London

I had only been to London once before, and it was only for 12 hours, between two flights, so it doesn't really count. This time, I tried to make the most out of it and walked around all over the place....and I must admit, London is one cool city. The architecture is great, the people are nice, the shops are amazing, and there's so much to see and so much to do! I did enough walking there to last me a lifetime...or at least until my next trip! I got the hang of the tube system a couple of days after I got there, and I was amazed that you could really get to practically anywhere in London without having to get into a car. The underground system is much more sophisticated than the Montreal one, which only had 4 lines that barely cover a quarter of the city. And so punctual too!

The weather was...typical London weather most of the time. The first day was sunny and warm, but after that, we mostly got partly cloudy days, some rain, and temperatures in the low 20's.

The first day I got there, we participated in a huge peace demonstration...It was incredible: tens of thousands of people were there, and it was really heart-warming to see all these people, from all walks of life, coming together to voice their opposition to the pointless and destructive war in Lebanon, and to Blair's foreign policy.

A couple of days later, we went walking around Portobello market and Notting Hill. Unfortunately, I didn't get to experience Portobello on a weekend, which means that a lot of the antiques shops were closed. We then took the bus to Knightsbridge, which is where Harrod's is. It was packed with tourists, but we still decided to walk around and check it out. It's big. And it has lots of cool stuff in it. And it's very expensive. All I bought there was a bottle of water, and that alone cost me 2.5 pounds (17 Dhs)!!! In one section, there was some Arabic music playing in the background....I think it was Amr Diab!

Those are Dubai Properties flags on Harrod's. Dubai Properties is apparently selling properties in Harrod's!

There's even a year-round Christmas decorations section! Playing Christmas carols!

We then continued on to check out the Museum of Natural History building...It's huge! And very impressive. We didn't go into the museum however...we were exhausted from all the walking, and I'm not a very museum-ey kind of person anyway...

More London pictures tomorrow.