Celebrating Australian culture in London thanks to a week long of events – that’s G’Day UK 2009.

The stream of events, sponsored by Australian tourist boards and other governmental institutions, is aimed at promoting travel to Australia but also at encouraging potential migrants to settle down under.

New South Wales‘ government has converted a bank on river Thames into a replica of famous Bondi beach, thank to tons of real sand dumped on the South Bank. The sunny weather in the UK’s capital makes such an inspiring initiative very welcome, especially thanks to gorgeous lifeguards and beach beauties - presumably real imported Aussies.

Attractive airfares are being promoted on Qantas.com and other travel agencies. Flightcentre has setup twenty life size kangaroos across London. The first to report sights of the jumping marsupials can win free holidays to … Kangaroo Island.

For full program - see G’Day UK official site.

If there’s one thing I’ve learned in London (well, hopefully there’s been more than one) it’s how to walk…Yes, I know what you’re thinking, “she seriously doesn’t know how to walk?!”

Stop worrying.

I’m not talking about one foot in front of the other, step by step, here to there walking. No, I’m talking about some serious perambulation (aka touristy walking around as much of a city as you can get your hands on). Hey, we’re tourists, and we don’t want to sit in the back of a taxicab, we want to explore!

Ready to take a ramble? - borkur.net

In Davis we bike or bus, and usually it’s just to get from destination to destination. If we really want to walk, we take a hike, and if we really need to get somewhere, we take a car. But here in London, we literally walk everywhere. We walk to the store, we walk to class, we walk to work, we walk to think, we walk to explore, and we get lost and we walk. The first few weeks we here, most of our conversations ended with, “ugh, my feet are tiiiiiiired”, (and this was especially true when we couldn’t seem to figure out the night bus schedule). continue reading