right here, right now
And now it's time for me to attempt to write about my adventures for the past many weeks.
Also known as the best many weeks of my life.
First, Margaret arrived. Shelley and I woke up at 8:30 to take the 6 hour bus down to London. I had had three hours of sleep prior. Sarah had quitted our house two days before, thus I was emotionally unstable. I slept most of the way down, until we started getting to Victoria station and I started freaking out because, I mean, LONDON!!!! I remember seeing an agnes b. retail store and being like "OH MY GOSH, that's agnes b.!!! In store format!!!!"
We magically met Margaret and vamoosed to our hostel, the Generator at King's Cross. Then our first adventure stop was Camden, the most fantastic wacky creative insane-tive open market area I've ever been to. If you like rock music at all, go to Camden when you are in London. We window shopped ourselves into oblivion, then headed to the Cock for some drinks with some of Shelley's random friends. They were a perfect assortment of Londonite twenty somethings and bought us a few too many drinks so that I was unable to fully appreciate when they whisked us away to the most subterranean of London clubs, so underground that they actually called it The Underground. A very rock place, so indie they didn't play indie. They played The Clash and Nirvana, which was okay because no one in the club looked like they liked either band. Does that make sense? It was a spectacular experience and we danced like mofos.
The next day we had a meet and greet with the city of London, being awed by Westminster Abbey, Big Ben and the houses of Parliament, and contemplating whether or not it was worth it to venture on the London Eye. (We decided Not.)
Later in the week, Margaret and I took a ferry to Amsterdam. When we booked the trip, I was under the impression that "ferry" meant we'd be spending the whole time in little cabins playing cards. But no...this was a cruise. Complete with two restaurants, three bars, and a stage/dance floor where the most fantastic..ly WEIRD Dutch cover band was playing. We took full advantage. When the boat docked at freaking 6am, a shuttle bus took us an hour into the heart of Amsterdam.
The first thing we noticed was...bikes. The second thing we noticed was...we don't speak Dutch. We wandered for about an hour trying to find a cash machine, and observed the quaintness and quietness of this supposedly heathen city. It smelled like a mixture of marijuana and poo. Its inhabitants were quite receptive to tourists and were overwhelmingly forgiving about our inability to speak their language. Whew!
We returned on Thursday and headed to Welly that night, but I can't remember what happened, which is because I had an entire bottle of red wine to myself, because no one likes red wine! What's wrong with people???
Friday we returned to London and did all the crazy London things that one can do, including discovering a great pub/club called The World's End Pub, and flitting around Leicester Square at night, and shop shop shopping! Also spectacularly we visited the Globe Theatre - Shakespeare, ladies and gentlemen - which was quite an experience. I do so love that I'm a student and get discounted prices on everything. Sunday morning Margaret hopped home and I took the bus back to Hull, desperately hoping to arrive in time to greet Amber, Julie, and Heather, who would be arriving at 4:30 in my hometown.
I sort of wandered around downtown Hull for a while, trying to think of where they might be hiding. Trying not to panic, thinking of how the three of them might be panicking. Thinking they probably were totally lost, and totally angry with me, and totally not knowing what to do. Then I get a call on my phone from an unknown number. It was Julie, calling from some old couple's cell phone. They had made it to Newland Avenue - a mere block away from my doorstep - and were waiting at The Hub for me. I zoomed in that direction as fast as a bus would allow, and came to the most joyous reunion of the century.
We made magic happen over the next few days. We went to Haworth Arms that first night, where Heather got a bit more tipsy than Courtney Love on a bad day. Next day was some fab shopping and the Piper that night - Amber was consequently stalked, but we ended up getting free pizza out of the deal. They headed to London and I met up a few days later, and we just zoomed and went as crazy as possible. Poor Amber came down with the plague though. Nonetheless, we managed to have The Single Messiest Hostel Room Ever In The History Of The World, including a steady drip of jam down the side of the wall. Don't ask. Some extremely wonderful shopping occurred, and it was in this shop that Julie obtained one exclamatory purse. There was a great visit to the World's End which could have ended disastrously, but didn't. We capped off our visit with a trip to the British Museum, where we saw old things and our feet hurt, then the three of them went to see Fame while I consequently got lost.
