Day one in London

As I mentioned, Ricardo and his wife are in London today and will be for the next 10 days. In honor of his trip, I'm posing my missives that Isent back home in 2000 during my visit abroad. So enjoy!!

Hello all,
Yes, I made it over in fine fashion yesterday and I thought I'd pass along some musings from the first day of my
journey abroad. I'm at a cyber cafe below a Starbucks about a block from my "hotel". Life is good.

Please pass this along as you see fit. I got tired of typing out addresses. The keyboard is slightly different over
here and it's annoying.

Here's what I've learned or has been re-enforced after one day in London. Pardon any spelling errors by the way.
This email doesn't spell check prior to sending.

Travel
-The thought of paying up for first class so you can sleep doesn't seem so bad after not sleeping much for
20 hours.
-British airways knows how to fly. They have their shit together.
-British hotels should just be called closets so we all can avoid the confusion of thinking we're getting
a "room".
-Hello, ice machines? How hard can it be?
-It really shouldn't take 20 minutes, literally, to figure out the shower, should it?
-Luggage on wheels is soooooooo worth it.
-If you're a tourist and you go to the touristy part of town, you're going to get hosed, no matter what town
you visit.

The Tube
-Based on their train system, the Tube, Londoners hate the handicapped. Few "lifts" are around and if there
 is one, it just leads to more stairs.
-Handicapped access aside, the Tube is much better than the trains in Chicago.  They seem to be just enough
quieter to make them less annoying. They come every 2-4 minutes no matter what stop you're at and there's
an LED sign that tells you, accurately, when the next train is coming. The system isn't any newer, just better.
Like Camden Yards and  Comiskey Park.
-That said, proper ventilation would prevent the Piccadily Circus stop from smelling like the armpit of a
weightlifter.
-After taking the Tube all day, I realized that they don't have garbage cans on the platforms. I had to carry
around my luggage AND a cold cup of Starbucks because I refused to just leave it on the platform. I had
to acquiesce eventually because of all of the stairs.
-Lancaster Gate and Queensway are not as close as they appear on the map.


Food and drink
-The cost of beverages in London is outrageous. The pound is worth $1.50, yet drinks cost the same
number of  pounds here as dollars in the US. It's crazy.
-Yes, you can spend $36 on a lousy steak dinner.
-Pouring a Boddingtons and watching it settle is very relaxing.

General
-16 year olds give Americans a bad name.
-No one here knows the value of customer service, except the public works programs. Go figure!
-If you're a girl, they won't let you into the country unless you have skin-tight black stretch pants
(gray and  leopard prints are acceptable also).
-Most English men look like they are gay. I swear, I don't know if I've seen a straight guy yet.
-Most English men wear the same black stretch pants, which may explain the gay thing.
-Starbucks is everywhere. Yes!
-If someone tells you it isn't going to rain, don't believe them.
-The internet is huge here also, but investing is not. Probably because the beverages cost so
damn much.
-No matter what town I go to, I end up wandering through Chinatown.
-Converting celsius to farenheit is easy: multiply by 2 and add 30. Try it.
-CNN, though inflammatory, is nice to have when traveling.

Finally, cybercafes, 30 minutes for $1.50. Sweet.
Cheers.