Friday (that's Friday March 26th), I arrived at Euston station and met Liz, fresh from her day of internshipping. We went straight to her home-stay, located pretty close to the East Finchley tube station, and I got to meet Liz's good friend/flat mate, Clara?-Ellen. Remember how I said my first day in Manchester Ashleigh took me to McDonalds? Well my first night in London Liz and C-E decided they wanted Pizza Hut. I don't even like Pizza Hut in the US, oh well. We had a quiet night in, as I was exhausted from my strenuous first class train ride.
Saturday, we went to Portobello Market, a clothing/food/jewelry/antiques market that lasts for blocks and blocks. To find it all we had to do was follow the string of tourists. After some shopping with our eyes, we stopped for a quick cupcake at one of London's many specialty cupcake stores, only to see infinitely better crepes ten feet later (darn). And of course it started raining, which would have been fine if not for the 500 umbrellas that kept hitting me in the head: it's not like I'm hard to see! We worked our way from the market to a Chocolate Festival! It wasn't quite what I thought it would be. I wasn't expecting walking chocolate bars or anything, but more than just stands selling chocolate. We did see a demonstration on how to make chocolate, but watching someone melt chocolate is not really as fun as it sounds. Eating chocolate was fun! I had a kabob of fruit covered in high quality chocolate sauce, a Bailey's chocolate truffel and a chocolate lolli-pop. However, I was majorly disappointed that we couldn't find the chocolate sculptures, which is really what I was imagining in a CF. Choclatier sculptures are insane! Damn that tricky, hidden festival hall!
Sunday, I was still relatively healthy. Just saying. I tagged along with Liz's school group for a (sunny!) day trip to Oxford. After taking the train from London, we ate in a giraffe themed cafe
for brunch. This made me happy since my spirit animal is a baby giraffe. Post-brunch there was a little bit of shopping with Liz before meeting back up with the group for a tour with a nice, purply dressed older British woman. She was charming, but I was a little disappointed by the tour because I don't really care about the history of Oxford University. However, the tour did afford me the time to take lots of pictures of statues-which is one of my favorite travel activities-so I could recap them later in hopefully humorous jest (see Facebook if you're interested). I must say I quite enjoyed Oxford. The train ride back Liz and I did something very ill advised-sat across from each other. It was like two people on stilts trying to fit in an elevator. Tuckered out after our day of sight seeing and walking we chilled watching British television at night, like we did many of our nights there because...
On Monday morning I woke up a little less healthier than I was the day before, but only with a slight cough. Late-morning, Liz humored me by taking me to three different comic book stores. The first's selection was too small, the second was too much like Barnes and Noble, but the third was just right! Monday was not the last Forbidden Planet saw of me! Next, Liz and I bought cheap tickets for the hit musical Billy Elliot for that evening. To pass the time before the show started we went to a nice pub. We both ate pub food while Liz read her econ book and I read Wolverine. Billy Elliot was great! The dancing... was... amazing. For those who don't know, BE is about a little boy who learns ballet and does it so well. Did I mention the dancing
was amazing! There is a particularly effective scene where young Billy is dancing with the older version of himself in beautiful unison, to Swan Lake, with fog sweeping across the stage (and there's my attempt at being poetic). Truthfully much of the music was forgettable, but the dancing. Mwah! I've always enjoyed (and secretly hated) watching really talented super young people. The production we saw has three Billys they use in rotation, so as not to wear out the poor kids. I'm glad with the Billy we got though, because of his history. Our actor had only taken a hip-hop dance class prior to being hired and was scouted for the part of Billy at a variety show. They gave him the role with the condition that he would spend two years learning ballet. Two years to prepare for the role. Talk about dedication, and boy did it pay off.
Tuesday morning, my sickness was worse. Therefore, I decided to spend a relaxing day sleeping in bed and working on getting better so I could really enjoy the rest of my trip. Just kidding! I decided to walk in the pouring rain without an umbrella through a very non-touristy part of London. Ok, I didn't plan on walking in the pouring rain, as I hadn't heard any newscasts about a biblical flood predicted for that day. Silly me. Liz's (not for) tourist's book had recommended a neighborhood in East London for cheap shopping and good restaurants. I think it might have hyped it up a little too much. It was nice not being around tourists, but it wasn't the nicest neighborhood. Liz's book had also recommended the Fat Cat pub for good pizza and cocktails.