Then I had five days to write two papers. Thanks to Katie getting me to start working before everyone came, I managed to get it done. Except, HORRIBLY, I mistook the due date of my Gender History paper, so I turned it in a day late, which will knock a couple points off. They're surprisingly lenient on late work, which is wacky.
I trekked to London again the next weekend to hang with Nick and explore London on my own terms, which was pretty fabulous. We went to the London Dungeon, which is a lovely haunted house of history. Fabulous for a history nerd like myself. It scared me, which means it should be un-scary enough for five year olds.
The next weekend I headed down to London once again, this time to meet MY SISTERS!!!!!! Ahh what a reunion. Saturday morning I got up at 7:30 to head to Green Park station, and they ended up getting there at about 9:00, and it was a lovely slow mo running towards each other type scenario. I think they would've been a lot more excited had Crystal not spent the last nine hours puking.
We checked in and headed to Notting Hill, where we stumbled upon Portobello Road, which is just ENDLESS, holy crap! Surrounded by all the antiques, the peddlers, the rows of old telephones and clocks and silverware and knick knacks, I couldn't help but think...of how freaking bored I was. Luckily, on the other side of the road was food as plentiful as the school day is long, so we distracted ourselves by buying bread, fruit, and cheese. Ahh, London.
We wandered around Soho and Leicester and Piccadilly that night, enjoying the sights and sounds that magical London had to offer. We climbed to the upstairs area of a pub for dinner, right across from the Guys and Dolls marquee. I think it was that night that Tessa got sick...or perhaps it was the next day...either way, it wasn't pretty, and it ended up being just me and Crystal, which is kinda volatile.
So Crystal and I went to the Tate Modern the next day, stopping off at St. Paul's Cathedral on the way to honor Mary Poppins. It RAINED. It rained like there was no tomorrow. We spent a long, long time in Starbucks contemplating the lack of rainlessness. The next day, however, was quite sunny and we visited the Wellington Arch and Hyde Park, both of which were quite glorious, and on our way back we stopped to ogle Buckingham Palace.
Did I mention we went to see The Producers, at the Drury Lane Theatre? Well we did! And there was an embarassing mix up about the tickets that I'd rather not talk about, but let's just say don't let me buy tickets when I don't know that they're supposed to be for April 11th.
Anywho, Crystal and I were forced to go to Paris without our dearest Tessa. And we were forced to wait at the Luton airport for an hour, outside, in the rain, due to a fire. In the revolving doors. On the plus side, we went to PARIS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Thank goodness I speak at least a bit o' French. Otherwise we might have died. There was a fantastic snafu with the apartment Tessa'd rented that caused Crystal and I to dramatically seek out a Best Western for the night. Truly, it was the BEST Western.
We went to the Galeries Lafayette. We went to the Pere de LaChaise cemetary, only to find it was CLOSED and we got harrassed by a crazy French Jim Morrisson fan afterwards. (Well, Crystal was harrassed...I was ENTHRALLED.) We deftly avoided street poop. Montmartre was way cool, and so was the Sacre Coeur, but it was very uncool walking up 268 steps to get there. We went to the Musee d'Orsay, which had the most wiggidy wack long line I've ever seen, but it was DEFINITELY worth it. What cool art. We wandered around our neighborhood, stopping for crepes on what was affectionately called "Bacteria Alley" by the locals.
Yeah...we ate a LOT.
We later saw that big Eiffel thing, then walked crankily to the Champs Elysees, where we saw such incredulities as the Louis Vuitton store, with a LINE to get inside! What the heck! We ate disastrously overpriced Haagen Dazs at a swanky swank outdoor cafe, then champs'd down to the Louvre. And yes, Mom, we saw all the important stuff, like the Mona Lisa and La Venus. Seriously, where'd her arms go. I bet she was making gang hand signals and a rival gang chopped them off. Anywho, we ate some crusted cheese and escargot and made our departure from one another.
It has been a trip. I had been to London six weekends in a row. I'm now in love with that city, more than I loved Edinburgh, but less than I love Seattle. Seriously Seattle, nothing can keep me from you. You are KISS.
