Say Hello, Wave Goodbye

I planned today to be my "goodbye London" day and it was was (the title of the post is a David Gray song). I woke up and got ready and did a little, tiny bit of packing. My plan was to walk. A lot. I was a little depressed because it was raining when I left but I didn't let it get me down because I had no choice. I had my plan and I was going to stick to it. I took the bus to Piccadilly Circus and walked from there to Stanford's. I bought three guidebooks. Frommer's Greece, Eyewitness Istanbul, and Rick Steves's Belgium and Netherlands. I am also bringing Rick Steves's Switzerland and my big Let's Go Europe book. Those are going to be my main sources of information. I like having the variety of types of guidebooks. I would have just rented all guidebooks from the library but they had a pretty poor selection. So I bought the books and then stopped at the same pizza place I usually do in Leicester Square. 1.50 pounds for a slice. It is sooo good. Leicester Square was getting all geared up for the Iron Man premiere. I really want to see that movie. I'll have to wait until I get back though.

I walked down the The Strand and happened upon a big collection of people walking down it (picture 1). Apparently, it was a Teacher's strike and they were marching to get more pay or something like that. I just read the signs so I don't know much more about it. There were a lot of them though. I stopped at Tesco's and bought a little feast for lunch. That chicken and bacon pasta salad my mom and I had for Easter, a banana, a dinner roll (I love dinner rolls), two white chocolate cookies, and some lemon-lime spring water. I was very excited to eat it. I walked down The Strand until I got to St. Mary-le-Strand Church. You might remember that this is one of my favorite churches. I went in and took a couple pictures. The priest came up behind me and asked if the pictures were good. I told him of course. He proceeded to give a history of the church in about 2 or 3 minutes. He told me about a chapel in the college across the street. I went over to that chapel and looked around. The stained glass was cool. It had very bright colors and interesting faces (picture 2). Each window had a major person from the Bible. I continued walking down the Strand taking pictures of the highlights like St. Clement Danes Church and the Royal Courts of Justice. I walked around the Temple area but the church was closed. I continued on to St. Paul's Cathedral (picture 3). At this point it started really down pouring and hailing so I hung out under the cover of the church until it let up.

It was still raining a little but I was getting antsy so I continued along until I got to the Tower of London. I stopped under the awning thing where the ticket sales are and sat down and ate my lunch. It was raining really hard and there was some lightning and thunder as well. Those are not common in London. By the time I finished lunch and got done digesting, the rain had basically stopped and I saw some blue sky on the way. Yay! I traversed Tower Bridge and then set out on the next part of my walk. The next stage was walking along the Thames to Westminster. I passed by all the usuals: OXO Tower, the Golden Hind, London Bridge, Globe Theatre, Tate Modern, Millenium Bridge, Jubilee Bridge (love picture 4), London Eye, and finally Westminster. The sun was shining finally and the clouds were spectacular. This was true for everything I walked by today but it is mind-blowing to me that all of these places have a memory attached to them. It was like walking through a lot of my time in London. I was amazed at how many little facts I remembered about all the places and how much I loved every single place. I was so sad when I finally turned the last corner and the Tower Bridge went out of view for the last time. It was like that with every place. The funny thing is that even though I have walked along different parts of this part a bunch of times, there were still new things and stuff I had never noticed before. Like Southwark Cathedral. I didn't go inside but I don't remember ever really seeing it before. It has black pebbles and smooth cream colored stone all over it (picture 5). I really liked the look of it. It had a nice little garden as well.

I got to Westminster and did my final salute to Big Ben (picture 6) and Westminster Abbey. I walked up Whitehall, past the horse guards, and up to Trafalgar Square. This was maybe my favorite spot to sit in all of London so I sat for a little bit on last time then went into the National Gallery for a last tour of my favorite pieces. Just like what I said about Southwark Cathderal, I saw all the paintings that I really like but I also noticed some new ones that I had not seen before which was fun. From Trafalgar, I did my usual walk home through St. James's Park which had some AWESOME flowers (picture 7). At Buckingham Palace, all the tulips that surround the traffic circle were in total and complete bloom (picture 8). They were stunning. I walked by Green Park and saw Vanessa and her boyfriend Lucky. It was a crazy coincidence to run into them. My path went through Hyde Park Corner and into Hyde Park next. There flowers here were fantabulous (I just made that word up) too. I saw some dark red/purple colored tulips which I had never seen before; they were interesting (picture 9). There was a canopy thing with vines all over it which would have been perfect for some portraits or something like that (picture 10). I walked by the Serpentine and the Albert Memorial for the last time as well. Sad to see them go. Then it was back down Queen's Gate and onto to Queen's Gate Terrace and Metrogate.

