London I

Title nya kayak UK King geto. Henry VI, or Henry VIII... you know ..

But benernya begini :

1> awalnya gw mo cerita panjang lebar soal this solo trip, en cuman mo cerita en pajang foto di Blog biar ga banyak yg kaypoh liat2 di FB.

2> eh lama2 malesh pajang foto di blog karena gw cuman mo choose 1option di antara 2 pilihan yg ada : FB or Blog. Nah, di FB lebih cepet, ada multiple uploader geto. Blog kagak ade. Jadi pikir ceritanya panjang lebar di blog, fotonya refer aja ke FB.

3> eh sekarang....multiple uploader gw di FB, dr compie indo gw ...somehow doesn't work. Jadi uploadnya sekali lima, lima foto geto ....ashtagaaaa...jadi males bener cerita dimana mana :P

dikarenakan itulah..akan gw ceritakan secara singkat trip gw... yah singkat2nya gw jg minimal akan makan waktu sekitar ga kurang dari 5 menit buat baca postingan ini..

Pertama tama gw mo curhat, kl trip gw ke London ga sefantastic apa yg semua orang bayangkan. Single solo trip di London, cewek, wow !! Sound fantastic, patut di jealous sin gitu kan ? Salah :P

Kenapa ? Karena entah kenapa gw banyak bener di senepin sama orang2 London. Kl di itung, ada 5 - 6 kali gw dapet perlakuan yg bikin gw berasa kayak gw di Singapore, instead of tanah laen. Makin banyak hari gw di London, makin banyak gw berasa singapore banyak nyak nyak bener kesamaan sm orang london sana. Dari nama2 tempat, kaypoh nya orang2, rude nya orang2, jalan cepetnya orang2...similar. Off course, masih gw akuin, negara laen masih sliggggggghhhhtttttlly better drpd my domicile country. Cuman bedanya karena it's kinda expected di ngr tempat kita tinggal, jd kadang gw udah kebal bin muka badak sm orang2 domicile cty gw. Dada pun udah ga gw elus kl di SG....gw udah..bisa memaafkan bahkan ngelupain semua kejadian yg bikin ati ga enak di SG.... saking banyaknya .... HAHAHAHHA :p

Tp gw masih ga bisa lupain kejadian2 ga enak di London...so kl orang nanya, how was it ? Gw akan jawab: not as friendly and as fantastic as what you think it would be. Truth to be told, I think I am more fated with USA than UK.

Gw bisa ceritain one by one what really happen to me, but that's a waste of time. You know, to remember all the bad experience ? Even when I was there, when you had to face those experience, alone....pengen marah, nangis, kesel.... and you kinda felt helpless en... rese dah... like my holiday spirit is dampen !! Like loe udah smile smile smile ...eh dikepret... yah mo ga mo a lil bit of my smile is gone ... geto kan ?

In each experience, I choose 2 things :

1> I'm on holiday and I don't really care what you do to me...this is my happy time and I WILL BE HAPPY!!

2> krn most of the ppl yg upset me are service staffs, gw cuman bisa ngomong in my heart "well you are where you are cause you behave the way you are. That's why I'm here and you're there :P so I guess...too bad :P*sedikit sombong.com"

So gw continue to keep my holiday spirit up....and thank God..the settings of London helps !! So here's the thing about london, in my own word, and I'm not a poet nor literature grad: it's a modern ancient city.

So.... my journey to London begins with flight Emirates EK 348 kl ga salah tgl 12 October subuh (00.55 AM Singapore time), ke Dubai with 1 stop @ Colombo. Di pesawat dapet 3 kali makan. Sampe Dubai, ganti pesawat EK001 atau berapa gw lupa, pokoknya ke London. 2 meals. Most of departure meals are great :)

Seharusnya sampe di London jam sekitar 12 lewat2. Gara2 ada delay sampelah gw sekitar ampir jam 2. Ambil luggage, jalan sambil geret koper 15 kilo naek travelator nan paaaaaannnnnjjjjaaanggg, cari tube stations, sampe dah gw di tube heathrow terminal 1,2,3. Top up kartu Oyster (Kiyoko kasih pinjem gw kartu dia, Oyster adalah nama laen EZ Link di SG or Octopus di HK) beli yg 7 day travel card zone 1 & 2 (questions: ask me in person about travel card and zones) and balance secukupnya buat pergi pulang heathrow.

Naeklah gw di Piccadilly Line (biru tua) train aaaaalll the way duduk ajeh (sekitar 1 jam tp seriously it doesn't feel that long) sampe di King's cross St Pancras station. Keluar, liat starbucks, beli latte dulu (biar melek), terus cari Gray's Inn road tempat hotel gw berada.

