England trip travel notes

 Norwich, the largest city in Norfolk County, East England

Right off the plane I boarded a train to Norwich (Nor'ich makes it so the conductor doesn't give you a double-take). Exited the train and immediately smelled the place in vivid color. Monty Python depicted the smells very well, in period style, of chamber pots and food scraps being tossed out of windows onto the street. Conjures something like that.

Once I found the Air BnB, a Tesco (more later on this) and located an Apple store to get an electrical socket adapter, I slept 10 hours.

The next day, multiple discoveries:

• It's the place where the classic rural English accent must originate. Farmers Market = Fahmas Mahket, Castle = Cahsel, City Center = Ci'y Centa. Recall the old movie Labarynth, "tha' way goes strait to the cahsel."
• The place was built by and for horse carts, thus resembles our New England towns, ie. many spokes rotating around a central hub (Ci'y Centa & the Cahsel) created by concentric spirals. Ergo there are no straight roads.
• Food smells, especially pastries, are akin to road signs indicating when it's time for that meal.
• As the county market seat, it also is home to some 54 churches or cathedrals (two of them pictured below). This type of archetecture on cobble stone pathways is the style of Norwich.

Rather than turn on GPS and follow my phone, I decided to pull up a map on my laptop and study it in sections. When I got lost I would sit on a stoop, pull out the computer and reorient. In this way I learned some visual landmarks and main roads. ie. the football stadium, the hill up to the castle, Prince of Wales & Rampant Horse Streets.

A good deal of hill walking every day, some of them quite steep! Pedestrian ways abound in Norwich. Every few blocks a little segment of a map is posted to orient people, as many destinations include streets that turn off at irregular angles, or are actually more like alleys.

London, third largest city in the World
London, huge. Emerging from the Underground/Tube after four-and-a-half days on foot in Nor'ich, I immediately felt the modern vibe, ie concrete sidewalk. A bit more space between stinkiness, but still very present smells.

I had reserved my entire London stay in one of the YHA hostels. Due to human error, I ended up getting moved to a different location, which turned out to be much better proximity to the yoga training and several blocks away from the bustle.

If Norwich has the homogenous, east country accent, London has all the rest of the accents applied to the English language. Like from all other countries and parts of the UK. Employees/volunteers at the hostel gave me the most impressive concert of nationalities I could have found anywhere.

My yoga training was in the highly-touristed Central London where in one block I might hear 3 different languages. Once I figured out how to walk to the yoga venue I was able to start exploring. In London, between two points a mile and a half apart there are infinite routes.

Within the first few days I made a few discoveries:

• Because my 5-day training started each day at 7am and ended when I completed my yoga practice (around 9:30am), I saw several different "Londons": the early-day-no-stores-open London, when the public works employees were cleaning up from the night, morning deliveries arriving. Few other people on the streets, just a few cars; after practice was the late-breakfast-early-museum London, when lines in cafés and tour groups were happening. Mostly tourists, public works employees on the many construction jobs, and a few locals, who stood out by their annoyance at the slow-moving lost visitors. (One evening I saw the mid-dinner-early-bar London, when the "scene" crowds were gathering for the night. The streets smelled of alcohol and cigarettes. Unabashedly slow-moving crowds.)
• A city of many nationalities, major thruways that strongly resemble alleys, beloved park-like squares, double-decker busses, milling crowds, it's amazingly pedestrian-centric.
• Free museum tickets available online! Most museums offer free collection access with a few select exhibits requiring payment. Though tickets are not required, without one the lines are long. I visited the British Museum, the Portrait Museum and Tate Modern.
• The self-catering kitchen is one of the benefits hostels. I was able to buy and prepare fresh food every few days. With the purchase of some super cheep storage containers, it was easy to stay close to my preferred diet.

Food in London
Grocery stores = are everywhere. Tesco is the easiest to find, maybe 4 blocks apart in some places. Low in price and quality. Sainsbury's Local is a step up and present in every neighborhood, while Marks & Spencers (M&S) Foodhall has the greatest variety, quality and are fewer/farther between.

The "made without gluten" selection = are built-in to grocery stores and proportional to the store's stock. Restaurants included dietary need initials (V, NF, GF, DF) and a key on the menu.

Cafés and Bakeries = everywhere. A croissant can be had at any one, but each has a unique selection of other pastries, pies, cakes and savories.

International cuisines = countries I haven't heard of are represented in Central London food. Certainly European, Mediterranean, Indian, Chinese, Mexican... it's a mecca for someone with an adventurous palette.

Clotted cream = The American Keto Culture is missing out big-time. This is very minimally processed rendered milk fat. It's delicious, and isn't part of the American diet because of pasteurization (it is made with fresh milk). There are two main dairy regions in the UK that source the entire country.

Places beyond Central London

• Trafalgar Square. The large plaza surrounding the fountains was filled with Hare Krsna devotees on the Sunday I first saw it, a huge line around the block to get into The National Gallery art museum. The second time I walked through it was blocked off for a movie being filmed in the plaza. This is a place of transit, hardly any touristy things, not even a Tesco.
• Hyde Park Corner. On the day I happened into this area there was a Gay Pride rally. Very cool to see the London gay and trans youth decked out. Seems that the trend is goth meets S&M, by the way. And rainbows everywhere.
• Regent Park. Once I finally walked the other direction from Central London, the next place north is Regent University and the lovely public park. The only place I had to pay (20p) to get into a toilet. After a particularly sweaty practice at Ashtanga Yoga London I went to this park to get fresh air and let my clothes dry out.
• Camden Town is where one of the Triyoga locations sits. I was able to connect with some of the teachers there briefly before wondering farther into the city center, which is an absolute hipness bonanza. Canal-front multi-storied shops, eateries and general touristy gear. This is what Boulder would like to be but never can. The marajuana and psilocybin culture is well-tended here.

Cool and fun moments

Caffé Nero in Norwich City Center. Once I had slept and found the Apple store, I needed a place to sit, charge up and get online. The ladies at this specific shop were just lovely! It was my first scone and butter (clotted cream not available), and a green tea as rich as could be.

The Farmers Market stalls in Norwich are a fun little catacomb of shops that I would certainly visit again.

The health store in Norwich, known by fellow shiatsu students. It wasn't on my map at any resolution. This is what confirmed in my mind that Diagon Alley, from Harry Potter books, is a real place. I felt this little nook actually did open and close in the spaces between doors. They sell 100% Dark (Real) Chocolate in multiple flavors! I got Orange and Cocoa Nibs, and plain.

My bunk mate at the Central London hostel. We both arrived the same day, Laura is an American Mid-Westerner who had arrived for a month-long Shakespeare workshop. We hit it off right away and for the 5 days she stayed kept tabs on each other's daily activities at the beginnings and ends of days. She is still there. We've exchanged an email, and I hope we can continue to correspond.