It was a funny sensation last Sunday, returning to London from France and having the place feel like home. I had missed my morning routine (wake up first in the flat, make my tea, avoid doing actual work), missed the ritual of getting ready for class events, and missed hearing English. It was exhilarating being able to exchange kind words with the supermarket cashiers again and order food for myself at the cafe.
I had missed my classmates here in London, as well. It was great reuniting with them; we all had so many stories to share. It’s going to be a tough goodbye in a few weeks. I’ll just have to remind myself that most of us will be back in Athens this fall.
The British Library
the illuminated manuscripts
I tagged along with the art history class to the British Library on Monday. They were there to examine some illuminated manuscripts, the intricacy and artistry of which were stunning.
There, I was able to see the Magna Carta, a Gutenberg Bible, the earliest surviving printed copy of Hamlet, the only surviving manuscript of Beowulf, and a number of other things I could not believe I was actually seeing.
Ronnie Scott’s Jazz Club
not my picture, but this would be the view from the stage
Before I went, my professors warned us that this place was impossibly cool. They were right.
Established in 1959, it’s the only place we’ve been to with a real dress code. Incredibly famous people have taken the stage over the years, from Ella Fitzgerald to Jimi Hendrix to Prince. My classmates and I were there that night to hear music from the Avishai Cohen Trio. I’m practically without words when it comes to describing how great the performance was. I don’t think I’ve ever seen (or will see) anyone play upright bass quite as well as Avishai Cohen did.
Tate Britain
photograph from don mccullin
I returned to the Tate Britain on Friday to see an exhibition from photographer Don McCullin. He is known for his war photography and images of poverty. Walking through his exhibition was a pretty somber experience. In McCullin’s later years, he’s turned to photographing landscapes, though he still finds himself “in the field” from time to time at the age of 80.
National Gallery
On Saturday, I finally made it out to the National Gallery, the one main museum here in London that I had not seen yet. Now that I’ve been there, I can’t believe I waited so long. Each of its 2,300 paintings seemed more beautiful or strange or interesting than the one before it, and I also got incredibly lost in the museum’s twisting halls. It was worth fighting the crowds of Trafalgar Square to just bask in the history of the place for a little while.
The following images are a couple of my favorite paintings from the Gallery.
claude monet’s “the water lily pond”
hans holbein the younger’s “the ambassadors”
Buckingham Palace
fancy fancy
After visiting the National Gallery, I made my way over to Buckingham Palace. Unfortunately, there were no sightings of royals for me. I don’t think the Queen was even home. But it was still cool to see a modern relic of the British monarchy.
That has been my week! Thanks for keeping up with me, and I can’t wait to see what I have to share with you next week.
It’s been a crazy, wonderful couple of weeks since I last wrote! I spent a week in London attending class and events, and then spring break hit… I spent it in Southern France and the whole week was absolutely delightful.
My week in London was filled with homework, errands, and general prep for spring break. I experienced a hip hop rendition of Frankenstein at the Battersea Arts Centre, and later in the week I returned to the Barbican Performing Arts Centre to watch “I is a strange loop,” a play infused with math and logic in a way that only hurt my head a little bit.
Saturday also meant witnessing a huge protest against Brexit. A couple friends and I found ourselves in Trafalgar Square and (around Westminster Abbey), where over a million people had gathered with signs and pro-EU gear. The crowds were more subdued and polite than the protest crowds I’ve known in America, even though their request was big and vital: another vote.
After getting caught up in the protest for a little while, my friends and I stumbled upon Chinatown. We hadn’t tried any food there yet during this trip, so we seized the opportunity. I ate a great dinner and radically improved my chopstick skills.
And then… spring break.
My friend and I flew out of London early Sunday morning. Just over an hour later, we would land in Marseille, a historic French port city. It was a bit of a bumpy road at the beginning—the bus line we should have used to reach our Airbnb was shut down because of a marathon. It was so unlucky that we kind of just had to laugh. A little later than anticipated because we had to walk, we reached the place we were staying. It was ridiculously pretty and well-equipped; it felt like I was living in a Pinterest board or stock photo. Here are a couple glimpses of where I got to stay for the first few nights.
view from my balcony
sunset out the kitchen window
panorama of my apartment
The best part of the apartment may have even been its location. I had a stunning view of the ocean out one window and a stunning view of the city out the other window; the walk down to the Old Port (Vieux Port) where most of the restaurants and shops were followed the shoreline the entire way.
