Plucky Survivors See Europe Day 34: London

On the morning I flew out of Paris, I stopped at a laundromat and washed all my dirty clothes.  What I didn’t notice at the time was that several of the items – mostly the white things – had gotten greasy, black stains.  I think it was from the dryer, but after trying some hand washing they seem pretty unsalvageable.

So, I spent the morning shopping.  I headed to nearby Regent Street, which is lined with name-brand stores like Calvin Klein, Burberry, and Armani along with a couple of stores that I could actually afford things from.  It was all dressed up for the impending Pride parade, which would be marching down it later.  Nearby is the famed Carnaby Street, which was the epicenter of the 1960s “Swinging London” scene.  It’s much staider these days.  Not a thigh-high white vinyl boot in sight.

Then it was off to replace my shoes.  Note: Converse Chuck Taylor All-Stars apparently have a mileage limit and I reached it.  They were falling apart after the 150+ miles I’ve walked in the last month.  The UK uses different sizes than US, but I got ones that fit and hope I’m not going to regret the idea to get new shoes in the middle of a trip where I have to walk a lot.

After dropping off my purchases, lunch was necessary and I decided to give the British Pub one more try.  I haven’t had much luck with them so far and didn’t break that streak with Coach House, a highly regarded example of the breed.  I got their Chicken Club, which is supposed to come on toast with hard-boiled egg, bacon, and roasted peppers.  It looked like this:

And tasted like you’d think it would.   Oh, well.

A costume change and I was off to see London Pride.  They do it up BIG here, with most of this part of town shut down for the huge crowds that came later in the day.  There are multiple stages scattered about, including one just outside my hotel in Leicester Square.

The main stage is in nearby Trafalgar Square, so I headed there to catch up with the parade, which had already reached it by the time I got there.

There had been rumours (British spelling because they were British in origin) that Madonna was going to be making an appearance on the mainstage later in the day, not to perform but to say something for some reason.  I only believed it from the perspective that if there is a stage, Madonna will want to be on it, but from every other perspective I knew that b**ch wasn’t gonna show up.  Later in the day, organizers issued a statement saying she wouldn’t be there.  Little gay hearts all over London broke.

By the way, don’t let the pictures fool you.  I was there on the early side of things.  Right now it’s a little after 7pm and the streets are absolutely packed with people.  I had to take some detours from my intended route back from dinner because it was impossible to pass down some of them due to the amount of people.

Speaking of dinner, while British pub food hasn’t been fantastic, most of the other regional cuisines I’ve sampled have been, so I decided it was time to start prepping for Spain and Portugal coming up in a couple of weeks by visiting a Latin restaurant.

El Pollote is just off Carnaby Street and features a small menu of Latin delights.  I got the arepitas, mini Venezuelan cornbread morsels with a queso fresco to dip them in.  For the main I had the fire roasted chicken with pepper and coriander sauce.  And on the side I had the chorizo mac & cheese.  The arepitas were only okay, but the mac and cheese and the chicken – especially the sauces – were fantastic.  I chose well tonight.

Tomorrow is my final full day in London and while I’m not sure what I’m going to do for the first part of it, the big finish is going to be at the Hyde Park BST festival where I’m going to see Chic with Nile Rodgers, Scissor Sisters, and Duran Duran.

Monday will mark the halfway point in the trip – six weeks down and six weeks to go!