From Feb. 25-March 4, I was hanging out in jolly old England, visiting my buddy Ankur. I had a fabulous time-- I love London! I love cities! I need to escape the suburbs! Anyways, here are some photos and a recap, a little trip diary if you will.
Day 1: Naptime and drunken revelry I arrived in London at 11:30 after an all night flight. I was extremely tired, so Ankur and I just hung out in his awesome amazing flat that he had just moved into. Then he had a housewarming party with all his MarshallScholar friends, and we all got drunk. Only with Ankur will I do an Irish Car Bomb. Good times.
Day 2: London at a glance
After a lazy morning, Ankur and I headed to CamdenTown Market, this cool area with a bunch of funky stores and booths. I bought a pair of gloves, cause it was FREAKIN cold. We then got on a double decker bus that took us through London to TrafalgerSquare. Double decker buses=COOOL. From Trafalger we walked to LeicesterSquare, then hopped on another bus past DowningStreet and ScotlandYard to the Westminster/BigBen/HousesofParliament area. It was pretty. I took pictures. We walked over the WestminsterBridge, checked out the LondonEye from below and then took hopped on tube home. While we were on the tube, we saw this mom and her about 8 year old daughter. The mom kept handing her daughter food- grapes, apples... SAUSAGES. This little girl was holding a sausage in her hand. Not delicately holding it with a couple fingers, but fisting this greasy sausage, which she proceeded to eat not so delicately with her side teeth (her front teeth were missing). When she was done, she kept talking to her mom, and gesturing with her hands, and then touching her hair and touching her face and touching the chair. With her dirty sausage hands. Ankur and I just kept staring because we were SO GROSSED OUT.
Me in Trafalger
Dream come true: Making a phone call in a cool phone booth in LEicesterSquare
Funny protest signs outside the HousesofParliament
Ankur making an "eye" in front of the LondonEye
HousesofParliament and BigBen at night.
Day 3: Running wild through the streets of London I spent the day mainly by myself, being a tourist and trying to stay warm. First stop was the TowerofLondon, which was AWESOME. I love history places, and this place was so interesting. I went on one of the tours led by the YeomanWarders, the best ex-soldiers/tour guides EVER. I would join the British army and serve for 22 years and become a warrant office just so I could become one of these guys. Wen on the tour, walked around, saw the crown jewels... I was there for two hours, and I could have stayed another two hours. But instead, I headed to St.Paul's Cathedral. It was gorgeous on the inside, and so neat being in a place where so many famous weddings/funerals/services had happened. I also climbed to the top of the dome, which just about killed me. The first 500 steps of the spiral staircase weren't that bad. It was the last 150 that killed me. I got a great view of the city, so it made it (almost) worth it.
After I left St.Paul's and sat in a coffee shop contemplating the pain my body was feeling, I headed to CoventGarden, met up with Ankur and friends, ate awesome indian food and then went to the RoyalOperaHouse and watched an opera. It was called "Wuzzek" and it was a modern German opera that was one of the craziest, most ridiculous things I've ever seen. I've heard it is one of the most important pieces of modern opera, but I just thought it was crazy and heavy handed. It's about a guy going insane, and they used to weirdest metaphors and symbols to just beat you over the head with the fact that this guy is going insane. Ankur fell asleep. I just tried not to crack up. I gavve up trying to understand it when the guy in the monkey mask showed up.
My night improved considerably after the opera when we had a couple of beers (or cider in my case) at a pub, and then had snacks at BK at 1 in the morning. Ankur and I kind of felt like we were in college again.
The TowerBridge
St.Pauls Cathedral
Spiral Staircase of Death
Day 4: Sicky McSickerson
Woke up feeling sick, probably from being outside all day in the cold weather. Headed to Harrods to meet up with Ankur, walked around a bit, bought some tea... and saw ChristinaRicci. Seriously. She was buying chocolate. I guess she's in London filming a movie. I wanted to say something to her, but I didn't want to be that dorky girl. I kind of regret it now. ChristinaRicci you were awesome in GreysAnatomy! After lunch, I just felt really sick, I so I headed to the flat and just lied down and watched DVDs all day. Then Ankur's flatmate came home, and regaled me with stories from college. His college stories and my college stories were VERY different. Why? Because I went to normal college and he went to WestPoint, which after listening to his stories pretty much seems like testosterone fueled, stricltly regimented anarchy. Seriously people, our tax dollars are going to a very crazy place.
Day 5: PARIS, BABY! PARIS!!!
Ankur and I woke up at 4:00 AM and took the 5:30 EuroStar Train from Waterloo to Gare-du-Nord in Paris. We slept the whole ride over, and when we arrived in cold, cold, Paris, we hopped on a bus that took us through the streets of Paris straight to the EiffelTower. The EiffelTower was impressive. And it was very cold and windy at the top. It was an amazing clear morning, so we had a great view of the city though. After Eiffel, Ankur took me to one of his favorite neighborhoods and we got coffee and a chocolate croissant. Delicious. After walking around Invalid a little, we took another bus to the ChampsElysees. We walked up, all the way until the Arc de Triomphe, which was fabulous. We then hopped on the subway and got off at St.Paul, and then walked around LeMarais, which is the Jewish/Gay area. We ate, window shopped, and I unsuccessfuly tried to dissuade Ankur from buying a straw hat that made him look like he was in a barbershop quartet.
