London and me...for the first time :)

Huwo all,

Like I promissed, below you have pictures with my first encounter with charming London- because I found it really quite lovely. After so many years of study about the British culture and after so many years of seeing pictures of the London monumets in study books, finally I got to see all of them live.
My first impression was that the monuments are quite smaller than what I had expected...and my over-all impression- from what I saw is that some places in London are torn from a fairy tale. Seriously...take a look yourselves...

Because I had one hour before meeting Nawaf and Vish (CC members in IC) I decided to walk towards the nearest attraction point- Buckingham palace. As you can see the flag is up- which means the queen is home. :)

And I was lucky because I was just in time for the changing of the guards...


I was really happy to have found such a sunny and warm day...so next I made my way to St. James Park- which I found really really adorable.

The best thing about it were the wild animals that just walked freely around you: geese, ducks, swans, pelicans, squirrels, pidgeons- the parc was really animated and enchanted.

And I imagined how lovely it would be to live nearby and have lunch or breakfast on a bench every day. With Buckingam palace on the left...

...and other beautiful places on the right...

Next I made my way towards Big Ben and the Houses of Parliament...only to find that Ben is...well...not that...big....

Naturally, protesters were posted bright and early in front of the Parliament...but they were peaceful today...

Behind them I found St. Mary's Church...

...and the really really nice and impressive Westminster Abbey...

...from there I returned to the river side to see the London Eye...

...which was great to look at as well, but I don't think I would pay the money to get into it...the view may be great, but it barely moves...:P and I like joy rides...:p

It was here, by the side of the river that I met the first romanian selling souveniers that hit on me....But also bums singing in tube stations that were quite charming and who I think are now part of the underground culture...

Naturally I was relieved to finally meet my boys: Nawaf (left) and Vish (right) and a friend of Vish that was from London whom I kept asking stupid questions afterwards, like "What is the population of London?" and "What do you guys think of the Royal Family?" and so on...

Next we went through Leicester square...

..Over to Trafalgar Square...and saw the National Gallery (didn't visit it- no time :()...


...And Nelson's column. Below was our first "hello CC" picture..:)

Next stop was the famous Soho Neighbourhood...


...with its Sex Shops and peep shows...

...that led us to Picadilly Circus...The Brits brag they had these big adds here way before New York ones...:)


...the other thing Picadilly is famous for is this Eros statue...the thing that shocked me here was the traffic- the whole place is actually a roundabout and the traffic is intense...

After this...we got on the tube to go to Tower Bridge and the Tower of London..which were a bit far...


...I liked the famous Underground... more crowded than the one in Bucharest...and much smaller in dimensions...but quite...poetic...

...It got me thinking about the terrorist attacks more than one year ago and I couldn't believe that I was actually there and that it happened right there...seemed so unfair...

By the time we got out, it was already dark :((...and someone spooky greeted us...but me and Nawaf decided to take advantage and make our famous scary faces near the wax figure...


...and there we were...at the Tower of London...by dark...

..I couldn't resist not to take a picture of the Beafeater who asked me where I was from... upon hearing I was romanian he immediately started to check my teath to see if I was really a successor of Dracula...


...And there it was...Tower Brigde...beutiful like a dream....


...and near it I found a shocking thing...the thing most to the left, that looks like a bee hive, with black and yellow- is actually the building of the City Council...brrr! All the buildings there looked so futuristic...and there was a big battle cruiser right in the middle of Thames, but as it was dark, the pictures of it didn't quite come out so well...sorry dad and Antonio...:P


In the end we took the tube again.... (and look who was advertising on the wall...hmm..)


...to go the the UK MC office- which is huge I might say. There we met some AI members (Petr- the Czech AI VP ER and Amid- the Corporate Relations manager from India). We were told that AI visiting was not an uncommon thing and that Gabitza was also there, having a meeting with the PDU team. After a short MC chat we went to dinner with Pawel (ex. CC VP Finance) who had just flown from Poland to start a traineeship in Tata Consultancy Services- the Indian company Alinutza is working for in India..:). The MC people told us he was lucky to get a traineeship, as there is a huge competition for TNs in London. So Anca...don't be sad...

Finally..a last reunited CC picture, without Caroline unfortunatley, who could not make it. :(.

It was a really pleasant day and a nice experience...and I'm sure I'll go back as soon as I can. Welcome to the UK Pawel and have a safe trip home Vish!