Also known as the best many weeks of my life.
First, Margaret arrived. Shelley and I woke up at 8:30 to take the 6 hour bus down to London. I had had three hours of sleep prior. Sarah had quitted our house two days before, thus I was emotionally unstable. I slept most of the way down, until we started getting to Victoria station and I started freaking out because, I mean, LONDON!!!! I remember seeing an agnes b. retail store and being like "OH MY GOSH, that's agnes b.!!! In store format!!!!"
We magically met Margaret and vamoosed to our hostel, the Generator at King's Cross. Then our first adventure stop was Camden, the most fantastic wacky creative insane-tive open market area I've ever been to. If you like rock music at all, go to Camden when you are in London. We window shopped ourselves into oblivion, then headed to the Cock for some drinks with some of Shelley's random friends. They were a perfect assortment of Londonite twenty somethings and bought us a few too many drinks so that I was unable to fully appreciate when they whisked us away to the most subterranean of London clubs, so underground that they actually called it The Underground. A very rock place, so indie they didn't play indie. They played The Clash and Nirvana, which was okay because no one in the club looked like they liked either band. Does that make sense? It was a spectacular experience and we danced like mofos.
The next day we had a meet and greet with the city of London, being awed by Westminster Abbey, Big Ben and the houses of Parliament, and contemplating whether or not it was worth it to venture on the London Eye. (We decided Not.)
Later in the week, Margaret and I took a ferry to Amsterdam. When we booked the trip, I was under the impression that "ferry" meant we'd be spending the whole time in little cabins playing cards. But no...this was a cruise. Complete with two restaurants, three bars, and a stage/dance floor where the most fantastic..ly WEIRD Dutch cover band was playing. We took full advantage. When the boat docked at freaking 6am, a shuttle bus took us an hour into the heart of Amsterdam.
The first thing we noticed was...bikes. The second thing we noticed was...we don't speak Dutch. We wandered for about an hour trying to find a cash machine, and observed the quaintness and quietness of this supposedly heathen city. It smelled like a mixture of marijuana and poo. Its inhabitants were quite receptive to tourists and were overwhelmingly forgiving about our inability to speak their language. Whew!
We returned on Thursday and headed to Welly that night, but I can't remember what happened, which is because I had an entire bottle of red wine to myself, because no one likes red wine! What's wrong with people???
Friday we returned to London and did all the crazy London things that one can do, including discovering a great pub/club called The World's End Pub, and flitting around Leicester Square at night, and shop shop shopping! Also spectacularly we visited the Globe Theatre - Shakespeare, ladies and gentlemen - which was quite an experience. I do so love that I'm a student and get discounted prices on everything. Sunday morning Margaret hopped home and I took the bus back to Hull, desperately hoping to arrive in time to greet Amber, Julie, and Heather, who would be arriving at 4:30 in my hometown.
I sort of wandered around downtown Hull for a while, trying to think of where they might be hiding. Trying not to panic, thinking of how the three of them might be panicking. Thinking they probably were totally lost, and totally angry with me, and totally not knowing what to do. Then I get a call on my phone from an unknown number. It was Julie, calling from some old couple's cell phone. They had made it to Newland Avenue - a mere block away from my doorstep - and were waiting at The Hub for me. I zoomed in that direction as fast as a bus would allow, and came to the most joyous reunion of the century.
We made magic happen over the next few days. We went to Haworth Arms that first night, where Heather got a bit more tipsy than Courtney Love on a bad day. Next day was some fab shopping and the Piper that night - Amber was consequently stalked, but we ended up getting free pizza out of the deal. They headed to London and I met up a few days later, and we just zoomed and went as crazy as possible. Poor Amber came down with the plague though. Nonetheless, we managed to have The Single Messiest Hostel Room Ever In The History Of The World, including a steady drip of jam down the side of the wall. Don't ask. Some extremely wonderful shopping occurred, and it was in this shop that Julie obtained one exclamatory purse. There was a great visit to the World's End which could have ended disastrously, but didn't. We capped off our visit with a trip to the British Museum, where we saw old things and our feet hurt, then the three of them went to see Fame while I consequently got lost.
