The Fourteenth Day: The Queen, The Royal Court of Justice, and Wicked

I could babble with some introduction, but let's cut to the chase.

I SAW THE QUEEN. ALKJSDFLJK'LJ. So ridiculously cool, you DON'T even know. She officially opened Parliament today and as such, there was a big ceremony as she paraded down the mall. Her crown and septor had their own separate carriages if that gives you any idea of the extravagance of the morning. We arrived at 9:30 and watched it all unfold until 11 when the Queen processed by. I'll let the pictures do the talking from here on out.










It was so cool. She had her standard flying over Buckingham Palace to denote she was there, and the moment she stepped out and got into her carriage they lowered it to show she was no longer there. It was amazing seeing all the ranks go before her: the police, members of the Royal Airforce, the British Marines, the Queens Guard, and the Mounted Guard. Their synchronization was impeccable and spot on. The whole thing from set up to when they allowed people to re-enter the street took about an hour and forty-five minutes, but it was so cool to see the whole thing. We were very, very lucky that we were here when we were so we could see this.

After this exciting bit of the day, normally things would go downhill, but they didn't. After the big to-do, we headed to the Royal Court of Justice where we were given a tour of the ins and outs of law in the United Kingdom. This was super interesting: being a lawyer over here (or a barrister to be more specific) is a very, VERY big deal. They wear black silk robes in court and powdered wigs, just like you think they would have a long time ago. We were able to sit in on a court case and listen for a while, and it was very theatrical. Supposedly, visiting the courts in London is quote "the best free theatre in the city". Our case wasn't too particularly interesting, but it was neat to see.


Once our tour finished up, we raced back to the flats to get ready for dinner. We had a fancy dinner with Greg and Jeanine before seeing Wicked and that was delicious. We were able to talk and just sit for about two hours and then we headed to the theater! Wicked, as expected, was amazing. The cast was great, the music was awesome, and the costumes were something else. Everyone was in awe afterwards, and is definitely something I recommend seeing, should you have the option to see it. After this, we went to a club, which was interesting. European men don't understand boundaries, I don't think. I gave a nasty glare to one that suggested I stop trying to keep my skirt down in the wind. Douche. After all of this, we finally made it back, and that's where I am now! I'm starting to pack up all my stuff, and all I can say is that it's going to be a huge struggle to get everything back. Oy.

The Thirteenth Day: Free Day!

Today was our last free day and it was spent doing pretty much nothing :]

Amanda, Megan and I all let ourselves wake up on our own time, which was much needed and definitely appreciated. Megan hadn't been to Harrods yet, so once we were all set we went there and went on a hunt to find her a pair of purple sandals. Purple is her favorite color, so that explains that. After several snooty shoe sales ladies we decided to take our money elsewhere (ahem) and went looking on the streets surrounding Harrods. Several times she found ones she liked, but they didn't have her size. Close, but no dice.

We gave up after about an hour and a half and made our way through Green Park. It was absolutely sweltering yesterday so we didn't spend much time there, and decided to grab lunch at the original Hard Rock Cafe. The wait wasn't bad at all, which was surprising, and the food was good. Everyone stocked up on souvenirs for home and then we made our way back to the flats. Lots of people went out to see shows (Blood Brothers, Dirty Dancing, and Phantom of the Opera) and those of us who didn't have enough money to spend stayed back and just talked. I finally had enough time to really sort through my pictures and start an album for my friends to see, so that was good. Now it won't take 5 hours when I get back home.

After everyone got back, the people from the flat across the hall came over and talked for a while. They're a group from Utah and seemed nice, although I didn't walk into the kitchen for long because I'd just gotten out of the shower and hadn't realized they were all over... oops.

Tomorrow promises to bring LOTS more pictures as we get to see the Queen! She officially opens Parliament, and Greg has promised that it's quite the spectacle to behold.

The Twelfth Day: Little Venice and Kensington Gardens (again)

So today was supposed to be a low key day: meet in the morning for a river boat cruise to Camden Market and then we were on our own until the evening. We were told to be at Little Venice at 10:45 to get on our group's boat, so being the prepared people we are, the half of the group Amanda, Megan, and I were in left at 10. Plenty of time, right?