I would estimate I walked over 8 or 9 miles today. It was extremely tiring but totally worth while. I reminisced and saw some new things. I am really sad to see London go but I know that I have to see it go so that I can have some more new adventures. Someday I'll be back though! :-) I didn't write that much about what I was feeling or thinking because I was thinking and feeling a lot of things: sadness over leaving, happy for all the memories I have, lucky to be able to have seen so much in London, anxiety over leaving a place I know, tiredness from walking so much, ecstatic that I am only about a month away from seeing everyone, nervous about all the stuff I still had to do. All of those emotions are thoughts were running through my head at once. There were a couple times when I just stopped, took a deep breath, and cleared my mind. Of course, it was cluttered again in about 2 seconds but that 2 seconds of peace was nice. I'm complaining about that, just saying that it's hard to write about. Anyway, continuing on...

I spent the evening making dinner, doing the post about Kew (I love the title of the post, one of my best ones if you ask me), calling people on Skype, washing clothes and trying to get a little organized. I didn't do a ton of packing today but I figured I had time tomorrow. The main accomplishment I did was wash my clothes so that I could pack them. I didn't do this post last night because I was up talking on Skype until about 2:30 or 3. Tomorrow is my actual last day in London. Yikes!

Two Month Reunion

Ok. So on Friday I went and met my mom at Victoria train station after she had landed and taken the train from the airport. I actually woke up later than I wanted but I got there with plenty of time. I was so happy to see her. It seems like ages since we last said goodbye in MN. So we met each other and then took the Tube to my flat. We went there first because it was only 10 or 11 am and she couldn't check in to her hotel until later. So we got ready and settled and decided to do my "usual walk" from my flat to the National Gallery.

It was pretty cold out but not that bad with the sun shining. We walked by the Albert Memorial (picture 1) and through Hyde Park and the Serpentine. I have said this before, but sometimes this walk can be kind of boring or whatever but it's always fun to walk it with someone who hasn't seen it before. From Hyde Park we continued through Hyde Park Corner and meandered on to Buckingham Palace (Victoria Statue in front of Buckingham picture 2). It was here that we started to notice all the people walking around. There were TONS of tourists around. I was very surprised. Because of all the people, they closed the roads from Hyde Park Corner to Trafalgar Square. The clouds were amazing with the blue sky. It was so strange seeing all the tourists walking around. There are always people taking pictures and stuff but this was crazy. We continued walking and I had us take the detour through St. James's Park (picture 3) because I think it is the best park in London. The dafodils were blooming like usual. So pretty.

We got to Trafalgar Square and sat outside on the steps for a while. The view down Whitehall to Big Ben was just as magnificent as it always is (picture 4). Mom and I ventured in the National Gallery. We did a quick tour of all the galleries. I got to see the Impressionist paintings again which was great. Mom got to see some paintings by Vermeer which she wanted to do. Then we left the Gallery and walked to Parliament. The horse guards weren't out because of construction which was kind of depressing because they are fun for people to see. The clouds were still awesome so Big Ben was cool. We took each other's pictures in front of it (picture 5). We also walked around and saw the outside of Westminster Abbey. Then we took the Tube back to my flat. Mom grabbed her stuff and took the bus to her hotel. Because Kensington Gardens closes at around 6, it is not easy to walk around to her hotel so she took the bus. Anyway, she got to the hotel fine and then took the bus back over so we could go to dinner.

Mom had a little bit of an adventure getting back to my flat. She got off at the right stop but wasn't sure exactly where she was so she walked past my street a whole bunch of times until she finally figured it out. I felt bad for not explaining it better but she got here so it's all good. We ate dinner at Gloucester Arms, the pub down the road from my flat. They have 2 entrees for £8 which is a pretty good deal. We talked and ate. It was very nice. Mom took the bus back and I watched some basketball on the computer and went to bed.

It was a nice day and it was fun to walk around and show Mom all the stuff that I get to see almost every day.

Bye!

I Would Walk 500 Miles

I am listening to "She's a Lady" by Tom Jones as I am starting to write this entry. These are the kinds of thing you won't get from any other blog about a person studying abroad in London. There probably not many to choose from but you get the idea, you guys get a guy who will listen to Tom Jones and not be ashamed about it. Next up on my blogging playlist (I should have made one of those before I left) is "You Sexy Thing". Yup.

Moving along from that, apparently some people got a little too rowdy last night and there were noise complaints to Metrogate and stuff about people from CSB/SJU being too loud. I would agree with that statement, I could hear them in my room. Oh well. This morning I woke up at 10 and showered (hot water, woo) and ate some breakfast. I went to see what Vanessa wanted to do today and she came up with the idea of walking from our apartment out into London and seeing where it took us. Now this is my kind of deal, venturing out with little to no real destination and taking pictures along the way. We walked along Hyde Park and go to Hyde Park Corner. This is where a bunch of WWI memorial are. There is a Machine Gun Corps Memorial (picture 1) and a New Zealand War Memorial and a whole bunch more that I don't want to list. We then walked along Green Park and made our way to Buckingham Palace (picture 2). I feel bad because I pass all these really cool buildings and usually only take pictures of the outside of them. I promise that sometime I will go inside them and take more pictures.