Then I had five days to write two papers. Thanks to Katie getting me to start working before everyone came, I managed to get it done. Except, HORRIBLY, I mistook the due date of my Gender History paper, so I turned it in a day late, which will knock a couple points off. They're surprisingly lenient on late work, which is wacky.
I trekked to London again the next weekend to hang with Nick and explore London on my own terms, which was pretty fabulous. We went to the London Dungeon, which is a lovely haunted house of history. Fabulous for a history nerd like myself. It scared me, which means it should be un-scary enough for five year olds.
The next weekend I headed down to London once again, this time to meet MY SISTERS!!!!!! Ahh what a reunion. Saturday morning I got up at 7:30 to head to Green Park station, and they ended up getting there at about 9:00, and it was a lovely slow mo running towards each other type scenario. I think they would've been a lot more excited had Crystal not spent the last nine hours puking.
We checked in and headed to Notting Hill, where we stumbled upon Portobello Road, which is just ENDLESS, holy crap! Surrounded by all the antiques, the peddlers, the rows of old telephones and clocks and silverware and knick knacks, I couldn't help but think...of how freaking bored I was. Luckily, on the other side of the road was food as plentiful as the school day is long, so we distracted ourselves by buying bread, fruit, and cheese. Ahh, London.
We wandered around Soho and Leicester and Piccadilly that night, enjoying the sights and sounds that magical London had to offer. We climbed to the upstairs area of a pub for dinner, right across from the Guys and Dolls marquee. I think it was that night that Tessa got sick...or perhaps it was the next day...either way, it wasn't pretty, and it ended up being just me and Crystal, which is kinda volatile.
So Crystal and I went to the Tate Modern the next day, stopping off at St. Paul's Cathedral on the way to honor Mary Poppins. It RAINED. It rained like there was no tomorrow. We spent a long, long time in Starbucks contemplating the lack of rainlessness. The next day, however, was quite sunny and we visited the Wellington Arch and Hyde Park, both of which were quite glorious, and on our way back we stopped to ogle Buckingham Palace.
Did I mention we went to see The Producers, at the Drury Lane Theatre? Well we did! And there was an embarassing mix up about the tickets that I'd rather not talk about, but let's just say don't let me buy tickets when I don't know that they're supposed to be for April 11th.
Anywho, Crystal and I were forced to go to Paris without our dearest Tessa. And we were forced to wait at the Luton airport for an hour, outside, in the rain, due to a fire. In the revolving doors. On the plus side, we went to PARIS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Thank goodness I speak at least a bit o' French. Otherwise we might have died. There was a fantastic snafu with the apartment Tessa'd rented that caused Crystal and I to dramatically seek out a Best Western for the night. Truly, it was the BEST Western.
We went to the Galeries Lafayette. We went to the Pere de LaChaise cemetary, only to find it was CLOSED and we got harrassed by a crazy French Jim Morrisson fan afterwards. (Well, Crystal was harrassed...I was ENTHRALLED.) We deftly avoided street poop. Montmartre was way cool, and so was the Sacre Coeur, but it was very uncool walking up 268 steps to get there. We went to the Musee d'Orsay, which had the most wiggidy wack long line I've ever seen, but it was DEFINITELY worth it. What cool art. We wandered around our neighborhood, stopping for crepes on what was affectionately called "Bacteria Alley" by the locals.
Yeah...we ate a LOT.
We later saw that big Eiffel thing, then walked crankily to the Champs Elysees, where we saw such incredulities as the Louis Vuitton store, with a LINE to get inside! What the heck! We ate disastrously overpriced Haagen Dazs at a swanky swank outdoor cafe, then champs'd down to the Louvre. And yes, Mom, we saw all the important stuff, like the Mona Lisa and La Venus. Seriously, where'd her arms go. I bet she was making gang hand signals and a rival gang chopped them off. Anywho, we ate some crusted cheese and escargot and made our departure from one another.
It has been a trip. I had been to London six weekends in a row. I'm now in love with that city, more than I loved Edinburgh, but less than I love Seattle. Seriously Seattle, nothing can keep me from you. You are KISS.