London - Day 3

This particular Sunday will forevermore be known to us as the Quest for Good Hair day.

I woke up early again, about 4am, after a fitful night of being woken by partiers. I kept reminding myself this is the sort of area I love to be in, and it is. I'd rather have some minor interruptions in sleep and be right in the midst of things. Sleep is overrated. I enjoy being up before everyone else. It gives me a chance to read, write, and Facebook.

Once the others woke up, I decided to plug in the blow dryer with the fixed converter and it was successful ... for about ten seconds ... then suddenly stopped, the fuse blown yet again. I figured it must be the outlet's fault, so tried another outlet with the new converter. The same thing happened, though this converter was now garbage since it didn't have an external fuse. Guess that's why it cost only £7! Alright then, so we had one converter left, another cheapie. Obviously the dryer was just not going to work. At least we had the flat iron. Our hair could still, hopefully, be rescued from the frizz of another humid day. I plugged it in, and it began to heat up. I got one length of hair in it, and it was still working, then the green light went out. Damn!

Serving breakfast to the homeless.

This was now an emergency. I was kicking myself for not bringing my travel dryer and iron. Cairo and I were now both looking forward to a vacation of curly hair, something neither of us was prepared for. Once in a while, we may choose to have a curly hair day, but never a curly hair month! So we decided to go look for a cheap UK set. I looked online to find the closest drug stores, and there were a number of Boots and Marks and Spencers in the area, all with different opening times. Their web sites both showed they carried blow dryers and flat irons, at very affordable prices. As this was a Sunday, today was, much to my chagrin, a later opening day.

Charing Cross Station

We headed down to Charing Cross station, which opened earliest, at 9am. The Marks and Spencer was opened first, but all they had was food ... the most wonderful looking sandwiches, salads, and fruits, all packaged for travel. We made a mental note to remember M&S for later. Next door at Boots, we could see a small man inside, stocking shelves, but were frustrated when he didn't open the doors on time. Finally, 10 minutes later, a woman showed up, running, dishevelled, and panting, to open the doors. She apologized to us for opening late, as we ran past her, in search of our items. Alas, our wait was for nought. They didn't have even one! We asked the messy cashier if she knew which stores carried them, but she couldn't tell us.

Gremlin at Covent Gardens

Just a block away was another Boots, this one much bigger. Looking through the windows, we were sure we'd be successful in this store. It was just a matter of when it opened ... ugh ... 11am. Alright, so there were other Boots in the area. Why just down the opposite direction, there was yet another, and it was open 24 hours, and it sold ... glasses only. Well, okay then, there was yet another Boots, closer up to where we were staying, right in the Covent Gardens square, opened at 10am. We wandered around the side streets, looking for other stores that might help us, but even the big Marks & Spencer didn't open until noon.

We now had a plan. Starbucks first, then Covent Gardens Boots at 10, the Strand at 11, M&S at noon. What a day this was turning out to be! Promptly at 10, we walked through the door of the Covent Gardens Boots, to find a tiny little store, smaller than even the train station. I walked through the two tiny aisles, certain it would be of no use, and it was. As we strode dejectedly from the store, Harold pointed out the stairs leading down to the Pharmacy. I was sure it would be a waste of time, but as all we had was time, we went down anyway. To our delight and astonishment, we had found the mother lode! They had not 1, but 3 different dryers, and 3 different flat irons! The prices were cheap, which made me worry about the quality, but better than nothing!

We raced back to the hotel, eager to try out the new tools, and were astonished at the quality. Our hair turned out so soft and beautiful, it was hard not to keep running our fingers through it. I'm not sure why, must be the higher voltage, because my tools are very high quality and expensive, and these Boots ones are the complete opposite!

London Bridge station

So now our hair was taken care of, we could finally get out and see the city. By this time, the weather had turned to intermittent showers, so it seemed like the best time to head off to the London Dungeons, the tourist trap we'd already paid for with our tickets to the London Eye.

