With the rise of the sun ended the first night in Journey’s. Only two more to go… holy carp, that’s a long time. I ate breakfast, which was actually decent. Had some Golden Puffs and bread with drum roll peanut butter and jam! Peanut butter, you ask!? That’s right, we finally found some! Then I showered. The showers themselves seemed clean. The area right outside the shower, where you could towel off and change was different. There was a bunch of wet carp on the ground along with dirt. The mat they had didn’t help with anything other than holding water. The shower heads were fixed and shot straight down. The water temperature varied widely in a ratio that was approximately 30% warm, 60% cold, 10% hot. Adjusting the handle didn’t do anything. I have no idea how the pipes were rigged, but that doesn’t make any sense to me. It’s not like they were completely out of hot water…. it just didn’t come in warm all that often. Just another nuisance. One upside was the hooks where you could hang your clothes and towel.
Our adventure for the day consisted primarily of the Science Musem, which had free admission! We’re all about the free stuff! It kicked Vienna’s Deutches Museum’s ass in a couple, important ways. 1) This museum was free. 2) The exhibits worked! We spent over four hours in that museum and I don’t think we even saw it all. We saw some engines, airplanes, jets, 18th century inventions (probably my favorite part of all we saw), a plastics exhibit, and quite a few other things. I also enjoyed seeing the history of computing. They had a Cray 1 there, along with some of the first calculators, and Babbages Difference and Analytical Engines (which are mechanical computers, believe it or not)! In the same section were also some crazy pieces of 3- and 4-D geometry. I really enjoyed the museum!
The night before we had talked to a couple people staying in our room, one of whom was a Londoner herself. She told us about a few cool places to check out. One of them was Maxwell’s. It’s a restaurant and Mondays they have 50% off on their burgers. Chuck and I made our way over there after the Science museum, since most other sights closed around that time. They told us a 40 minute wait, but we got a table in 15. I think the food took longer to arrive than we waited to be seated. I got the double stack burger for the main meal and had a banana and toffee sundae for dessert; both were good! The burgers seemed pretty expensive at their full price, but were decent at 50% off. I really enjoyed the hassle-free tap water and refills and credit card acceptance!
Another recommendation was Crobar, a rock bar in the Soho Burrough. Chuck and I headed there a bit later that evening. I really enjoyed the place! They had good rock and metal music along with good drinks. I tried quite a few of their shooters. They had stuff like Misty Mountain Hop (LOTR anyone!?), Charlotte the Harlot, Fireball, and Johnny the Fox. I enjoyed all the ones I tried. I’m glad they had those instead of just straight shots because the shooters are just more fun. Crobar isn’t a huge bar, but it’s got a good amount of seating. The music machine didn’t seem outrageously priced either. Plus you could open a tab on a credit card, which is convenient for not spending all your cash. I enjoyed the crowd, because I’m familiar with the types from my concert goings. I definitely recommend the bar to anyone who hates “pop” music and the regular, lame circle of bars. Josh Burke, this is an example of an awesome bar! Remember our plan to open a metal bar? We can take a lesson from these guys! Mental note: chuck owes me for both dinner and drinks!
After we left Crobar, we went to Trafalgar square to catch a night bus back to St. Pancras/King’s Cross. Along the way we ran into the most awesome thing we’ve ever encountered: public urinals. Right along the sidewalk was this metal structure which could fold open to reveal a small area to walk in and pee in to. I have no idea why more of these aren’t in cities because it would basically eliminate the whole peeing on buildings or bushes problem. I definitely partook of the wonderous contraption! We then checked out what was going on at the plinth. It was just some guy standing around, and once it started raining he went inside a tent he had up there. Uneventful, so we made our way to the bus. Once we got to King’s Cross, we tried to find a kebab stand which was open at 3:30. That was an impossible feat. Chuck and I looked around for a while, and then he headed back while i continued to look. No luck. My faith in kebab’s just died! After I gave up the search, I headed back to bed.