London Calling...

In a week and a half I'm flying to London to visit a good buddy who is
currently studying at the London School of Economics. Obviously,
he'll be showing me around but since the SnarkPit has a great many
Europeans I was wondering if any of you had any suggestions of what to
see or do.

Any good bars you know of? Any good clubs? Any good museums, shows, events etc?

OHYEAH! I went to london and I just loved it. There are so many great places to see!

• westminster abbey
• houses of parlaiment/big ben
• tower of london
• the OLD underground stations
• the old roman fort there, dont remember name
• downtown is cool
• piccadilly circus
• Shakespeare's Globe theatre
• the Tate modern art museum
• buckingham palace
• tower bridge
• london bridge
• the old city
• the east end where Jack the Ripper did his thing

many many more.

Please look up and visit a little goth pub called "the london stone" it's a fun place and you get a good hamburger and a free shirt if you drink thier 7 delicious mixed drinks named after the 7 mortal sins.

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I tried sniffing coke, but the ice cubes kept getting stuck in my nose.
http://www.dimebowl.com

Hey, I'm currently mapping the outside of the british parilament for a mod, can you get me some pictures of the architecture. It's kinda hard to map it with only the pictures you get with google.

If you can't it's ok, I have it mostly done, just wanted to see if I did things right.

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Dark_Kilauea
DVS Administration
http://www.dvstudio-production.com/

No promises, but I'll see what I can do Dark :smile:

Nickel, thanks for that list. I'll try to track down the london
stone -- I want that tshirt! Although to be honest I doubt I
could survive the mixed drinks.

While you're in London be sure to send a message to Mr Blair and Co
that a whole nation exists outside of Westminster. Possibly you could
burn the whole damn city to the ground too, maybe a little extreme.

Why not go to Stockwell tube station and see if you get shot by
military intelligence agents, then be the subject of fabricated news
reports to justify murder. Always fun.

Seriously though -

The Imperial War Museum

Tate Modern

The British Museum

St Pauls Cathedral

City of London (it's one square mile with the stock exchange etc, hectic)

Trafalgar Square/Nelsons Column

Millenium Dome? (it's now a casino I think, how ironic people throw
money down the drain in the building that mastered the art of said
action)

London Eye

Use a routemaster bus!

Camden and Soho (interesting suburbs, good markets - avoid the high street shops and go to independent stores here)

the "visitx" schemes are always helpful -

http://www.visitlondon.com/

Why not catch a train to Derby and come see the real Britain? :razz:

Gwil said:
Why not catch a train to Derby and come see the real 'Little Britain'? :razz:

meh, i was only half right. when i seen that you'd posted in this one gwil, i was sure you'd be advising some burning and some pilaging.

so why no pilaging?

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i eat paint

AtM: I survived the drinks. one of them is like an alcohol milkshake. Yummy.

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I tried sniffing coke, but the ice cubes kept getting stuck in my nose.
http://www.dimebowl.com

Hey it's London, the capital that befits a placement on Mars - it's so
alien to the rest of us! I wouldn't be doing my duty as a disloyal
citizen if I wasn't heaping s**t on Londons good name to potential
tourists, would I?

fishy said:
meh, i was only half right. when i seen that you'd
posted in this one gwil, i was sure you'd be advising some burning and
some pilaging.

so why no pilaging?

The way the exchange rate is going these days I feel like London's gonna be the one doing the pillaging.

@Gwil, thanks for that list!

<DIV class=quote>
<DIV class=quotetitle>? quoting Gwil</DIV>
<DIV class=quotetext>Hey it's London, the capital that befits a placement on Mars - it's so alien to the rest of us! I wouldn't be doing my duty as a disloyal citizen if I wasn't heaping s**t on Londons good name to potential tourists, would I?
</DIV></DIV>

my point exactly

:A

AtoM, it's been quiet since the rioting ended, so you'd probably get away with a trip to Nottinghill Gate, where Hendrix popped his clogs, to party with the locals.

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i eat paint

Addicted to Morphine said:
The way the exchange rate is going these days I feel like London's gonna be the one doing the pillaging.

ABSOLUTELY TRUE. the dollar used to kick butt, but now it's everyone's B. When i went, the ex rate was exactly 1:2. 2USD = 1GBP it sucked so bad. the Pound menu at Mcdonalds is the 2 dollar menu. lol.

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I tried sniffing coke, but the ice cubes kept getting stuck in my nose.
http://www.dimebowl.com

Nickelplate said:
the Pound menu at Mcdonalds is the 2 dollar menu. lol.

That's a good way to think about it, but I'm more worried about
the cost of all the booze. I hope I can afford to paint the town
red...

beer and cider are cheap enough there. for anything else, just use someone else's booze.