Marseille was perfect, if not without a few surprises. I lounged around on the beach quite a bit—70 degrees and not a cloud in the sky is a lot different from what I’ve been getting in London. One of the days, my friend and I tried to go to Les Calanques, the national park in the area. We kind of misunderstood the bus route, ending up not inside the national park but stuck just outside of it without really anywhere to go. Still, we were able to do some decent hiking from the obscure point we landed, battling “the mistral” (the infamous strong winds of Southern France) along the way. In addition to a good deal of relaxing and hiking, my friend and I took a boat out to Château d’If. It’s an old fort and political prison visible from the coast, and it’s also the setting upon which Alexandre Dumas based his novel “The Count of Monte Cristo”.
from the castle
the wind being cruel to my hair on the island
the water, feat. our feet
For food here, I enjoyed the very French breakfast of croissant and espresso. My friend and I cooked in a couple of nights, but the one night we did eat out at a restaurant was admittedly a memorable one. We went to a nicer restaurant on the waterfront and both ordered the scampi. It turns out neither of us fully comprehended what that would be. When the waiter came out with our food, and it had eyes, and it had legs… we were stressed. For one, cutting off the head of whatever you’re about to eat is always unpleasant, and on top of that, neither of us knew how to eat whatever we had just ordered. What ensued was a series of educated guesses and lots of hoping that none of the servers were watching us and our struggle too closely.
Come Tuesday afternoon, my friend and I boarded a train to L’Isle sur la Sorgue, the other place where we would be staying for the week. It was a quieter town, old and quaint and in the heart of the valley. We treated this town as “homebase,” each day taking daytrips by foot or bus to a few different places around the valley.
Wednesday, we walked to Fontaine de Vaucluse. The walk took us past vineyards and old aqueducts. Once there, we watched the “healing waters” drift by, hiked up to the actual fountain, and enjoyed a long leisurely lunch along the water. I had the best (and second) crêpe of my life. After that, we took another walk up to some castle ruins on a huge hill in town. The view of the valley was beautiful from up so high. I was able to write and think up there for quite a while.
what the walk looked like for a little bit
view from the top of the castle ruins (a special surprise at the end)
The next day, Thursday, took us by bus to Avignon. The main part of the town is encircled by an old, intricate stone wall. There, my friend and I enjoyed a leisurely lunch and dinner. I tried French ice cream for the first time—a definite force of good. We spent a lot of time touring around the Palais des Papes. It once functioned as a fortress and a palace; it also functioned as the seat of Western Christianity during the 14th century. We also visited the Pont d’Avignon, the ruins of a famous medieval bridge from the 12th century.
Friday, maybe my favorite day of break, meant making the trek out to Gordes. The bus was able to take us halfway, but after that, we walked quite a ways to a great hill and up it. The view from the top was worth the sweat. We enjoyed bakery sandwiches once we reached the town itself, but we could not wander around the town for long, constantly bearing waning daylight and bus schedules in mind. From Gordes, we knew we wanted to walk to the nearby Sénanque Abbey. The path Google Maps had us take was just lovely. It was a footpath, surrounded on either side either by walls-nearing-ancient, dense shrubbery, or trees that looked like they came from a fairytale. Eventually, the path became downhill instead of uphill. There was a break in the trees—suddenly, we could see down into the valley below. It’s a view I don’t think I’ll forget any time soon, of the harsh slopes and the abbey and the unbloomed fields of lavender.
gordes
Saturday was a little tamer in terms of walking. Sore feet meant we went somewhere by bus, and that somewhere was Aix en Provence. We toured a church and a cathedral; the cathedral took my breath away. Parts of it began construction in the 5th century.
Once back in L’Isle sur la Sorgue, we decided to have a bit of a spring break “last hurrah” and went to a wine/tapas place called 17 Place aux Vins. I had probably the best smoked salmon of my life. I also got to pretend to know what I was doing in tasting a couple of different types of wine. It didn’t help that I couldn’t read the menu or really understand anything the waiter was saying to me. Now feels like a good time to share that the friend I traveled with could read the menu and did understand what was going on. He’s fluent in French; it goes without saying that without him, I would have been very, very, very lost.