Except the pub didn't actually sell pizza. Oops. My soaking wet clothes also put a little bit of a damper on everything (no pun intended). Despite the weather, I continued my preplanned route through Victoria Gardens to the nearest tube station. My day was slightly redeemed by finding a pond with mucho ducks, geese, and swans! I cannot stress how much I like waterfowl, especially up close. I showed some of my trip pictures to my friends last baking Tuesday and they commented on the hundred or so pictures of ducks. Tuesday evening, after my harrowing journey, I met back up with Liz at her flat. We took a bus to a movie theatre in West Finchley and saw I Love You, Phillip Morris. I laughed and coughed my whole way through the movie.
Wednesday, I was death. Funny enough, walking through the cold and rain improperly attired the previous day had not been the best thing for my health. Apparently, the previous night I had scared the bejesus out of Liz's host mother with my loud coughing. In the morning she offered to take me the doctor if I got worse and gave me some cold medicine to soothe the angry beast inside me. Nice lady. Refusing to be completely held down by my sickness, I set out for my second to last full day in London. Sad. Deciding to take it easy, I took the tube to the Covent Garden area. After having a light breakfast and overhearing very interesting conversations in a small cafe in one of London's gayborhoods, I went back to the comic book shop Forbidden Planet. I wanted to wallow in my geekiness and, my new addiction Dark Wolverine, one more time without feeling guilty for making Liz wait in this habitat quite unnatural to her. It was so wonderful. I happened upon a wonderful Italian restaurant for lunch. Mm, spaghetti with white wine sauce and a cold class of smooth, Belgium, almost like candy Leffe Blonde. Next, I walked to the heart of touristy London-Trafalgar square and took a nice stroll through the National
Gallery. I then walked to the Big Ben, Westminster Abbey area, taking many pictures along the way, which I'll call artistic instead of touristy out of principle and because they were mostly of statues, sculptures and architecture. Wednesday evening, I went out with Liz and Clara-Ellen to an Irish pub because one of their study abroad mates was celebrating her birthday. The pub was super crowded because, why else? there was a football game on that night. It was easy to tell who all the locals were rooting for by listening to the waves of cheering and booing filling the pub. It was a pleasant night.
Thursday morning I woke up very tempted to stay in bed all day and rest up for my plane ride the next day. Except, the shining sun and blue sky, all too rare in London, were too tempting to pass up. Of course by the time I walked out of the house the sky was grey and it was drizzling, but whatevs. I went back to tourist central because...well because I wanted to buy a McFlurry DON'T JUDGE I wanted a Cadbury Creme egg McFlurry that you can't buy in the US. I also won a free apple pie out of the deal. Yes, a very healthy lunch. It also gave me the chance to take more pictures, on the opposite side of the
street from the day before. For my last act as a London tourist, I went over the bridge to the London Sea Life Aquarium. I must admit, after the whole Steve Erwin thing my opinion of sting rays had gone down quite a bit, but the aquarium revived their majesty in my eyes. In a room with a big, shallow, open tank of sting rays I had a nice conversation with one of the aquarium workers. First, I witnessed the worker desperately try to keep visitors from petting the sting rays. I also noticed the s.r. kept coming to the surface of the water. I asked her if flash pictures would bother them-it does-and she explained why her job is difficult. Visitors used to be able to touch the s.r. in the tanks and many don't know it isn't allowed anymore because touching apparently stresses out the rays and makes them die sooner. I then asked her why the s.r. come up to the surface. Her answer: "Oh, because they want to be pet". In another room there was a tank with
a tunnel so you could be completely surrounded fish. It was awesome to see ginormous sting rays fly right above your head. What was not so awesome was the horribly overhyped shark walkway. I was expecting to be surrounded by terrifying menacing sharks swim right next, above and below me. Instead it was a short walk way with like two 5x2 ft glass squares on the ground and three sharks. Oo, scary. Afterwards, I sadly walked to Waterloo station, all too aware my time in London was almost at an end.
Friday afternoon Liz took me to Heathrow Airport, on my last tube ride. Stupidly, I had not considered that it was the Friday of Easter weekend, so I was unprepared for the crowds. I got to my flight on time though. Sort of. I took a little too long getting lunch, so when I started walking toward my gate a screen said that the gate was closing. Now, I imagined the last person (besides me) boarding the plane and the closing of the gate door in mere moments. Gates closing actaully means half the flight hasn't boarded yet. Oh those English. Before I knew it I was landing in Chicago and then back at Grinnell, where I am now, and have been for quite awhile as you know.
There. Sorry it took me so long. I tried to remember all that I could. Despite the fair amount of complaining I did above (hey, wading through snark is part of reading my blog) I did have a great spring break. I could have done without the hacking up of a lung, and a little more sun, but what are you going to do?
Soon after getting back to Grinnell someone commented on how pale I was. I thought for a moment and then I realized why. I love you London. So long... For now.
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