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!

Hakuna Matata

I woke up today and studied a little for the final test in Senior Sem. It is crazy thinking that I won't have that class ever again. I went to class and it was raining pretty hard on the way there. I took the test which I think I did kind of bad on. Oh well. It is over and done with now. No more school until August. After class, I went with Rachelle, Vanessa, Nick, and Peter to Leicester Square to buy tickets for The Lion King musical (picture 1).

We bought the tickets and then walked around killing time. It was St. George's Day. St. George is the patron saint of England. There were people walking around with white t-shirts and red crosses (the symbol of St. George, he slayed a dragon by the way, weird reason to be a saint). Trafalgar Square had a big thing of English food. We continued walking and stopped by Piccadilly Circus. We all bought a banana and nutella crepe. That was my lunch and it was a great lunch. We walked back to the theatre and watched the show. It was amazing. The costumes are out of this world (Simba and Nala from the internet picture 2). It brought back so many childhood memories that I hadn't thought about forever. I got super duper sad when Mufasa died. Simba looked so lost. The singing was out of this world. Rafiki was hilarious and talked for a little bit in the clicking language that some Africans use. Like I said, just a great show and it was really fun to see it with the people I did.

After the musical, we all split up and I walked over to Stanford's bookstore again to scope out the guidebook scene. I almost bought a couple books but I couldn't make myself do it. Tomorrow I will though. I promise. I am really excited about the books and wish I had them now. Like I said, tomorrow. I decided that I am going to spend the last week of my travels in Belgium and the Netherlands. I was swayed by a couple things. I read up about the museums there and they sound great. Peter and Nick told me that the Eurostar train from Brussels to London is only 35 pounds or so and it takes 2 or 3 hours and drops me off right in London at Waterloo station so I can catch a bus or the Tube really easily. No hassling with Stansted or airplanes. So, there you have it. I pretty much have the whole time planned out. It feels good.

The weather today was typical London. It was raining a lot in the morning and then wonderful in the afternoon and evening. The sun was perfect on the buildings. I took one of those old style double decker buses back to my flat (picture 3). I actually took a picture of it this time. I spent this evening working on the blog some more. I posted the second and third day of my Paris trip. Click on the links or just scroll down. They are kind of long reads, just to warn you. I love some of the pictures I took. I will not get a chance to do Tuesday's post but I will do that tomorrow.

A bunch of people are leaving tomorrow and a couple left today. That is so weird. Rachelle is leaving tomorrow. We said goodbye tonight. Nick leaves tomorrow as well. Everyone is leaving at different times so I don't know who else is but I know there are more. I think Christina and maybe Amy too. I am sad to see them all go. It is kind of lonely down in the computer lab now. All this evening there have only been a couple people. This computer lab probably sees this all the time. The ebb and flow of traffic. As the Lion King says, "The Circle of Life".

Hakuna Matata!

Eye Spy

Well today was a pretty exciting day. I crossed off three things that I really wanted to do before I left London. Those being the London Eye, the National Portrait Gallery, and a big time musical. Yup, I was a busy person.

So I woke up and did my usual routine of breakfast down in the warm computer lab which always makes me feel bad about being there. So I left and decided to go ride the London Eye. That's the big ferris wheel right on the Thames across from Big Ben. It was built in 2000 and is about 400 ft. tall. It's the tallest observation wheel in the world. It was partly cloudy but still sunny when I left so I thought it was a good idea to do it. Um, actually, it wasn't really. I took the bus over to Trafalgar and then walked across the Jubilee Bridge (picture 1). Outside the Eye, there were a bunch of street performers. They were pretty funny (mostly real-life statue people). I bought my ticket. Then I waited in line to get in my capsule. The wheel actually never stops moving (except for wheelchairs) so it's fun to watch people try and get on. The little kids love it. So as I was waiting in line, I saw a dark cloud on the horizon. Bad news. As soon as I got in the capsule, it started down pouring. :-( That is not good because the capsules have glass all around them and the rain drops just sort of stay on the glass. Thus, just about all of my pictures didn't turn out (except for picture 2 which I thought was pretty good). Which stinks, a lot. But at the same time, that isn't really that important to me. Sure, the ticket was pretty expensive but doing the Eye was something really important to me so just riding it and saying that I did it was nice. Plus watching the other people in the capsule was funny (picture 3). There was one little kid who kept talking about Superman. His dad was getting quite frustrated but couldn't really show it. Plus, the pictures didn't turn out but I could still see. It was awesome to see all the neighborhoods and areas of London that I have walked around. I have seen a lot! So I still think it was a good idea to do it but it could have been better.

After the Eye, I walked back over to the TKTS booth in Leicester Square (picture 4) and debated buying a ticket for a musical. Eventually I just gave in and bought one for The Lord of the Rings. It is a stage adaptation of my favorite books and movies. Granted I thought it was going to be interesting to see how they turned over 1000 pages or 10 hours of movie into a 3 hour musical, but I still wanted to see it. So I bought my ticket and found myself in the same predicament as the day before. I had a bunch of time to waste before the show started. So I went to the National Portrait Gallery.

