You say 'erb, we say Herb

Okay, so, a few details.  I'm going to start with today because it's freshest on my mind, mmkay?  Got a problem with that?  Well too bad!  Does it say "[insert your name here]'s Holiday?"    Didn't think so.  Deal.

So, today started just like any other (of the past 4 days).   She woke up to the melodic sound of car horns coming through the open window just above her head mixed with the buzzing of her alarm-in-a-cell-phone.  She then proceeded to push Snooze and sleep for another 15 minutes. 
Time is a funny little bugger.  Isn't it weird how sometimes we can feel like it took forever to fall asleep, when in all reality it was only like 5 minutes?  They say that the average adult human being takes approximately 7 minutes to fall asleep.   Sometimes it feels like ages.  Why is that, really?  And why/how did the American people lose the British accent?  I mean, America started out British.   How did we come up with the "accent" that we have now?  Is it like the color black - a total absorption of all the other accents that mingled their way in?  And on that note, why do Canadians sound so similar to us when they're a completely different country?   Honestly, people.  But I digress.


(This non-sequiter was brought to you by our proud sponsors at o-dark-thirty.  And now back to your regularly scheduled blog post.)


Then she finally made herself get up, check her email, talk to a couple friends online, and then finally got ready for the day.   And here's where our story starts, folks.

[Author's insert:  Do you ever wish that bloggers would skip the cheesy fluff and just get to the point?   You don't?  Oh good.]

I'd decided that I wanted to go see the Imperial War Museum today to check out the stuffs there...   They have all these old war tanks and airplanes and non-explosive bomb shells and all this crazy-go-nuts stuff.  On the Lower Ground floor (yay European floor/level-naming scheme) they had these two exhibits - the Trench Experience and the Blitz Experience.  With both, they have a model trench/bomb shelter set up that you walk through, and they've tried to recreate the sounds and smells and model-sights that you would have seen in an actual trench/bombed neighborhood in The Blitz.   It was a little bit cheesy if you take it that way, but it was also really kind of... cool in a not-cool way.  Eye opening.   Home-turf violence is so completely foreign to us American young adult civilians.   Part of me wants to think that warfare has become more civilized - but then I remember how many Afghanistani civilians have been accidentally killed by American air raids.  Hitler tried to bomb England into submission - trying to bomb the Taliban into submission isn't going to work.  And isn't working.  And is just pissing off the civilians.

As a fairly ridiculous side note, every single time in the above paragraph that I typed the word "bomb," my fingers typed "bomg"...  B-omg folks!  Hehe...   Oh be still my text-happy heart..

After the Imperial War Museum, I made my way on the Tube back to the City to check out Buckingham Palace.  The flag was up - the Queen was home!   It's kind of funny that they only fly the flag when the queen is home..  Shouldn't it always be flying?  Hmm...  So I took some pictures since I couldn't really get in (they only do tours of the State Rooms during the summer) and some pictures of the Queen Victoria monument that's in the square (more of a circle really) in front of the palace.  I tried to get myself in a few shots, to prove that I was actually there... but we'll see.  lol     And then, Harry Potter 7 audiobook still playing in my ears, I walked down St James Park - which is gorgeous.  So pretty!  There's this big pond with loads of birds - some pigeons walking around the outside of the pond, about 6 different species of ducks (including these ones that were like 3 feet tall, what the heck!)  and 3 white/pink (yep) pelicans, and a few black swans.  And these weird little dodo-bird looking things that were small and black with red beaks.  They looked like ducks in the water, but then on land they looked... I don't know.  Weird.   But cool, because being a black bird with a bright red beak kind of automatically makes you cool.  It was a super cloudy day so the color quality in all of my outdoorsy pictures today really isn't super amazing, but that's okay - it's all part of the London experience.  Clouds included.

Once I got to the other end of the park, I went to the Churchill Museum/Cabinet War Rooms (the rooms that Churchill & Cabinet used during 1939-1945).  Really historical, really awesome, kind of hard to describe. 