No. The line we take for the Underground was down, we were delayed about 10 minutes at a stop, and had to go all over London to get a round-about way to end up at Little Venice. Did it end when we got off the Underground? No. We got turned around walking to the dock and had to sprint to make the boat on time. WE were lucky though. The other half of our group got off a stop too soon and ran even further than we did to literally jump down the steps and then leap onto the boat. Greg was laughing at us and everyone else was miffed because we caused a minor hold up. Whatever; I feel like a lot of people have their underpants in a twist here, so it did them some good to learn a bit of patience.

The cruise once we got going was very very pretty. The boat was almost level with the water so it was cool to see things from a different perspective. Some of the largest and wealthiest private homes are along the river, too, so we were able to see those and pick out which one we would have if wishes were dishes. The picture below is the one I liked the best.




After we made it to Camden, a bunch of girls and I got lunch at one of the many stands and then decided to make use of the phenomenal weather and head over to Kensington Gardens. It was about 80 today, so we all put on our lightest cloths, grabbed our books, and headed to the park. It was packed! Everyone was out with the same idea in mind that we had. We sat next to these two little boys and their terrier puppy, and they were adorable to watch. That poor dog; he kept getting the ball and you could tell he was exhausted but the kids were not giving him a break. Too cute.

We spent about 2 hours in the park and then headed back to the flat to get cleaned up for the London Symphony Orchestra! Everyone looked good and we had a lot of fun taking pictures before hand... Pictures I didn't get because I was lazy and didn't want to carry my camera with me. Fret not, however, because I plan on stealing some from people who DID get them, and I'll post those later. The Symphony was good; they're obviously extremely talented, but it was about a 2 1/2 hour concert, so it got a bit long at times. Greg, though, got us through the second half by getting us excited because he had some news for us...

We get to see the Queen on Tuesday!!! She officially opens Parliament that day, and we're scheduled to have an "In's and Out's of Parliament" tour that day, so we're going to go to the parade where she walks down the boulevard and then again when she goes into the House of Commons. Everyone is super excited for this, but the girls especially. We're all crossing our fingers (and toes) that the Princes accompany the Queen on this particular exhibition, and that we might be able to see them. Ha! That'd be a treat.

The Eleventh Day: Dover and Canterbury

Today we were finally able to get out of the city of London and see some of the infamous English countryside! We took a coach tour to Dover where we saw the White Cliffs of Dover and Dover Castle. The castle was built originally in 1220 in the County Kent but became famous when it was strategically used during WWII. There's a complex system of underground tunnels that span three levels and over 6 miles and were used during both World Wars to house troops and acted as a command center for Britain because of its strategic location along the coast.


From the castle there are a plethora of gorgeous views of the entirety of Dover. It overlooks the English Channel and is the nearest point to France in Britain, separated only by 17 miles of ocean. On a clear day you can see the French coastline. You can also see the town of Dover, and the White Cliffs, which are named so because they're composed of white chalk.






They also had an admiral post there where we were able to take some group shots. The first is all the seniors on the trip and the second are the juniors (rising, mind you).



I enjoyed the views from Dover and seeing the English Channel, but for whatever reason I disliked the castle and the tunnels we toured. There was a level designed in case of a nuclear attack and although we weren't allowed to go in those tunnels, you could kind of see down some of the passageways and that just weirded me out. Ever since I read 'On The Beach' for my 9th grade I.S. report, I've had an irrational fear of all things nuclear war related, so this tour didn't float my boat per-say.

However, we did take a detour to the beach on our way out of Dover and we were able to put our feet in the Channel. It was FREEZING. And what's worse is that there were these crazy super-athletes who were just diving in all over the place apparently training for this that and the other thing and they were just cruising along in the water, swimming back and forth across the two walls that enclosed the port like it was no ones business. We all just dabbed our feet in and that was all we could handle. It was beautiful though, and I'm a huge fan of the ocean/anything sea related, so I had a ball.



