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!

Tower of Easter

One of the things I do when I can't think of a title for a blog entry is replace one word with another which allows for more coverage of what happened that day, kind of like the Before and After puzzles on Wheel of Fortune but not really. This title is no exception. My mom and I went to the Tower of London on Easter. Thus the Tower of Easter. It doesn't really make sense but that's something you all will just have to deal with.

Since it was Sunday and I just about always go to church on Sunday, that's what I did in the morning. My Mom was maybe going to meet me and go with but we decided the night before that if she wasn't there before 9:30, I should just go on my own. She didn't show up so that's what I did. The walk to church was FREEZING. It was soooo windy and it was snowing! Snowing, on Easter! Crazy. The service was not that different from any other one (no special things, like the play on Palm Sunday). The pastor did his homily with the children sitting up front which was nice. There were so many kids there! Even more than usual I mean.

The best part of the mass by far was the little boy who sat in front of me. He reminded me SO MUCH of Sam. Not as cute but pretty darn close. He would stand up on his dad's lap and his dad would mak the biggest grin. While he leaned over their shoulder, I we sounds and he would break out intoould do peek-a-boo with my song book. It made my heart hurt a little to think of how long it had and has been since I saw Sam and Josh and Emily. At the same time, it seemed a little like an Easter gift from the Big Guy Upstairs that I got to see this child who was so much like Sam throughout the mass. That's why I don't really remember much else about what happened, I was too busy paying attention to the boy. After the mass, I told them how cute their baby was and about Sam. They said their son was 11 months old so a little older but still close.

The snow stopped while I walked back. I met up with my mom who apparently had an adventure of her own. She took the bus from her hotel to the Tate Britain but got a little off track along the way. That is totally understandable. London can be really confusing sometimes. Anyway, we met up and went to the Tower of London (picture 1). We took the Tube but had to wait in line to buy tickets unfortunately. It was cold but we survived. The Tower of London is a big tourist attraction (or trap, depending on your point of view). It all started with the White Tower which was a Norman tower built in 1097 and is 90 ft. tall. From there the complex get expanded more and more throughout the centuries until its current size. The Tower is known best of all as a place where lots of famous people have died. Most people were publicly executed on Tower Hill, outside the Tower walls in front of enormous crowds. The Tower is also known for holding the Crown Jewels.

So we walked in and went on a "Beefeater" tour. The "Beefeaters" are actually called Yeoman Warders and no one really knows why they are called that. They have lived and protect the Tower of London for many centuries. Now, instead of protecting the complex, they give very entertaining tours of it (picture 2). We started the tour talking about one of the 20 towers in the complex. We walked along and passed my the Traitor's Gate which was a gate that leads to the River Thames. Accused people would pass through the gate and into the Tower of London on their way to be executed or held there. We walked by and listened to the Beefeater talk about the White Tower. Just outside the tower are the Ravens of the Tower (picture 3). Legend has it that if the Ravens ever leave the Tower, the White Tower, the monarchy and all of the UK will fall. Needless to say, there is a cage. There were so many people following along on the tour that it was hard to hear him sometimes and kind of uncomfortable. It was only that busy because it was Easter and everyone was on holiday. Our next stop was the Tower Green which was the private execution area (picture 4). Only seven people were killed here, including Lady Jane Grey and Anne Boleyn, two of the wives of Henry VIII. Then we went into the Chapel of St. John which has quite a few famous people buried in it. That's where the tour ended.

After the tour we walked around and found the end of the line for viewing the Crown Jewels. It was so long. We had to wait for about 20 minutes or more, I can't remember. Then once inside, we had to shuffle around people to actually see anything. The Crown Jewels were really amazing though. The Imperial State Crown has over 2,800 diamonds and 273 pearls among other precious gems on it. The State Sword is one of if not the most expensive sword in the world. There are many other jewels and things like the Orb (symbolizing the power of Christ the Redeemer) and the Sceptre with the Cross which has the largest cut diamond in the world, 530-carat, in the middle of it. All the opulence and wealth kind of made me feel bad and that it was kind of a waste but what do I know. At least it looks cool I guess. I should mention that all of the jewels are super important in the coronation ceremony of a new monarch and are worn when the Queen opens Parliament each year. Lots of tradition and history involved in them.

After the Jewel House, we walked through the White Tower which has a bunch of exhibitions on armor and weaponry. This is because the White Tower served as an armory for about 700 years or more. The highlight of the whole collection of pikes, shotguns, muskets, swords, and armor (for horses and people) is the armor for Henry VIII. The armor is very nice looking but there might have been a little bit of exaggeration on a certain part of the armor (picture 5). From there we walked around part of the walls and into a room where they kept some of the old crowns (they make new ones when the stones start to fall out of the old ones). There was a kid in there that kept whistling the same tune over and over and over and over again. I seriously wanted to punch him in the throat. I hate people sometimes. We left there and walked around the inside some more. Finally the sun made an appearance. The White Tower looked awesome with the blue sky and white clouds (picture 7). We took some pictures of us with the Tower Bridge in the background (picture 8 and 9). We walked through one of the buildings that is actually inside the walls and it had windows over looking Tower Bridge (picture 10). After that we decided to leave.