It's just so weird being in these places and picturing these people 60 years ago, living/walking/breathing in this same spot, not knowing exactly what was about to happen.  What were they thinking about?   What were their names?  (Other than Churchill, of course.)   Who did they worry about?  Did they have children they'd sent out into the countryside?   What did they eat for lunch on November 10th?   and the like.

Then, saw the  Changing of the Guards, took a video of course - because I'm so obviously a tourist, wearing white/silver tennis shoes - and attempted to take a picture of myself with one of the guards behind me.  It's on the list of things to do that SarahBudge wrote for me before I left, so I had to do it!  I hope I can fulfill her request for what I need to do in Italy...hehe...   We'll see...     After the self-portraits were taken by a silly-feeling tourist such as myself, I wandered down the street and crossed Downing Street (where the Prime Minister lives?/works?) and tried to take a picture of 10 Downing Street (see above ( )s)  but of course, the road is blocked off by gates and police guards.   Because it'd be silly to be able to just meander up to the Prime Minister's pad and be like, "Sup dude, fancy a bomb with your morning cuppa?"  So, my uber zoom was employed and I believe a decent picture was had.  

Continue down Parliament Road, to the first Tomb of the Unknown Soldier - which is, I believe, the only one that's actually empty.  Picture snapped, consideration given, thoughts turned to those fighting..   Continue walking on my sad little feet, starving, past some Lion-something pub that's famous, and also seems to be the only eatery within a (x)-block radius of where I was.  And I was hungry where I was.  Very hungry.  Understandably so in my book, as it was nearly 15:00 and I'd eaten naught but a bit of cheese and Gluten-free roll prior to the ImpWarMuse.   (Nice abbreviation job, Holly.)   So I stopped at the Tesco Express, which is a sorta grocery store, and got some cheese and a bit of bread.  Yeah.... and I enjoyed the heck out of that gluteny goodness.   Mmm....  I really might just throw the whole thing out the window for Paris and Rome.   Even here, everything revolves around sandwiches.   And who goes to Paris and doesn't have a crepe?

It was chilly, so instead of waiting til 5:00 to get into the Evensong at Westminster Abbey, I went back to Meagan's place and duked it out with a not-very-understandable desk guy at the dorms to get the spare key, since Meagan wasn't home.   Grabbed my jacket, headed out to the British Library to see a bunch of ridiculously awesome things such as the original manuscripts of:  Jane Austen's Persuasion, "Lewis Carroll" (pen name)'s Adventures of Alice in Wonderland, Handel's Messiah, plus the Magna Carta and loads of other awesome things.   I could live there.

Enter Meagan back on the scene at the library.   We headed out to Piccadilly Square to hopefully get tickets to see Les Miserables, which we did successfully.  And since the whole Gluten thing was already out the window....there was a Cinnabon there...   Yes, I had a Cinnabon.   Since gluten makes me blow up faster than Aunt Marge, hopefully I'll still be recognizable when I get home. 

Les Miserables was incredible.  Way more incredible than I remember it as a 10-year-old seeing it at Capitol Theater in Salt Lake.  I cried.  I'm such a baby.  It was soo good!!   :'-)


Oh and seriously?  Piccadilly Square = Times Square, except with 400+ year old buildings. And driving on the wrong side of the road.  

And now I'm back at my temporary home-away-from-home, typing this blog for all you lovely folks (read: myself).   The dull thudding of complaint from my feet is far more easily ignorable today than it was the day before yesterday.  I've got an awesome blister on my right foot that I've been trying to convince to take a vacation to the Bahamas.   He hasn't been persuaded yet.   Europeans must have some seriously tough feet.   Honestly, I really like walking around everywhere, and taking the tube everywhere, and riding the tube, and watching other people riding the tube and walking everywhere.  My feet and Mister Blister don't much care for it, but I totally love it.  It makes my little heart happy.

I really should type details about the past 2 days as well...   But as it's already past midnight here, and I really should get to bed since I'm climbing St Paul's tomorrow morning and walking Hampton Court Palace and Gardens in the afternoon, I think I'll head to sleep.   Get it?  Got it?  Great!  :-D

I can't believe tomorrow's my last day in London.   But I am quite excited for the train ride to Paris, and just freaking being in Paris.. 

Highlights of Day 3 - where does time go??

