I can't pay the bills yet, 'cause I have no skills yet...
First and foremost, milieva, I got your package and I'm listening to it right now! *<3's a billion times!* Out of curiosity would you be more partial to Bailey's Irish Cream or Whiskey...? I promise that question will make sense sometime...
Okay. Here is the ultimate London recap, complete with the cream of the crop of my photos. For the full photos, as always, click HERE. Although, please note, not in actual order. Also, churches you can't take pictures in, so several places you will all someday have to see for yourself if you haven't before (or, you can come by and look at my photobooks, too).
Welcome to the summation of London.
Day 1: I pretty much got there at about 10 at night from Dublin, wandered around the incredibly confusing Belgrave Rd to find the hostel for its one night of usefulness (kinda glad I didn't have to stay past that, however). At 10 o'clock I had yummy Indian food and then, exhausted from having anxiety attacks over where I was going to stay in London the night before when I found out the hostel had lost reservations for three nights, we went to sleep.
Day 2: Since we were unable to check into the hotel until 2, we got up, ate breakfast at the hostel, and went out into the wide world of London. I had never ever before in my life ridden on a subway (public transportation in CA...? Foreign concept!), so the tube was kinda cool in and of itself. We hopped on it and went over to Westminster station and got off to gawk at Big Ben for an extended period. However, Big Ben was not as big as I had thought it would be..:( Since, besides taking pictures there wasn't much to do there, we went over the Westminster Abbey...which was gorgeous and generally awesome. I spent a lot of time in the Poet's Corner (and bought a book that focused on it) so I could see Chuacer's grave, Shakespeare's monument and several others. Austen even had her own memorial...which was very sad in comparasion to the others (you could rightly saw, very un-Austentacious! Yeah, greywing I already gave myself a zero if you're reading this).
After this, we made our way over to the South Bank and rode the London Eye, which was kinda cool, but not awesome enough to merit the equivalent of a $30 ticket. Pretty views, however. After walking around to see some of Dali's statues scattered around the area and making our way past the Houses of Parliament and some cool horse mounted guards, we looked around Trafalgar Square (and it's incredibly phallic monument!). Then we strolled around before heading back to the hostel and picking up our luggage to make our way over to Canary Wharf in east London.
We got to the hotel where they had once again lost our reservations for about an hour. I was thinking "Are you kidding me?" But it was so nice to have a TV and a shower you didn't have to pay to use. Then, for fear some giant catastrophe would rain down on our heads should we go out again, we just stayed in and rested from our travails.
Day 3: In the morning, we got up to go see the Tower of London and walked across the awesome Tower Bridge to get to it from the Tube Station. On the way, we passed a military museum complete with old posters concerning rationing and large signs that read "THIS WAY TO AIR RAID SHELTERS" from the Blitz. I need to have a discussion at some point of the negative character of history in the U.S. sometime...anyways, the Tower was cool. We saw where people were executed and where people's heads on pikes would have met people coming in on the Thames and a chapel where the headless people were buried. Oh, and the crown jewels. The tour guide was absolutely hilarious. In the middle of his historical spiel he was like "Is anyone here American?" There were a couple scattered hands at which he laughed and said, "Just think, if you had just paid your taxes all of this history could be yours, too!"
After this it was off to the British Museum which I, since I am beningly geeky, have wanted to go to since I was about 5. Why? Egyptian mummies!!! (I actually seriously entertained becoming a dirt poor Egyptologist at one point...would have gone to University of Chicago and all...). I spent several hours looking at the mummies, the Rosetta Stone (!!), and the Elgin Marbles (I even found the panel that is said to have inspired John Keats - my very favorite poet - to write "Ode on a Grecian Urn")...and so much stuff. I was a very happy girl.
After that, we ate a traditional meal with English pies and sticky toffee pud (is it sad that the one at the British restaurant at home was a lot better?) and walked around Picadilly Circus to see it all lit up. I added to my random tea pot collection with one that is a mug and personal tea pot you stack up to make Big Ben and then we went for a drink at the bar (the first time I was carded XI...but the man was very surprised that an American ordered cider.) I tried Strongbow Cider on Amy's recommendation, but Bulmer's is still my cider love.
Day 4: Getting up, we intended to get everything done in Southwark area (way not pronounced the way I thought it was, btw) in the morning. We started out by going to St.Paul's Cathedral, which was closed for the morning for a special function...however, we did get a 2 for 1 Voucher as a consolation. We went across the Millenium Bridge to the Tate Modern art museum...which was patently unimpressive. Perhaps it is because I don't like modern art (me: "Look! A nude with bananas!" *Looks at label that reads "The Transendence of the Past"* Me: "Right..."). We then went to the third incarnation of Shakespeare's Old Globe Theater and took a tour.
I now own a Hamlet and Macbeth t-shirt and a pocket edition of Hamlet...and believe me, they make me squee like an eight year old.
