I have safely returned from my adventures in London!
To sum it up: It was awesome.
It was so weird though to be speaking English all the time. Every time I'd go up to a person to ask for help or order something I would start prepping my sentence in French. Nope, that's unnecessary, they speak English. Although, there were so many moments when I could not for the life of me understand what they said. Accents, man. I think I prefer not understanding French, because it feels so silly when you can't understand English, I mean I know it's different, but it is my native language...
London also has so many more American chains than France. Chipotle (!), Starbucks (!!), KFC, Burger King, McDonald's, etc... So weird to see. It was like a cross between New York City, Philadelphia, and Pittsburgh. And then there are the castles and stuff, that pretty much moves it out of the States.
Anyways.
We got to stay in my friend's friend's apartment and finally got to make our own food (which I missed) and just hang out and talk and watch tv and destress from all that school work we've been doing. Phew, all that work.
But we did actually go out and see London too.
One bus ride, one plane ride, one more bus ride, one tube ride, a switch and another tube ride and I finally arrived in London.
Tuesday I got there late because my flight was delayed by two hours. Almost every flight out of Marseille that day was delayed because the planes weren't arriving, so we couldn't leave because there was no plane to leave on... So from the time I left my house in Aix to the time I found my friends in London, nine hours had passed. That's almost the amount of time I will need to fly back to America. So we just hung out that night because it was already 9PM.
Wednesday was a miserable, miserable, rainy day. We're talking shoes soaked through, wet jeans sticking to your legs kind of rain. And thunder. But we went to Camden Market and walked around. It was really cool, I just wish I had been not so grumpy and wet. Next time I go back it'll be sunny. :)
Then we went to the National Gallery (Free admission! All museums are free admission in London!) to hide from the rain. We appreciated classic art and such until we got too tired to walk and too overwhelmed by art. So much art.
So we found refuge from the pouring rain in a bookstore where we read books and drank hot chocolate and ate flapjacks.
Flapjack pause. These are the new best things ever. They are not pancakes, but kinds of granola bars. Except they have no gluten in general and are made instead with a base of oats, butter, and brown sugar goodness. I will make them and eat them all when I get home. Delicious.
We finally braved the rain and wind to go home and make some Indian food and crash in the warm, dry indoors.
Oh, but that day I did get to see Platform 9 3/4!!
Thursday was thankfully nicer and we were determined to actually see monuments.
First up was Big Ben, the Houses of Parliament, and Westminster Abbey. So cool.
After a quick coffee break, because nature is tiring, we went to the Victoria and Albert Museum. Sadly we only had 45 minutes there, because I could have spent all day there. It's enormous and full of art. All kinds of art. And jewelry and paintings and sculptures and everything. Modern art to tilt your head at, old art to marvel over, giant art to stare up at, jewels to awe over, photographs to appreciate, and more! I'm sad we didn't have enough time to see it all. The London museums are fantastic and free. I can't get over it.
After that we wandered around some part of London. We had no idea where we were actually, but the day had turned sunny so we went looking around for a telephone booth. We ran into Harrod's so we had to go in and marvel over just how posh it was. Also, I ate a Cadbury Creme Egg and it wasn't that good, I don't get the hype. I actually kind of didn't like it at all.
To sum it up: It was awesome.
It was so weird though to be speaking English all the time. Every time I'd go up to a person to ask for help or order something I would start prepping my sentence in French. Nope, that's unnecessary, they speak English. Although, there were so many moments when I could not for the life of me understand what they said. Accents, man. I think I prefer not understanding French, because it feels so silly when you can't understand English, I mean I know it's different, but it is my native language...
London also has so many more American chains than France. Chipotle (!), Starbucks (!!), KFC, Burger King, McDonald's, etc... So weird to see. It was like a cross between New York City, Philadelphia, and Pittsburgh. And then there are the castles and stuff, that pretty much moves it out of the States.
Anyways.
We got to stay in my friend's friend's apartment and finally got to make our own food (which I missed) and just hang out and talk and watch tv and destress from all that school work we've been doing. Phew, all that work.
