Camden, a borough of London

This morning I had to make an important decision: go to Edinburgh, or find another place around London to stay. The hotel I was at said they could let me stay another night but would have to charge me an additional £20. Nah, that was a bit much; if anything, they should have given me a discount for already having stayed there three nights. Well, I had not solidified plans with the friend in Edinburgh I'm going to meet, and I didn't want to jump the gun; also, yesterday evening when I checked train prices it was only about £60 to go from London to Edinburgh...after dinner, prices had doubled! And, wouldn't come down until Monday. I decided I should not push myself. So, after a call to hotels.com, they located a hotel in nearby Camden (actually Chalk Farm on the map; Camden proper is an expensive place) for $83 a night, which is actually $100 a night because they didn't tell me the quote including hotel tax to begin with. Still, it's cheaper than my first hotel. No free breakfast, but the room is much bigger, I have a personal toilet and shower AND they're in a separate room within my own, and the place just feels nicer.

I'm getting pretty good at taking the Underground, I had no problem making any of the changes. Getting an Oyster card (prepaid discount card) was a smart investment, just tap it on the machine when I enter one stop and again when I exit and it pulls the money off. I think it's still more expensive than MARTA, but it's so much better organized and maintained. The only real problem I had was when I exited the Chalk Farm station and realized I had not written down walking directions (I was in a hurry to reserve a room before checking out of the old one). Fortunately a nearby convenience store told me where to go.

I believe I am in Camden, although I was told I'm in London and not far from Hampstead, but I'm staying in the Hampstead Britannia. I think all are true. I'm in London, but in the "borough" of Camden. Hampstead is also a borough. It's like a separate section of the bigger city, like New York City has five or six boroughs. London has thirty-two. I remember this from my guided tour, when we passed the London Eye, which is an enormous ferris wheel with thirty-two pods, one for each borough of London. Although, there is no thirteenth pod because that would be unlucky, so I'm not sure if there are actually thirty-two or thirty-three pods.

Anyway, I think Atlanta should have boroughs. It sounds cooler. Atlanta has Buckhead, Midtown, Gresham Park, Inman Park, Downtown, and a bunch of others, but we call them "areas" or "parts". Do we even have an official name? "Inman Park, a borough of Atlanta" just sounds cool. "Cabbagetown, a borough..." oh never mind.

Well, I'll assume I'm in the Camden borough, or on the border of Camden and Hampstead boroughs, until someone tells me differently. The streets I've seen are two lane with moderate traffic. There is a street of shops very nearby with a little French bistro named Chamomile, I had a burger there for lunch, with fries (not chips...apparently "chips" are wide flat French fries) and a little salad. The burger was good, the meat appeared to have chopped onions and some greenery in it. I can't place the greenery, might have been parsley or similar. There was no cheese on the burger, but it had diced caramelized onions and small tomato slices, which gave it an interesting taste. There was no dressing on the salad, which was just some kind of lettuce, lots of tomatoes, and cucumbers. But drippings from the burger was dressing enough. I kept waiting for my check before I found out I paid at the front. Then when I wanted to tip my waitress, I was told they have a tip jar at the register and they all split the tips.

Next to the bistro is a laundrette (laundromat), fairly expensive like everything around here, but I guess if you don't have the machines yourself it's ok. It was £3.50 to wash a medium load, £1.50 to dry. So about $8 to wash my clothes. By contrast, at my first hotel they had a laundry service where it would have cost me £7 just for one pair of pants.

I asked a lady that worked at the laundrette about any churches in the area. I think she must not be a church-goer, because she was really working her mind, and came up with three Catholic churches and some other one around the corner. While my clothes were doing...er, washing...I went for a walk. I stopped at a chemist (drugstore) and got some overpriced Vitamin C + Zinc dissolve-in-water tablets (I might be coming down with a cold) and found that church...Seventh Day Adventist. I probably walked at least a half-mile in a full circle, maybe more, back to the laundrette. At the chemist, the lady mentioned an Anglican church literally up the road. It sounded like about a twenty minute walk from my hotel, uphill...I'd be a sweaty mess by the time I got there. We also chatted about the history of the Anglican versus Catholic churches and Henry VIII who made the break with the Catholic church. By her admission, Brits love talking about history.

Oh, interesting thing. I got to my hotel before check-in, but they held a couple of bags for me. At check-in time, I came back for my bags and I caught myself speaking with a pretty authentic London accent to the guy getting them. I guess it's not too surprising, if you immerse yourself in something that you can absorb it quickly. Another funny thing, at the Underground station, another American was asking me for directions, haha. I almost knew the answer too, I just couldn't remember if he should take the west or east Piccadilly line.

This hotel offers a buffet for £9.95. It seems you never have to figure in tax, as the VAT (Value Added Tax) is usually included in the price, on goods and services. As a foreigner, I'm able to request a VAT refund on goods by filling out a form and submitting it to customs, but it's not really practical unless it's an expensive purchase. The buffet was good, I had ratatouille (vegetables like zucchini and tomatoes cooked in a tomato sauce), haddock in a cream sauce, a green vegetable soup (maybe a lot of peas, it was kind of puréed), thin roast beef, and a few other things, plus gâteaux (French for "cake") which in this case was cherry chocolate with blueberry filling. I feel like a restaurant critic, writing all this stuff down.

I feel pretty tired. After I finished the laundry, I came back to the hotel. I'm not planning on doing anything tomorrow except maybe working a bit. My friend in Edinburgh suggested the All Souls at Langham Place church in London. They have a couple of morning services and a 6:30 pm service, I think I'll go to the evening service. I want to allow plenty of time to walk slowly so as to sweat as little as possible, and potentially get turned around. I could also go back to that cool Italian restaurant and hopefully hear some more piano playing. I'm going to get my train and hotel bookings down for Monday too, in Edinburgh!

A final thought: to keep an eye on my weight, I brought a tape measure. I've lost a half inch around my middle since I left Atlanta.