Friday at last!!!  It has been a very long week -- lots of work at here and have been unable to escape the calls from the US as well.  Finally last night I was able to sleep very very soundly after going to bed around 3.  I got up around 9:30, which technically means I only slept about 6 1/2 hours, but it was quality sleep so I felt very rested, finally.

Tonight I worked a little late, until about 7.  I went out for lunch with a coworker for Thai food.  We ordered some spring rolls to start, and then I had what was basically a shrimp fried rice.  They seem to be big into prawns over here, however, so there were some prawns thrown in.  Of course they weren't shelled or anything so I had to do that, which was a very messy affair, but was worth it in the end.

After work I met up with a friend named Gilbert that I made on the airplane ride to London.  He was actually on the flight from Minneapolis with me as well, but we didn't really talk until after we made our unsuccessful dash to catch the London based flight.  We had a meal together and exchanged numbers and parted ways when we boarded. 

We met in the Paddington tube, bound for the river front.  He brought his brother along who has lived in London for 11 years (Gilbert lives in Little Canada).  The three of us walked down the river and saw Tower Bridge (shown below).  Sorry for the photo quality, I didn't carry my camera this evening as I wasn't anticipating photo ops.  Anyway, it was really cool.  It was very funny when the Gilbert's brother turned to us and said "I've never been here."  Really!!  After 11 years!  Insane.

We walked for quite some time looking for a place to eat.  We were very hungry as it was well past dinner time -- after 10 o'clock -- but had a difficult time finding a place with room or that was still serving food.  We finally found a neat little Indian restaurant and had a wonderful meal.  As I was sitting there talking with these two strangers, it made me chuckle a little bit at my situation.  Here I was, having a meal with these near strangers in London.  At an Indian restaurant.  And, I think I forgot to mention the brothers are actually from Cameroon (west central Africa).  How fun is that!

Anyway, after the Indian restaurant we decided to take the tube back to the hotel before it closes around midnight, and then head to a pub for there.  It turns out that the tube is very very popular around this time as people exit the pubs and use it to get home without driving.  There was some good people watching and funny conversations on which to eavesdrop.

Once we got back to Paddington, we found that the pubs were all closed.  Crazy!  So, we called it a night and here I am.  Tomorrow I will venture back toward the sights of the city, braving the tube on my own.  It's quite the challenge as the various lines are labelled in a way that has absolutely no meaning as far as anyone could tell me, and some stations have 4 or 5 lines coming into them.  At least there's no language barrier!