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Today I went for a trip out to central London to see some friends and do some touristy stuff. Having not been in the area long I though I would explore some of the places I'd not been before. I started by taking a tube to Stratford. Most people know that Stratford is the area that the 2012 games will take place in, and so I'd heard there was quite a lot of redevelopment going on. It turns out Stratford really isn't that nice, its a typical inner London poorer area. There is a shopping centre, complete with indoor market selling fruit and fish (something I'd never seen in a shopping centre like this). After walking around for a while I found there isn't much around to see and went back to the tube. As part of the preparation for the Olympics, Stratford is having a new transport interchange and International Station that takes Eurostar trains. I saw quite a lot of work going on, and the tube station has recently been upgraded, but it still looks like there is some way to go! Stratford is also one of those very confusing tube stations where you actually have to go through a set of barriers to get from one tube line to another!
After Stratford I decided to go take a look at the newly opened Millennium Dome (now called The O2). I looked at the outside of the dome when I last lived in London two years ago, but then it was really just a shell with nothing inside that hadn't been maintained for a number of years. The dome has really changed now and things are starting to look promising. There is a newly created arena in the center of the dome with a large cinema and restaurants round the outside, along with a second smaller music venue. One of the things that strikes you about the place is just how big it is - but also just how unfinished it is... Only about 1/3 of the outside circle of restuarants is accessible, as the rest stil appears to be under construction. This was kind of disappointing as I had assumed that it would be up and running. There are quite a few (very varied) restaurants but most are chain types such as Zizzis and Nandos. There does seem to be quite a variety including Japanese, Thai and more upmarket restaurants. I think I would definitely visit again and it would be good to see inside the arena section, but it won't be great until its finished. After the dome I went to meet my friends in Central London. I had a couple of hours to spare a read a book in St James Park for a couple of hours. I then went to Covent Garden via Chinatown. Chinatown is good as it reminds me of my trip to Hong Kong and seeing all the strange things you can buy in the Chinese Supermarkets including one of my favourites Char Sui Bun. I watched a street entertainer in Covent Garden for a while, which consisted of 30 minutes winding up the crowd and getting people to help him out and 2 minutes actually doing his trick (tight rop walking). After which he attmempted to emphasise how much money people should give him for watching - as there was a crowd of around 200 watching he would have been extremely rich if they gave as much as he said... Anyway, I didn't give him any money as he failed his last stunt - so he'll have to practice for next time. Finally I met my friends Matt and Anna for a meal at Wagamamas in Covent Garden, see my review in the Restaurant section. After the meal it had started to rain heavily and I got wet walking back to Leicester Square tube to take the journey home. |
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