Can I start a petition to have Vacation days last for 26 or 27 hours instead of 24?  That'd be great, kthx.




Highlights, again to be explained later:

-Getting lost for 2 hours in random bits of London, trying to find a shoe store that sells athletic/running shoes - which is nearly impossible, apparently...

-Finally giving up and going down to the City to visit the Xactware office - Andrew Bresler was out for lunch..sad panda.

-Tower of London!!!   Hilarious Beefeater tourguide.   It's a bit morbid, but I could spend all day walking the walls and towers and dungeons and everything.  I stood in the place where Anne Bolynn (sp?) got her head all chopped off..   Oh, and the Crown Jewels = huge.  500+ Carat diamond.  Dibs!

-KFC in London - who'da thunk?

-Orange Fanta -- actually tastes like carbonated orange juice, ftw!

-Camera battery died, so, detour back to Megan's place for a couple hours..

-Harrods.  Omg.   Chocolate bar.   Full city block, one store, with everything imaginable.  Nuff said.

-King's Cross station and Platform 9 and 3/4.  :)   Which, incidentally, due to construction in platforms 9 and 10 had been moved to just off platform 8.  Go figure.


Tomorrow:   Imperial War Museum, Buckingham Palace, Parliament/Big Ben in the day, Cabinet war rooms, Westminster area and Abbey, hopefully Les Miserables at night..


Some pictures uploaded to flicker - http://www.flickr.com/hoddiebee  .  It's in reverse order currently...

Highlights - to be explained later..

--Portobello Market/Notting Hill

"Travel Bookstore" from the movie Notting Hill

-cute old lady - pearl jewelery

-single's ward and funny stories (yogurt/learning to feed yourself vs being forced, "shortest" serving prophet, etc)

-Hyde park = gorgeous

-Dinner - cheese and gluten free ciabatta rolls

-London at night by myself, seeing Big Ben/Parliament all lit up

-Guys on the metro doing pullups...hilariously entertaining!




DAY 3 (Monday)

-Covent Garden

-Walking around lots and lots of shops

-Musicians in Covent Garden (awesome quartet playing Brahams and such!)

 -Tottingham Court Road while listening to Harry Potter audiobook section where they're in the Cafe on that road and they get attacked by Death Eaters.. :)

-Walking down Drury Lane (theater stuff)

-British Museum  (!!!!)

-Indian food experience

-Feet=OUCH.

The end.

Day 1 details

(Blog post alternatively titled: "Why can't I come up with more clever blog post titles")


I think jetlag gets a bad rap.   Jetlag didn't come at me with flaming jaws of fury like they say, he only gave me just about the most fulfilling 3.5-hour Saturday afternoon nap that has ever been experienced in the history of all of Holly's Saturday afternoon napping experiences.  

So my flight landed this morning at Heathrow at around 7:30 AM.  (By the way, if you've never flown internationally, I'd recommend it - tons of free stuff!  Free movies, TV shows, hours of entertainment...  also they were offering free beer and wine to those over 21, which I did not partake, but still!  Free.99!)   I picked up a trolley (hey America, let's get on the ball with the whole trolley-at-the-airport thing mmkay?), picked up my luggage - which all showed up - bought some postcards and some purple Rockstar, and made my way to the train to get to London Paddington station where Meagan met me.  I realized later that I totally forgot to take a picture of "Mind the Gap" and I haven't seen it on any of the Underground stations..  Here's hoping I'll see it again!   Meagan only lives about a block away from the station, in this cute old ex-hotel dorm building type deal.   She's got a private room with an attached full bathroom and kitchen and to stay here (for a cot rental and such) for the entire 6 days is still costing less than a single night at my hostels in either Paris and/or Rome.   Woohoo!   So I feel no remorse over having blown quite a bit of money today not doing a whole lot.  lol   Plus, it's nice to kind of ease into this whole foreign experience thing with someone I know, who knows a lot more about the city and where things are (and when to switch to a different metro line to get where you want to go...)  