Sunday morning, we walked around the antiques market (what L’Isle sur la Sorgue is known for) for quite a while. I had my final croissant/espresso breakfast. If there’s one thing I learned about France, it’s that the glorification of their bread is completely warranted.
view out the window on my way back to marseille
After the market, we took a train back to Marseille, and after the train to Marseille, we took an airplane back to London. It’s been a week I’ll never forget. While I’m sad to have left, I’m eager to ease back into my London routine and see some of my peers again. It’s funny how quickly London has turned into a second home.
I only have four more weeks left studying abroad here, and I can’t wait to see what’s in store for me. Thanks for the read!
I really do think that this week’s energy is captured well by the blind faith and inexhaustible zeal of The Book of Mormon‘s Elder Price during “I Believe”: there was hardly enough time to breathe this week, what with homework and events and a surprise birthday party and St. Patrick’s Day, but I just somehow managed to keep on going. To be sure, even if the week was busy, it was also a ton of fun. I won’t forget it for a while.
Here are some of my favorite experiences from the past week.
Westminster Abbey
Tuesday afternoon after class, we took the Underground over to Westminster Abbey. I had seen the Abbey before during my time here, but this day marked the first time I was able to go inside. A rainy day outside (and a fun day to realize my umbrella was broken), the corridors were cool and dark. Photography was not allowed inside, so it may be a little hard to convey this, but: there was a ton of stuff in Westminster Abbey. The sheer amount of stuff was overwhelming. There was just room after room after room of relics from another era.
I loved seeing the coronation chair (a piece of furniture in-use for 700 years now) and the various royal tombs, but my favorite part of the Abbey was definitely Poet’s Corner. Writers interred in this one section of Westminster Abbey include Chaucer, Dickens, and Tennyson; there are also memorials in this section for many other writers, like Austen, the Bronte sisters, Keats, and Shakespeare.
After my visit at the Abbey, I walked home and started to prep for my flatmate’s surprise birthday party. We made dinner/a cake, decorated the living room with balloons and spilled confetti everywhere, and somehow managed to surprise her that night when she walked into the dark living room and we all jumped out from behind the couches.
The Book of Mormon
Man oh man. Wednesday night, we saw our first West End show–which just so happened to already be my favorite musical. It was just as hilarious and heartwarming as I remembered. I think I smiled for 2 hours straight.
Richard II
Thursday afternoon, I finally got to go inside Shakespeare’s Globe, the reconstruction of the Globe Theatre along the south back of the River Thames. The original theatre was built in 1599, burnt down in 1613, rebuilt in 1614, and finally demolished in 1644. The space I went to on Thursday was opened in 1997 and built about 750 feet from the original site of the Globe Theatre. So–pretty cool.
The show itself was good. I think I prefer the first production of Richard II I saw here, but I did enjoy the experience of seeing Shakespeare on the stage the way it would have been seen long ago.
Afternoon Tea
Having “afternoon tea” seemed like an English rite of passage. On Friday, a friend and I went to The Swan (a restaurant attached to Shakespeare’s Globe that we had seen the day before) and ordered the “afternoon tea”. The decor and dishes were all A Midsummer Night’s Dream themed, which I adored. I fell in love with Earl Grey tea and couldn’t get over how pretty and delicious the food was.
After tea, my friend and I walked over to Borough Market in an attempt to avoid crossing Millennium Bridge. (The wind on the bridge didn’t mesh well earlier with our skirts.) We bumped into the Shakespeare mural again and couldn’t resist taking pictures with it.
This past week was an incredible amount of fun, and I can’t wait to see what’s in store for me this next week. Time’s flying by here. Thanks for the read, and I hope you come back again next week!
I’ve had a bit of a slow week this week. More homework than usual. Quite a bit of rain. I’ve just constantly felt like I’m on the edge of something great–and I am! This upcoming week, I have plans to go to Westminster Abbey and to see The Book of Mormon. I was also literally on the edge of something great on Saturday. More on that a little later in this post.