The National Portrait Gallery is located next to the National Gallery. As the name suggests, it is THE place to see paintings of English people. The layout is totally chronological from the Tudors (Henry VIII) to the present. It was like a giant chronology of England. There was an info board in each room detailing what the room was about and who the people in the room were. I did have a few favorite portraits in the collection.My favorite, favorite portrait was of Dame Anna Neagle by McClelland Barclay (picture 5). She looks very beautiful in the portrait. The blue in the background and the gold of her dress match wonderfully. This was a favorite pin-up of the soldiers during WWII (it was painted in 1940). Another one of my favorites was of Edward Carpenter by Roger Fry (picture 6). Edward Carpenter was a socialist writer of the late 1800s and early 1900s. He wore sandals a lot and was gay and quite open about it which was odd at the time. I like the painting because Carpenter looks so so cool in it. I had a few other ones I liked like one of Princess Di and a photo of the Royal Shakespeare Company.

After the NPG, I sat in Leicester Square and read. My butt got sore from the crappy benches so I walked over to Stanford's again (picture 7). I went upstairs by where the Greece and Turkey books are and read some of them. I sat on a window sill with the window open and the sun shining (yeah, it was sunny all day other than when I was on the Eye). It was wonderful. On a separate piece of paper I wrote any tips that the books had because I don't want to buy the books. A woman was standing by me and said she used to do that too. We got to talking. She was going to go walking (long distance hiking) on Crete with her husband. She said that she has met a ton of Americans while she travels. They always list like 5 countries they are going to. She thinks that that is the wrong way to travel. She also told me that one of her favorite places is southwestern France (Toulouse, Pyrenees, etc.). Then she left. I left shortly thereafter and walked over to Covent Garden Market and watched some street performer until it was time to go to the theatre.

So I saw The Lord of the Rings musical at the Theatre Royal Drury Lane (picture 8). I thought it was a visual spectacle. By that I mean the singing was ok (Galadriel was fantastic), the story was ok (not nearly as good as the books or movies) but the set and costumes and visual effects were incredible. They had a stage that turned in a circle but there were about 10 different elements in that circle that turned that could go up and down individually. They had cirque du soleil type rope acrobats. There were some big choreographed music numbers. The cast was over 50 people. There was a wind turbine, smoke machine, leafs falling from the sky above the crowd, insane light effects, incredible costumes, a giant spider, and a bunch of other stuff. All those elements added up to an absolutely incredible experience for the senses. My one big beef was that Frodo's voice was nasally and insanely annoying. Other than that, I thought it was great and I was really glad I went to it.

After the show got done, I walked to the bus and on the way, bought some pasta salad stuff from Tesco for dinner (I had only really eaten around 11 am). I rode the bus back and ate my pasta salad in my flat. Then I went to bed. I had a lot of fun today even though it was kind of expensive. 5 days to Paris! Two weeks to Istanbul! AHHH!!

Bye!

Theatre Geek

Today I went to The Importance of Being Ernest at the Vaudeville Theatre. That makes three plays in six days. That's a lot! I really like it though. All the plays I have seen in London have been really fantastic and the one I saw today was no different.

I was up really late last night so I slept in today. I finally did laundry which was really great. Having clean clothes is amazing. I felt really good about washing my clothes but was still not satisfied so I decided to see The Importance of Being Ernest. My classmates all saw while I was in Spain with my mom so I had to make it up. Phil sold my ticket to someone else in FIE so I got a little bit of money to help offset the cost of the replacement ticket. I ate lunch and headed down to Leicester Square where the half-price theatre ticket booth is. I bought my ticket and then started walking away. I ran into Rachelle who was waiting for a movie premiere to begin. It's called Fool's Gold and Matthew McConaughey and Kate Hudson (picture 1). I was talking to Rachelle when some guy came up and talked to us which was weird. He left and the lady standing next to Rachelle started talking to us. She was from Pennsylvania. Her husband is working in London at a a Pharmaceutical company. They have two daughters who are going to school in London. We talked about traveling (they have been a ton of places) and about the plays in London and stuff. It was awesome and a lot of fun. She was really nice.

We parted company and walked over to Stanford's. If you remember, that is the biggest travel bookstore in the world. I perused their collection for books on my destinations (Turkey, Greece, Switzerland, somewhere). Nothing really interesting to report from the few books I looked at. I did buy a cool map of Paris. I liked how it looked and it should come in useful when I am there in a week (wow). I left Stanford's and still had a lot of time to waste to I walked around Chinatown and over to Piccadilly Circus. Then I walked back over to Leicester Square and read (picture 2). I was near to where the premiere was. I was walking past a gate when guard told me to move. Right behind me two cars with tinted windows zoomed past, stopped and out popped Kate Hudson. I was on the other side from where a bunch of people from CSB/SJU were. I watched the people in crowd freaking out and stuff. Kate walked over to the group I knew and signed autographs and stuff. She looked very pretty. I walked away and bought a slice of pizza and some chips (French Fries). It tasted SO GOOD. It reminded me a lot of Sexton back at SJU. I would get fries and pizza there all the time and eat them in the living room watching tv or Ryan playing a video game. I miss that. Anyway, I walked over to the theatre and sat down (picture 3).

My seat was front row of the dress circle (the first gallery). It was a really good seat. The play was written by Oscar Wilde and takes place in the late 1800s. The best way to describe it is silly, clever, and funny. Basically, it is about a couple guys who lie about their names to two girls. Things work out in the end by coincidence. It pokes fun at the rich and their lifestyle. I really liked it. It was weird going alone though. Every other play I have seen I have gone with the whole group. Then I came back here. I got an email from Champlin Public Works (where I want to work again this summer). I am going to have a phone interview with them in two weeks which is good. That's about it for my day. No plan yet for tomorrow. Maybe one last day of British Museum Tours. I thought about doing a hike out in the country but the forecast is for light rain. We'll see. Hope everyone had a good day!

See ya!