Reflections

Hello! You know how yesterday I said I woke up pretty peacefully and it was really nice? Yeah. Today, not so much. Just about every morning, except Sunday, there is a jack hammer going down the little alleyway that our window opens up on. Usually that's the only noise and I can ignore it. Today, that jack hammer was joined by a terrible sound. Imagine taking a metal hammer and pounding really hard on a metal door while standing on the other side of the metal door. That's pretty much what it sounded like. What made it more infuriating was that it was on weird intervals so you never knew when it was coming next. Just terrible. That's not how I want to wake up ever again. It did get me out of bed quickly and on with my day which was nice I guess (I'm a glass half-full type of person). I did my usual routine but this morning for breakfast I made my usual toasted bagel with nutella and peanut butter and I cut up my banana and put it on the bagel. Heaven. Just divine.

So as I also mentioned yesterday, I have a little list of stuff that I HAVE to do before I leave London for good. Well another item on that list is "ride a boat on the Thames". So that's what I did today. It was really, really warm out when I was getting ready but I didn't wear my shorts (not that anyone cares) which ended up being a good thing because throughout the day, it got cooler. I decided to walk from my flat to Westminster and take a boat from there to Greenwich. To get to Westminster, I walked through Hyde Park and saw the Princess Diana Memorial Fountain (picture 1) which I had never seen in operation before. Seems odd with all the times I have walked through Hyde Park but it's the truth. The sun was shining and the fountain was very pretty. There were tons of people in the park which always makes me think, "Do people here have jobs?" Apparently not. The clouds were also extra spectacular all day. I continued on through Hyde Park Corner and along Green park. Lots of people there too. You could definitely tell that Spring has Sprung here. I could really tell because I was sweating buckets while I was walking. It was kind of disgusting. I am just not used to the warm temperatures yet. So I walked by Buckingham Palace and then cut through St. James's Park on my way to Westminster. St. James's Park was packed with people, just like it was when Mom and I walked through it a couple weeks ago (today, in fact, wow, it seems like it was just yesterday... anyway). Then I arrived at Westminster and went down to the boat dock.

There are boats that run along the Thames River in both directions. The farthest west the boats go, as far as I know, is Hampton Court. That's a palace/castle. The farthest east they go is the Thames Barrier which is a dam. In between are Kew Gardens, all the usual London river sites, and Greenwich. I decided to take the boat to Greenwich because I really wanted to go back to Canary Wharf on a weekday that was sunny which was today. The ticket was only 5 pounds which isn't bad at all. I got on the boat and got ready to go (picture 2). The boat ride was very pleasant with a nice breezy and sunshine. We passed by all the usual sites including the London Eye (picture 3, I love this picture). One of the workers did a tour guide type thing over the PA system. He was very funny and did a very good job. He would make comments about the buildings we passed. There was one building that he said, "I don't know much about this building but someone told me once that it was designed by two unemployed window washers" (picture 4). It was funnier on the boat I think. We passed under the Tower Bridge (picture 5). Seeing the the stuff from the river level was different which was fun. We continued on to Greenwich. This section didn't have the attractions of the earlier part but was still nice. I ate my lunch on the boat, adding to my collection of cool places I have eaten a PBJ sandwich. The apartment buildings we passed were very strange looking. One of them was shaped like a right triangle and had the elevator on the hypotenuse. After about an hour on the boat, we arrived at Greenwich.

Some people may remember that I did a trip a lot like this back in January. That time I didn't take a boat though. Just to refresh, Greenwich is where Greenwich Mean Time comes from and still maintains a small town feel. I didn't want to walk around Greenwich again but I did stop in the Greenwich Market. Quite a bit different from the chaos of Camden. Still nice. I caught a DLR (Docklands Light Rail) train to Canary Wharf, the place I really wanted to go. I got off the train a little bit before the main station so I could walk around and into the Wharf instead of arriving right in the middle of it. I still really like the place. It is completely, utterly, totally different from anywhere else I have been in London. The architecture and design of the buildings, especially in the sunshine, was so beautiful (picture 6). They LOVE glass in Canary Wharf. All the glass on the buildings created a stunning reflection of the other buildings and the clouds. Simply awesome (picture 7, I love this picture too). Last time, it was a ghost town and was cloudy and drizzling the whole time. This time, there were people and it was sunny. Another thing I noticed is that there are no churches anywhere in the area, at least that I saw. Canary Wharf is a bunch of office buildings and luxury apartments so I wasn't very surprised but I didn't see even a steeple anywhere near to it really. Seemed strange. I walked through the same park that I did the last time. The eyes that were in the water and grass were gone though (picture 8).