Even with how much work I was focused on doing this week, I still managed to catch a couple cool performances and go on a good day-trip out of London.
A Couple Musical Evenings
my view of the stage at the jazz cafe
One night last week, my classmates and I went to the Jazz Cafe. It’s a cool little spot in Camden with live music every night. We got to see a performance from the Afro-Cuban All Stars. It was absolutely incredible. The room was packed, and the energy was unmatched by anything I have been to here so far. A couple nights later, a couple friends and I ventured out to Brixton to hear some jazz music at the Effra Hall Tavern. It was a little more mellow but exactly what we needed.
Dover
Saturday was the best day I’ve had in a while. A couple days previously, I had decided I needed to escape London for a day again and was combing through a list of potential places to visit. I stumbled upon Dover and couldn’t get it out of my head. Not only is the small coastal town home to the largest castle in England, but it’s also where you find the famous White Cliffs of Dover. One of the most important scenes from Shakespeare’s King Lear is set on these cliffs. The poem “Dover Beach” by Matthew Arnold is about the location as well.
In other words, I had to go, and I did.
It was about a two hour train ride to Dover. Once off the train, my friend and I walked in the vague direction of where the cliffs probably were.
“Not bad,” we said, seeing a cliff that was maybe supposed to be part of the white cliffs.
“That’s even better,” we said after climbing uphill for a little while and having a huge, white cliff-face come into view.
“Oh,” we said upon rounding a corner and realizing we had finally found the real cliffs. They were colossal and shimmering white in the sun. Light blue waves crashed at the bottom, so far down that we could only faintly hear it through the wind. The wind! I thought it would carry me away. The wind, coupled with a shared fear of heights, meant that to get close to the cliffs’ edge, my friend and I kind of crawled to the edge and crouched there. I felt like if either of us stood up, we would catch in the air and be whisked away like kites.
our view as we tried not to blow away
We walked the full length of the trail and then doubled back, taking a slightly different route that meant a) we didn’t have to walk as close to the cliffs and b) we saw some questionably wild horses. Around 3 p.m. at that point, we stopped for a quick lunch at La Salle Verte and then began our trek up to the castle.
Called Dover Castle, it was founded in the 11th century and known as the “Key to England” because of its location on the coast. Dover, after all, is literally the closest you can get to France without leaving England. Looking at the castle, I just couldn’t believe how big it is for how early it was built. It also notably is styled like a sandcastle (although I’m guessing the influence is the other way around).
one of the castle’s outer walls
After peeking around the castle for a while, we looked around at some of the town’s small shops and ended up finding ruins from World War II–there was a church which had been mostly bombed but left as a monument to what had happened to the town. As you can see below, too, we also found some interesting murals.
a mural I saw as we walked around
We then went to The White Horse for dinner. There, I had the best meal I’ve had since arriving in England. My friend and I lingered there until we had to catch the train back to London at about 8. It was quite the sleepy train ride back. Walking 15 miles can do that to a person.
That was my week! Thanks from the read, and I hope you come back again next week. It’ll be a busy one for me; I’ll have a ton to report back about!
A turn in the weather, a crammed schedule, back-to-back-to-back performances over the weekend… Not that any of my weeks here aren’t crazy, but this one in particular has been a whirlwind.
Here are the highlights of my week.
Russell Square
not a bad view
I have already mentioned this park a couple times in my blog, but I actually remembered to take a picture of it this week. (I was very proud to have remembered to do that.) The picture above is my view of the park from my spot at the cafe where I sipped my mocha, wrote (a little creatively, a little for school), and easily got distracted time after time talking to one of my friends. I tend to feel like I’m in some sort of novel or movie when I work here. There’s a certain element of magic to the place, like something is always about to happen. Plus, it’s the best spot to see pigeon-like dogs and dog-like pigeons.
Spring Break
I officially booked spring break with one of my friends! It’s not for another couple of weeks, but I cannot wait until I get to travel out of the country. I think I’ll keep the exact details of my travels on lock-down for the fun of it until I actually go–but maybe I’ll include a couple of unhelpful hints…
Customer support was in French when my friend called about train tickets.
I wrote a novel a couple years ago set in one of the towns we’re visiting.