That last picture is definitely my favorite of Amanda, Megan, and I from the day. You can be sure that will be framed when I get home :]

After Dover we drove north for about 1/2 an hour until we reached Canterbury. Canterbury is a famous site for religious pilgrimages and is also where Chaucer set his infamous 'Canterbury Tales'. We were given a while to mill around and see the town and find something to eat, then we went to the cathedral. The inside is in the old gothic style and has some great stained glass work. We were there just as they were finishing evening prayer, so we caught the last of the choir singing. After about 45 minutes of that, we loaded back onto the bus and came back to Kensington.




Everyone on our trip is slowly but surely getting sick: our immune systems are shot after a lot of walking, not enough water to make up for the aforementioned walking, and poor air conditions. We went to the grocery store when we got back and between our group of 23, I think we bought out half the pharmacy. I'm calling it a night with Megan in our room with a glass of orange juice, some cough drops, and quite possibly several episodes of Glee. An eventful night on the town? No, but necessary if half of us don't want to collapse during our last few days here. Say a prayer this all goes away quick, please!

The Tenth Day: A day to myself :]

This will be short and sweet :]

Today was our second free day and 90% of the group went to Dublin and/or on day trips to the countryside. I being the cheap date I am decided I didn't want to shell out the money for either of these things and took today to just be.

I woke up on my own time, which felt so good I can't even tell you, and then headed to the National Gallery to bum around and look at more Monet's. After about an hour or so there, I took the Underground over to Knightsbridge and did some shopping for my family members, all of whom are going to love what I got them :]

After this I got lunch at a cafe by myself, talked to the Italian couple sitting next to me, and headed back towards home! Today was gorgeous weather wise so I walked down to Kensington Gardens and enjoyed the sunshine for a bit before coming back and meeting up with everyone who was returning from their own activities. It sounds like the Stonehenge people had an alright time, the Dublin people had a great time, and Amanda is just pumped she got to see where scenes in the Great Hall from Harry Potter were filmed.

Sorry for the lack of pictures today; I wanted to lighten up my purse about 20 pounds because it's been killing my shoulder, so I took my camera and lens out. More tomorrow though for certain! We're going to Dover and Canterbury, so that's going to be a ball.

The Ninth Day: The London Library, British Museum, Oxford Circus, and The Lion King (!)

SUCH a good day today! I'm going to breeze through the educational stuff and talk about the real highlight of the day: seeing The Lion King!

This morning Amanda and I woke up early to head to Kings Cross Station to get some pictures at none other than Platform 9 3/4. We took some pictures, had a little spaz session, and were on our way. Or we thought we were. We were able to find a fictional platform, but not the real Eurostar one where we were supposed to be: typical us. After asking several people for help (all of whom asked us if we were looking for Platform 9 3/4, I might add) we finally found our group.




We then went to the London Library which was extremely cool. You have to apply for a pass to check books out there, and in addition to 5 floors of awesome, it also houses the Kings Library, and an extensive rare books collection. I saw a few pages in Shakespeare's own handwriting, and other original prints from Thomas Moore, the Beatles, Virginia Wolfe, and Sylvia Plath. It also is home to the Magna Carta and the Gutenberg Bible. Having taken Linguistics my fall semester this year, I was really excited about all of this. It's things you read about and then finally get to see and you have to take a step back to realize just how important the text in front of you is. I couldn't really grasp how much history and how many important documents they had in this one room. You see pictures of these things, like the Magna Carta and the Gutenberg Bible in text books all the time, but seeing them in person is something else. It makes me wonder what would ever happen if something happened to this one building. Look at how much would be lost... Yikes.



