So a couple hours after arriving in London, I ran to the bathroom in a Pret a Manger and had my phone stolen while I was in there.  Which I’m annoyed about, but not really that upset.  It was a piece of crap, but it’s still an inconvenience.  At least he/she didn’t take my laptop or passport, which were also sitting right there.  Mainly, that just means I won’t be taking any more pictures.

Monday

I’m staying in a hipster area of East London for the next few days – the Shoreditch/Hoxton area.  It allows me to explore a little more of East London before heading back to where I stayed before and returning home.  It’s also pretty close to jump down to hit some of the attractions I missed on my first go of the city.

So I explored this area a bit and found places to work.  A couple restaurants and pubs with a more relaxed atmosphere and good WiFi connections.  Good for working, but not great for taking calls.  El Paso positions themselves as a cafe/tex-mex place for people to come and work, which is an awesome idea.  Unfortunately, their food isn’t very good.

Mainly I hung out at the cafe across the street at the Spread Eagle pub sipping on the cheapest beers I could find and getting some work done.  A lot of “trendy” cocktail bars in the area.  Like, 7-10 quid for a cocktail, cocktail bars.  Not my style.

Tuesday

I have my Oyster card from when I was in London earlier, so I can pretty easily take the underground or bus down to central London if I fancy.  Tuesday morning, I fancied.

Museum of London – This museum was mostly rubbish.  Another natural history museum and kind of the ancient history of London. Honestly, I ran through this one fairly quickly.  I guess there were dinosaurs here though a long time ago, then some Romans, and there was a big fire, royalty, and Emma Watson visited her dad on weekends here when she was little.

Tate Modern – Modern art gallery.  Matisse exhibit opening soon.  A lot of people around.  Again, I kind of ran through this one.  I’m trying to appreciate art but you can only show so much appreciation over a set period of time.

St. Paul’s Cathedral – Another big church/cathedral thing.  Pretty popular place for people to sit on the stairs of.  I found a picture of it so at least I can have one for this post.

Then I went back to Shoreditch again and did some work at Spread Eagle again across the street from my hostel.  Pretty relaxing and unpopular place, which makes it perfect for me.

I walked around a bit too, and the names of the places here are pretty funny.  Spread Eagle, for one.  But there’s a bar here just called “Dragon” which I’m obviously going to go to soon.

Wednesday

Rather than go back down to central London, I decided to take the morning and go find myself a nice little park on the outskirts of London.  So I decided to go with Hampstead Park.  It’s a nice little section North of London out of the way a bit – the kind of place I prefer to be.

Hampstead Park – Had a view nice trails for me to go through.  Walked through the woods a bit, through some ponds, and it also had a nice overlook of the city.  Like Primrose Hill, but further away.

Then I walked South back towards London through some of the normal looking neighborhoods.  Just normal little areas of a bit city.  I passed like two stores selling pine furniture.  What a horrible existence that must be, running a small pine furniture shop.

Primrose Hill – This wasn’t too far from where I was, and since I liked it the first time, I went back and hung out here again.

Regent Park – It’s right next to Primrose Hill so I walked through it on my way.

Earl of Camden – This is the pub right outside Regents Park.  I was starving since it was like 3 and I hadn’t eaten anything, so I stopped for some nachos and a beer.  They had little chalkboards all over the place with Mitch Hedberg quotes on them, which made me happy.

Then I took the underground back over to Shoreditch and worked for a while before going to bed early.

Thursday

Today I went down to the Old Spitalfields Market, which was mostly antiques and vintage clothing. Naturally, I didn’t buy anything, but it was fun browsing through nonetheless.

I continued walking in that direction just to see what I would find, and I stumbled upon the business and financial district.  Namely, St. Mary’s Axe, or the Gherkin, which is the giant lava lamp in London.  I had lunch sitting under it with everyone else in their suits.

Then I had an afternoon and evening stuffed with client phone calls, which I was able to complete pretty well with the internet connection.  Satisfactory enough, at least.  Then I bought a couple Carlsbergs (you can buy individual beers in England) because I didn’t feel like going to the pub (and it’s way cheaper) and drank them in my hostel room because I’m a rebel.