Good. I think those really are some perfectly unhelpful hints.
Performances at the Barbican
The Barbican is one of the venues my classmates and I keep going back to during our time here. This past week alone, we went there three different times for various performances. I think I have the walk there memorized.
The first time was for a showing of the movie The Piano with a live orchestra. While the artistry was all there and I adored the live score, the movie itself was just a little too problematic for me to enjoy. The second performance was modern dance and called Tesseract. The budget was through-the-roof, with the first part of the performance being a 3D movie (hence, the 3D glasses) and the second part involving a man with a steady-cam flitting around the stage and projecting live recordings of the dancers onto a screen covering the front of the stage. It was kind of crazy, but it also took itself way too seriously for me to love it. I did, however, really enjoy the third performance we attended at the Barbican this week, which was called Total Immersion: Ligeti. The music was wonderfully different from the music I’ve been listening to so far during my time here. I also got to see Augustin Hadelich perform, a violinist I’ve listened to but never heard in-person before.
our snazzy look for the 3D part of Tesseract
Hever Castle
Text Exchange with Friend, Abridged:
“want to go to a castle?”
“sure!”
“meet outside your flat, 15 mins? the train leaves soon.”
I had just gotten out of the shower. My hair was soaked and I wore dark circles under my eyes. Still, I typed, “OK!”
Never in my life have I gotten ready that quickly. I burst out into the frigid air, found my friend (who kindly brought me crackers, as there was no time for lunch), and dashed to the train station. We had to switch trains a couple times to get to the main one that would take us out of the city. This required we master the Goldilocks of paces: fast enough that we didn’t miss the train, but slow enough that nobody thought anything was wrong. There’s a fine line.
We stepped off the train in Hever. When it pulled away and we looked around, we realized we really were in the middle of nowhere in the English countryside. Not another soul was around–that is, if you don’t count sheep. We walked for a while to reach the castle.
the road we took to the castle
Things got a little more touristy once we got to the castle–lots of kids running around, plus an ice cream vendor on the castle grounds that we definitely stopped at. We peeked around the gardens for a little bit and even took a quick tour through one of the mazes.
the castle grounds had plenty of ducks to spare
The castle itself was beautiful. It was built in the 13th century and between 1462 and 1539 was the seat of the Boleyn family. Yes, Anne Boleyn. We actually got to go into the rooms which once were the bedrooms of Anne Boleyn and King Henry VIII. All in all, the trip was definitely worth the rush.
Sir Ian McKellen
?????
On Sunday, I got to see Sir Ian McKellen! My class went to see his show, Ian McKellen on Stage: Tolkien, Shakespeare and You!, and it was a lot of fun. He talked about his childhood, his decision to become an actor, and his experiences in some of his better-known roles. He performed excerpts from Tolkien works, and even more from Shakespeare. In fact, the second half of the show was literally him going through each of Shakespeare’s 37 works and sharing a brief anecdote or performing a monologue from every single one. It was a lot. But it was fantastic.
Another week down. Time’s flying by; there’s hardly enough time to write about it. Thanks for the read!
It’s been a month. I can’t believe I just typed that. A month! A month of immersing myself in the arts, of long rides on the Tube, of spending lazy days in museums, of searching for the best cafes, of converting between dollars and pounds and Fahrenheit and Celsius, of jockeying for the best seats on the bus, and of making great friends.
I do miss home sometimes, but if I had to be anywhere else, I’m incredibly glad and grateful and amazed it’s here.
Here are some of my favorite experiences from this past week.
The Vaults
a family portrait in The Vaults
My class went to see a show called Call Me Fury last week, and every part of it was magical, from the venue to the show itself. The venue is known as The Vaults; it’s beneath the Waterloo Station and literally within the converted railway arches and tunnels. The walls are covered in graffiti (as you can see), and it’s kind of a a musty maze once you get down there. It suited the show perfectly: a tense play about witches. It centered around the Salem Witch Trials but also told the stories of other persecuted women from different places and eras.
I felt, almost immediately, that the venue enhanced the show by accentuating its themes of unease. A certain degree of claustrophobia went along with the venue being off of a tunnel in a converted railway station, the room itself was small, the seats were all close together, and the air felt hot, heavy, and sticky. The show would have still probably “worked” in a more traditional venue, but it “worked” especially well within the Vaults.
