Friday I overslept because my iPhone ran out of battery in the night. I was awakened by the smell of toast 🙂 Because of the late start and the morning rain, I skipped a few things (Primrose Hill , Abbey Road) and headed directly to the British Library. They had some pretty cool stuff on display there, like the Gutenberg Bible, da Vinci’s journals, Shakepeare’s notes, Handel’s Messiah handwritten sheet music and The Beatles songs as they first worked them out! The British Museum is right next to the train station, so I then hopped onto the train, paid £4 for an hour of ridiculously slow Internet (!!!) and arrived in Manchester a couple of hours later. The English countryside was beautifully quaint. Met my friend Gez (who I met in Japan) and we had a night out on the town of Chorlton! Met lots of cool new people (Hi Sam!) and experienced English pubs at their best. Lots of fun!!
Monthly Archives: April 2013
Catch me if you can
Well, for the 5 of you reading this blog, you’ll (hopefully) be happy to know that I’m ok despite the lack of blogging. Between crazy-tight schedules and a lack of wifi, I’ll have to try and bring you up to speed in this post.
when we last left her, our main character had finished a tour of London’s East end. Let’s peep in on her to see what she’s been up to since.
Thu afternoon – I kept walking (a MAJOR theme of Thu) and arrived at the British Museum. On my cheeky tourist map, it was described as containing “a whole bunch of stuff we stole from other people.” I saw the Egyptian, Assyrian and Greek exhibits. All of which I saw by walking. Then I looked at my watch and figured I had time to get across town to Shakepeare’s Globe Theatre, providing I walked fast. So I did. When hopped off the Tube, I realized I’d have to run to catch the last tour, so I did. Only to find out they were staying open an hour later and hadn’t needed to. Are you tired just hearing about all my walking? because at this point, i was too, but continued on with the guided walking tour of the inside, which was very cool. The theatre is open at the top, just as it would’ve been originally. I was two weeks too early to see The Tempest, so I had bought a ticket to another musical that night – Rock of Ages, featuring all 80’s rock! It was so rad 😉 I knew all the songs and the venue and acting was more cozy and intimate, with the actors even interacting with the crowd somewhat. Left with “Don’t stop believing in my head – rock on!
New & Old
Well peeps, I have 15min left on the wifi click,(yes they are charging me for this), and since the connection is slow, this maybe done in 2 posts.
Thu morn I got up my earliest yet, and hopped the tube to Old Street Station to join my tour with Urban Adventures. at the meetup point, I met Sue, my guide, who informed me that I lucked out with a one-on-one tour (no one else had booked!) she grew up in the East End and had first-hand info about this up&coming neighbourhood. I got to see so many street artists’ work, including the famous Banksy! We had some tea and dessert, and finished our 3 hour walking tour at Spital Field Market. Spital is short for hospital. I bought a lovely dress in the market for £15 and I can’t wait to wear it!
part 2 of this post will be done later today’s, when I have a faster & better (and hopefully cheaper) connection!
Royalty & History
Got up and headed out with detailed instructions of plan of attack of bucking palace. Unfortunately, I came to England during Europe’s Easter Break, which apparently means all French parents send their kids away to London. They must have known the same info, because I arrived early but managed to get a second row standing. Some kids arrived late and complained about not being able to see, but I pretended I didn’t understand French and stood my ground. You snooze, you lose. The changing of the guard was cool and I got some good pics (coming soon).
after that I walked down Birdcage walk, and caught the tube to Westminster. Saw & heard Big Ben which is the bell, not the clock), parliament (which was “in”), 10 Downing St, and Trafalgar Square. Hopped back a bit and popped into Westminster Abbey, which was impressive for sure. So many famous people have been buried there.
Continued the day with the Tower of London, which besides being gorgeously historic, is where the Crown Jewels are kept!!!! And I saw them!!! Words cannot express the beauty and opulence – it’s a good thing they had a moving walkway along the crowns cuz I would have stood there for a while!
after being wowed by the jewels, I headed back towards Leicester square, and found a tiny baked potato place which served huge helpings of baked potato heaven.
Onto Wyndham Theatre to see Rowan Atkinson star in Quartermaine’s Term, a tragic comedy about an ESL teacher at pyro ate school in the 60’s. spoiler alert: it had a sad ending. My seats were WAY up so altho I had a good view, it included the tops of their heads!
crazy full day, ending with me getting back about 11:45.
Stayed tuned, because Thu proved to be just as full!
Coming soon to a blog near you
crazy-packed two days.
tomorrow i head to Manchester!!!
and the train to Manchester apparently has wifi, so i’ll have time to do a full posting in my 3 hr ride.
in the meantime, here’s an overview of my two days in one word statements:
Wed:
coffee. obviously. buckingham. guards. birdcage. thames. tems. haha. big. ben. parliament. westminster. abbey. 10. downing. street. trafalgar. london. bridge. tower. of. london. baked. potato. heaven. mr. bean. quartermaine. term. <sniff> past. midnight.
