on saturday, rebekah, ani and i had plans. plans that involved a bus, and our adopted city. we met around ten thirty, stocked up on snacks, and boarded the bus. on the top deck of the open-air bus, we were joined by a variety of tourists; both english and not. both young, and not. some even on a hen doo. some, were not. we had each seen these buses around the city over the last few years, even boarded them in other cities, but never considered hopping on one in london. this all changed with a discount voucher rebekah had nabbed a few weeks earlier.
we were the loud ones, despite the hen doo and the teenagers. i guess, as we're not technically 'tourists' anymore, we were on that tour for different reasons; we wanted a fun day out in the city. they, on the other hand, wanted to see the sights, learn some history, and probably do all that while taking in the sounds of the city - not with a soundtrack of antipodean jokes, swearing and generally un-lady like behaviour. oh well. you win some, you lose some.
the tour itself was very mundane, despite the age and colour of this city. possibly not if you're a tourist, especially not if you had the three of us sat behind you for three hours (yes, three whole hours). we did so many loops of the city, we ended up seeing things over and over again, and very little of the things we would loved to have seen more of. the loop of the audio tape was greatly out of time with the actual tour, and it got so bad that to make light of the fact, i started taking pictures of things the tape was trying to tell us were there. i got some great pictures of banks, trees and even a pile of construction. aaaah yes, hilarious.
we bailed about half an hour early on the way back to victoria, and instead took the tourist's approach and held a photo shoot with big ben. vogueing to a series of directions like "do eastern european! do kangaroo! do pin-up!" with a bevvy of onlookers and passers-by was actually the highlight of my day. once were done there, we hopped on the tube to bond st to join our tourist friends in a spot of retail therapy. exxxcept, turns out we forgot about london pride, and so found ourselves in the midst of the day's main highlight; the pride parade on oxford street.
we took cover inside while the parade passed, then headed to cafe rouge for some well-deserved lunch (and wine). a few hours and shopping bags later (not mine, sadly), exhausted and with ice creams in hand, we called it a day. the patchy sunburn on the back of my neck and the tops of my arms acts as a reminder of the amazing day we had, as do the hundreds of photos taking over my phone.
how was your weekend?
