Super Long England Post
Just arrived back in Copenhagen today from my trip to the UK. It was really great, I still can’t believe how much I saw in such a short time.
On Wednesday I flew to Gatwick and then took the train into the city. I was meeting up with Adam but because my phone only works in Denmark I had no way to contact him when I got there. LUCKILY he had found our hostile (after some difficulty) and was there waiting for me. We were staying near Victoria so we just sort of wandered from our hostel and stumbled upon all the big sights: Buckingham Palace, Big Ben/Parliament, Westminster Abbey, the River Thames, Trafalgar Square. We went to the National Gallery and Adam showed me his favorite paintings and all the cool architectural elements he learned about. It was really nice to have such a brilliant guide! That night we headed to Camden Town where we looked around a bit before going to our friend Max’s place for dinner. We had a real hyggelig time with Max and his friends over some home made Chinese food.
Thursday we did a bit more wandering and made our way to the Tate Modern. The museum itself was really impressive because you enter into this GIANT space. The collection was just as interesting and I’m sure we could have spent a lot of time there but we had lunch plans with Christine at Regents College. It was really nice to see Christine and her school is BEAUTIFUL, located in the middle of Regents Park. From there we walked to Oxford Street and admired all of the window displays and got some awesome desserts in the food market at Selfridges (I bought a GIANT merengue that I still haven’t finished). From there we tube’d it to Harrods, which was all decked out for Christmas with a really nice Wizard of Oz display.
Thursday was Guy Fawkes Day so that evening we went out to the middle of nowhere for the big fireworks show. We met up with my friend Karen and from there we went out to Hamstead where she is living to hang out with her hall mates at a British pub. It was a really nice night and it was great to someone from San Diego!
The next morning we got up bright and early to catch the Oxford Tube at the coach station. Yeah, that’s right… WE VISITED DIYA =]!!! Once we reached Oxford I realized I had forgotten to bring Diya’s phone number but after a big search for internet we were directed to a public library where I was finally able to get it from my email, haha. It was so great seeing Diya (it had been since April!) and finally seeing where she goes to school! She showed us Christ Church College, which was such an experience because we saw so many of the places where Harry Potter scenes have been filmed (including their dining hall where the Great Hall is filmed). Later we met with her friends for lunch at a pub near her college (and right behind her house) where I had some officially british fish and chips and Adam had some super british pie. I loved meeting her friends (yet I felt really stalker-like since I recognized all of them from her facebook photos from the last few years) and they were really great to us. We got to see all around her college (New College) and the city of Oxford and had some south american food at Las Iguanas (something I have been missing for QUITE some time). Oh, I forgot to mention the amazing Ben’s Cookies and the G&D ice cream we had. Yeah, we ate GOOD in Oxford =].
That night after we got back to London Adam and I wandered around Old Compton St. and witnessed all of the craziness around there but eventually our long day caught up with us and it was time for bed.
Diya came to London the next day and we headed to Camden Market which is an amazing area full of vendors. Adam had to leave to catch his flight to Barcelona (jealousssss) and we headed to the British Museum. Again, another AMAZING building!! AH, it was gorgeous and to make it even better we got to see MUMMIES. Mummies, the Rosetta Stone, Greek ruins, Egyptian ruins, giant Asyrian doors… the place was overwhelming and fantastic. I still can’t believe there was so much in that museum (we had a fun little discussion about all of the things England has stolen from the world). And since we can’t get enough of those museums we hit up the Natural History Museum next where we saw DINOSAURS! It was so freaking cool, I can’t even describe it. Oh, and they have a giant whale that is just astounding.
That evening we went to Covent Garden which was such a lovely area of shops and street performers and activity. I really enjoyed that area and the spicy dinner we had at Nando’s. We walked a bit at Leicester Square before it was time for Diya to head back and for me to try and get some sleep in. Ah, it was SO nice having 2 days with Diya in England, I can’t believe it took over 2 years for it to finally happen!
Today I got up SUPER EARLY (4am) to catch my bus to Stansted Airport. Basically I slept through the entire bus ride and my entire flight to Copenhagen, so there really isn’t much to say about my traveling, ha. Now I am back and it is back to reality, lots of school work to get done this week so I better get to it.
But, oh… England was a DREAM!