Also, you will LOVE their candy over there. Crunchie, "Fudge" and other cadbury bars are great!!! Also, I'm serious, try Heinz canned Spotted Dick or Treacle. it's yummy.

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I tried sniffing coke, but the ice cubes kept getting stuck in my nose.
http://www.dimebowl.com

Well -- I'll be leaving my house in an hour to catch my overnight flight to London. I'm not sure if I'll be taking a lot of pictures (I always feel too touristy and just put my camera away) but I'm bringing my camera just in case.

Dark, I'll try to get shots of the outside of British Parliament if I can, meanwhile check out this site: http://www.parliament.uk/visiting/panoramas.cfm

I haven't looked through the content but that might help.

Have a great time mate :smile:

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[img]http://card.mygamercard.net/sig/Default/reno84.png[/img]
Designer @ Haiku Interactive | ReNo-vation.net

f**k looking like a tourist. Take pictures and enjoy.

Be safe, you know how those Brits are.

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The best things in life, aren't things.

Hey, I'm currently mapping the outside of the british parilament for a mod, can you get me some pictures of the architecture. It's kinda hard to map it with only the pictures you get with google.

Cant the police arrest you for "Plotting Terrorism" for taking photos of important government buildings?

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I need a new sig

Maybe. I know I wanted to do a movie in the subways in NYC and my Professor said it was a bad idea. Everyone is so anti-terrorist I can't even shoot a short love story. :razz:

Edit: Thanks for the well wishes !

Thanks a lot man, I've managed to complete the map, you guys will have to look for it in Black Mesa: East :smile:

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Dark_Kilauea
DVS Administration
http://www.dvstudio-production.com/

Been to London, so beatuful. Just beware of the tube :wink:

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Hahaha! Im using the INTERNET!

haha, yeah the tube. The stations themselves are really cool if you can get info on their history. But riding the train is only a real treat the first time when you think to yourself, "I'm on the underground, WHEEE!"

http://www.backingblair.co.uk/london%5Funderground/
strong lyrics warning.

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I tried sniffing coke, but the ice cubes kept getting stuck in my nose.
http://www.dimebowl.com

haha, yeah the tube. The stations themselves are really cool if
you can get info on their history. But riding the train is only a real
treat the first time when you think to yourself, "I'm on the
underground, WHEEE!"
http://www.backingblair.co.uk/london%5Funderground/
strong lyrics warning.

snif That was so beautiful...

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''Everyone wades in s**t until they're competent enough to walk on it. Jesus style.''
Dystopia - Empires

You people must be bloody bonkers. London is the nastiest place i've
ever been & I was born there. I feel sorry for you personally, dont
end up in the north end, the east end, the south end & some parts
of the west end :razz:

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My Pit

OH! I loved london so much. I stayed at some chick's house in East finchley. She was a slutty type of girl, always chatting on the telephone about how some guy's condom slipped off in her or some trash like that. I thought I got the crabbies from her toilet seat, but it just turned out to be herpes.

Anyway, london is really clean.

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I tried sniffing coke, but the ice cubes kept getting stuck in my nose.
http://www.dimebowl.com

Well, I got here safely. My overnight flight was good, British Airways does an amazing job with their food! Seriously, it was great.

I took the tube from Heathrow to Covent Gardens, which is where my friend's flat is. I have to admit, I laughed to myself when I saw that the final stop on the Picadilly Line was c**kfosters. I felt like the guy in the office. "c**k."

Anyway -- yesterday I pretty much just walked around the bit of London near my friends flat and admired the mix of old and new. The old phone booths (which I hear are being phased out), the old black cabs, the old buildings, versus the new technology, the new fashions, the new shops and stores etc.

My friend and I ended up watching V for Vendetta at this humongous theater where they apparently do movie premiers. It cost 9 pounds (about 18 dollars) for a ticket to the "stalls" which was my first realization that s**t is really expensive here. They had tickets on sale in the "Royal Circle" that were about 24 pounds, or 48 dollars. In the US, it usually costs 5-8 dollars for a movie, 10 if you're in New York City. I paid 20 dollars for a pizza last night too, and 6 bucks for a beer. I have to just stop doing the dollar coversions in my head or I'll never be able to by things guilt-free.

Anyway -- last night was pretty quiet. We did pizza and a DVD movie in the flat, and I drank some beers we bought at the convenience store around the corner. I kept thinking I was gonna crash because of the time-difference, but after the movie was over I had so much energy I coerced my friend (and his friends) to go out with me to the bars. We went to about 4 different places before we found one that had young people in it. Things were pretty quiet, since it was Monday night. Anyway -- it was my first real taste of the city, and I'm looking forward to more today.

