London, my bitch be thee

Well, sort of. And righteously so.

I am currently on my third visit to London, having been sent out here for a week of "getting to know people" in the London branch of my company.

The first time I was here was only for a few days, with friends, the second time was workrelated, and so is this time.

Now Londen, as has been previously posted here, fucks up my sense of direction. I am usually very good with finding my way but last time I was here I got royally lost. Subway directions completely eluded me, despite maps and logic, and I would give myself no more than a 60% chance of actually locating anything within a two hour walk, and this does incorporate the simple fact that ANYTHING in central London is no more than fortyfive minutes on foot.

But now, slowly but surely, I am catching my bearings. I figured out the underground maps (not that hard, unless you would happen to be me, which I am) and I can find my way around a good deal better than last time. I admit that the immediate Soho/Picadilly circus parts are still a bit baffling, but I usually end up where I want to be with an error margin of one or two streets. Last time I was here I had the same error marging, but now I get to where I was planning to go whereas before I kept misguidingly circling my destination wothout ever actually reaching it untill I got fed up and went home, or to the nearest bookstore to drown my sorrows. Some people go to pubs, I go to bookstores. To each his own, right?

But enough about logistics, let's get to the whining.

It's so incredibly dirtily warm here... Really. It's warm in Holland as well now, summer and all, and I don't mind that much, but it's so humid that everything feels dirty and sweaty. Now, I don't mind either dirty or sweaty, but together there are just a limited amount of places I like seeing them and "on the way to work" is not on that list.
My hotel is literally one street over from the entrance to the office, it is not even a three minute walk, walking slowly, and I was sweaty and gross on that short distance. Heavily annoying.

Speaking of my hotel... it is RIGHT NEXT to a railway. It's a good hotel, and the shower is amazing, but located very, very badly. it is a good thing the wheather is thusly that sleeping is only possible after things have cooled down a bit which happens after the trains stop running, but still... Apart from that, it tries to be designy and stylish but just about manages to pull of "nice". The elevator wals and some of the pillars and stuff around pretend to be upholstered woth leather, but since touch tells you it is the kind of leather that is actually made of plastic, it loses its' spiffyness quite quickly.
The room is fine, nothing fancy, the bathroom is ok, the shower has a water pressure that you find in English hotels but somehow never in actual English homes. In other words, the natives are showering in a drizzle, I am showering in a deluge.
It's grand. Truly. Of course the wheather insures that you are first dry, and then sticky again before a towel has had a chance to touchflesh, but still.

But, so, London. Truly a remarkable city. Of course it is a theme park now, LondonWorld(tm), where you get exactly what you expect within seconds of entering, with added tourists. But then, that can be said about any town of any size or import really, and since I am a tourist I can't complain.
And tourist I am. And loving it I do. I could try not to smile when looking at the architecture and give of a good "seen it all before" vibe, but really, I wouldn't want to. The city is in some points breathtaking in it's beauty and character, and you would have to be a right dumbass not to appreciate beauty when it presents itself.

So I keep the goofy grin when I stand on the elevator upwards form the underground, thank you very much. And I'll stay and look at the view of a small arch crossing a street and framing a stunning little park, if you don't mind.
Besides, the grin got me hit on yesterday by about five people, so again, I can't really complain.

Well, tonight I am going to catch a show or something, and check out Foyles, a famous bookstore. I'll let you know how it went.