There are 6 different "districts" to the Wharf which all have 6-8 office or apartment buildings in them. I walked around all of them. I spent most of the time just soaking it in and marveling at all the design that went into the whole area. I will say that all of the districts seem pretty much the same. The other thing I noticed was all the construction. There are probably 5 buildings within Canary Wharf that are still being built. It was interesting seeing all the construction workers walking around next to people in full suits. Someone who knew something about Sociology might be able to say more about it. Both groups of people did share one thing in common, smoking. Yikes! With all the open space and nice weather, there were tons and tons of people outside smoking. I felt like I was Spain again, except that there were sidewalks here. I walked along each of the water areas that surround the Wharf and walked around the underground mall some more as well. As I said, I really like it here. My favorite part of the whole place is Canada One Square. This square gives the best view of the three tallest buildings in Great Britain (picture 9). They look so cool standing together like that. They remind me of three tough guys standing together with one just a little bit forward, like on a movie poster or something. I'm sure it was planned that way and I applaud the planner's efforts. I walked around the docks some more and then decided it was time to leave.

I hopped on the DLR to Tower Bridge. From there, I switched to buses and got on one of the old Route Masters (picture 10). These are the old double decker buses which you board from the back and stuff. Mom and I rode one of these when she was here and I have ridden one on my own once before also. The novelty never wears off. They are just too awesome. The bus rode past all the major sites, St. Paul's, Fleet Street, Trafalgar Square, Piccadilly Circus, etc. As I passed all these places I have grown so accustomed too, I realized just how much I have grown comfortable with London. i think it's that comfort that has helped my like/love of it grow. I miss everyone back home but I really like this city. Anyway, I got back to the flat and made dinner. I had a Cajun chicken flavored pizza with peppers and onions on it. It reminded me of Chipotle and how much I REALLY WANT SOME! Only 8 more weeks... Tomorrow we are doing our last group excursion and it is to Stratford-upon-Avon where we are seeing The Merchant of Venice. I won't be back until late but, you know me, I will get a post up. :-)

Hoşça kalın! (Turkish for goodbye)

A Tale of Two Days

*This entry is an extremely long post. You have been warned.*

I know everyone noticed that there was no blog post yesterday, I didn't get any e-mails about how distressed people were but I know you were. I didn't do a blog post yesterday becasue I decided, on a whim (just like everything), to go on skype and give my mom, sister, brother, and dad a call. By the time we were done talking, it was already past 2 am and I was too tired to write anything. So there ya go. I will be calling other people sometime soon too so don't be surprised if you hear my wonderful voice on the other end of the line. Now for a mammoth recap of the past two days.

Yesterday and today were pretty similar, at least at the outset. Both days I woke at around 10 am (you're jealous, its ok). Both days I ate breakfast and showered and just kind of sat around until about noon. Both days I left my flat at noon for my destination. That's where things start to diverge.

Yesterday I decided to go to Westminster Abbey (we entered through the North Transept, picture 1). This is the place where just about every King or Queen has been coronated. It is also the burial ground for a TON of different artists, writers, scientists, and royalty. Very cool place. I went with Vanessa and Chelsey. I decided to finally go inside a building for once! Problem is, they don't allow people to take pictures inside, haha, oops. The one time I could actually give you guys some pictures of the inside of a famous building, I can't. Oh well. I did take some pictures of the inside (they're illegal, thus more important).

The reason I decided to go to Westminster (the West Towers are picture 3) was because it was right by the Parliament Building which we had a tour of later in the day. So like I said we went to Westminster and it was amazing. The building itself is just awesome. It is so big and so grand that it definitely puts everyone who visits in awe. We had to pay the £7 entry fee but if you come for a mass (Church of England) you can get in and see the building for free. There are so many memorials inside the church. Along just about every wall and little chapel and stuff branching off the main nave, there are memorials and statues and plaques. It really is mindboggling. I can't remember all the famous people we saw but a short list off the top of my head is: Chaucer, Shakespeare, Dickens, Jane Austen, Newton, Darwin (thought that one was odd), Elizabeth I, Henry VIII, and so many more. There were memorials from as long ago as 1400 and some as recent as 1998 (probably more recent ones than that, that was just the most recent I saw for myself). There is also the so-called 'Oldest Door In Britain' (picture 2). Keep in mind that these things are all over the place and we didn't get an audio guide so we spent kind of a long time walking around and looking for all the famous names that we knew where there.

