It's A Great Day To Be Alive

As I have said, the past few days I have just sat around in the computer lab or had class so they were pretty boring. Today was not boring. I had a lot of fun today just walking around two neighborhoods of London. These walks (and most of the walks that I have done and will continue to do) are from the Eyewitness London book I stole, ahem borrowed, from the the common room where I live.

I woke up kind of late and got ready to go. I didn't mention this before and maybe I shouldn't now, it might create a commotion or something but I thought about growing a beard or something. I didn't actually go through with it. I shaved the neck part to see what it looked like. I kind of liked it actually but I wasn't ready for it yet. Some day I will have one though. Anyway, I was kind of on the fence of where to go but I decided to walk around Covent Garden and then Holborn. Both are located west of where I live. They are the areas between Trafalgar Square and St. Paul's Cathedral. They are right next to each other geographically but are worlds apart historically.

I started to walk the well-trodden path along Hyde Park, Green Park, and St. James's Park to get to Trafalgar Square but I was slowed down by a couple things. First, there was a parade of soldiers marching with either an insturment or a gun back from Buckingham Palace to another building just a couple blocks away (picture 1). They go to Buckingham for the changing of the guard. I walked alongside them for a little bit. Then I saw that a bunch of flowers were in bloom so I took a couple pictures. One of them,(picture 2) is just absolutely amazing if I do say so myself. I truly love this picture. After those distractions, I made my way to Trafalgar Square and on to Covent Garden.

Covent Garden used to be, well a covent garden for Westminster Abbey to get its vegetables from, then it was London's first square (designed by Inigo Jones), then it was worn out warehouses and streets. Now it is a stylish place to shop and just walk around in. I started off at the Central Market and Piazza. It's a covered mall type thing that has stylish shops and stuff inside (picture 3). Near one end of it is St. Paul's Church. You don't enter on this side though. There were a bunch of people standing around watching a street performer. He balanced stuff on his chin and hand-stand walked over 4 people. It was pretty impressive I must say. I walked into St. Paul's Church by going in the designed back door. Inigio Jones designed it and wanted people to enter from the West which is unorthodox so they made him switch the door around. He still designed the big entrance on the side facing the Piazza, just without a door (picture 4). I walked around some streets with little shops and cafes. My next big stop was Stanford's (picture 5). It was established in 1852 and is the largest map and guide retalier in the world. I thought I had died and gone to heaven. Honestly, I could spend a whole day in there if there was better seating (there isn't any, probably for the exact reason I just said). There were TONS and TONS of guide books. I didn't even know where to start. I only spent about a half hour in there. It's too bad I am broke and can't really afford to buy anything.

Next I past St. Martin's Theatre which has the longest running play in the world called The Mousetrap. Near there, is the Seven Dials. It's an intersection that has seven streets converge at it. At the center of it is a column with seven sun dials on the top. Pretty cool. Then I walked on Neal's Street and Neal's Yard which has shops along it. Specialty stores and just clothing stores abound here. I have noticed that there are so a lot of places to shop in London. Notting Hill, Camden Town, High Kensington, Oxford Street, Neal's Yard, the list could go on forever. It's a good thing I don't like it that much and don't have the money for it. Neal's Street is still cool because all the building used to be warehouses and grungy homes which you can still kind of tell but in a good way. There was also an areacalled Thomas Neal's which is a small indoor mall built in a courtyard. I walked to the Royal Opera House next (picture 6). It was rebuilt in the 1850's after a fire. Just about every famous dancer or opera-ist (I don't know what you call them) has performed here. The building is really cool looking and I liked the ballet statue in front of it. From the Opera House I ended my walk of Covent Garden. I walked out to The Strand walked along it just a few blocks to the next neighborhood, Holborn.

Holborn is the traditional home of the legal and journalism sectors. The journalism people left in the 80's but the law is still here. The main body of the law is the Royal Courts of Justice which is where all big civil cases take place (the criminal ones take place at the Old Bailey I believe). Totally neo-gothic building with lots of sharp points and tall windows and such. Just a super imposing thing to look at. From there, I walked along The Strand to the Twinings store. This store has been in operation since 1705. Twinings is a type of tea for those that don't know. It's the tea I drink here. From there, I walked to Temple. I had been here (and the Royal Courts of Justice for that matter) before when Vanessa and I walked along The Strand. It's still really cool. It was built by the Knights Templar in the 13th Century. There are the same stone effygies of the knights inside the church (picture 7). The area around Temple has tons of Law Offices. There was a little square right by the church where I ate lunch (picture 8). Incredibly peaceful and very pretty. While I was eating, I was thinking of all the cool places I have eaten lunch since I got here. It would be fun to make a little collage or just organize my pictures in that way when I get home. I could do a grouping of churches or of my favorite pictures or whatever too. I am getting a little ahead of myself by talking about getting home though.

From there, I walked past the Law Society. I don't know much about the building or what's inside but out in front of it along the railing are a bunch of gold lions. I thought they were really cool looking with the black railing underneath them and the gray building behind. They definitely stood out (picture 9). I continued walking to another area called Lincoln's Inn. This area is one of the best preserved Inn's of Court or so I hear. An Inn of Court is where people study law I think. I don't even really know. All I know is that there were some just amazing flowers there (picture 10) and I really liked the main building of the complex (picture 11). I went to the church but it wasn't open which was too bad. I just meandered around the area and took some more pictures. It was really cloudy but it didn't dampen my mood. I felt much better after seeing the all the flowers and just being outside and walking around.

My last stop was the Sir John Soane's Museum (picture 12). It is three houses in a row that the architect owned. He collected a ton of art through the years and when he died, he said he would turn it all over to the state on one condition. Nothing be moved after he died. The promise was kept and now its the museum. This is probably my favorite museum I have been to so far here in London. I know that that is saying something considering the multitude I have visited but its true. I liked it a lot. There are almost no electric lights in it. There a bunch of sky lights. One of the workers there told me to come back on a sunny day because it is much better. Ins bottom in sculptures or paintings. The Painting Room actually has walls that swing open so that more could be hung out. So amazing. Like I said, I really liked it. Right outside of it is Lincoln's Inn Fields which is now a park but uide the house are tons and tons of art. Some rooms have been left exactly the same way since Soane died in 1830. Others have been covered from top tosed to be a public execution spot. Lots of people died there.

From the museum I made my way back to the flats. I had a little snack and went off to the Royal College of Music. The Orchestra is pretty big and was fantastic (picture 13). The person who conducted the first piece, an avant-garde (meaning completely weird) piece, had just gotten his master's degree. The guy who directed the next two pieces was older and very famous. The second piece was a piano concerto. The guy who played the piano played it completely by heart. Phil said it was one of the toughest pieces of piano music out there and this guy was only 26!!! Holy crap. Lastly, they played The Planets which was just stupendous and awesome and so well done. I talked to Phil before the concert started and he told me that two of his sons live in Vale. One is traveled Central America a lot and is now going to India in this summer. The other has hiked the Appalachian Trail and is planning on hiking the Continental Divide trail. They are my heroes. That is just so cool, seriously.

Today was one of my best days here (which is saying something) I had a ton of fun taking pictures and walking around two interesting and different neighborhoods. The concert was phenomenal. Just a great day to be alive (a Travis Tritt song for those who don't know). I hope you all had a great day too!

Bon soir!

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!