London Part 3

We heard PZ Myers was coming to London.  PZ Myers is a biologist and outspoken atheist.  Thus, we had to go.  Chuy rapidly bought the entrance tickets, the train tickets to London and arranged a babysitter for Sophie.  The next day we found out that he was going to do another talk in London, the following day from the other talk and this time it was going to be with Richard Dawkins.  Richard Dawkins is not only a very respected, ground-breaking biologist but he is also probably the most famous outspoken atheist.  Chuy and I are big fans, we really enjoy his books.  He writes nonfiction science books, that really leave you in awe at the amazingness of biology.  Even if you had thought biology was hard or boring.  He has a great way of explaining things, I bet he is a great professor.  Needless to say, even though we were gonna have to pay for two days of London train tickets and babysitters, we didn't even think twice, we were going.

The day came for the first PZ Myers talk.  We were ready and really pressed for time.  We had only left 30 minutes from the time the babysitter was suppose to be there to when our train left.  So when we heard the phone ring five minutes before the babysitter was suppose to arrive, we knew it could only mean bad news.  And it was, the babysitter was going to be late, and by the time she got there, there was no way we could make it to the train station in time.  We got there late, asked the information guy and he was like 'yikes, I guess you have to buy new tickets...'  Well that didn't help much, so we bought new tickets at three times the original price and tried to forget that part.  Our train ride was very pleasant, we are not used to having the privilege of reading peacefully in trains.

A quick dinner on the train...

When we got to London, we noticed we had time to walk there but had to hurry.  So we didn't take many pictures, except of this street art that we saw there from one of the famous street artists, Invader.

Invader!!!

We got to the place, and actually saw PZ Myers there outside the building hanging out, while we frantically looked for our tickets.  We finally found them and made our way inside to sit down.  Honestly, the introduction guy scared us a bit.  I know he is trying to unify the atheist community but he sounded a bit dogmatic with the atheism principles and stuff like that he was saying.  Then PZ Myers came out and put my mind at ease.  This was what I signed up for, a great talk about skepticism with a bit of biology thrown in for good measure.  He was funny and informative, we had a great time.  We walked back, this time with time to spare, a huge sigh of relief for making our train this time.

The next day, we had to do the same trip again, but this time the babysitter promised not only to be on time, but be there ahead of time.  And she was.  We made it on time to the train this time, and again enjoyed our quiet train ride.  But this time we had to hurry to the talk, we were walking fast.

Even though we were in a hurry, Chuy couldn't go without taking a few pictures on the way.

After some wrong turns and back tracking, we made it to the auditorium.  We found some seats and were checking the place out, when suddenly screams demanded our attention.  People were trying to hold the doors close to the auditorium with some yelling from the other side.  The yelling people won and they got inside the auditorium.  They passed right in front us of us, chanting something that we couldn't grasp and made themselves comfortable in the stage.  At this point, everybody in the auditorium is clueless of what was happening.  All anybody could really make out from their chant is 'shame on Dawkins'...I had previously in the week read about Dawkins agreeing to teach at a new private school, and apparently the protestors didn't like that. 

Somehow it was Dawkins' fault that the tuition rates had gone up.  Like if he has any say on it.  So at this point no one was sympathizing with the protesters, everybody felt the protestors were quite misguided.  Chuy and I were on a tight schedule so this was not amusing to us either.  A few police officers arrived and I honestly expected to see some tackling about to happen.  But no, they were protecting the protestors from the audience while trying to persuade them to leave.  I was rather impressed by the lack of police brutality. 

It was fifteen or twenty minutes into what should had been the start and still just chanting and the audience getting quite annoyed.  I bet most of the people in that audience agreed with the free education that the protestors were advocating, but it had nothing to do with the talk they were ruining.  In fact, they were hindering a lecture of sorts from happening.  Finally, a swarm of police officers came and the protesters were intimidated and just walked out. Here is the video we got of that:





The talk started, it was obvious from the start that some of the protestors had infiltrated the audience, so I think everyone was waiting for them to provoke another disruption.  And sure enough, as soon as Dawkins started to talk, someone yelled out greedy.  As two police officers were dragging the protester out, Dawkins in a very stern voice indicating he was irritated said 'Every penny I make from lectures goes into charity.'  And just like that, just like when he argues with creationists, he disarms them with facts.  It was great.  Dawkins and Myers got into a talk about biology, technology and atheist issues.  Right in the middle of it, a few protesters stood up and started reading their protest.  Dawkins was about to lose it, he said 'I will take questions at the end of the talk.'  When they didn't stop talking.  He repeated himself in a way that indicated anger.  The police officers dragged the protestors out.

The talk continued and it was rather interesting, unfortunately it had to be cut short to allow for the Q&A part.  There was a few interesting questions, and I found out that both PZ Myers and Dawkins are working on books, I can't wait until they are out!  As they were about to say bye, another protester walks up to the microphone and starts telling Dawkins to support the fight for free education.  This time the protestor is not rude, even though it was clear that the Q&A part was over, Dawkins replied.  He said that he supports free education for all, and votes for the political parties that support that.  He said that all he agree to do is teach in a school because he believes in education.  And then another protestor yelled out 'Who paid for your education professor?' and Dawkins answered that in those days, the government paid.  'And how is that fair for this generation?!' said the protestor, the organizer then said 'That's enough.'  And the talk was over.  But it's clear that the answer to the protestor's question is it's not fair, but it still has nothing to do with Dawkins.  Here is the entire talk, in case you want to watch it:







We checked the time and noticed that we only had 28 minutes to make it to our train.  We ran to the tube station, got there, transferred once and got with just enough time to see our train taking off.  Defeated again.  We looked at the train schedule and another train to Colchester was taking off in a few minutes.  It was from the same company, so if they told us anything, we would just have to paid and that's it.

