This was my second trip to the giant metropolis ofLondon. The first time was some five years ago when I was just a little brat (today I’m just a big brat). It’s a weird experience for a small town guy like me to spend time in place which has a bigger population than my entire country combined. London is practically bristling with people and you can’t help but wonder what the hell they’re all doing there. Don’t they, like, have jobs or something?

Anyways, you persevere. The main goal of the trip was to visit Emirates Stadium and watch Arsenal pummel the living daylights out of poor Sunderland. And for the first few minutes it did look like my dream would come through, but Sunderland were tougher than they looked and fought back. In the end it was a close match that made me go through a range of emotions that I didn’t know I was capable off. The best moment of the match was when Sunderland’s left back got sent off right at the end. We were one up and everybody was overjoyed, so when the ref showed him the red everyone started singing “Just like your managers, just like your manager!”. It was also quite enjoyable to finally join in on the legendary Arsenal song: “Are you watching, Tottenham?”.

London is a big city in many ways and you can’t help but almost being in constant awe of everything. I’ve recently been watching a lot of Doctor Who episodes, and most of ‘em takes place in London, so I couldn’t quite shake the feeling that I was walking through some kind of science fiction tale. Especially the Tube was a weird experience. Every time the speaker said “mind the gap”, I remembered that chapter in Neil Gaiman’s London homage, “Neverwhere” (a book that was in my thoughts very often during the trip).

Monday and Tuesday were spent with me trolling every bookstore in sight. It turns out that most of them have about the same books stocked, but every so often you’d stumble onto a signed, first edition that you’d just have to bring back home (after all, one can’t let those weird Londoners take care of ‘em). The best bookstore was without doubt Forbidden Planet on Shaftesbury Avenue. They had hardcovers and paperbacks, comics and signed editions and just about everything my heart desired. When I finally carried my treasures over to the cash register, people stopped and stared and I even got a few giggles. But goddamn - that’s one great shop.

Here’s what I bought:

“The Glass Books of the Dream Eaters” by G. W. Dahlquist (signed, hardcover, first edition).
“The Modern World” by Steph Swainston (signert hardcover first edition)
“The Last Wish” by Andrej Sapkowski (first edition hardcover)
“Anansi Boys” by Neil Gaiman (signed hardcover, YAY!!!)
“Soon I Will Be Invincible” by Austin Grossman (hardcover, first edition)
“The Wasp Factory” by Ian Banks (pb)
“The Reality Dysfunction” by Peter F. Hamilton (signed pb)
“Altered Carbon” by Richard Morgan (signed pb)
“The First Book of Lankhmar” by Fritz Leiber (fantasy masterworks, pb)
“Something Wicked This Way Comes” by Ray Bradbury (fantasy masterworks, pb)

I’ve already read “Soon I Will Be Invincible”, and if the rest of this haul is on the same level then I’ve done some very good deals indeed. The one I appreciated the most was the “Anansi Boys” edition, which is a book I’ve already read but I couldn’t resist the temptation of having a signed Gaiman book, especially when its my second favourite Gaiman book ever.

The tourist content of the trip was a tour of London Tower (which I uphold should be renamed “London Castle”, ’cause it’s somewhat confusing). I saw the crone jewels (ooohh, shiny!, a lot of old guns (wanna try! please?!) and got to fire a make-believe cannon (run away you silly English knnnnnnniggits!). All over it was good fun.

I tried to find “Stardust” at the cinemas, but it turned out that it didn’t premiere over there until the 19th of October, so I ended up watching “Control”; a black and white portrait of the lead vocalist in the cult band, Joy Division. It was a nice film and very well done, but not, you know, genius in any way.

The next two night consisted of going to London’s West End. I went to the musical version of The Lord of the Rings and Monty Python’s The Holy Grail (”Spamalot”). The first one was a major disappointment, even though I realize now that it was foolish to think that a singing Gimli could ever be good. I shudder when I think of that show (for some reason they’d decided to make Galadriel one of the main characters!).

“Spamalot” however, was ever so brilliant. Even though I knew most the lines, it was still very funny and perfectly silly. I heartily recommend it (and if you see it, make sure you sit at seat number D 1).

All in all it was a good trip. I wouldn’t put it past myself to do something similar next year, all though I will try to avoid coming home at 5 am.