Last full day in London

This morning I got up early and went to the Starbucks by church for breakfast before the service. I know, I caved in to Starbucks, but it was convenient... Alex met me there and we went to church at All Souls, which was great.

After that we walked around Hyde Park (it was another nice day, still cold) and went to Speaker's Corner where we heard one guy talking about how it's important to dance and laugh all the time and another guy talking about the war, among other things. So that was interesting. I liked the Princess Diana Memorial in Hyde Park, it's basically a circle with running water inside. We walked along the lake to Kensington Gardens where we saw the palace and people racing model sailboats.

After Hyde Park we went to the Tower of London, which was cool. Last time I was there we didn't get to spend a lot of time there so I was glad we had a few hours. We started by taking a free tour given by one of the Yeoman Warders. One cool thing he said was that the Yeoman Warders live in the Tower with their families if they have one, and that since he's a Yeoman Warder his sons and their kids and all of the generations after them can get married and baptised in the church in the Tower which I thought was really cool. There was a lot of stuff to look at in the Tower so we felt like we got our money's worth.

We didn't know what to do after the Tower because all the museums were closed so we went to church again at Holy Trinity Brompton, which was interesting.

After church we met up with Eva for dinner at a Mexican place that's like Chipotle, but not quite as good. We sat around and talked then I went back to Eva's place with her which is where I am now.

My flight leaves earlier than I thought tomorrow (it leaves at 2, I thought my bus to the airport left at 2), so I might just do Westminster Abbey tomorrow morning then go to the airport from there. If I have time I might stop by the Victoria and Albert Museum as well. It'll be nice to get back to Edinburgh early though so I can finish some work for this upcoming week and upload pictures!

Second day in London:

I'm really tired so I'm going to try to make this quick. I just don't want to forget what I did today (the days are blurring together).

The weather today was freezing but really beautiful. Clear blue skies all day, so my pictures of the city from today look much better than the ones I took yesterday. This morning Alex and I met at 9:00 at St. Paul's Cathedral. It was expensive to get in, but worth it. It's pretty amazing, I guess it has the 2nd largest dome in the world (behind St. Peter's). The whole building was beautiful and huge. We climbed a million (it felt like a million...) steps to get to the different levels of the dome. There were 2 outside levels with awesome views of the city and one inside which was called the Whispering Gallery because it was a mezzanine around the edge of the dome and if you whispered into the wall on one side someone on the other side can hear it. We tried it and we think it worked but it was hard to tell because there were a few other people up there. We went at a good time though; it didn't get too crowded until we went into the crypt towards the end.

After we did St. Paul's Alex and Eva went to the football match so I was on my own for the afternoon. I did the free walking tour which was excellent. It covered a ton of places and I learned a lot of new information and the guide had some really good stories. I met some people too so I wasn't just hanging out by myself....

After the tour I went to the British Museum. I hadn't eaten yet (it was 3:00), so I went to the cafe and got lunch, which I ate while I read the section in my guidebook about the museum. The museum is enormous, and there was absolutely no way I would be able to even come close to seeing everything in a few hours so I decided just to walk through the whole place and just kind of take in what I could. Highlights included the Rosetta Stone, some of the Dead Sea Scrolls, and the marble from the Parthenon. It was funny seeing that in particular because I remember when we were in Greece the Greeks were really mad that the British still had that marble. They're still trying to get it back. As I was walking around I couldn't help thinking about what the people must have felt like when they found all this stuff. For example, there was a big terrapin (turtle for you people not from Maryland...) made out of jade that someone found at the bottom of a well in China (I think). Like how cool would that be?

After the museum I just started walking around. I ended up at King's Cross and I tried to find platform 9 3/4 (they have a sign that says it and half a baggage cart sticking out of the wall) but I couldn't find it. I know the sign and baggage cart isn't at the actual 9 3/4 but I couldn't find it anywhere. Oh well, no Hogwarts Express for me....

I started walking back towards Eva after that and the timing worked out well because they got back pretty much just as I was getting to the underground. The three of us went to dinner at a pizza place which was good, then went back to Eva's to hang out until it was a respectable time to go out. We went to a bar at the UCL student center with 3 other girls from Wash U that are studying here.