We walked along the River Thames so that Mom could see some the South Bank sites from across the river. Plus it was still sunny and I wanted to savor it while we could. We walked until we got to St. Paul's Cathedral which we walked in a little bit (there was a service going on so it was free to go in but we couldn't walk in very far). Still just as spectacular as before. From there, we took the bus back and stopped at Tesco on the way. We got a ham sandwich, some pasta salad, and carrots sticks for our Easter Dinner. We ate it in the basement while we called people back home to wish them a Happy Easter (picture 11). It was a very different kind of Easter Dinner than I am used to but I still liked it. Better than spending it alone anyway. I had a very memorable Easter and couldn't wait to get ready to leave for Spain. That's all for today!

Happy Easter!

Towers, Bridges, Churches, Oh My!

I had an idea on how to start this blog entry but I forgot it. The reason why I forgot it will be revealed later in the entry (see what I did there... that's called a cliffhanger, now I am a real writer, haha).

*All pictures are of Tower Bridge, Tower of London, and St. Paul's Cathedral*

Anyway, I woke up at 8 even though our class didn't start until 10 because I wanted my hot water for my shower. Yesterday, I didn't have any hot water, today, I did and it was GLORIOUS. Honestly, it just the week I've been here, I have really started to appreciate the small things in life a lot more. Like a hot shower and meat (meat is expensive so I don't buy it, I eat PB or eggs instead). So after my nice hot shower, I ate breakfast (orange, yogurt, bagel) and dinked around online. Its annoying that the morning here is like 3 am over in the US. Oh well. We only had one class and it only lasted an hour and a half. It was the second part of our senior seminar class with Phil this week. We had a reading to do which talked about moral arguments (having evidence and not letting emotion get in the way is important but almost impossible). We spent a bunch of the class talking about trip business. Then Phil started talking about this guy named David Fanshawe. Phil knows him well and he is a composer. He spends a lot of his time going around to different areas of the globe recording native music. Like he went to Africa and recorded tribal rituals and he went to the Middle East and recorded rabbis praying. He has been doing this thirty years so he has a lot of tapes. He then takes these tapes and combines them and writes music to combine them with live choral singing and percussion. It is FANTASTIC. We listened to two pieces by him today and they blew me away. One was a combination of rabbis singing and a choir and the other was a, as Phil put it, "Andrew Lloyd Webber inspired" song of the Our Father. David Fanshawe and ALW went to the Royal School of Music (like two blocks from my flat) together and were both bad students. How cool is that???? AND THEN, next saturday (a week from this saturday) we are going to stonehenge and also visiting David in his home. It is going to amazing. I am legitimately excited for this. So, that was my class today, haha.

After class, I had a granola bar or something I felt stupid for just sitting inside on such a wonderful day so I went alone (I tried to find some people to go but most either had their doors shut or were gone) to the Tower Bridge and Tower of London. They were spectacular. Even after being here a week (has it only been a week, it feels like its been a year) I still can't believe that I'm actually here. Seeing all these things that I've read about and seen hundreds of pictures of, still surprises me. So I walked around the Tower of London and across the Tower Bridge. Then I walked along the south side of the Thames from the Tower Bridge to the London Bridge on what is called "The Queen's Walk". After that I made my way over to St. Paul's Cathedral. It looks much more awesome from a little farther away than it did up close like on the bus tour. I walked for a while more and I got on the tube back to my flat.

Back at the flat (sounds like a song of some kind) I sat around some more. I was thinking about what I wanted to do for my spring break. I didn't really think of anything though. I waited until about 7 or so for everyone to clear out of the kitchen so I could use it. I will put up a picture somday but there are probably 30 people who use the kitchen almost every meal and it is skinnier and shorter than the kitchen at my mom's house. It is ridiculous. At any rate, I made whole wheat spaghetti (cheapest kind of pasta available) and some pre-made tomato sauce. It was reallllllly good. Then I went down to the computer lab and looked up flight information and package deals and all sorts of info until Vanessa came down at around 9 or 10. We brainstormed and finally picked out the place that we figured we should go for spring break. That's why I forgot what I was going to say at the beginning of this entry. Drum Roll please (to build suspense)...

We decided to spend our week (well 9 days) in Italy! We are going to go to Venice, then Florence, then Rome. More people might join us on our little extravaganza but we don't know yet. We just decided like an hour or two ago and then spent a bunch of time looking up flights and hostels and things to see and places to eat and transportation and etc. So, that's my big news. I decided to publish the news because both of us were tired of thinking of places to go and when we decided, we wanted to really decide. By publishing it, if we change our minds, everyone can make fun of me.

So that's all I've got for now. It's 1 am here now and I should go to bed even though I don't have class. We are all going to a production of Stomp though. That should fun. Two posts two days in a row!

Ciao!