE CONTINUED...