London!

I have made it to London. Landed this morning and made my way with only slight difficulty through customs and to my hostel. My first challenge was the customs lady who wasn't convinced that she wanted to let me enter the country. She was unimpressed that I was travelling alone, and no one was meeting me in the UK, and my next scheduled departure date was not until 2 months away from a different country. However she let me through after a good stern look, and a grimace.
The next challenge i overcame was navigating myself up and down the narrow corridors and ridiculously steep skinny stairs with a 35lbs bag on my back. I tend to feel like i will either fall backwards and just sit on the stairs, or the bag is going to ride me like a sled face-first down the stairs.
I am reminded of that Ghannaian markets as i travelled through the streets as I tried to find the hostel. The streets are lined with African yams (not to be mistaken with orange yams, but big brown trunk -like tubers), okra, hot peppers and chunks of meat. However here is like a up scale Ghana market with all these splays of food in window shops, rather than on a wooden shack baking in the sun. The meat is kind of similar to as i watched full and half pig carcasses being thrown around. But rather than baking in the sun with the flies feasting on a wooden table as in Africa, these London pigs were being unloaded from a refrigerated truck into a metal shopping cart. Just dead headless pigs in a shopping cart. I found the butcher shop a few more minutes down the street.
The exact same smells on these streets though, that smoked fishy, curry, hot pepper smell. Dani and Carolan you know exactly what i am talking about.

I am already in love with Europe though. I love looking left at a Gothic spear of a cathedral pierces the sky above the old brick buildings, or looking right and seeing a domed arch from a church or university hovering beyond the top a pub. It is so wonderful. I spent my later afternoon after a much needed nap hanging out in a church courtyard sitting on a sarcophagus while i revelled at the beauty of the old building.
I am going to love this country!