Victoria & Albert Museum
a room so very full of stuff
My class traveled to the Victoria & Albert Museum the other day. We wandered around and found stunning rooms like the one pictured above, and some more modern things I remember seeing include Edward’s Scissorhands from Edward Scissorhands and the costume design for Elphaba from Wicked.
Still, my favorite part of the visit was seeing the photography of Ivan Kyncl. During his career, he photographed over 500 plays, operas, and musicals. We even got to see his well-known photograph of Alan Rickman on Rickman’s birthday.
alan rickman photographed by ivan kyncl
The Albert Memorial
There’s a TV show I used to be a pretty big fan of called Victoria. It’s all about Victoria’s rise to power and reign as queen, as well as her meeting and eventual marriage to Prince Albert. I found another Victoria fan on this trip, and the two of us banded together to go see The Albert Memorial the other day.
Poor researchers, my friend and I expected a small statue. When we rounded the corner and found this huge, shiny behemoth of a memorial, we were shocked (to say the least).
Russell Square
Surprised by a lot of down-time this week but also by a lot of sunshine, a friend and I ended up frequenting the park near our flats. It’s called Russell Square. We would sit at the cafe there and ended up playing cards or reading or writing or thinking for hours. It seemed like a different language was being spoken at every other table; people-watching could fill an afternoon. So, I think, could dog-watching. A lot of people bring their dogs to the park, which is always good.
I learned after spending a lot of time at the park that many scenes of the TV show Sherlock were filmed in or around this park. It kind of blew my mind. Little did I know as I watched the show years ago that I’d someday stumble upon some of its filming locations.
just john watson (martin freeman) in my park
Fairport Convention
my excellent view of the stage
Saturday night took my class to the Union Chapel to hear music from Fairport Convention. The band is a British folk rock group formed in 1967, and although I had not heard much from them before that night, I emerged from the Union Chapel a fan.
Glancing around the venue before the show started was fun, too, because we quickly realized we were the youngest people there by a number of decades. People in the audience actually asked us on a couple occasions what we were doing there. I can only imagine what was going through their minds–likely what are all these young, noisy Americans possibly doing here?
A note on that: I’ve decided that one of the main, correct American stereotypes abroad has to be that we’re loud. Maybe that doesn’t hold true for my introverted self, but I feel like my classmates are always the last to still be talking in a quiet space. (Not in a bad way! Just in… a way.)
I hope you enjoyed my post about this week! Surprise surprise, there will be another one next week… and the week after that… and the week after that. Thanks for sticking with me.
This past week abroad felt like it slowed down a little bit. I think it’s because we’re all settling in–realizing that this is where we actually live, it’s not about to disappear, and we have plenty of time to explore. As a result, I’m a little more well-rested. My feet hurt less from walking.
Still, that’s not to say it was in any way a boring week. I witnessed some amazing musical performances and discovered some parts of the city I hadn’t seen before.
Here are the highlights of my week!
Benjamin Grosvenor & Doric Quartet, Steve Reich
my view on monday night
Last Monday evening, I was able to hear music from Benjamin Grosvenor & Doric Quartet. It had been a while since I had heard a professional quartet, and listening to them/watching them play reminded me how much I enjoyed performing in an orchestra. It also reminded me of how terrible I was at violin.
The next night brought me to a different venue to hear music composed by Steve Reich–namely, “Clapping Music” and “Music for 18 Musicians”. I found myself mesmerized. Below is a link to his “Clapping Music”. On the surface, it doesn’t seem too hard to perform (it’s just two guys clapping!), but be sure to take a listen. It’s a rhythmic nightmare.
Greenwich
view from near the royal observatory
Thursday brought my classmates and I to Greenwich. We saw a production of Shakespeare’s “The Tempest” that evening, but the bulk of the day was spent wandering around the town. We saw Cutty Sark, “the last surviving British tea clipper” (a cool, big boat), had too much to eat at Noodle Time, strolled through Greenwich Park, and toured the Royal Observatory.