My friend actually has a huge test this Friday for class, and so he's been in the library all afternoon. That's why I'm on his computer in his room with his wireless killing time.

Anyway -- London is a great experience. I love just noticing all the ways in which London is different from the US. I also feel kind of out of place and very American when it comes to fashion. All these tight jeans, stylish shoes, and long overcoats, and classy button downs... when I'm just walking around in sneakers, jeans, t-shirt, and a light fleece.

Enjoy :smile:
And remember to visit ALL the historic monuments (Nah too harsh, that would be impossible).

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Hahaha! Im using the INTERNET!

I managed to get an early start today, I grabbed breakfast at a cafe near the Apple Market, then walked over the Millenium Bridge to the Tate Modern Art Museum, and cruised around there for an hour or two. I wanted to see some Roy Lichtenstein paintings, but they were down for the rehanging that's going on. Some of the art at the Tate was good, but honestly most of this modern art in my opinion is just terrible. Everything seems so unartistic. I mean, they have a painting thats just plain blue. What kind of serious artist could produce something like that and have the pretension to call it art? I understand they are making a statement, but they come off quite untalented.

Anyway -- after Tate I walked next door and took a tour of the Globe Theater, which I really enjoyed as I'm an English major and have taken my fair share of Shakespeare classes. It was nice to ground myself in reality and see the (reconstructed) stage where so many plays I've had to read were performed.

I'm going to go see We Will Rock You in about two hours, so I have to get going and grab some dinner, but not before I share some photos with you. I have quite a few random shots of buildings that I thought would look great in a map, as well as the famous type locations, so if you guys are interested in seeing more photos, or photos twice this size, let me know and I'll try to get them to you. I'll try to caption them as best I can.

View from the cafe towards the Apple Market:
BBC Building:
Blocks Exibit inside the Tate:
Covent Gardens:
CoventGardens2:
Globe and Others:
Map this!:
Map this too!:
Thames:
London Eye:
Map this!3:
Underground Sign:
Reverse:
BBC Building2:
LSE:
Covent Gardens3:
LSE2:
Millenium Bridge:
Millenium Skyline:
Picture of a Picture:
Map this!4:
Random Church:
Royal Courts:
Royal Courts2:
Skyline:
St.Paul's:
St.Paul's2:
St.Paul's Skyline:
Tate:
Tate Chimney:

Great pictures, been to a lot of those places to.

Nice to see your enjoying yourselve :smile:

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RUST Gamedesign
pepper design

The strength of the turbulence is directly proportional to the temperature of your coffee.

Nice photos man, I see London enjoyed more favourable weather with the rest of us today. First time i've seen sunshine in weeks!

BTW, the BBC Building is "Broadcasting House". The television end of
the things is called television centre, and is an absolute monstrosity
of 1960s "square and brown" architecture.

those were some really sweet buildings you took pictures of. Too bad it was so overcast most of the time. overcast days tend to make borring pictures. Still, take more and let us see them! you can never get worse at photography by taking more pictures.

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___My Site___ | www.leveldesign.nl

Thanks for the comments and encouragment guys. I'm going on the Eye tomorrow, so I'll have some good cityscape photos.

Don't forget to stop by "The london Stone" and stop by a Wetherspoons and get the bangers and mash.

There are so many great names of tube stops... "c**kfosters" "St. Johns Wood" "shepherds bush" i went and got pics of them all.

I know what you mean about feeling out of touch with the style. I looked totally crappy compared to the stylish Londoners.

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I tried sniffing coke, but the ice cubes kept getting stuck in my nose.
http://www.dimebowl.com

Londoners are always up there with the trends.. it's the media focus
and base of Britain though, like if you go to Paris, New York, Rome,
you do always feel like a "visitor".

Still nice though, putting famous places into your eyes. It's been ages
since I went to London, makes me want a day of taking photos after
looking at these.

So I went to the Queen show "We Will Rock You" tonight with my friend, on the recommendation of my mother, who caught the show this summer.

The premise is that the 3 remaining members of Queen teamed up with someone to work their most famous songs into a musical.

Going into it, I was really curious to see how they would write a story that would weave all the songs together, and I have to say that they did a pretty good job incorporating the songs into the story, and including a lot of allusions. Overall though, the story was somewhat cheesy. But jesus, hearing these Queen songs live were pretty amazing. I literally had chills running down my spine when 2 of them sang "Under Pressure" and when they sang "Bohemian Rhapsody" the house went nuts. I saw 60 year old men jumping around next to their grandsons who were waving glowsticks and cheering just as loud.

It was a great show, just because I didn't expect to have the concert experience in the theater, but to be honest if you want a concert experience you may as well just go to a concert :smile:

I just got back from "flying" the London EYE and I have another batch of pictures to share, but I don't have time to upload them now... although I did want to share a single picture.

