London - Day 2

Day 2 (Sunday 22nd Aug 04’):
Woke up next morning after a refreshing and much needed sleep at 1 p.m. Realized was already late for lunch with Varun. D & A left for work (yes, even on a Sunday) and I got dressed and left to go to the bus stop. Picked up a coffee from a Turkish cafe that was to become my breakfast joint for the week to come. Called V to realize the poor guy was already sitting in the Lebanese restaurant at Marble Arch where we had our lunch date. Planned to meet him at Tottenham Court Rd. Station in 1/2 hr. Then of course got into a bus that went to Tottenham Swan (lesson to be learnt later: all Tottenham's are not the same) and reached close to the tube station at Seven Sister's (Zone 3). Seven Sisters’ is the equivalent of the Bronx, so felt like my friend Saurabh who had goofed up likewise in NYC and instead of Queens had landed up in the Bronx. Safest retreat seemed to be the tube station (when in doubt of the locality, duck into the nearest subway: lesson learnt courtesy living in NYC), so ducked in and decided to get to Tottenham Court Rd. Station by tube. Reached in 45 mins, (consecutive stations are quite far apart on the tube lines as compared to the subway in NYC) to find a harrowed, hungry and a slightly overweight Varun waiting for me outside the tube station. After my apologies and a hug we decided to walk down Oxford St. to get to a place where we could eat lunch. Finally got into a Steak House and sat there catching up over lunch for a good 4 hrs. After lunch, the plan was to get to Leicester Square and check out the bars and pubs there. En route to Leicester Square, I took several detours whenever I saw an interesting landmark. So ended up going to Buckingham Palace lawns, where we sat and chatted for quite a bit and debated over living in the US Vs living in the UK etc. Then walked to Trafalgar Square and of course all the while I kept troubling V to take pics of me in silly touristy places, for eg: outside the Piccaddily Circus Station....(couldnt help but think of ‘Monopoly’ all the while) Then finally reached Leicester Sq. after walking through some flea markets and stood there seeing an Olympic badminton match screening in the middle of the square. Called D & A as we were supposed to hang out at a bar that night and V & I went to a bar in Chinatown to drink.
Varun updated me, like D & A had last night, that in London people love to drink after work. Everyday after work, the bars and pubs get populated with formally dressed office-goers who come there for their daily beer and after about 2-3 hours of social drinking, go home. V said this happens every day and I secretly believe this is the key to his belly's happiness. However; the idea that people should choose to unwind in such an intoxicating fashion every evening after work, did seem really appealing to me. Although, I dont know how I would wind up in such a regular drinking scenario..but on vacation or for a little while, it certainly sounded "rather fun", shall I say?
At the bar, while V & I chatted away, we waited for D & A and eventually realised that they were’nt going to turn up as work had made them very busy. So V & I decided to wind up after 2 hrs at the bar and not-getting-so-drunk, to catch the tube to get home. I got back from Oxford St. by bus and did'nt lose the way this time. (The previous day I had gone ahead to Hackney, another Black neighbourhood as I had dozed off in the bus after leaving Binny & Prina at Oxford St.) Met D & A outside the office (another thing that was routine all week: meeting outside their office every night where they would pick me up. D was paranoid that I would lose my way among those random London streets and warehouses in Farringdon, where their office is, or would get mugged or lost if I tried to come to their office alone from the bus-stop.) and then went back with them to the office and then for Desi Dinner in the area's bangladeshi restaurant). Also called a common friend of our's from architecture under grad, who lives in Wembley (a desi locality somewhere in Zone 3) and caught up with her after ages. Empathised with her as her husband had gotten mugged in some tube station just a few hours earlier and decided to catch up again soon.
Got back home, chatted up for a while, got Atrey's maps (which were a boon for myself; the lone traveller:) and planned the main areas I should cover for the next 3 days and after more exchange of words and much laughter ( the latter being a frequently occuring phenomenon at the D & A residence, especially with D around) called it a night!