Visiting Debz and Yvon in London

A few weeks ago I went to England (once again) and made a visit to some friends. The first night I slept over at a quite centric hostel where I had already been to in the past: Picadilly Backpackers. My bedroom was called "the pod room" because its beds slightly resembled the well-known Japanese pod beds. Obviously as it was just a cheap youth hostel any comparative about quality or cleanliness is not appropriate. I shared the room with two Irish girls who were really nice, an Italian guy and two Brazilian sisters. Apart from being cheap (it costed me 22 pounds), the good thing of this hostel is that it is well located in the center of London (in Picadilly circus).

このあいだ、私は英国へ（再び）友達に会いに行きました。最初の夜、行ったことがあった中心のホステルに寝ました (Picadilly Backpackers)。私の寝室は”ポッドルーム”と言いました。日本のポッドホテル見たかった。しじゃし、とても安いユースホステルでしたから少しきたなかった。私の寝室でいろいろな人と共有した。人達はアイルランドやイタリアやブラジルから来ました。安いホテルでしたが（22ポンドぐらい）ロンドンの中心部にあるからとてもべんりでした。

The next day, after having a capuccino, two bananas and some biscuits for breakfast, I went to north west London to meet my friend Debbie (Nusense). We went shopping to a department store in Harrow-on-the-Hill where I bought a cool jumper that looked like I was wearing it inside out. I also loved an electronics shop called maplin where we spent some time looking at gadgets and kits to build your own inventions.

次の日はカプチーノを飲んだりバナナを二つとビスケットも食べた後で、私はロンドンの北西へDebbie (Nusense)に会いに行きました。私たちはHarrow-on-the-Hillのデパートで買いものしました。私はいいジャンパーを買いました。そのジャンパーは少しおかし見たかった。それに家電店でいろいろな品物を見てから家へ帰りました。


At lunch time, we went to the west end, met my friend Yvon at Oxford street (a famous shopping avenue in London's west end) and went for a burger :). After that, we went to two comics shops (Orbital and Forbidden Planet) and a second-hand DVD shop. We found a book containing an illustration by Castelló at Forbidden Planet and decided to take some photos holding it. Debz also bought a t-shirt of her favourite movie "the lost boys". When we came out of Forbidden Planet, we passed by a sex-shop in the Soho and decided to enter :D. Actually, the first floor was a normal bookshop and you had to go downstairs to the basement to find the sex-shop. I though it was a funny trick so clients could pretend to be entering to a normal bookshop.

昼食時には、ウエストエンドへ行ってオックスフォード通りで（有名なショッピング通り）私の友人に会って、ハンバーガーを食べました。その後で、私たちはマンがの店(orbitalとforbidden planetも）へ行きました。友達が書いた本を見付けました。ですから、写真を取ったことが決めました。そしてDebzさんはロストボイスのシャツを買いました。マンがの店の後でセックスショップを入りました。おもしろかったです。一階はつうじょうの本じゃでしたが，地下室はセックスショップがありました。

In the evening, Debz and I watched one of the horror movies (she is fan of them) that she had bought at the second-hand DVD shop: the film "Pumpkinhead IV". I had never seen one of those movies about Pumpkinhead but she explained me the basics so I could understand the story (most of them have almost the same layout). I also wanted to watch "The toxic avenger", but we didn't have time.

At night, we went out and hanged out in a place called Rowans (near Finsbury park) for some time. Debz was wearing a t-shirt that she had bought in Orbital which had the Joker's face and the phrase "why so serious" on it. Then Debbie's friend Lee picked us up and drove us to a club in Islington called Elbow Room were we stayed until late at night. The club's music and atmosphere was mainly hip-hop. In the middle of the place, there were like two circles of people. In one of them breakdancers were showing their moves in turns while in the other one, there were mainly streetdancers.

The following day was Sunday so Debbie took me to see the Wembley market which is the largest Sunday market in England. Lots of stands filled the parking in front of the beautiful Wembley stadium. I especially loved one of the stands (basically a big van) where a guy was selling at auction many electronic devices and other kind of stuff. He would start with a high price and then set it lower until someone bought the item. After bargaining with a seller, Debz bought a tracksuit for her. Most of the clothes there had famous brands (Nike and so on) but I think they were fake.

In the afternoon, we went to visit her French grandmother because it was her birthday. I made a portrait of her based on a photo that Debz gave to me and it made her really happy. In the past, Debz's grandparents used to have a business (a cafe called Berta) in south Spain (Torremolinos, near Málaga). But after the Spanish civil war they had to run away from Franco and the Guardia Civil (I suppose that the fact that they were Jewish didn't help at the time). I had to tell them that those guys with the black hats (Guardia Civil) still exist.

At night I said goodbye to Debz (thanks!!) and took a National Express coach to Cambridge where I was going to meet my friend Simon. It will be continued... ;)