So while I was inside the Abbey, I was thinking about seeing all these famous names but I was also thinking a lot about The Da Vinci Code. For those who don't know, the last and climactic scene of the book (the movie sucked), happens in Westminster Abbey. So it was fun walking around trying to remember all the parts of the book and where they happened in the Abbey and stuff. One of the coolest things we saw in the Abbey was the throne. It was constructed in 1305 and every King or Queen sits in it during the coronation. Every single one. Since 1305. Wow. I told Chelsey that I would definitely lose a bunch of weight before coronation so I wouldn't break it. That would suck to be known as "the guy who broke the 700 year old thorne because he was too fat". We sat inside the church after exploring it, partly to suck up the atmosphere and partly because we didn't have anything else to do and about 2 hours to spare.

We decided to walk up the road a little and see 10 Downing Street (picture 4), where the Prime Minister lives. Its back behind a bunch of security :-( so I didn't get a very good picture of it, but I did take a picture which I think counts for something. So that was pretty cool. Then we visited the horse guards again because Chelsey had never seen them. Same old same old. Vanessa asked why they were there and I told her that they might attack her for asking questions like that (you never know with horses). Then we made our way over to St. James Park (where Vanessa and I went the other day). We went to a little shop thing that is built into the ground and Chelsey got a sandwich and I got hot chocolate and a couple cookies. The cookies were just otherworldly. Chelsey was having problems with her sandwich. It had this stuff on the bottom that didn't taste good and the mustard she put on it was really hot (seems like all mustards here are hot, or so I've heard). She said it was the worst sandwich experience of her life.

We made our way back over to the Parliament Building to meet up with everyon else. Everyone made it there safe and sound and the last people arrived one minute early. Woot! So we got a tour of the building. The building is sort of split in two. The House of Lords (sort of like Senators but not elected, they are appointed) side is just ridiculously elegant and extravagant. Gold leaf and paint was in no short supply. Again no pictures allowed (poo...) so you'll just have to take my word for it. There was a lot of information imbued on us by our tour guide but I can't remember a lot of it and most of it was relevant to what we were looking at so its pretty worthless. The House of Commons side is basically all stone, very little paint and gold leaf I guess is what I am saying. This is the way it is supposed to be. The House of Lords is for the nobility (sort of) and the House of Commons is supposed to be the common people so there ya go.

There is a room called Westminster Hall. It was built in 1100. It is where a ton of famous stuff has happened. Lots of people have Lain in State in there. William Wallace had his trial in it, as did Sir Thomas More (picture 5).

On entry into the actual House of Commons room (where they meet) there is a statue of Winston Churchill which our tour guide told us everyone rubs for good luck so we all started to rub it for good luck. Some security guard with an ego said that we shouldn't do that even though there is no sign or protection. Our tour guide made up some story about how he got a letter saying that people could start doing that again. We enterd the other room and I saw that security guard talking to another one about the situation. When we walked by her again, she said that its not a big deal, our tour guide is just not supposed to promote it. He was very gracious but as soon he got out of her ear shot he said, "Security." and rolled his eyes. Haha. I thought the whole situation was dumb.

I really liked our tour guide. He actually works for one of the Lords. He told us that we should come back on Monday afternoon and watch the House of Lords in action. They are going to be discussing a law about embyronic stem cell research and a law about not being able to abort babies past 24 weeks except if they are handicapped, then you can. Obviously the part being debated is the handicapped part. Sounds very interesting and a bunch of people sounded like they wanted to go (I do too) so I hope it works out.

After the Parliament tour (picture 6). I came back to the flat and did some more research on spring break and later plans. Looking up hostels and planes and such. Through some hard work and good planning, Vanessa and I figured out the three hostels we want to stay at (cost, location, reviews were all factors). I made a bacon and cheese quiche for dinner. Absolutely fantastic. It was frozen so all I had to do was warm it in the over but it was less than £1 which made it taste better I think. Even my peanut butter and jelly sandwiches with all ingredients combined are probably more expensive than that.

After dinner and more research, I called up my fam on Skype. Very cool. I love technology. It was just super stupendous that they all answered and I got to talk to all of them. I missed them terribly (along with everyone else back home) so it was nice to hear their voices and stuff.