After this we went to the British Museum which was cool, although all the museums are starting to run together for me. This one did have mummies though... I was not so much a fan. The British Museum houses marble pieces form the Parthenon in Greece, and is actually in a dispute with Greece right now over the ownership of the aforementioned pieces. Britain saved these pieces when the Parthenon was starting to dramatically deteriorate, and essentially saved them from being lost to history. Greece, however, is building a museum to house these pieces, but Britain isn't too keen to give them back. Greece argues that it's their history and thus should be housed in the same country, but Britain is holding onto them tight because without them, they wouldn't be here today. A settlement isn't even close to being formulated, so I'll let them argue and enjoy my good fortune at being able to see them here... It also had the Rosetta Stone, which I preferred over the aforementioned mummies and Parthenon pieces. . The Rosetta Stone is famous because it allowed Egyptian hieroglyphics to be deciphered and translated, and has survived centuries in ridiculously good condition. I know several professors back at school who would be salivating to see this in person, so it was extremely cool to see for ourselves. This, however, was the last of our educational pieces for the day. Amanda and I promptly left to go to Oxford Circus to look around the shops and we found a store called Topshop. That store is dangerous. We both agreed we could easily drop all our money there if we weren't careful. Luckily, we stopped ourselves before we did too much damage and headed back to the flat to get ready for the evening.

As it turns out, I have a knack for finding Holy Family people while in European countries. I met up with Jon Maser and his friend Ryan tonight and that was a ball. We went to a pub and caught up for a while before detailing that we were going to see The Lion King. Apparently Jon liked that idea, so he and Ryan called and got tickets for the show, too, and we were all able to hang out a bit more and then go to the show together.

The Lion King was PHENOMENAL. I've seen it in Minneapolis before, but it's just so good. The costumes and music are amazing, and the details in the staging are great. Amanda's favorite Disney movie is The Lion King, so she was peeing her pants excited before the show: it didn't disappoint. I looked over in the middle of the show and she was just sitting there grinning. I loved it. Afterwards we all got something to eat in Covent Garden and then had to part ways. The boys are flying to Amsterdam in the morning and have to be up in 5 hours to catch a train to the airport. It made me smile knowing I can sleep in tomorrow, finally!



All in all, tonight was great. It was nice to hang out with people not from CSB-SJU and I totally enjoyed catching up with Jon and meeting Ryan. The play was superb, the night was fun. Ahh! I'm so, so lucky.

The Eighth Day: Waterloo Train Station and Hampton Court Palace

I've never taken the train before in my life, but that was rectified today. Today we planned to visit Hampton Court Palace which was the home of Henry VIII, who was a chauvinistic pig I might add, and to get there we took the train! We met at Waterloo Train Station, which is where some scenes in the Bourne movies were filmed, and milled around there for a bit. We just barely made our train, but fortunately we all ran to the platform and made it on right before the doors closed. It took about 40 minutes to get to Hampton Court and it was nice to just sit and watch the city and the outer boroughs go by.




The palace was the residence favored by Henry VIII and is located along the upper banks of the Thames in Hampton Court. Unlike the Thames in the city, though, you can actually see to the bottom rather than the murky nasty that flows through London. The palace is literally right across the bridge from the station, so it was a quick walk. From the front entrance, it seems kind of small, but it's anything but. It boasts over 60 acres of private gardens and an extensive set of apartments for the six, yes six, wives that Henry had at one point or another. We looked around the palace for a bit, but the gardens were too pretty.

English gardens are supposed to be the most extensive and well kept gardens ever, and I believe it. There were fountains, hedge mazes, private walks, and a lot of other things that made it absolutely gorgeous. We lucked out and had a sunny day, too, so we thought it was best spent outside. We walked all around and just generally enjoyed the day; it was simple, but much needed.






After that we paroozed around the town of Hampton Court for a bit and then caught the train back home. We were going to go to Kensington Gardens again and make use of the weather, but the weather turned on us. It's honestly spiting us. We forget an umbrella? It rains. We wear a coat because it looks freezing out? The clouds go away and its 75 for a few hours. I can't wait to come home to 80 degrees and sunshine, this much is for sure.

The rest of our day was relatively uneventful. We saw a play tonight at The Young Victoria Theatre which was good, albeit sad. It was called Eurydice and is based off of a Greek myth about a girl, Eurydice, who dies and goes to the underworld, only to have her husband, Orpheus, try and save her. The set was very minimalist: it was a black square stage with four walk ways to each corner and the only effects included were the lighting (obviously) and then the use of water when it rained in the Underworld. There were only a handful of props used, too, so you really had to focus on the story line, but you also appreciated the acting that much more. Out of all the plays we've seen thus far, I liked this the best, but I know that's going to be blown out of the water tomorrow when I see...

