stevesbets

I have now been in London approximately 24 hours , and i have seen many of the “important” touristy sites. Last afternoon we went by the tower of london and London Bridge until the pouring started and we headed back to the hotel. For dinner we went to Lester Square which was an area I was very impressed with. Lit up like Vegas and bustling like Manhattan, it was a vibrant place to hang out even on a Sunday night.

This morning we went by Buckingham Palace to witness the changing of the guard. We agreed that the white house needs a dog and pony show of that magnitude. Even though it was a random Monday morning, the crowd was insane to watch some soldiers march around. The USA could make a fortune to finance their government spending.

Next was Westminster Abbey which was awe inspiring, when I depart life I want to go with a sculpture of me on top of my tomb like the people laid to rest in Westminster. I was disappointed that they didn’t allow photos inside of the church. I don’t have a really strong understanding of anything holy.

After the Abbey Luke and I were walking along the Thames looking over at the eye of London (which looks like a giant Ferris Wheel).  I noted that the wall was very low on the bridge we were traversing and we joked about how much we would need to be paid to jump into the river. Luke mentioned that there would be a good chance of survival as opposed to leaping off the golden gate bridge. He went on to tell me some interesting tales of the suicide culture of the golden gate bridge. Over 1000 people have jumped from it. As the number approached 1000, a local radio station set up shop on the bridge to track the count to 1000 suicides, announcing what the number was up to over the airwaves. They apparently even offered a reward of like 10 cases of beer to the family of the 1000th jumper. I was pretty shocked that such indifference could be shown to all of these deaths. About 3 or 4 of the jumpers survived due to hitting the water in just the right way. When interviewed after the fact, to a man they said that the instant they jumped they immediately regretted the decision. This is a fairly notable phenomenon. These people were so depressed that they chose to end their life AND actually followed through with it, but as soon as the decision was irreversible they changed their mind. This as is close as we can get to talking with the dead. Let that be a lesson to any of you contemplating suicide out there.

A few other notable observations about London.  Everything is obviously insanely expensive right down to daily internet access at the hotel which is 15 pounds (30 dollars roughly). Online poker is advertised all over the place including on subways and on billboards. The USA really needs to open its doors to online poker advertising, lets put a big full tilt logo in place of the cup o noodles in time square so we could watch online poker blow up to never before seen heights. One thing I forgot to mention about EPT Copenhagen was that there was an insanely large media presence there. I would say there was roughly 4 times the media there than at a standard WPT stop, the Euros just love poker. Back to London, it reminds me of New York City and I really like that, tons to do and eat, but then the added perk of legalized casino gambling and sportsbetting (though I haven’t placed a bet yet). The abundant William Hill sports betting parlors are in stark contrast to USA’s absurd stand on everything gambling related. We have yet to figure out if the rake here is as exorbitant as the rake in the Danish poker games.  Overall I really like this city, I could definitely live here and I can’t say that about most places.