Hebatnya gw : ga print map hotel coz udah gw hafal mati di Otak. Di map jalannya gampang bener, kenyataan : yak gw nyasar. Sok gw, mikirnya: yah gitu keluar cari building yg victorian gini lah...pasti jelas dunk...harusnya distinct donk lah yah ? Eh ...sampe sana, smua building jg victorian style nek :P emang Asia :P hhh.... nanya orang, dia bilang gw mesti naek bus...ati deg degan...gw coba cari free wifi, on location service...liat baek2.... in 15 mins time, gw balik di jalan yg gw jalanin awalnya, tinggal belok dikit..sampe ke Hotel gw... aih dateng2 olah raga :P

Tp bukan holiday kl ga nyasar2 dikit...betul ? ahhah ...Okielah, yg penting sampe di hotel selamat tentram :)  So check in lah gw, harusnya rush to bathe and go for the first destination, sempetin dunk banci kamera. Hehe :P Then rush mandi, 5 PM and I'm out from Hotel, reached Victoria and Albert Museum before 6 PM. Why V&A on Friday evening is the first destination ? Coz it's free, and they open till 10 AM on Friday.

So mondar mandirlah gw disana, cari dinner disana, liat2 sampe before 9 PM gw dah selesai (ternyata museum di London yg free, banyak yg closed area for paid visit or for members only, and karena jumat malem, banyak yg gelap en serem kan museum so I purposely miss them out..en ternyata mereka ga sampe segede museum di New York yg butuh half a day to finish)  kucuk2 pulang.

Day 1 (well.... half day) done. Go back hotel, beli minum segede setengah galon di nearest shops, baliklah gw ke hotel. Gw stay di Tune Hotel London, King's cross branch. Recommended coz :

1> Cheapest among other Tune Hotel in London

2> There are many tube lines in King's cross and St Pancras (around 6 lines)

3>  many convenient store around it. 2 MacDonalds, Starbucks, Pret a Manger

4> It's Harry Potter's train station. One can go Hogwarts thereafter :) and... it's the train station that can bring you to Paris (St Pancras train)

5> as you've read, I just need to sit my ass from heathrow to this station. It's direct Piccadilly train baby, and that's a winning point :)

Go for this hotel !! Well it's budget hotel indeed, but GBP aint no cheap money too :P 

Anyway, I closed day 1 with a good long night sleep to prepare for early day on Saturday Oct 13, and to get used to London hour.

So Day 2 : October 13. Greenwich & Tate Modern day :)

Greenwich, ga perlu gw kasih tau daerah apa yah :P Everybody knows Greenwich Mean Time (GMT), dari pelajaran IPS dulu :) Btw ..bacanya green-nich instead of green-wich :P and yes I just found out too :P

Destination: Greenwich area. Stop nya di station yg namanya Cutty Sark (DockLand Railway line).  DLR ini overground, jadi bukan under ground. Interesting thing dari DLR ini, ada 3-4 station yg jarak antar station-nya ..... cuman 10 second :P Gw sampe, hah ? ini mah kayak train di disneyland atau sentosa, bukan MRT. Kok deket banget jaraknya napa jalan kaki aja coba ? Sampe2 gw bisa liat directly the next 2 station in front geto :P haha

Well, sampe sana my first point : Greenwich market cari makanan. Gw liat satu orang makan rice ball digoreng kayaknya enak, gw tanya beli dimana. Enak jg, except I should buy the one with meat instead next time. Terus gw ngopi, beli latte di restoran spanish ;P kekenyangan sama si Pesto ball segede onde2. Selesai baru gw puter2 in greenwich market, yg sekali lagi, kecil :P less than setengah jam selesai. So, good :)

Gw decide to go find Greenwich observatory. Ikutin panahnya, jalan....eh ternyata jalannya jauh bener bok. Jauh uh uh bener... plus...nanjak...... plus.... udah sampe neh benernya the greenwich observatory...guess wad ? gw lewatin aja happily, gw pikir, yah ini mah public toilet doang (gw liat backsidenya yg emang cuman ada toilet) so gw jalan terus.... teruss ....terusss..sampe ke tengah2 lapangan where I can only see...nothing but green !! Yup I'm officially lost (again) en I figure out kl gw udah jalan sampe off my map :P so gw trace back, cari jalan laen.. yg lebih muter lagi.. (kaki oh kaki..kasian dikau)....en found that toilet building yg gw ketemuin setengah jam yg lalu is exactly the building I'm looking for....adoh kasian dikau Lissa :P

