Arrival in the UK

Posted by at 11:37 AM, July 11, 2004

After sailing for seven days, we got to the West Indian Dock, Canary Wharf, South Quay, London, on Saturday, 10th July at exactly 8.20 am. Docking directly opposite the tall HSBC glass house in London, bring to mind first, "berthing at the business center of England."

Well, it is business as usual many of the crews are going to be replaced by another crew, while some will get along with the ship to Amsterdam. Meeting new faces ever since we got to London is a normal thing here. I had shown my interest to visit the famous London zoo while still aboard the ship.

By 12.37pm, myself and Mike the 2nd mate on the ship were on our way to the zoo. Boarding the train at the South Quay station to Bank and then to King’s Cross St. Pancras is full of lots of excitement, not quite different from the situation of Lagos, in Nigeria. People jostle for space at every station we had a stopover, London is like a bee nest, where bees hum around, you see people walking so fast as if it’s a walking race affair, indeed, it’s a busy place. My trip via Amsterdam – Reykjavik and now London makes me have a lot of respect for the itinerary prospects of the ubiquitous Chinese, they are everywhere, they must be adventurous or is it because they are the most populous nation on earth?

At the zoo, a lot were on display to watch and enjoy. Many of the animals I have heard about in the London zoo are still intact, except for the gorillas, chimpanzees, and elephants. The elephants as it was noted on their notice board have been moved to another center, perhaps to create more room for eco-tourism. The Komodo dragon, the largest living lizard, is available but too new to appear before the general public. Watching the mock sport of falconry is an added pep to my itinerary, it shows how intelligent and obedient these creatures could be if only we show more love and care. Leaving the zoo, and taking a cool walk through the ever-busy Camden market could be a nasty experience for a first timer. I expected more decency in a city that once ruled the world in terms of commerce, economy, population, fashion, culture way back in the 19th Century. Noises are everywhere; airplanes, trains, buses, cars, trucks, and humans all contributed their shared quotas in this sense, it was a deafening scenario. In London you get to see decent and crazy fashions found nowhere else in other countries of Europe, buttressing the words of my widely traveled guide, Mike, I think this is true. Youths with bizarre punks style haircut, multi-coloured hair, face piercing (some faces could accommodate about 30 holes, all in the name of fashion), tattoos of different sizes and symbols all added extreme glamour to London taste for fashion, I mean you swing your head to the right, left, back and forth you are loaded with a lot to look at. Entering the train to connect my way back to the ship is our next move. People seem to enjoy reading newspapers, novels, or anything readable in the train, as for me I enjoyed reading people, at least it keeps me busy. We got back to the ship, by 6.38pm, it started getting dark here by 9.00pm, quite different from my experience in Reykjavik, where the sun refused to set, aaaaaaaah!

-tomakint