This goes out to Nickelplate!



Enjoy! Turn it into an avatar maybe :smile:

I luv u. lol

Did you try IRN BRU yet? You'd better!

I gotta go to the police station now, TTYL./

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I tried sniffing coke, but the ice cubes kept getting stuck in my nose.
http://www.dimebowl.com

Ah, I do love the new Irn-Bru advert :smile: I also love Irn-Bru. Us Scots are good for something!

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[img]http://card.mygamercard.net/sig/Default/reno84.png[/img]
Designer @ Haiku Interactive | ReNo-vation.net

I luv u. lol
Did you try IRN BRU yet? You'd better!
I gotta go to the police station now, TTYL./

I haven't seen it yet, but if I do I'll try it.

It'll be in any SPAR convenience store you stop in. Also try a cadbury's "Crunchie" candy bar. We don't ahve them here, but I loved them. Also Fudge fingers. Yum.

Have fish n chips yet? lol

[edit] did you get spotted dick yet?

/me snickers

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I tried sniffing coke, but the ice cubes kept getting stuck in my nose.
http://www.dimebowl.com

Go to the British Museum, you can see the 'parthaneon marbles' (the
real ones are rumoured to be hidden from attacks in an underground
safe) that we won't give back.

I liked the view from the London Eye, though it would have been better if there was more sun.

Parthenon :razz: It's the big building we all associate with Athens I
think.. I think the British Museum calls them the "Elgin Marbles", too.
Imperial pride and all that.

That's the one! If all else fails there is of course shopping!

The college let us go off for 2-3 hours after seeing the marbles.

damn, that's right, robert elgin wasn't it, who bought the over here for around ?30, 000.

Haha Nickel I'm glad you liked the picture! It's awesome to see it up as your avatar. :smile:

It was a beautiful sunny day today so I walked down through Traflagar Square with my friend and my camera on the way past Westminster Abbey, BP and Big Ben. I ended up at the London Eye to get some photos of the city sprawl.

Here are the highlights from today. The sky looked better, but I didn't spend as much time planning or framing shots:

Opera house enroute to Trafalgar:

Building next to the square:

Another building:

Trafalgar1:

Trafalgar2:

Trafalgar3:

Trafalgar4:

Trafalgar5:

Painter:

Arches:

MapThis!:

EyeSideView:

MapThis!:

I have a lot more to upload, but I'll get to those later. I'm going on a pub crawl.

Dude... "trafalgar 2" has the clocks at different times. lol.

You've inspired me to map again. I WILL finish a map.. some day...

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I tried sniffing coke, but the ice cubes kept getting stuck in my nose.
http://www.dimebowl.com

Last night was pretty fun. Instead of a pub crawl my friend and one of his flatmates came with us to club "On Anon" We stayed for an hour or two but it was pretty dead, so we decided to make it an early night. I did get to try Tiger beer which I liked. We'll be trying the club "Fabric" tonight and "Paper" tomorrow. I don't know who comes up with these stupid names, but hopefully the clubs will be fun.

I tried out Wagamama's today for lunch, and it was pretty good food.

I saw a big bottle of IRN-BRU at the supermarket, but unfortunately I didn't buy it -- if they had smaller cans I would have tried it.

Anyway -- I have a few minutes to kill before we get ready to go out for dinner so here are the rest of my photos:

Westminster Abbey/Station:

Full BRU Cab:

Parliament for DK:

Parliament2:

Ben:

BenSunny:

Ben2:

Eye from the bridge:

I love this next shot for some reason. I saw that the walls bordering the Thames had Lion figureheads, and I took this:


Under Eye:

The rest of these shots were taken on the Eye, and don't need much explaining. Here they are in the order I took them.






Okay, last one about the Eye. This is me on the left and my best friend on the right, whose flat I've been staying in all this week:


The inside of the Apple Market:

That's all the photos I'll be taking this trip. I hope you enjoyed them!

Tidbit: For those who don't know, "Big Ben" actually refers to the
largest of the bells within the Houses of Parliament clock tower, not
the tower itself.

Ooh, I did not know that.

Thanks Gwil. :smile:

You know... SOME people don't have ANY IRN BRU and you're turning your nose up at a BIG bottle... for shame.

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I tried sniffing coke, but the ice cubes kept getting stuck in my nose.
http://www.dimebowl.com

Thanks man, this will help our texture artists out a ton. I really glad to see that I got my map to look almost indentical to the parliament :smile:

Look out for BM:E teaser comming out tomorrow

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Dark_Kilauea
DVS Administration
http://www.dvstudio-production.com/

BME? Body Mod E-zine?

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I tried sniffing coke, but the ice cubes kept getting stuck in my nose.
http://www.dimebowl.com