Next, it was off to St. Paul's again (after stopping at a place that billed itself as a Dickensian Pub) and, after queing for quite a while, got in. The cathedral is quite beautiful, although the crypts were not as cool as Westminster Abbey's...however, continuing on with the literary theme, I saw the shroud of John Donne and William Blake's tombs, as well as the flashy tombs of Wellington and Nelson. Then, I went up the 163 some odd winding steps and narrow, narrow corridors to the Whispering Gallyer, just below the dome, and looked down. That was quite high enough for me, although you could go up to the top of the dome up 300 more steps if you were incredibly foolhardy brave.
Taking the tube over to Leicester Square (pronounced "Lester" in case you were wondering), we bought theater tickets to the evening's show of Avenue Q and walked around. I had gelato for the very first time at a cafe and, while not quite different enough from normal ice cream to really get me excited, it was good. Walking over to Convent Garden, we spent some time going over the Saturday market...which was generally awesome. I bought myself a pretty silver locket set with wildflowers. <3 I ate dinner in an open Piazza restaurant (Cauliflower soup was yummy!) and, after drinking in a pub, went onto the show.
Avenue Q was absolutely hilarious and I recommend it to anyone who hasn't seen it and has an oppurtunity. It is irreverant and awesome and fairly true to life in all it's complexity and uncertainty. Also...puppets? Awesome.
That was it for that busy day.
Day 5: Well, continuing on with the vaguely literary theme of the day before, we started out by going to King's Cross to find Platform 9 3/4's (which at first I couldn't find, because I thought it would be in between 5 and 6 where they filmed it for the movies, but it was actually vaguely near platform 9 and I thought it would be really embarrassing to ask directions to 9 3/4's...).
Then, we attempted to find John Keats' house in Hampstead. The guidebook only gave me a tube station and two streets that weren't even vaguely connected. So, after asking several locals (who were either perplexed or very proud of their local poet), we walked around the gorgeous streets of Hampstead (I was thinking "Woah! Seasons!"), we got very very good directions from a man and managed to find the house which - as pretty much epitomizes the trip - was closed for refurbishment! So I can say I have been outside of the gate of John Keats' house...which is almost like actually being there...
After that, we went to Hyde Park to waste time (It honestly reminded me of Peter Pan at Disneyland alot...me and fictional London really got a long well this trip), and did some people watching before looking at the gorgeous scenery of Green Park and taking a look at Buckingham Palace, before returning to the hotel to pick up our luggage and make our way through tube closures to Victoria Station to catch the train to Gatwick.
On the Gatwick Express, we met this old Cherokee woman from Oklahoma who had come to London for, perhaps, the only week in her life and she shared her amazement at everything from paying to use the bathroom to the full-cost gas prices as well as giving us the dirt on chuck wagon cooking.
Over all, for the disasterous start, it was a fantastic trip...and I really love London (although, crazily enough, it made me miss my home pub a lot!).
Next week, expect pictures from Belfast!
^_^
Okay. Here is the ultimate London recap, complete with the cream of the crop of my photos. For the full photos, as always, click HERE. Although, please note, not in actual order. Also, churches you can't take pictures in, so several places you will all someday have to see for yourself if you haven't before (or, you can come by and look at my photobooks, too).
Welcome to the summation of London.
Day 1: I pretty much got there at about 10 at night from Dublin, wandered around the incredibly confusing Belgrave Rd to find the hostel for its one night of usefulness (kinda glad I didn't have to stay past that, however). At 10 o'clock I had yummy Indian food and then, exhausted from having anxiety attacks over where I was going to stay in London the night before when I found out the hostel had lost reservations for three nights, we went to sleep.
Day 2: Since we were unable to check into the hotel until 2, we got up, ate breakfast at the hostel, and went out into the wide world of London. I had never ever before in my life ridden on a subway (public transportation in CA...? Foreign concept!), so the tube was kinda cool in and of itself. We hopped on it and went over to Westminster station and got off to gawk at Big Ben for an extended period. However, Big Ben was not as big as I had thought it would be..:( Since, besides taking pictures there wasn't much to do there, we went over the Westminster Abbey...which was gorgeous and generally awesome. I spent a lot of time in the Poet's Corner (and bought a book that focused on it) so I could see Chuacer's grave, Shakespeare's monument and several others. Austen even had her own memorial...which was very sad in comparasion to the others (you could rightly saw, very un-Austentacious! Yeah, greywing I already gave myself a zero if you're reading this).
After this, we made our way over to the South Bank and rode the London Eye, which was kinda cool, but not awesome enough to merit the equivalent of a $30 ticket. Pretty views, however. After walking around to see some of Dali's statues scattered around the area and making our way past the Houses of Parliament and some cool horse mounted guards, we looked around Trafalgar Square (and it's incredibly phallic monument!). Then we strolled around before heading back to the hostel and picking up our luggage to make our way over to Canary Wharf in east London.
We got to the hotel where they had once again lost our reservations for about an hour. I was thinking "Are you kidding me?" But it was so nice to have a TV and a shower you didn't have to pay to use. Then, for fear some giant catastrophe would rain down on our heads should we go out again, we just stayed in and rested from our travails.
