london

I spent today in the former capital of England - Oxford. The town just oozes intelligence. My first stop was the Christ's Church College and Cathedral. Of course, the big highlight for me there was seeing the Hall. It's the same place that inspired some of Alice in Wonderland, as well as the filming location for the Great Hall in Harry Potter! That was probably more exciting for me than it should have been.

After, I wandered through the Botanical Gardens before coming across the University Park where I sat and ate my lunch while watching a Cricket team practice. Then I ventured into the Oxford Museum of Natural History and then to the Bodleian Library. The library was most impressive (and also the location for some more scenes in Harry Potter) with books older than I have ever seen.

Yesterday, I spent my morning in the British Museum and then walked all the way down Oxford Street for some quality shopping. After that, I visited Piccadilly Circus and bought an impromptu ticket to that night's showing of Les Misérables. The show was great, even with part of stage left out of my view.

The night before, when Erica was still here, we went to see the show Wicked. That was also an excellent production. Earlier in the day, we did a walking tour of London, saw Buckingham Palace, Westminster Abbey, the Houses of Parliament, and then finished off with a trip on the London Eye.

I don't know if it's due to the fact that there are so many tourists from right-side-of-the-road countries, but walking in and around London can be incredibly frustrating. To me, it made sense to veer left of people coming toward me, however that doesn't seem to be the case for everyone. Instead, you get a giant mob of people moving in all directions and not one smooth flow in one way or the other. This carries down to the tube stations, where no one waits for others to get off before trying to cram in. I'm shocked that I'm saying this, but the French are actually much more efficient in this domain of human traffic control. In Paris, you see everyone stand to the side of the Metro doors, waiting for all to exit, before jumping on themselves. But in London, it's another push-and-shove battle just to board the trains before the doors nip your nose.

I can't decide whether London is what I expected it to be or not. I guess this is because, after so many cities, I have lost expectations and just take it all as it comes. One thing I can definitely say after all this travelling is that the world seems so much more tangible and real to me now. My first visit to Paris, 3 years ago, felt so surreal and like a dream. But now, there's this sense of reality that has set in. While the excitement of all these new and incredible places still exists, the incredible factor has disappeared. It's like suddenly Mumbai or Hong Kong don't really seem so far. Having said that, I feel like I've already travelled the world. But when I look at a map of the world, I see how tiny of a dent Europe actually is, and it's humbling to think that there is still so many more things out there.