Today the other guest in the B&B, a gay couple from France, planned to visit Hampton Court. I had seen the poster promoting the place a few times in the tube stations. The thing that pique my interest was the Tudor cookery event. Sadly it was not done often and I was either too late or too early for it. Not to mention the cost of transportation to and from the place, though not too bad. Eventually I decided against it, and went to The British Museum instead.
The museum, while not hard to find, took me a while to find it. There was also a hotdog stand in front of the museum. The scent of cooking onions were so irresistible that I finally succumb to buy one. I saw quite a few of these stands on the bridge going to Big Ben earlier and the scent of cooking onions were just... divine. The hotdog was simple, since I did not wants the onion, I just slathered it with chili sauce (from Thailand too) and mustard.
After I finish the hotdog, I ventured inside the museum.
I suppose one can say that it is a fairly typical museum. The souvenir shop, while sell quite a number of interesting items, did not made me pried my wallet open. I was sorely tempted by the Rosetta stone keyring though. But at 3 pounds a piece, only when I am rich :p.
I must admit I had a sense of familiarity when I enter the building and get the hang of the directions, it must be from when I play 'Hellgate: London'... There was a British museum map that got replicated quite realistically in terms of the map design.
Anyhow, I started at the Sumerian area.
Then Egyptian.
And Roman
Then Egyptian mummies on the second floor
And the Roman lifestyles.
After finish touring the museum, I wandered outside to check out the souvenir shop across the road. It claimed to be the cheapest one and tax free for tourists (provided that you show your passport).Then I wandered into Tottenham Court Street to check out the GPS unit that my younger bro asked me to buy. Admittedly I did not too hard because I think it was rather frivolous of him to buy one.
I was wandering the area looking for an internet cafe, in my effort to try to see if my Micro SD card really broken or not. I suppose it became a bit of trade off, since when I finally went into one and choose the computer, I noticed that one of them have a flashdrive in one of the USB port. I took it with me since no one comes to claim it the whole one hour that I was there.
Meanwhile, my friend (a German who live in London), called me and ask where I was. I told him I was in Oxford street area, which is near to where to he was as well. So I agreed to meet up with him at HMV where he was doing his business.
He was almost unrecognizable. He did told me, through our monthly e-mails, that he gained a lot of weight since the last times we met 10 years ago, from the cheap food he could affords and he wasn't lying. It's like he was wearing a fat suit, from the puffy cheeks and big belly. The sight of him almost brought tears to my eyes and I did tell him that, although I did it in jesting manner... We agreed to meet again before I went home, as I threaten to sell the duty free cigarette I bought for him on the plane to someone else :p
Afterward I took the subway back to the B&B, if I remember correctly, and stay there until club times (late evening).
All in all it was another ok day in London. Quite a lot of interesting sites and sights to see, too bad that it's not a lot of people to do :p