From there, we walked to the Louvre. On the way, we passed the Pompidou, and a crazy parade. I think some school was having some celebration, so all the kids and adults were dressed crazy and carrying crazy things and beating drums and having a grand ol' time. It was hilarious. Anyways, when we got to the Louvre, it started snowing. We went inside, checked out the MonaLisa, the VenusdeMilo, and other stuff. I'm not a huge art museum person, so I was more impressed by the scope and size of the museum itself. It's so massive, and the architecture was so impressive. And I tried looking for MaryMagdalene, but couldn't find her. Ha. When we walked out of the Louvre, it had stopped snowing, and was sunny and gorgeous and cold. Reminded me of Chicago.
Ankur and I then walked up the Seinne to NotreDame, which was I think my favorite sight in Paris. It was gorgeous and beautiful and awe-inspiring. It amazed me that the architecture was so grand and so intricate, yet so old. It also happened to be Ash Wednesday, so we caught a bit of the Ash Wednesday service. But alas, we could not stay long, and headed to the Latin Quarter for dinner. We ate this yummy melted cheese over meat, potatoes dish. We also got a crepe with nutella, and some chocolate eclairs to snack on later. Our train left at 8:45, so we headed back to the train station after a very tiring, awesome day. Slept on the whole train ride back, and then ate the eclairs on the bus ride home. Delicious.
All in all, I had a wonderful day in Paris, and really want to go back. It was especially helpful to go with someone who is fluent in french- makes things so much easier. My french is limited to "merci" "si vous plait" and "toilette?"
Ankur, trying to ignore me on the early morning train ride
Look ma! It's me!
It took us forever to get this shot right. Neither of us were very good at the whole selfportrait photo thing.
The crazy kids parade. The kid in the middle is supposed to be an elephant.
It was cold. And snowy. But it's the Louvre, so totally worth it.
An hour and a half later, it's sunny. I have no idea what Ankur is doing.
Instead of asking someone to take a picture for us, we put the camera on a ledge on the bridge. Yes, we are geniuses.
NotreDame at night.
Day 6: My legs hurt. But I still heart London.
First stop of the day was Westminster Abbey. I was amazed by the architecture of the building, and it's amazing history. How cool was it to walk by ElizabethI's tomb, or the tomb of Edward the whatever who died in the 1300s. One thing that struck me about London, and Paris, is how old the cities are. There's a sense of history, and culture, there that I don't think exists in the States. I think London in particular has a great mix of the old and the new, because of the history that remains intact and the stuff that had to be rebuilt after the war.
From Westminster, I roamed the streets until I found BuckinghamPalace. Oohed and aahed, then walked up the mall past St.James Park to Trafalger Square and the NationalPortrait Gallery. Walked to PicadillyCircus, where I bought some tickets and some souveneirs. At this point, I was exhausted, and my legs were killing me. I had two hours to kill, so I went to McDonalds, ordered a big mac and some fries, and basically rested and sat catatonic for two hours. At 7:30, I headed to the PicadillyTheater, where I had standing room tickets to see GuysAndDolls. I love a good, fun musical, and this is one of the best of the old classic ones. Singing, dancing, acting were all great, although it was kind of funny to hear these British actors doing New Yawk accents, and hearing a bit of the accent sometimes slip through.
After the show, I met up with Ankur, we walked around, and then picked up Ankur's little brother Veyom from the train station. Yay! Three's company!
The QueenVictoria Memorial
I told you I was bad at the self portrait photo
Day 7: The End is Near On Friday morning, I made Veyom wake up and come with me to see an essential London tourist thing-- the changing of the guards. It was... long. And cool. The whole thing took over 30 minutes, mainly because the band that marched with them played three songs. But it was a cool thing to see, especially knowing that this was a ceremony that has been going on for a really long time, and had been performed by thousands of soldiers, and seen by millions of people.
After lunch, me and Vee met up with Ankur, and got a bird's eye view of London on the LondonEye. It was really impressive. And i got a little motion sick. We had dinner at a proper fish and chips place, and then watched an Indian dance/Modern dance performance at the RoyalOperaHouse. But the BEST PART of the day was going to King's Cross station, and taking pictures in front of Platform 9 3/4. It. was. awesome. We ended our day by going to this bar that had the craziest cover band ever performing. It was this albino white guy and this crazy jamaican guy. The jamaican guy would yell "thank you, my people" after every song, but it ended up sounding like "thank you, white people!" Which actually was pretty appropriate. Anyways, these two guys placed everything from LynyrdSkynyrd to HouseofPain. Random. But fun.
Soldiers marching in.
Soldier's exchanging swords. Or something like that.
Soldier's marching out. It was all very exciting.
Atop the LondonEye. Gorgeous, and just a little nauseau inducing.
The view of Parliament, Westminster and Big Ben.
I'm pushing my cart through the wall. Ron and Harry are meeting me on the other side.
And so ends my trip to London. It was absolutely wonderful, and I would love to go back someday. My first trip to Europe rocked.
THE END