Aside: I take WAY more pictures than I put on this blog, I just put the highlights on here so don't be surprised when I get home if I sit you all down for a realllllly long time and show all the pictures to you.

After Buckingham Palace, we ventured forth into St. James Park. This park was originally the King's hunting grounds, then landscaped like to look like a French Park, then landscaped to look natural, like it does today. It's very pretty there. There are a ton of birds in the park though. Pigeons, swans, geese, and a whole bunch that I don't know. Very crazy. They would whiz by my head and I'd duck. We then walked on to Trafalgar Square. Same old, same old. Haha. I don't really mean that but we didn't linger there. From Trafalgar Square, we got on a road called The Strand. This road runs from Trafalgar Square to the Tower of London. We didn't go all the way to the Tower of London however (since I was just there yesterday). We walked along the road and I has a trusty guide book out (of course). Actually, here's a list of stuff that I always carry with me (safely in my rain coat pockets which are zippered and velcroed shut, almost impossible to open):

• money
• camera
• map
• guidebook
• oyster card (for the tube)
• passport
  

So there ya go. Now you know. It gets kind of cumbersome sometimes but I usually don't mind it, I always use all of it. I also add things like a ticket or pencil or what have you, when I need to. So we walked along The Stand and all of a sudden a church appeared in the middle of the road, between the two lanes of traffic! It's called St. Mary-Le-Strand (picture 3). It was very beautiful inside (picture 4). Vanessa and I continued onward and lo and behold, another church was in the middle of the road! This one was the Royal Air Force Church and we walked in and listened to a talk. Then we went down to the crypt which had little plaques all over the walls (picture 5). Next up on our walking tour was the Royal Courts of Justice (picture 6). These are the highest courts in England for civil cases. High profile divorces and other things go on inside. People can go in and listen for free (don't take pictures, they get angry). The inquest into Diana's death is going on there right now. Heavy stuff. I was glancing at the guide book and I noticed this out of the way little thing called Temple which the book said we should go to, so we did. It turned out to be Temple Church, the Church where Knights Templar used to be ordained and stuff.

More importantly, it was featured in Dan Brown's Da Vinci Code! I couldn't believe it. Vanessa can attest to my excitement for finding one of the places he featured prominently in the book (along with a library that I can't think of the name of and Westminster Abbey). Inside the church, there are stone effigys of Knights (picture 7). I loved it. We continued on down some cool alleys and then back up to The Strand. This is where we were getting tired and decided to was about time to go back (um, Tube? Yes, please!). The closest tube station was St. Paul's Cathedral. The place that I have already been to three times and have not been in (soon, I promise). It was still just as beautiful and awesome as when I first saw it. We were tired, the walk was about 4.5 miles and obviously, Half Dome and Skeleton Point and Odessa Lake and stuff were not the long but I was in better shape then and we sat down a lot. Here, no sitting, lots of walking. We finished our tour in about 3 hours. So we went to get on the train but the line we wanted was down so we had to transfer twice to get back to our flat. It was very annoying when we were so tired.

Everyone decided to go out to dinner together before Stomp started. We all met up and made it on the tube (no one get hit by a car or anything). It was THE MOST crowded ride on the Tube I have ever seen. Unbelieveable. At each stop people would cram and push so they could just barely fit in when the doors closed. People almost had their heads cut off. But, we made it safe and sound to Leicester Square (pronounced Lester Square, just like Gloucester Road, my Tube stop, is pronounced Gl-ow!-ster Road). Anyway, we went to an Italian restaurant (all 25, Nick couldn't make it to dinner) and we had the upstairs all to ourselves (picture 8). I sat with some people I never talk to and tried to have a conversation. It was difficult, there were teeth pulled and stuff but I got us talking a little. I had to ask leading questions and stuff but it was worth. I got to know some people a little better and I think I made a good impression (how could I not? right?). I ate Rissoto Al Pollo (risotto with chicken breast, peppers, and mushrooms in a saffron and white wine sauce). It was basically the best thing I have eaten here. It was so delicious, words can describe. Then we went to Stomp (picture 9) which I had seen before but, it was still really good and entertaining. Banging on cans and using brooms and other household items to make sound. Awesome. Then we headed back and that's where I'm at.

Tomorrow we visit parliament (go inside and stuff with a tour guide). Again, I am super excited and basically the luckiest guy in the world to see all this stuff. I finished the post by listening to Rhianna, again, yup. Smoochs!