Not wasting my time, masuk en liat2 lah gw. En skali lagi, gedungnya : kecil :) setengah jam selesai :) horee.. day is early so I walk back planning to go the next destination. Eh tengah jalan ujan bok. Carilah gw tempat berteduh (payung ketinggalan di koper) en ketemulah gw sama si Maritime museum, yg masuknya gratis (yay) en gw benernya mo masuk beli payung, harganya 19 P gw ga jadi beli (payung seh 38 dollar Sing...ga rela) eh gw malah found other interesting stuff inside yg berhubungan sama maritime. One of it is, seragam bekas one soldier, lengkap sama darah dia waktu dia ditembak, dari taon 1940 sth masih ada itu seragam.

Ujan selesai, gw keluar cari famous bangers and mash place. Eating there while I have wifi, updating instragram pics and ngobrol sama Fenny Lo :)

Selesai makan, eh ujan lagi. Untung pas banget selesai gw makan, pas mulai ujan, coz I choose to sit outside (al fresco) biar adem en ga bau sosis baju gw...lari2 lah gw cari shelter, masuk this shop yg kl ga salah namanya joy or sth, where T-shirt price is the same nominal price in SGD (like 38), just that in actual it's 38X2 = SGD 76.00. Muter2 seakan akan mo beli (padahal cuman nungguin the rain to stop)

Gitu berenti, I rushed back ke train station buat lanjut ke Tate Modern, museum yg sekali lagi gratis en kl jumat en sabtu buka sampe jam 10.00 malem. 

Waktu mo perginya, sekali lagi susah bener ketemu pintu masuknya. Mana jalannya sepi bener padahal baru jam 5 sore. Gw mikir ntar balik malem jam 10.00 I gotta find new way to go back, ga mo deh lewat jalan yang sama bisa jantungan ini mah.

Masuk Tate modern, langsung gw gerak jalan lewatin semua hal2 yg menarik sometimes, confusing another time. Menarik karena, well I love art. Confusing coz, lah Batu Bata disusun en batu kali di atur rapih itu artnya dari mana ? Bingung gw..

Yg menarik dari Tate Modern itu can't be catch by Camera. Dari namanya aja, we kinda know that ini the modern art kind of museum. So....they play alot with Audio Visual. Ada yg bikin video just using paper dolls, and all the background stage setting semuanya Paper, filmed on a black and white colour. 

Yg paling menarik buat gw, ada satu ruangan where they basically play lots of abstract pictures in a video mode kayak windows punya screen saver yg pipe geto, atau kayak gelombang air, or like resonance wave in  changing colours, size and shapes, dipanduin sama lagu2 ala gamelan and drum gitu.....we just go in, look at the screen, listen to the music..... it's therapeutic.....but spend another 5 minutes there and gw berani yakin gw bisa dihipnotis :P ahahahah :) itu beneran kayak hipnotise to your eyes...the audio and the visual on a dark black room..... interesting :) 

And another funny thing. Di SMA pernah ga maen yg bikin cerita bergilir ? Tiap orang contribute a Subject, a Predikat, an Objek, and Keterangan....  in random order, without looking the previous person's word ? Nah di Tate Modern ini, ada yg serupa seperti itu, just that instead of mengarang cerita, kita menggambar. Tapi, kita harus gambar according to the lines of a Poem from list of Poem trees that we choose to be a part of. Minimal buat gambar itu to become animation, harus ada 8 frame yg kita gambar. When our drawing have been saved, when viewers come and take the tools yg kayak senter but works like a mouse to the projector and point to a tree, bakal ada gambar keluar from the bottom of tree, grow up up while showing the drawing & telling the Poem from each person drawing's perspective. Interesting really, so after dinner, I spent 45 minutes drawing a dying tree with winter combined. Ca....pek..... becoz gambarnya pake pen elektronic :P And to think that it has to be kind of continuous with the previous frame....woottt... otak en badan gw capek :P 

So pulanglah gw, lewat jalan laen yg gw ngotot cari malem itu karena gelap en serem. Dan ternyata jalan itu juga sama gelapnya, so gw lariiiiiii balik ke train station. Itung2 olahraga. But thank God, itu jalan jauh lebih deket banding my starting road. Tau geto jalan itu aja dari tadi. 

Day 2, done :)

Sampe disini dulu, cerita London part 1 saya...bagaimana ? ehhehe :) 

bombie {=^o^=}