But we did actually go out and see London too.
One bus ride, one plane ride, one more bus ride, one tube ride, a switch and another tube ride and I finally arrived in London.
Tuesday I got there late because my flight was delayed by two hours. Almost every flight out of Marseille that day was delayed because the planes weren't arriving, so we couldn't leave because there was no plane to leave on... So from the time I left my house in Aix to the time I found my friends in London, nine hours had passed. That's almost the amount of time I will need to fly back to America. So we just hung out that night because it was already 9PM.
Wednesday was a miserable, miserable, rainy day. We're talking shoes soaked through, wet jeans sticking to your legs kind of rain. And thunder. But we went to Camden Market and walked around. It was really cool, I just wish I had been not so grumpy and wet. Next time I go back it'll be sunny. :)
Then we went to the National Gallery (Free admission! All museums are free admission in London!) to hide from the rain. We appreciated classic art and such until we got too tired to walk and too overwhelmed by art. So much art.
So we found refuge from the pouring rain in a bookstore where we read books and drank hot chocolate and ate flapjacks.
Flapjack pause. These are the new best things ever. They are not pancakes, but kinds of granola bars. Except they have no gluten in general and are made instead with a base of oats, butter, and brown sugar goodness. I will make them and eat them all when I get home. Delicious.
We finally braved the rain and wind to go home and make some Indian food and crash in the warm, dry indoors.
Oh, but that day I did get to see Platform 9 3/4!!
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| Platform 9 ¾? But, Hagrid, there must be a mistake. This says Platform 9 ¾. There's no such thing. Is there? |
Thursday was thankfully nicer and we were determined to actually see monuments.
First up was Big Ben, the Houses of Parliament, and Westminster Abbey. So cool.
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| Big Ben |
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| So tall! |
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| Westminster Abbey |
Then we headed over to South Kensington to going museum visiting. After lunch at Pret a Manger (where we ate multiple times, so tasty), we headed over to the giant museum of Science and Natural History. It's in what I guess is a giant old castle and it's beautiful. And hugeeee. Huge. We got through only one part of it and were absolutely exhausted. We had to choose what to see, so we chose the dinosaurs and animals, of course.
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| My favorite bird ever. The dodo bird. |
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| The outside of the museum |
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| Mysterious staircase art I wanted to climb |
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| Giant. Giant giant art. (The room was under construction.) |
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| Telephone booth found! I kind of felt like a Doctor Who companion. If only... |
We finally decided on a path for our wanderings and went over to Buckingham Palace to ooh and ahh. It is quite shiny and large. But otherwise uneventful. Still, 'twas nice.
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| Buckingham Palace. Freaking tourists would not leave my shot. |
Then we found a pretty park and walked our tired sad feet to the nearest tube stop to get home.
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| Pretty park! |
All in all, it was a great trip. I hope to go back one day and caper around London some more. I think I'll encourage my brother to study abroad there so I can visit him. :)
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| The tube! |
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| Saving foreign pedestrians. |
And now the end of another week is here. I came from cold and rainy London to a sunny 82 degree Aix-en-Provence. I have a little over three weeks left in my warm and sunny southern France home. I have officially registered for classes back in the US for next fall. And all of a sudden junior year wants to come out of nowhere and make me figure out my life. No thanks.
So for these next few weeks I plan to sit in as many parks as possible and profiter. I know I say it every week, but every week it serves as a good reminder. (And you dear readers at home, don't forget to profiter!) But in between my park sittings, I have to force myself through nine more days of classes and four finals. Sigh, that'll be hard. I have no more desire to do school work.
Well, the next time I get on a plane it will be to go back to my real home. I will never have to deal with the shenanigans of Ryanair or the tiny Marseille airport again. Soon I'll be back in the giant US airports. Weird.
Good luck to all my friends back home with finals coming up, you can do it! I miss you all and can't wait to see you! If you pass, maybe I'll bring you a chocolate croissant!
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