Greenwich was a cool destination because it’s actually home to where the eastern and western hemispheres meet. They have a line at the Royal Observatory to mark exactly where that meeting point is!
my friend and I on the prime meridianorder breaking down as we attempt a group photo
Borough Market
seen outside the market… I apologize for the video orientation in advance.
This may have been my favorite market so far. There was so much food! I tried to practice restraint but definitely bought some banana bread. No regrets on that front.
While the market itself was amazing, so was the walk there. We crossed the Waterloo Bridge and walked along Southbank. This way even took me past Shakespeare’s Globe! I haven’t visited there yet, but I’ll be seeing a performance of Richard II there later this semester.
Somerset House & Penge
somerset house
Saturday morning I learned chess, which seemed like enough of a day to me. But apparently there had to be more. My friend and I walked over to Somerset House and read/played cards into the afternoon at a table in the main courtyard. As fun as it was wondering about the royalty who had stayed here, it was almost more fun to think about the movies which had been shot here–like some James Bonds, The Duchess, Sleepy Hollow, and even 2009’s Sherlock Holmes.
After that, my friend and I decided to just get on a bus and see how far it could take us. That ended up being Penge. I don’t know that much about Penge except for the fact that I was there for about ten minutes as we waited for a bus back home.
me trying to leave penge
By the time we were in the heart of London again, the sun had set and city was aglow with every color of light. We crossed the Thames in the front row of the bus’s top deck and had the perfect view of all the lit-up buildings, even the glowing red London Eye. I think our bus adventure was definitely worth it.
Another great week here in London. I can’t wait to see what this next week has in store for me. Thanks for the read, and I hope you’ll come back again next Monday!
Another week in London has come to a close, and I still can’t believe I’m here. I also can’t believe I somehow managed to have a busier week than last week. Somehow, I’m finding more and more time in each day to explore the city–and I’m also managing to do some homework. I promise.
Like in my last post, I’ll share some of my favorite experiences from this past week.
Magic with Morgan & West
I attend various performances throughout each week as part of my 19th and 20th Century Cultural Traditions class. So far, we have attended plays, a percussion ensemble, and a dance performance. This meant that when I checked our schedule and saw this, a magic show, I was a little surprised.
It ended up being so much fun! At one point in the show, one of my friends was chosen as a volunteer. The trick involved dropping a coin into a vase, and based on the noise, the turned-around magician would guess which coin it was. It was my friend’s job to provide the coin and confirm the guess. Every guess was right–but my favorite part was that with these foreign British coins, my friend’s guess as to which coin was which was as good as the magician’s.
Camden Market
a glimpse into camden market
Later in the week, all my classmates and I would travel to Camden Market, a place I walked past last week but never explored. It was this huge, twisting maze of food, clothing, and knick-knacks. I didn’t buy anything because it was all so expensive (for example, regular macaroni and cheese was marketed as “Nostalgia” and cost $9), but I’ve found a lot of places here are still worth my time even if I don’t plan on spending much.
Laura Linney????
my view of the stage
I’m pretty sure I made eye contact with Laura Linney on Wednesday night. My class went to see her in a one-woman show, My Name is Lucy Barton, and our seats were so close. The performance was funny and devastating and everything I’d hoped it would be. Before the show, we found ourselves waiting outside the venue right next to Tower Bridge. Naturally, pictures had to be taken.
a big bridge
my classmates, professors, and I trying our best to take a normal picture
Tate Modern
The next day, I stumbled upon a pretty big pocket of free time, so a friend and I walked to the Tate Modern. There, I was able to see work from Picasso and Matisse, among many other artists. The journey to and from the museum stood out to me, too. Not only did I get to cross the Millennium Bridge (“the Harry Potter bridge!”), but I also got a true taste of London weather. Rain. Wind. Air that’s a little bit too cold. My friend and I attempted to use our umbrellas, but they kept popping inside out at the exact same time, leaving us to stumble around like the confused tourists we kind of still are in this city.