Tomorrow: All Souls, Hyde Park, the Tower of London, whatever else I can fit in

London so far

I had quite an interesting first night and day in London. My flight last night was delayed an hour and half so we took off at the time that we were supposed to be landing. I didn't end up getting to Gatwick til about 10 pm, so I had missed my bus to London (which left at 9:45). I took a bus to transfer to the north terminal where the bus to London leaves from, and got my ticket changed to the next bus, which left at 10:45. That bus ride was about an hour and 15 minutes long so I got to the city around midnight, and I was really worried that the trains would stop running before I could get to my destination. I got on the tube and did one transfer, then miraculously got to my next train 2 minutes before it was supposed to leave, and it was the last one of the night. I would have had to call a cab if I had missed that train so that was really lucky.

This morning Alex and I walked around. First we went to the Burough Market, a big indoor/outdoor market with lots of food stalls. Then we walked along the river a bit to the Globe Theater, Millennium Bridge (the bridge that got destroyed by dementors in one of the Harry Potter movies...), and across the river to the main sites. We walked to Trafalgar Square and ran into the Portrait Gallery just to find the famous painting of Shakespeare, which was very easily found. On our way to Buckingham Palace we saw the Horse Guards Parade Grounds. The horses were just standing there but there were a lot of them and I thought it looked cool. Then after crossing through St. James's Park we arrived at Buckingham Palace. We were there just before the changing of the guard was going to start so we decided to wait and see it, but then we changed our minds because I've already seen it and Alex can go back a different day.

We had a little over half an hour to find the departure point for our trip to Stonehenge and we thought that would be plenty of time, but we could not find it. It was pretty terrible. We were on the right street but the description of the place where we were supposed to go wasn't very good so we were really confused. We speed-walked up and down Victoria Street trying to find this bus but we just couldn't find it. It got to 12:30 (when we were supposed to get picked up), and we had just about given up when the bus pulled up right in front of us. We were relieved.

2 hours, some rain, some hail, and some snow later, we arrived to beautiful weather at Stonehenge. It was freezing but there was a clear blue sky which we definitely did not think would happen. It was way cooler than I thought it would be; it's just very impressive. We did the audio guides so that was good to get some information on it. The bus left about an hour and a half later, and we arrived back in London at about 6:30.

We were going to meet Eva for dinner but she was going out so we went to a really cheap pub for food, walked around a little more, then split up for the night, so now I'm back in Eva's room.

Tomorrow I think we're all going to St. Paul's Cathedral, then a free 3-hour walking tour (like the one I did in Edinburgh). Alex and Eva are going to a football match that I couldn't get a ticket to tomorrow afternoon so I'm going to go to the British Museum to check that out. Sunday is church at All Soul's, Hyde Park (and Speaker's Corner), the Tower of London, and whatever else we have time for. I'll probably go to Westminster Abby and maybe another museum Monday morning before I leave.

Pictures coming when I get back!

London Tomorrow

Yesterday was a pretty normal (i.e. dull) day of classes. I had a lot of work to get done afterwards to get ready for classes on Thursday and since I won't be doing any work this weekend, so naturally last night I went to a movie. A bunch of us saw Avatar in 3d. I wasn't thrilled by the actual plot or acting but it was pretty incredible to see. Apparently it was one of the most expensive movies ever made and it's pretty obvious why; the special effects are amazing. We got back from that around midnight, then I did a little work and went to bed.

I slept late this morning so I only had about 3 hours before my riding lesson to get stuff done. I went to the public library and got a library card, then checked out 2 guidebooks for London which I will read on the plane and bus tomorrow (on my way to London...). Then I went to the campus library and printed out a bunch of travel documents and stuff. A quick run to the bank and store brought me to 3:00, so it was time for my riding lesson.

I rode a horse named Donald. He was really young, only about 7 or 8, and he acted his age. He threw his head a lot, wouldn't bend at all and bucked at the canter, but it was fun. The problem I'm running into is that here people ride in a more "dressage" seat, which is sitting straight up and really sitting deep in the saddle. This is the exact opposite of the "hunter" seat which is what I ride at home, and is pretty predominant in the US. There's just no way I'm ever going to be able to ride the way my trainer here wants me to, it's just so totally different and I'm only riding once a week. I really don't want to start riding like that anyway though, or I'll get laughed out of the ring when I go back to riding in the US...

After my lesson I did laundry, reading for classes tomorrow, and just got stuff ready for London. I'm leaving tomorrow after classes. The flight takes about an hour and half, there's an hour and 15 minute transfer from the airport to the city, then about a half hour tube ride to where I'm staying, so it'll be a long journey. I don't have any real plans yet except that we're going to Stonehenge on Friday and I'm doing the free tour of London on Saturday morning (the same company we did the free tour of Edinburgh with). Other than that I'll just be seeing the sites and walking around.

