An Awfully Big Adventure

Hey guys!

I know that it's been a while, and part of that is my continuing struggles with sketchy internet availability and a semi-functional power cord for my laptop.  The internet issue appears to be fully resolved, but it's still touch and go on the power.  Hopefully that will be taken care of soon!

It's hard to believe that I've been in lovely England for a week and a half already!  I'm still living in temporary accommodations, so I don't quite feel settled into Leeds yet.  The place I'm in until this coming Friday is called Bodington Hall.  It's the largest residence hall at the University of Leeds, and it also happens to be (by far) the farthest from the central campus.  It's over 4 miles, so I haven't even bothered to try to walk it--I've been getting by with purchasing bus passes to cover the rest of my stay here.  Then, I'll move into St. Marks on Friday, which isn't directly on campus but is literally a two minute walk away.  Then I can finally stop paying a ridiculous amount of money to get around town!

I'll write more about Leeds in another post, but today I want to share with you some stuff about my weekend trip to London with my friend Megan.  As part of our determination to do as much traveling as possible this semester, we planned our first excursion for the morning after our initial arrival.  After travel via car, plane, and train, we arrived in Leeds around midday last Thursday.  Then, with the aid of the buses and numerous understanding British direction-givers, we managed to find our way to the dorms and move all our stuff into our rooms by early afternoon.  We ran around for several hours after that frantically finding food, cell phones, bedding and toiletries and set our alarms for early Friday morning.  After a well-deserved and not nearly sufficient night's rest, we trudged onto a morning coach bus to London.  Then, I had to fight the urge to sleep more on the four-hour ride both to try to adjust my sleep schedule and battle jet lag and to avoid missing stuff like this:

I mean, really.  Gorgeous.

We got to London unscathed and after getting a bit turned around and spending a slightly embarrassing amount of time figuring out the Tube and wandering around in awe, we found our hostel.  It's a place called the Astor Kensington, which is both decently priced and incredibly clean and friendly.  I recommend it if you're headed to London soon!  The greatest thing about hostels is the internationality of it all--I met people from all over Europe, Australia, South Africa, Canada, Brazil, and of course the US.  It's an odd experience being in a place in an English-speaking country where English-speaking is the minority, but it's incredibly fun.

The other part about hostels is the lack of privacy, although I don't think it's that big of a deal.  Trying to creep around in the morning and get dressed while not waking up your roommates, waiting in line for the two bathrooms when everyone in the building is trying to take a shower...  I did get walked in on in the bathroom (excuse me, the toilet) once.  I was just about to step into the shower and was of course completely naked--after a split second of shock, the guy shut the door and yelled a heavily accented "Sorry!" from the hallway.  It was then that I realized how hard you have to jam the deadbolt to get it to lock completely...

We managed to get an amazing amount of touristy things done in about two and a half days.  Lots of walking (my feet hurt a lot and probably wanted to secede from the rest of me), but so worth every bit.  I got to do a lot of the (really nerdy) things that I missed out on last time I was in London.  On our first day (or rather, afternoon since it was partly a travel day), Megan and I hit up the British Library, British Museum, and the National Gallery.  This was really a day of seeing the towering classics.  I got to hang out with the Magna Carta, a Gutenberg Bible, Jane Austen's writing desk, and some Shakespeare First Folios.  Then, I chilled with the Rosetta Stone, a giant stone dude from Easter Island, and some Egyptian mummies.  Finally, I spent some time with the greats of Western art--da Vinci and Michelangelo, Monet, van Gogh, Holbein (Anyone else?  No?  Just me excited about that one?), van Eyck, Picasso, Cezanne, Seurat...  The list goes on and on.  I wish you could all see the amazing-ness, but I could only take pictures in the Museum.  Here's the Rosetta Stone for you:

Day two was just as busy as day one, and we (slightly foolishly) decided to save ten bucks and walk instead of taking the tube at all.  We started off by walking to Buckingham Palace (seeing Harrods, the Victoria and Albert Museum, Hyde Park, and other gems along the way), and continued on to visit and snap frantic pictures of Big Ben and Parliament.  Highlight #1 for the day was Westminster Abbey.  We got a free audio guide that was narrated by Jeremy Irons--he somehow makes classy things even classier.  The whole experience there was incredible.  It's the site of coronations and royal weddings and is the final resting place for a myriad of English rulers, writers, and thinkers.  I saw (and stood on) the graves of Charles Darwin and Geoffrey Chaucer as well as the tomb of Elizabeth I.  It's something not to be missed.  Also saw (and sneaked a surreptitious picture of) the burial site of possible relation and fabulous composer Muzio Clementi:

No photography?!?  What now, bitches?  Please don't kick me out of the country if this picture is illegal...

We also went to Shakespeare's Globe Theatre (well, it's a reconstruction, but still), which was similarly incredible.  Then we made the slight misjudged decision to walk the 4 or 5ish miles back to our hostel.  We made it, though we got lost a couple times and were nearly hysterical with exhaustion and foot pain.  We found a decent Italian restaurant near our hostel for dinner and went to bed slightly early.

I woke up Sunday morning and did a quick check on the hostel computer to see that the Packers had indeed won in the wee hours of the morning our time!  The guy next to me was a fellow American and a Patriots fan who was looking forward to his game later (haha).  After breakfast, Megan and I met with one of her friends studying in London and went to check out the changing of the guard.  Want a video?

 

We hung out outside of the Tower of London for a bit and then had several hours without anything specific planned.  This was cool, because we wandered along the Thames area and found The Monument, a 202-foot tower that we payed a couple of pounds to climb (while I stubbornly ignored by fear of heights) and to take gorgeous pictures of the surroundings.  All of my pictures are through the fence, because I was too terrified to get closer to the edge.

 

Holycrapit'salongwaydownpleasedon'tdie.

We also saw the London Stone, the heart of London, and went on a journey to see John Keats' house.  It was all very grand, and I was a bit sad to get back on the bus to Leeds.  It was a great time, and I'm sure I'll make it back to London this semester.  I know there are a million things I haven't done there yet--pubs to visit, markets to explore, royalty to meet.  For now, London and I had one fabulous weekend together.

I'll get you some more stuff about Leeds and tidbits about life here in general, but I hope this is good for starters!  Hope you're having some fun where you all are and that life is treating you well!  Until next time--