Day 3: In the morning, we got up to go see the Tower of London and walked across the awesome Tower Bridge to get to it from the Tube Station. On the way, we passed a military museum complete with old posters concerning rationing and large signs that read "THIS WAY TO AIR RAID SHELTERS" from the Blitz. I need to have a discussion at some point of the negative character of history in the U.S. sometime...anyways, the Tower was cool. We saw where people were executed and where people's heads on pikes would have met people coming in on the Thames and a chapel where the headless people were buried. Oh, and the crown jewels. The tour guide was absolutely hilarious. In the middle of his historical spiel he was like "Is anyone here American?" There were a couple scattered hands at which he laughed and said, "Just think, if you had just paid your taxes all of this history could be yours, too!"
After this it was off to the British Museum which I, since I am beningly geeky, have wanted to go to since I was about 5. Why? Egyptian mummies!!! (I actually seriously entertained becoming a dirt poor Egyptologist at one point...would have gone to University of Chicago and all...). I spent several hours looking at the mummies, the Rosetta Stone (!!), and the Elgin Marbles (I even found the panel that is said to have inspired John Keats - my very favorite poet - to write "Ode on a Grecian Urn")...and so much stuff. I was a very happy girl.
After that, we ate a traditional meal with English pies and sticky toffee pud (is it sad that the one at the British restaurant at home was a lot better?) and walked around Picadilly Circus to see it all lit up. I added to my random tea pot collection with one that is a mug and personal tea pot you stack up to make Big Ben and then we went for a drink at the bar (the first time I was carded XI...but the man was very surprised that an American ordered cider.) I tried Strongbow Cider on Amy's recommendation, but Bulmer's is still my cider love.
Day 4: Getting up, we intended to get everything done in Southwark area (way not pronounced the way I thought it was, btw) in the morning. We started out by going to St.Paul's Cathedral, which was closed for the morning for a special function...however, we did get a 2 for 1 Voucher as a consolation. We went across the Millenium Bridge to the Tate Modern art museum...which was patently unimpressive. Perhaps it is because I don't like modern art (me: "Look! A nude with bananas!" *Looks at label that reads "The Transendence of the Past"* Me: "Right..."). We then went to the third incarnation of Shakespeare's Old Globe Theater and took a tour.
I now own a Hamlet and Macbeth t-shirt and a pocket edition of Hamlet...and believe me, they make me squee like an eight year old.
Next, it was off to St. Paul's again (after stopping at a place that billed itself as a Dickensian Pub) and, after queing for quite a while, got in. The cathedral is quite beautiful, although the crypts were not as cool as Westminster Abbey's...however, continuing on with the literary theme, I saw the shroud of John Donne and William Blake's tombs, as well as the flashy tombs of Wellington and Nelson. Then, I went up the 163 some odd winding steps and narrow, narrow corridors to the Whispering Gallyer, just below the dome, and looked down. That was quite high enough for me, although you could go up to the top of the dome up 300 more steps if you were incredibly foolhardy brave.
Taking the tube over to Leicester Square (pronounced "Lester" in case you were wondering), we bought theater tickets to the evening's show of Avenue Q and walked around. I had gelato for the very first time at a cafe and, while not quite different enough from normal ice cream to really get me excited, it was good. Walking over to Convent Garden, we spent some time going over the Saturday market...which was generally awesome. I bought myself a pretty silver locket set with wildflowers. <3 I ate dinner in an open Piazza restaurant (Cauliflower soup was yummy!) and, after drinking in a pub, went onto the show.
Avenue Q was absolutely hilarious and I recommend it to anyone who hasn't seen it and has an oppurtunity. It is irreverant and awesome and fairly true to life in all it's complexity and uncertainty. Also...puppets? Awesome.
That was it for that busy day.
Day 5: Well, continuing on with the vaguely literary theme of the day before, we started out by going to King's Cross to find Platform 9 3/4's (which at first I couldn't find, because I thought it would be in between 5 and 6 where they filmed it for the movies, but it was actually vaguely near platform 9 and I thought it would be really embarrassing to ask directions to 9 3/4's...).
Then, we attempted to find John Keats' house in Hampstead. The guidebook only gave me a tube station and two streets that weren't even vaguely connected. So, after asking several locals (who were either perplexed or very proud of their local poet), we walked around the gorgeous streets of Hampstead (I was thinking "Woah! Seasons!"), we got very very good directions from a man and managed to find the house which - as pretty much epitomizes the trip - was closed for refurbishment! So I can say I have been outside of the gate of John Keats' house...which is almost like actually being there...
After that, we went to Hyde Park to waste time (It honestly reminded me of Peter Pan at Disneyland alot...me and fictional London really got a long well this trip), and did some people watching before looking at the gorgeous scenery of Green Park and taking a look at Buckingham Palace, before returning to the hotel to pick up our luggage and make our way through tube closures to Victoria Station to catch the train to Gatwick.
On the Gatwick Express, we met this old Cherokee woman from Oklahoma who had come to London for, perhaps, the only week in her life and she shared her amazement at everything from paying to use the bathroom to the full-cost gas prices as well as giving us the dirt on chuck wagon cooking.
Over all, for the disasterous start, it was a fantastic trip...and I really love London (although, crazily enough, it made me miss my home pub a lot!).
Next week, expect pictures from Belfast!
^_^