Haggis tastes like Swedish meatballs

Tonight was Burns' Night. It's a celebration of Robert Burns, a famous poet that Scotland is very proud of. Basically it's just a night to celebrate all things Scottish. My small group leader had a big get together at his apartment for it, and about 20 people went. We had the traditional meal, haggis with neeps (turnips) and tatties (potatoes), and then desserts and other stuff that people brought. We drank Irn Bru (a really popular Scottish soda kind of thing) and had Scottish music playing in the background.

Haggis, for those of you who don't know, is sort of a national dish of Scotland. It's the lungs, liver, and heart of a sheep ground up and mixed with herbs and spices, then cooked in a sheep's stomach. Appetizing, no? It was actually pretty good, it just tastes like meatballs. You can't think about what you're eating though. Here's a picture of me trying haggis for the first time:

Another tradition on Burns' Night is to read poetry. Don, our small group leader, did it. He read 2 poems by Burns and one by "The World's Worst Poet," William McGonagall (that's what he's known as). The Burns ones were incomprehensible between the writing style and Don's Scottish accent, but they sounded so cool. Here's "Ode to a Haggis," by Robert Burns:

Fair fa’ your honest, sonsie face,
Great Chieftan o’ the Puddin-race!
Aboon them a’ ye tak your place,
Painch, tripe, or thairm:
Weel are ye wordy of a grace
As lang’s my arm

The groaning trencher there ye fill,
Your hurdies like a distant hill,
You pin wad help to mend a mill
In time o’need
While thro’ your pores the dews distil
Like amber bead

His knife see Rustic-labour dight,
An’ cut you up wi’ ready slight,
Trenching your gushing entrails bright
Like onie ditch;
And then, O what a glorious sight,
Warm-reeking, rich!

Then, horn for horn they stretch an’ strive,
Deil tak the hindmost, on they drive,
Till a’ their weel-swall’d kytes belyve
Are bent like drums;
Then auld Guidman, maist like to rive
Bethankit hums

Is there that owre his French ragout,
Or olio that wad staw a sow,
Or fricassee wad mak her spew
Wi’ perfect sconner,
Looks down wi’ sneering, scornfu’ view
On sic a dinner?

Poor devil! see him owre his trash,
As feckless as a wither’d rash
His spindle-shank a guid whip-lash,
His nieve a nit;
Thro’ bluidy flood or field to dash,
O how unfit!

But mark the Rustic, haggis-fed,
The trembling earth resounds his tread,
Clap in his walie nieve a blade,
He’ll mak it whissle;
An’ legs, an’ arms an’ heads will sned,
Like taps o’ thrissle

Ye pow’rs wha mak mankind your care,
An’ dish them out their bill o’fare,
Auld Scotland wants nae skinking ware
That jaups in luggies;
But, if ye wish her gratefu’ pray’r,
Gie her a Haggis!

So yeah, completely incomprehensible, especially when read with a Scottish accent. The poem by the Worst Poet in the World was hilariously terrible. It was his best known poem, called The Tay Bridge Disaster. Look it up, it's just so terrible. He has some other ones too that are equally as hilarious.

Oh, we also said a grace that was written by Robert Burns:

Some hae meat and canna eat,
And some wad eat that want it,
But we hae meat and we can eat,
And sae the Lord be thankit.

The Americans needed a translation.

Other things that I did today were.... nothing. I mean I did some reading but not nearly as much as I wanted to, especially considering I won't be here this weekend. I did buy tickets to Spain though, and booked the hostels!

Glasgow

The morning started off meeting at 8:30 and walking to the bus station. We got there on time and without too much trouble so that was good. The bus ride took about an hour and 15 minutes, and it was through some beautiful scenery- mountains, green grass, and sheep. Fog started to roll in which gave it a very ethereal feeling.We arrived at 9:15, and made our way to George Square, the main square in the city:

The tourist office is on that square so we stopped in there to get some information, then we went to the City Chambers, but that was closed (it was Saturday). We were really sad about that because apparently the inside looks awesome (google "Glasgow City Chambers"). There was a general consensus that we needed coffee (or hot chocolate in Semmes and my case), so we went searching for a place. Eventually we settled on Costa Coffee, which yes, is a chain, but it looked popular and we were tired of looking.