Thu:
early. tour. east. end. street. art. walk. tea. obviously. market. buy. walk. museum. egypt. assyria. greece. walk. shakespeare. walk. 80’s. rocking. awesome. don’t. stop. believin.
Hope this holds you over! It’s past midnight and i have to check out tomorrow!
“Elementary,” he said.
I planned my day around the rain today. The rain that never happened. (I can’t believe I fell for the weather report. I’ve lived in Vancouver long enough to know better… Must be the jetlag that’s throwing me off.)
Got up at 9:30 to catch the free continental brekkie, then hopped the tube to 221b Baker Street. Sadly Sherlock Holmes was not personally there, but the bobby at the door let me take my picture with him. Baker Street Station even had Sherlock Holmes motifs on their subway tiles.
Then, since the rain was holding off, I changed my indoor plans for outdoor ones. I got off the tube at Leicester, and bought tickets to two evening shows: Wicked and Quartermaines Terms (starring Rowan Atkinson!). Then I headed to Westminster Bridge over the Thames River. Following a walking tour map, I saw Big Ben, House of Parliament, 10 Downing Street, guards on horses and finished with Trafalgar Square. (All flags were at half-mast today in honour of Margaret Thatcher.)
After that, I just started to wander in the direction of Covent Graden Market, and somewhere on the side streets, found this awesome baked potato place! I almost walked by but the aroma drew me in, and I ordered a Pulled BBQ Pork Baked Potato with herb butter and feta cheese. And yes, it WAS as good as it sounds. Maybe better!
Continued on and walked through the Market, bought a t-shirt, then went to the London Transportation Museum (I have a London Pass so it was free. Not sure I would have wanted to pay the full £15 for that, altho it was interesting. I took pictures of the trains for Maddy!) After that I located dreamland, aka. M&M World. The smell of chocolate drew me into the 4 floors of heaven! Somehow I managed to resist buyng (could’ve been the inflated prices…) and I quickly headed back to the hostel to drop off stuff before the highlight of the day – Wicked!
Like I said on facebook, I got a wicked deal on Wicked (it’s so clever, it was worth repeating 😉 ). I went to the half-price ticket people, and would’ve paid £55 but they had a single-seat ticket returned so I got it for £40!!! AND it was on the floor in the second section back. In the middle. With a perfect view. I really wanted to rub it in with my seat neighbours, but I managed to restrain myself. Probably because I had a bowl full of candy to chomp on. The actors/singers were ridiculously talented, so obviously IT WAS AWESOME!!! Props to the costumers and set builders as well – amazing!
I’m hoping the rain continues to hold off so tomorrow I can catch the changing of the guard at Buckingham Palace. I have very detailed and strict instructions from Dani on how to catch the best front-row view, so seeing as it’s 12:30am, I should hit the sack to be in position to take over my sidewalk space by 11am.
G’nite!
oh, I took lots of pics with my fabulous new camera (thanks mom!) but I have to figure out hpw to get them from the camera to this blog, and at this time of the night (morning?) I can’t figure it out for you now. Stay posted for pics *hopefully* in the near future!
The eyes of the nation
Watching the biography of Margaret Thatcher on the BBC. Whether or not you think she was a great leader (and the Brits interviewed are strongly divided), you can’t argue that she was passionate about her country.
London
Made it to London…. finally! To say I’m tired would be the understatement of the year. I figure it took me about 19 hrs** from YVR to my hostel just outside Central London. I’m going on about a combined 5 hrs of airplane ”sleeping” and it shows. Good thing the bags under my eyes don’t count towards my luggage weight limit!
I wasn’t in Reykjavic very long (20 min!), but I still noticed a few things:
* the scenery looked so quaint and beautiful from the airplane
* everything at the airport is tax and duty free! (and it’s my last stop!)
* Icelandic guys are very easy on the eyes 😉 (I wonder if they need an ESL teacher… or know how to pack themselves in my travel bag…)
Two connections later I reached London, and managed to navigate my way through Heathrow Airport, successfully use the Tube to pick up my London Pass and then find my hostel, which is one of the nicest hostels I’ve stayed in. There is high security (so you don’t have to worry, Mom!) with hostel / lift / room access requring a key card. Sadly, my bed is right by the door, but I brought earplugs and I know how to use ’em. Plus I’m pretty sure I’ll be out for the count, at least tonight, earplugs or not!
Gotta go plan tomorrow and my next few days!
** 1.5 hrs at YVR, 4 hrs to YYZ, 4 hrs wait, 5.5hrs to KEV (Reykjavic), 2.5hrs to Heathrow, 2hrs to get bag and find hostel
YYZed
Managed to make the plane / airline switch at Pearson. Now just chillin’ with my last Timmie’s tea & Canadian Maple for a while. Can’t be too sad tho, I’m expecting great food in my future 🙂
Last Timmie’s
Next stop(over): Reykjavik Airport
riakaruda 