We spent some time talking and thinking about what we wanted to do today, then we finally headed out and got a traditional English breakfast.  (Which includes:  eggs, potatoes, sausage/bacon, tomatoes, mushrooms, and baked beans.  I passed on the fungus and gag-inducers.)   Seriously, baked beans for breakfast?  Are we sure I'm not in North Carolina?   Apart from the mind trip, they were delicious.

Then we headed out to the Underground station, I bought an Oyster card (basically a 7-day free-for-all Bus and Metro pass for the 2 main zones, covering all the areas in the City and some surrounding - all the touristy areas)  and off they went to the grand ol' opry.  I mean Trafalgar Square.

I really hadn't been feeling tired at all at this point.  We walked around Trafalgar square a bit - you can totally see Big Ben from there! pictures to come - and went into the National [art] Gallery which is right there.   The steps of Trafalgar square lead into the gallery.    Saw a bunch of old Catholic paintings, some super old triptychs and ditychs and such, plus of course a bit of Monet and Manet and Renoir and Cezanne and all those lovely French painters that make my little heart happy.  [P.S.  Totally stoked to go to Giverny when I'm in Paris.  Just sayin'.]

{Anyone else getting irritated with how often I'm using ( )'s and [ ]'s?}

Point is, National Gallery = rocksauce.   We'd been handed a flier about a concert tonight at the church there in the square,  St. Martin-in-the-fields, an orchestra concert doing some famous Baroque pieces like Vivaldi's "The Spring" and "Concerto for Two Violins",  Pachelbel's "Canon" and some Bach and such.  It was beautiful!   I really miss going to things like that even back home - and here, the church was so old and authentic and there were these pretty chandeliers that they'd dimmed to the amount of light candles would have had.  I sat there with my eyes closed (our cheap tickets didn't have a view of the 6-person orchestra anyway) listening to music I've known since childhood and imagining myself surrounded by people in turn-of-the(last)-century clothing, with the gloves and everything, sitting in a candlelit church listening to really well-performed music.  There was a guest flutist (flautist?) and it was just all quite lovely.

I find myself wanting to say things the British way, like instead of saying "Is it supposed to be...", you'd say "Is it meant to be.."   At times I think,  "No Holly, you're American, you can't go pretending you're British" but then I remember - my last name is Bradford.  There's a whole freaking city named Bradford up north.   Both sides of the family are predominately British.  So seriously, folks - it's in my blood!  ^.^

In between the National Gallery and the concert, we walked around quite a bit trying to find this one grocery store, and then came back to Meagan's room and took the aforementioned 3.5 hour nap because we were both really tired.  Tired after walking around the city on a Saturday morning/afternoon.  Go figure.

And then we ate dinner in a freakin pub.   I feel so local!  Awesome dinner (chicken veggie soup and chips [fries]) and the fact that everyone kept calling us "Love" was fairly delicious too.

Whatdya think, folks?   Day 1 = Success?

Tomorrow's potential plans - Portobello Market / Notting Hill, Single's ward in London (mm mm mm!) across Hyde Park, and...?  Not sure what else yet, though the single's ward is from 2:30 til 5:30.   Go figure.

Day 1

Landed safely -- hangin' out with Meagan, we're headed out to hit the town!  More later!

Debut

It doesn't really feel real. The reality of the weirdness of having the same word used several times in one short sentence is quite a bit more real than the reality of the fact that at 9:50 AM Mountain Standard Time tomorrow morning (Friday, September 25th) I will be on a Boeing 757 on my way to New York JFK airport, at which point I will switch to a Boeing 767 headed for Heathrow airport in London.

Dude.


As a more practical explanation of why this blog was created... A couple of years ago, my dear roommate (may she [livemarried] in peace) and I decided we wanted to go spend a year living in Europe. Although she ended up meeting the man of her dreams and I ended up getting caught up in work and school and broken limbs, the idea never really faded. But, a year (sans school and occupation) turned into a couple months (one semester off school, possibly leave of absence from work) which then turned into 2 weeks of PTO used instead. A list of 12 major European cities was cut down to just 3, and I am so freaking excited! :-D

And because I'm a walking cliche, I'll probably be blogging plenty while I'm out there in the Great Beyond-the-Atlantic, taking loads of pictures, shooting and writing whatever the heck I dang well please. Deal.


Dude!!