London is a Zoo and being the animal I am, I somehow survived.

So I have been in London for just over a week and was finally able to get into London.

I decided to give myself some time to do this and get into London and use the trains and the underground.

What a good thing I gave myself that time. I can say one thing, knowing where you can do connections especially on the train line is a blessing. Without knowing where to do the connections a trip can take up 90 minutes and this is only the train. After the train there is still the Underground to go. My trip was like this. Chertsey to Weybridge. Weybridge to London Waterloo. London Waterloo is the start of the London Underground jungle, be prepared for this.

Now the first thing to do here is to get a TUBE MAP, this will be your new best friend. Just follow the maps as everything is well marked. Findings changes to other lines and exits to London and sight-seeing spots is really easy. London is great for that, I found my way around using the announcements on the trains (National Rail and Underground) and the well marked exits. WAY TO GO LONDON.

The places I visited.

1. Oxford and Piccadilly Circus, and they live up their names, these places are circuses. Think organized chaos, the only thing missing are the clown outfits. The clowns are there, just in normal clothing. To give you an idea, lets pick one shop were I did a fair amount of shopping. HMV, this is great for all DVD and MUSIC requirements. This shop is HUGE. 3 Stories of DVD and MUSIC and technology related to this. Absolutely amazing. They did not like the idea of me taking photos inside, wonder why ? :P. But imagine a big MUSICA, double that size and 3 stories and you are close. 🙂

2. Green Park and Buckingham Palace. WOW, this is amazing. The parks are clean and look beautiful and they are huge, South African parks are tiny compared to these. What a sight, make a point of seeing this.

3. Tottenham Court Road. If you are a gadget freak, this is one stop you should make. You can find just about anything on the planet, this is amazing, great place for gadgets. 🙂

4. Hyde Park. This park is also great, WOW. of course, the Winter Wonderland is setup there as well. This is awesome, the ice rink, which never melts and never gets "watery", so you might fall and get cold but never wet ( A VERY BIG PLUS IN WINTER IN LONDON)

You can get anywhere in London with a TUBE MAP and a NATIONLA RAIL map, just get an iPod and put on some music and get comfortable. It is gonna be a long trip. Every time I used public transport, it took at least 90 minutes to get into London and 90 minutes to get back to Chertsey when i could back to Chertsey. Sometimes the train does not run to Chertsey, again knowing a little about the National Rail is a GREAT THING. On Sunday, i got off at Weybridge and now a taxi is your friend. This is the easiest way on a Sunday to get to Chertsey, go figure :S (WTH!?!?!) (London Waterloo – Weybridge and then a taxi to Chertsey from Weybridge). Well at least there is public transport. 🙂

The hotel

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Now it is great staying in Chertsey as getting to the Microsoft Training Facility is an absolute piece of pie. However this is the lesser of two evils :), allow me to explain.

Chertsey and the hotels within are not great but better than other towns and this is not saying much. Do not get me wrong, the hotel (Crown hotel Chertsey)has what you need and is pretty decent compared to the other horror stories I have heard from some of my colleagues on the training with me. My hotel has WiFi (for free, if you are a guest and this is great, for technofreaks like me 🙂 ). The food is ok but not great compared to what i am used to, but I am spoilt as the food in South Africa is amazing and the quality of our local food is stunning (trust me on this, take my word on it). To be honest, hotel food and take away’s for what will be two weeks, my kingdom for a home-cooked meal. It is amazing the things you miss :P.

Chertsey (town)