First week in London town

One week in London has passed. My how time flies! Only one week in and already falling behind on the blogging. Ok, so a few notes on getting into London - Heathrow Immigration took a bit of time but the process was quite smooth, lugging around luggage on the tube isn't the easiest... and there are alot of people from Australia in London!

Landed at roughly 7pm on a Tuesday morning and all seemed to be going peachy. I get off the plane and head to the immigrations and customs area. Big lines. The tv screens perched on the ceilings provided a distrcation, but after a few minutes there was nothing new. After about half an hour of waiting, I hit the "45 minutes to go" sign, and started looking around the room... trying to guess the nationality of people based on their look and attempting to verify by looking at their passport. Wasn't having too much success. I either looked very suspsect or bored, at this stage.

Finally, it was my turn to head up to the counter. As I approached the counter, I heard the immigration officer next to me was telling a bloke "ok, what we are going to do is send you home - do you understand that?". The guy next to me was being deported! Ouch. I moved up to the desk without looking at the scene unfolding next to me and handed in my passport, landing card, and my letter of assignment. A few questions later, stamp stamp, and I was in!

The good times didn't quite begin straight away though, as I had quite a bit of luggage. The tube is excellent, I was able to get into town with no major troubles - hopped onto a train and I was in Central London. Easy. Public transport in Sydney is so far behind London that it's just not funny. One thing that you'll find (not really a complaint) is that there are a fair few stairs about the place as the underground stations are... underground. Hauling luggage up the stairs isn't the easiest - but I got there in the end.

Tip #1: In London you stand on the right rather than on the left on the escalators.

Nothing groundbreaking to report in the first week though, as i'm still getting sorted. For the first few days in London I was staying at the Travelodge, and then later moved to the much nicer (read expensive) London House serviced appartments. London House is great, I really enjoy staying there - a few minutes away from work, and it's a pretty swish place with all the amenities... unfortunately it costs over 800 pounds a week! So... i'll be out of there by the end of the month as I need to search for longer term accomodation.

As for exploration in the time i've spent thus far in London, not much. I haven't really done all that much as of yet, and what I have done is mainly centered around tube stations. The stations that i've been to thus far include: Angel, Kings Cross St. Pancras, Temple, St.Pauls, Moorgate, Holland Park, and Shepards Bush.

As much as i've said that it has been largely uneventful, this doesn't mean It definitely hasn't been a boring time thus far. It turns out that there are quite alot of Aussies up here in London, and that includes people that I know (whether it be for work, study, or travel). So in some respects, it feels almost like home. Definitely a smooth transition into the UK so far.

One final note that i've been getting a few questions about. Details on my first weekend here. I'm probably one of the first ever to do this... but I spent a few hours on my first Saturday here in London campaigning for the Australian Federal Election down in Australia House. Crazy? Yes. However, it doesn't matter where I am - it's always hard not to help out. So for those of you that are in the UK, it's time to do the right thing. No prizes for guessing who I voted for, lol.

I really should be looking at accomodation rather than blogging, come to think of it. Will try and get some photos out in future posts as well. That's it for today.