Sunday Morning in Chelsea

Sunday morning it is and the past 24 hours have been adventuresome. Yesterday, (even after the 8 hour night flight from Nairobie, Kenya) I was so excited about being in London that I couldn't bare myself to waste any precious time catching up on rest. I bought a 7 day tube (aka: the underground) pass. "On average three million people use the tube every single day." I read that info tidbit on www.LondonTown.com. That is my favorite website as of now and what I use to get all the info about London. I am staying in the City of Westminister, one of the 7 central boroughs of London. Yesterday I viewed Buckingham Palace with my friends, and later that evening I returned for the Torch Run. I love the British dialect. I had a great place to snap a few pictures of the lady (I'm not sure who she was) carrying the torch. Suprinsingly the torch was carried on horseback. In between the visits of Buckingham Palace I hopped a bus to Picadilly Circus. The area included a big shopping district full of designer name stores. Everything in London is twice as expensive everything in the US! 1£ = $1.95.
I also walked by the Tate Modern, London’s most visited and innovative gallery. Permanent collections includes works by Bacon, Matisse, Rothko and Andy Warhol.
Last night a family of four from Montana slept in the same room of me. It was kind of wierd because I had not noticed any older individuals around the hostal earlier, but they were really friendy and were able to answer a lot of my questions about London since they had been here for 3 days. They are flying to Amsterdam tonight. Two other guys from CA also stayed in the room but I didn't have a chance to talk with them. Overall I enjoyed the hostal and booked 3 more nights their for 17 Pounds per night.
This morning (Sunday Morning), I decided to go for a run. The run didn't go as planned, because I am still a little "lost in translation"; I have trouble knowing which way to look before crossing the street, and which street I am on because there are no street signs. The names of the streets are sometimes placed on buildings but the placement is sometimes hard to find. Yesterday, I struggled in the grocery store. I think Sainsbury was the name of it. The brand names are all most all different and the items are located differently than their locations in US grocery stores. I had the hardest time picking out soap.
Back to this morning... my run turned out to a be a Sunday morning stroll through the Chelsea borough in central London. This is the most beautiful area I have visited yet. I crossed paths with a few families (parents with their young children) dressed nicely as if they were walking to church. Chelsea is a lot more residental and less touristy than the other parts of London I have visited. I think this is because of the lack of tourist attractions in the area. The busier roads of Chelsea were populated with sidewalk cafes and interior decoration furniture stores along with locally owned tailoring stores and clothing boutiques. In the South-West of the borough is Notting Hill, one of the most attractive parts of London.
I think during this stay in London, I will only venture though the city of London. My next trip to London will include other attractions outside of London and accross Great Britain country side such as Stonehenge, the city of Bath.