Little Venice and Notting Hill
the beginning of the market in notting hill
On Saturday, the same friend and I faced yet another free day. We first went to Little Venice, an hour’s walk away, and picked out our favorite house boats. Then, we found ourselves in Notting Hill. The residential quickly gave way to an enormous street market. We resisted buying anything for only so long–the veggie samosas just looked too good. Once we reached the end of the market, it would have been a 1.5 hour walk home in the rainy dark. We opted not to do that and took the bus instead. Miraculously, we got two front seats on the second deck of the bus!
our view on the bus
Pizza Night
getting crafty
No blog post about last week would be complete without mentioning that Saturday was Pizza Day. My classmates and I decided pizza was a dinner necessity. After getting over the shock of how expensive the pizza is here to order in, a friend and I opted to make it for everybody at home instead. It proved a bit of a logistical challenge: no big bowl for the dough, a tiny oven, a large carrot for a rolling pin. But we did it. And the pizza was everything we’d hoped it would be.
Those were the highlights of my week! As always, questions, recipes, and London recommendations are always appreciated. Thanks for keeping up with me.
I’ve been in London for a week now, but it feels like forever. I’ll try my best to be chronological here.
I caught a flight out of Pittsburgh last Saturday to get to my connection in Chicago. There was a constant threat of delay, but in the end, things went pretty smoothly—literally and figuratively. The stretch from Chicago to London was the longest flight I’d ever been on, and the kid kicking my seat combined with the kid crying a couple rows ahead made sure I was able to take in every second of it.
I moved in in the rain and immediately met my other flatmates, six other girls I’ll be taking my classes with this semester. The rest of the week turned into a blur of fun: my first fish and chips, not being able to find salt at the grocery store, finding my favorite parks, wanting to try every coffee shop I see, performances almost every night, and long walk after long walk after long walk. I’ll list out a few of my favorite experiences.
Mind the doors!
To say the least, I struggled with my luggage. One
fifty-pounder. One lighter carry-on. One over-stuffed backpack. Stairs proved a
challenge, but the toughest part was getting onto the train to get from the
airport to the flat. One rolled up to the platform where I stood, and the doors
slid open. My friend stepped on with ease. Me, I threw my carry-on onto the
train ahead of me.
“Mind the doors!” someone called over the speakers. I was. I
really was minding them. But I had to get on that train.
Time slowed down. I took my fifty-pounder in my hands. It scraped
along the ground. The wheels caught in the gap. The man on the speakers
continued to announce with increasing force: “Mind the doors. Mind the doors!”
A worker rushed up to me. Lifted my bag onto the train. I
tumbled inside, and the doors immediately flew shut behind me.
Welcome to London?
2. Richard II
After getting ready and stress-eating some pasta, I went to see Richard II at the Almeida Theatre with the rest of my class. It was beautiful. It was kind of a bare-minimum production; the set was almost modern, and what there was in props and sound I found to be really effective. After seeing this production, I find myself wanting to read the whole tetralogy.
3. Trafalgar Square and Westminster Abbey, accidentally
My friends and I accidentally stumbled upon Trafalgar Square, Elizabeth Tower, and Westminster Abbey. We meant to only go to the Tate Britain, but the path we took to walk there brought us past all these classic sights. There was a certain magic, I think, in finding them without meaning to.
4. Dante Gabriel Rossetti at the Tate Britain
While at the Tate Britain, I was able to find a work of art from one of the artists I studied last semester, Dante Gabriel Rossetti. After finding it— “Proserpine”—I just kind of sat down for a while. I couldn’t quite get over the fact that Rossetti’s hand once brushed against that canvas.
5. A family dinner?
On one of my favorite nights so far, my flatmates and I stayed in and cooked a huge dinner for one another. I think it was my favorite because it really opened my eyes to how sweet and helpful my flatmates are, although I can’t discount the fact that it may be my favorite night because it was the best meal I’ve cooked and eaten since arriving here. (Feel free to send recipes; I’m always in need of more ideas!)
6. Walden Books
Most recently, my friend announced that he’d found a used
bookstore nearby that he wanted to check out. While “nearby” turned out to be a
fifty-minute walk, it took us right through Camden Market (to be thoroughly
explored at a later date), and the bookshop was lovely. I picked through the
fiction section outside under a sunny London sky (less rare than I’d thought), met
the shop’s cat, and got lost in the old volumes of nonfiction inside.
These have been my favorite parts of the past week! I’ve
loved every second of my time here. Thanks for keeping up with me, and I hope
you’ll be back when I post next week!
writing h{ou}me 