But as the train was about to leave, it kept getting full and fuller.  I started feeling really bad about being in the train and was basically very paranoid the whole time.  I could not enjoy the quiet ride at all, I was speculating about wild situations in which we were thrown off the train in a strange town.  Or be fined for like £1000 or something.  But they didn't check our tickets.  But I didn't claim victory yet, they usually check your tickets once more at the train station.  Not this time though.  Finally, I could breathe. And it actually stopped at the train station near our house, for once.  We got home and our crazy adventure was over.

London Part 2

This trip to London was triggered by a concert. Blackfield was playing in London, and Geli and I are big fans of Steven Wilson's music, and this is one of his bands, so we felt like we had to go see it! So we got train tickets, concert tickets and we booked a babysitter to watch Sophie at the hotel, while we were at the concert. We signed up with a babysitting agency, while we are here. They work all over the UK, so we can just book something ahead of time, and they can send us a babysitter. So we opted to do that so we could go to the concert.

This was on a Friday, so I took half a day off from work and we got on the train to London. Once off the train and in London, a quick ride on the tube towards the station closest to the concert(and our hotel).

We had just gotten our new camera, and I really wanted to take it to the concert, and take some pictures there. But I checked with the venue and cameras were allowed, but not "professional cameras". Our camera is definitely not a professional camera, but it is a dSLR, so it would look "pro" to many people. After thinking about it for a while, we decided not to take it, because if they didn't let us in with it, I would have to run back to the hotel and we didn't have that much time. It was at what looked like an old theater, so that gave the show an interesting feel. The concert itself was amazing! They impressed me, and I already liked them a lot. Geli had not really heard this project that much and she was very pleased as well. Since we don't have any pictures to show for the actual concert, here is a video of the band we went to go see(I couldn't put just one!):







After the concert we quickly walked back to the hotel. Sophie was okay, she just wasn't asleep yet. We tried to sleep, but we also could not. It turns out that the hotel was next to the tube station, where it was not underground. So it was loud most of the night and again by early in the morning. After midnight, it started to get a bit quieter, and we were able to sleep a little.

As soon as we got up we ate some cereal, got ready and walked to the Museum of Natural History! It was a pleasant walk from the hotel to the museum. To my surprise, there was no entrance fee, which was nice. The building stands tall, looks like a castle, it is an impressive sight.

We weren't sure if Sophie was going to let us look around or if she was going to want to leave quickly. But to our surprise, she loved it! We brought her little camera with us, and she was taking pictures of all the animals and dinosaurs that she liked! She had a lot of fun! And so did we.

As expected, there was a Charles Darwin statue on the first floor at the end of the hall. The building was very impressive on the inside as well. We had never been to such a huge museum! There were more fossils and displays than one could absorb in one visit.

After being at the museum for over 3 hours, which seemed to pass by way too fast, we headed to the 222 Veggie Vegan restaurant for lunch. We got a bit lost on the way, but we eventually found it. This was a vegan buffet!

They had vegan quiche, tomatoes stuffed with tofu, pasta salads, various other green salads, some stir fried potatoes and a few other dishes. For dessert, we had a vegan pancake stuffed with vegan ice cream! After that fantastic lunch, we walked some more, headed towards Hyde Park.

Along the way, we saw some protesters, that happened to be distributing information about the fur industry. After walking a bit more, we made it to Hyde Park! It is a massive park! We didn't even see all of it, but we walked around, sat by the lake, watched the swans and ducks swim by, laid on the grass, and walked around some more!

There was even a giant Ferris wheel there! People having picnics, laying down, playing football, rugby, you name it. It is a very lively place!

After the park, we walked towards the metro station. The Marble Arch was there, it was like a plaza. There was also some sculptures, fountains, and a lot of flags.

We then got on the tube. We were headed for Abbey Road. We just had to see it! So we took the tube towards it.

It was a nice neighborhood. We walked a few blocks to get to Abbey Road. Once there, we were surprised with what found. It is apparently quite a popular attraction, because of the Beatles  famous album with that name of course. We definitely did not expect so many people there!

It was just a street really, with the traditional English style pedestrian lights and crosswalk stripes. But there was so many people there, all trying to do the same thing....recreate the album cover by walking across and taking a picture. They would hold up traffic trying to do this, it was quite interesting to see. Although I would imagine the local residents to be somewhat tired of it already.

We also saw the Abbey Road Studios there, a few houses down from the cross walk. Apparently, people write on the wall there. I am not sure if they are allowed to or not, but it seems like everyone writes something there. Something Beatles related.

After Geli walked across and we got the picture, we walked back to the tube station to head to
our next stop. The Loving Hut! This is a vegan restaurant chain, can you believe that? They exist! That is great by itself, but they also change the menu at every location to suit the local cuisine, which is great as well! The food is always fantastic as well! So you could say this is our favorite restaurant chain.

Sophie got the golden nuggets(top left) and chips. We got the fishless + chips and the veggie burger + chips. We got free dessert because we were taking pictures of the food! We got a chocolate cheesecake and a strawberry and cream sponge cake. We also had some coffee. Everything was fantastic!!

After the dinner we just walked to the tube station and took the tube back to the Liverpool Street train station, which is where our train to Colchester would depart from.

Sophie fell asleep at the train station. She was exhausted. We were too, but we can't just fall asleep when we get tired, although that would be nice.

We finally arrived at the Colchester train station...it was too late for the buses, so we took a taxi from the train station to the town centre, and it is a very short walk from there to our house. We are still not done with London. There is still much more to see and do there...we will be back!