As I said, today I left the flat at around noon but not for Westminster. In the e-mail I got back from Sonya, she told me how much she liked this place called Canary Wharf and a village named Greenwich. I had wanted to go to both just based on the readings from the books I have but she affirmed what I already thought. Sonya told me that Canary Wharf was a lot like Minneapolis. Boy was she right. Before I get into that too much, I'll just talk about the journey there a little bit. The Tube is very old so every weekend there is always closures or partial closures and the train that I wanted was under a closure so I had to take a different way. Which was take the Tube to Tower Hill and then hop on the DLR (docklands light rail) down to the Wharf and Greenwich. This turned out to be the best way to do it anyway. Very easy and the DLR is above ground so it was cool seeing stuff as it based by (as opposed to tunnels). The part of London that I passed through was very different from any part I had seen yet. There were a LOT of like ten story humungous apartment buildings. In central london, its just about all 4 or 5 levels and that's it (except things like St. Pauls Cathedral or whatever). Seeing this part was nice.

So I got to Canary Wharf (station is picture 7) and started walking around in the city streets. I ran into a park that had little eye balls sticking out of the fountains and the ground (picture 8). Very weird. While I was walking, I kept thinking, "Geez, this place really is like Downtown Minneapolis but something is missing..." I finally realized what was missing. PEOPLE. There was basically not a soul to be found on the streets. I realize that it is an area with a lot of high rises and so on a Saturday afternoon it wouldn't be teeming with life but god. I would say that I saw about 20 people the entire time I was walking around (which was probably 45 minutes plus). Very strange. I loved this area though. It made me miss Minneapolis a lot. Even though I don't spend that much time Downtown, I always know its there and this made me realize how much I like knowing that. There were canals and large office buildings (picture 9) all over the place too which I really liked as well. It was very quiet and peaceful. Very different from everywhere else I have been in London. I liked the fact that I was the only tourist around. Made me feel special. I want to come back here on a weekday night or something and eat dinner, that would be very nice. The area was all built during the Thatcher Era (80's) and apparently never really lived up to its promise until recently when a bunch of companies came in and stuff. I saw a sculpture in a square with a founatin that I really liked (picture 10).

So I rode the DLR a little farther until I got to the Thames River. Greenwich is across the river so you might be asking me why I got off on the other side. Welllll, there is a tunnel (picture 12) just for pedestrians that goes under the river and goes out right in Greenwich. Of course I had to do it. Not much to say about it, I took a couple pictures. A little unsettling knowing that I was under all that pressure from water and land and the tunnel is from 1904 but that's ok. I made it through and survived.

I popped out in Greenwich and looked back across the river at Canary Whart. The skyline reminded me of Downtown which is my favorite skyline ever so that's a compliment. I explored Greenwich. I went to the two Royal Naval War College buildings. Why are there two and not one building? Good question. Because the Queen's House was behind it and the Queen didn't want her view disrupted so they split the College into two symmetrical buildings with a gap between so the Queen could still see the river (picture 11). Not much to say about the College, one side had a chapel and the other had a Painted Room (the chapel and painted room are with the domes in picture 13). Man was that room ever painted. All over the place, paintings (picture 14). I went to the Queen's House. Nothing of note.

I made my way up to the Royal Observatory. Its up a hill. This is where the Prime Meridian is (picture 15). A bunch of people were getting their picture taken with one foot in the Eastern Hemisphere and one in the Western Hemisphere. I didn't. There were a ton of tourists and I just wasn't that interested in the whole thing. I don't think I looked at on exhibit. I suppose I should have. Oh well. The view from the Observatory was very cool. You could make out St. Paul's Cathedral and Tower Bridge to the west. The Millenium Dome was to the right.

I walked back down the hill but this time through the town. Very nice little village. I had some chips (french fries) for lunch and then made my way back to Canary Wharf. I walked around there more (I told you I liked it). This is where part of 'The World Is Not Enough', a Bond film, was filmed. He chanced some bad guys through the canals. I was walking around and I saw an escalator down into the entrance of a mall so I went down and it. By doing so, I found out where everyone was. They were all underground shopping at these HUGE underground hallways with shops galore. It looked just like a mall back in the US. As I was going to the DLR station, I noticed that there was a skating rink (picture 16). Seriously, add some snow and that picture looks like Minneapolis.

I made my way back and stopped and got laundry detergent. I am currently washing clothes which ended up costing £8 ($16) total. That's without the price of laundry detergent. Ugh. Oh well. It has to be done. Just like this entry. This is the longest entry to date. Hope you enjoyed it! Toodles!