Since I don't have any bookish related things to share, and since a friend of mine wanted me to blog about some of my travels, I might as well start off with a long overdue post from a trip to the UK last June-July 2008.

After a long plane ride from Manila to Dubai and finally to London, I landed on June 1st, Saturday, around 8AM.
[More info in another blog post]

After resting in my apartment in Smithfield, unpacking and cooking my lunch, it was time to go sightseeing with my friends!

First up was North Greenwich.

** Map of the different areas in Central London's East Side. Taken near St. Paul's Cathedral by myself **

From Farringdon station, I bought myself an Oyster Card [tip: buy an Oyster card! It is accepted in the bus and the Underground and you'll get fares that are so much cheaper than the typical single fare rate]. I honestly have no idea which station or line of train we rode in and where we stopped! I was at a daze! I think we went down the Circle/Metropolitan line [again, I don't remember] in Westminster [or was it London Bridge?] but when we headed for the Jubilee line, we found out it was closed! Good thing there were free bus services that were shuttling us around the areas where the Jubilee line was supposed to service.

Note: If travelling in London, most underground lines or stations could be closed during weekends because they're under maintenance service. Before you enter the train station, always read the advisories first to make alternate routes. The underground station is quite confusing to understand at first, but every station has free maps in it, and most station has an interchange or another station within walking distance so you could easily find your way around it, easypeasy! :) Also take note that some stations or train lines close earlier than the others so do make your research and you'll be fine :)

We went down the O2 Arena.

Map of London's underground. Confusing? Not really. The different colours represent the different train lines and the circles are station names.

The O2 Arena is a large multimedia arena that used to be called the Millennium Dome. It is the venue for some of the concerts hosted in London. At the time I was there, The Osmonds were playing, and two days before were Boyzone [more about Boyzone later]. It was such a huge venue, it houses a cinema [called the Vue], an exhibition hall [called the O2 Bubble -- King Tut was exhibited at the time, it was actually their first exhibition in this venue, and again, this will be elaborated on another post], various restaurants and bars [Entertainment Avenue], and some other stores. Plus, the dome itself is very distinctive -- you could easily see it from aerial shots of London. *sigh*

There is no entrance fee to go around the O2 grounds, but separate entrance fees if you're going to watch a concert or go see an exhibition in the hall. If you're going to convert from peso to pounds, be sure not to be shocked at the prices cos some of them are absolutely outrageous! At the time, the pound-peso exchange rate was nearly P90 so do the math :P

** me at the O2 Arena **

After the O2, we also went around the North Greenwich area, which will be covered in another post!

Tah for now!