Exiting the London Bridge tube station, we were beset upon by aggressive sales people trying to sell us tours and tickets to other trashy places such as the London Bridge Experience and the London Tombs. I surmised, from the way they were dressed as undead characters, that they would be more of the same as what we'd see at the London Dungeon. Our third day of vacation, and our first experience, this trip, of pushy, aggressive sales people. We know better than to even get caught up talking to them, but we weren't weary enough yet, and still wasted our breath telling them "No, thank you."

The London Dungeon

As we had our tickets already, I was hoping we'd get to go at the head of the line, but no such luck. We got put to the back of a long line, with all the others who didn't have tickets yet, to be bothered by sales people over and over with offers of getting in the fast line for just £5 each more. We waited, intent not to give them even a penny ... or even a farthing ... more of our money.

Eventually we got inside, to be shoved in the midst of a high school group from Russia. These were the rudest, most horribly behaved teens I've ever been around, and their parents were just as bad. They were loud and obnoxious. They ran, yelled, pushed and touched everything they were told not to. I'd have felt bad for the Dungeon employees, but they actually had licence to be rude to patrons, since it was all in character. I definitely enjoyed their spoken jabs at the group surrounding us. This was the crowd that taught me to walk with my elbows pointed out so anyone who pushed into me got physically jabbed.

The London Dungeon

The Dungeon was actually better than I expected. It told the bloody history of old London in an entertaining, very gory sort of way, as we wandered through rooms, entertained by characters who regaled us with stories and acting out of gruesome bits of London fokelore. From the serial killer Jack the Ripper, barber Sweeney Todd and regal Bloody Mary to the black plague and the fearsome torture chamber, it was bloody, gory, scary, and fun. Not exactly what we came to London to see, but we had a good time, despite our rude companions.

Comedic String Quartet

After our time in the Dungeon, we came outside to blinding sun, and rumbling tummies. It was now mid afternoon and we hadn't eaten since 7am that morning. Across the road was a sandwich shop called Pret A Manger. It's a sandwich shop with the tastiest sandwiches, soups, and salads made throughout the day. Their selections are more exciting than regular sandwich shops, with items such as Chicken, Stuffing and Mango Chutney Granary, Pole & Line Caught Tuna & Rocket Bloomer and Sweet Chilli Crayfish & Mango Bloomer among many others. At the end of the day, any and all leftovers are given away to charity so it tastes good and feels good to eat there! Unfortunately, they are only available in the UK, Hong Kong, France and a few cities in the USA.

One of the pair of amazingly talented opera singers.

That evening we had reservations at Sarastros on Drury Lane. My Mother had seen this restaurant on an episode of World's Weirdest Restaurants and told me about it. It was pricey, but as it included entertainment as well as a 3 course meal, it seemed worthy of a little extra. We chose to go on Sunday night as that was rumoured to be the best night, with opera singers and a string quartet. That sounds rather staid, and this restaurant is anything but that. It is wildly decorated with dramatic colours, fabrics, and artworks. Low balconies, with banisters from the Royal Opera house are over the bottom layer of tables. The washroom is decorated with renderings of sexual escapades. To me it seemed a mix of old Opera house and bordello. I could imagine, in old London, rich men coming to such a place to experience erotic pleasures. The entertainment was both raucous and talented, with artists from London Opera houses.

Our food was also wonderful here. On Opera nights, they have a 3 course set menu. We started with a selection of Turkish hors d'oeuvres to share, bread, hummus, cacik, kisir, piyaz, cheese borek, mushroom borek, and sucuk. For the main course, I had Lamb Anatolian, Harold had the Beef Bourguignon, and Cairo had Penne Arrabiata. All three meals were very good, but mine was definitely the winner. For dessert, we had a choice of chocolate fudge cake, coffee & mascarpone cake, fruit salad, or ice cream. We all chose the fudge cake. A very good choice.