Arriving in a new city, body clock distorted, hazy from those transit moments in a saudi arabian airport in the Am, is when one needs a dose of solace.
Where does solace come for backpackers? When hostels are buzzing with festive fever and kareoke nights, when the city you have arrived in is extensive and bustling with busy people. When you want to receive some retail therapy or even catch a flick, but it costs the price of jetstar flight to brisbane. Galleries have been my haven from the mad world of the hostel. The tate modern on saturday took me aback with its lines, £4 coffee and swarming tour groups of 30+. The artwork seemed like simple objects, floating amongst the masses, some unable to stand out over the energy of exitable humans. Saturday is not a day for solace.
I went to meet with a camp hawian fashion student from the hostel and got lost in the Lord Mayors parade, Fur lined velvet clad gentlemen and flashbacks of aristoracy, military tanks and relics rolling down the pedestrian filled rainy streets of central london.
We went shopping in the vintage warehouses of brick lane, before spending the night drinking fishbowls of long island ice teas and using london for what its saturday night had to offer.



Monday the tate brittain. I walked along the thames in the rain, the soft drizzle and the white skies so typical of london, big ben towering like a post card, double decker busses the the lot. The Tate was peaceful and serene, like a playground for the weary artist. I rested in the francis bacon room and watched a documentary on his debauchery, illicit romance and the emotional language of his painting. I played the interactive games in the turner drawing room, playing with light and pencils and hand made watercolours. I sat and drew the neo classical sculptures amonsgt other young art students on a feild day. I mosied through the Victorian room, the 16th century brittish portraits room, the Romantic landscape room, the turner prize and the Francis Bacon collection. It was now getting dark, as it does around 4 o clock, and went for a wine&sushitrain feed in mayfair with an old friend from sydney.

Today, all the stimulation of london and being here for a few days, i've settled in to the pace of things a little more. I think i will find hyde park and nestle up to a tree with my sketchpad, then find the royal academy of arts, see the globe theatre, scope st pauls cathedral, buy gumboots, and get ready for my last day here tomorrow.