The Lion King! If you've never seen it, look past the fact that it's a Disney movie and Google it. The costumes are amazing, and Amanda and I are very very excited to see it tomorrow. Almost as excited as we are to see Platform 9 3/4 tomorrow morning... :D

And here's a picture of the London Eye at night just for your enjoyment!

The Seventh Day: The London Eye, The Tate Britain and Modern, and Abbey Road

Another ridiculously busy day. We started off bright and early at the London Eye which obviously has the coolest views of the city imaginable. It was built in 2000 to celebrate the millennium and was so popular, they decided to keep it up for good. It takes 30 minutes to go all the way around and gives you a 360 degree view of all the boroughs of London.




Once our trip on the Wheel was over, we walked down the River Thames to the Tate Britain museum. It houses art from all British artists and is pretty cool, but nothing compared to the National Gallery in my opinion. There were some really odd installments there. Since my trip is based on the fine arts, I'm required to talk about three so if you want to skip over this bit I won't take offense. We saw the famous 'Composition C' by Piet Mondrian and that was pretty much the only painting I recognized. I don't understand it, but this was one of the ones that was easier on the eyes, and also one that was familiar from Art Adventure when I went to elementary school. I also saw 'Ochre Still Life' by William Scott which I thought looked like a lot of pairs of sunglasses from far away, but is apparently supposed to show the artists' allegiance to European art as opposed to American art... Shows you how much I know about all of this. The last thing, though, was very very cool. The main atrium of the building was a whole installment where an artist, Douglas Gordon, went around and painted quotes on the ceilings and on the walls. Some of my favorite lines are in the pictures below, but I can tell you I only appreciated this because I'm a wordy person and this was all words.




After the Tate Britain we took a river boat down to the Tate Modern which I know Shaun would have loved. We were here earlier on for a festival, but today we just saw the normal galleries. The space is again very interesting to look at, but I disliked this museum the most. I don't understand modern art whatsoever (I can't actually say I understand art at all, who am I kidding) and this was room after room of modern installments. The one redeeming factor, however, was that it housed 'Water Lilies' by Monet. I think I've made it apparent that I'm a fan of Monet, but whomever decided to house it in the Tate Modern made a huge mistake. That belongs in the National Gallery, or better yet my bedroom. After sufferi...I mean taking in the second half of the Tate, we called it a day.


Next on our agenda was Abbey Road, which ironically is the most dangerous intersection in London. I can see why: its because of stupid tourists like us who whip out our cameras, take 5 minutes to set up a picture, and then do it 10 times in a row so all of our group members could get the infamous picture and pay homage to the Beatles. It was totally worth it though. Nearly getting run over in order to get a quality picture and see some other landmarks where the Beatles once were was definitely worth the 20 minute tube ride it took to get there. Dad, I knew you'd have been proud of me.




We had a few hours to ourselves where I apparently fell asleep on the floor I was so tired, and then we headed back out to see a play called 'Round Two' at a pub called the Electric Shoreroom. THIS was very cool. It was 7 ten minute plays by these people who weren't a lot older than our group and they were all very funny. Before it started, we all sat around and had something to drink with Greg and his wife. That was surreal. Sitting in a pub in London having a Pimms with a professor. It was odd. The plays were done in the lower level of the pub which was interesting, as it had this huge light up dance floor/stage area. It was an interactive show, so a few "lucky" group members were pulled up to participate. We were allowed to decide in what order we wanted to see the plays and also who spoke first and second, thus mixing up the parts. All the actors knew all of the lines for the different characters, and they were surprisingly good at acting. We all loved this show: the atmosphere was great and the plays were all different and short enough to keep us engaged. Very different from anything we've seen thus far, but hopefully we'll see more things like this.


Now it's late and I'm behind on sleep so I'm going to make sure I make it to my bed to fall asleep this time and get some shut eye before an obnoxiously early wake up call tomorrow. We're going to take a train out of London for a bit, which although fun, would be much more enjoyable at 11 rather than 8. I can hear you all playing the world's smallest violins in pity for me. Poor, Sam. Has to wake up to go to the English countryside... I lead a charmed life indeed :]