We decided not to go into the Museum of Modern Art, thinking we would return to it later, but we didn't. I don't think anybody was too upset about that.

We passed through Merchant City on our way south to the river. Merchant City is a bustling, urban shopping street. Pretty cool. Eventually we managed to find the River Clyde, and we walked along that on our way to the Glasgow Green.

The Glasgow Green is exactly what it sounds like: a big green park (located in Glasgow...). I'm always surprised by how green the grass is here this time of year.

So we walked through that, then on the other side was the People's Palace, a museum of Glasgow. That was a cool building, and we spent some time in there. On our way out we took pictures of the cool fountain, then headed north to the Barras (getting only a little lost along the way).

The Barras is a big flea market that takes place on weekends. There are stalls outside and inside, and it was a pretty busy place. We looked around for a while, then got lunch at a sketchy little place. We all got Scottish meals and felt our life expectancies drop by 5 years.

After that we walked through the Barras some more, then went north again to the Necropolis. The Necropolis is a big hill with an awesome graveyard on it. At the base of the Necropolis is the Glasgow Cathedral, St. Mungo's Museum, and Provand's Lordship.

We went to the Necropolis first. It was a very beautiful graveyard, and had some famous Scottish people buried in it. We could see blue skies and a beautiful sunset in the distance, but not over the graveyard. It was huge, so we spent a lot of time walking around that, then we headed back down the hill to the Cathedral.

The Cathedral was awesome. So beautiful. Apparently it was the only cathedral in Scotland to survive the Reformation. It was amazing, definitely stands up to some of the cathedrals in Italy and France. I thought the downstairs was the coolest part though. It had St. Mungo's tomb, and the whole corridor just looked so cool with the arches.

Upstairs:

Downstairs:

After the cathedral we went next door to St. Mungo's Museum of Religious Life and Art, and wandered around that for a while. There were a lot of cool artifacts in there but here's one of them:

It was 4:00 by that time and all the museums closed at 5 so we quickly went next door and wandered around Provand's Lordship, the oldest house in Glasgow. It was a neat house, I thought the layout was intriguing. Low ceilings, all stone, very cool.

At 4:30 we started walking back towards George Square, then a little more north of that to the Royal Concert Hall for some free music. Glasgow is having their Celtic Connections Festival this week so we went to this free event where some bands played music. We saw 2 groups. The first group was a brother and sister; neither of them could have been over 15. They were a big crowd pleaser. After them were this other group and they were pretty terrible, so Maeghan and I left to look at the booths outside the exhibition hall.

At about 6 we went on a search for a place to eat dinner. We wandered around for a while, finding places then deciding not to eat there.

We found this pub but some people didnt want to eat at a pub. Then we found an Italian place and got as far as through the doors, then some people decided they didn't want to eat there. Then we found another pub that was the same kind of thing as the first pub, but more expensive. So we went back to the first place we found, but it was full. So we went back to the more expensive pub. Phew. We all felt better when we finally sat down and got some food. It was good food, and that was the end of our tour of Glasgow.

We got back to the bus station with no problems. I dozed for most of the bus ride back, but I remember one of the passengers singing a few times... We arrived back in good ol' Edinburgh around 9:30. It was good to be home!

As always, there are tons of pictures on my facebook.

I probably won't update again tonight because I'm not anticipating anything unusual happening today. I'll probably just work on homework and go to church. The rest of this week will be spent planning my trip to London (leaving on Thursday, coming back Monday), and finalizing a trip to Spain (Barcelona and Madrid).

My weekend schedule has changed a surprising amount since I posted it 2 days ago so here's the updated one:

Jan. 28-Feb. 1: London (and Stonehenge)

Feb. 6- Feb. 7: Pony trekking and maybe Rosslyn Chapel?

Feb. 13- Feb. 14: 2-day tour of Scotland

Feb. 19-Feb. 22: Sarah and Alex visiting

Feb. 25- March 1: Spain (Barcelona and Madrid)

March 5- March 8: Family visiting

March 11- March 15: Alex visiting?

March 19- March 26: Dillon visiting

Then a few weeks of traveling around Europe for Spring Break!

Great day in Glasgow

I'm too tired to do a full update tonight, but I'll do one tomorrow morning with pictures and everything. Basically it was an awesome day and everything went smoothly and we saw everything we wanted to see and the timing worked out great. Stay tuned for tales of museums, cathedrals, graveyards, local music, and a near cut-throat search for a place to eat dinner...