"We have nothing to fear but fear itself."
- Franklin D. Roosevelt
Been to London? Check. Classes done? Check. Finals done? Check. Friends visiting Madrid? Check!
So what's left of this adventure in Spain? Well, I still have that minicurso to finish (done on Tuesday, December 14), but most importantly, EUROTRIP this week. Okay, it's not huge, but I'll be going to Paris and Rome for a week, and so I'm really excited to be seeing a bunch of different places!
It's been a while since I've updated, and I don't have too much time to be as thorough as I usually am, but here's the skinny on what I've been up to the last week and a half.
London trip:
While the entire trip involved a rather large list of people, it was me, Robby, and Trinity who went to London from Spain. But given that our flight was really early in the morning, we decided to just catch a taxi in the morning. Since we were going to be up early anyway...Trinity and I, before retiring to her place for a couple of hours of sleep, went to see Luna Nueva, the English title is the popular New Moon. I could rant about this for a while, and I think most people know of my general distaste for the series. That being said, it was definitely better than the first movie, which is surprising since the plot is so, so terrible. But more on that later maybe.
We got up early (3:30...ew), grabbed a taxi, airport, flying, LONDON! We got into London - Stansted (this city has four different airports...yeesh) around 8:15. We managed to catch an early bus to get into the city. I remember my host telling me that buses can be a real pain in the butt because of the heavy traffic in the London city. Well....she wasn't lying. It took a while, but we finally made it to Victoria Station, which is at the center of the city and the basic area to catch public transportation (the tube, taxis, buses, etc). So we get there, we're starving, but we knew we needed to find Chenna first. She had told us to meet her by a Subway (sandwich place) inthe station, but first of all, we kind of got lost in the big station...it was like a train station and a mall all in one! After finally finding the food court, we get there to see she is not there...we frantically search around for a little bit, when finally, there she was, standing at the corner of McDonald's. We had a really nice greeting (it had been almost half a year since we'd seen her last!) and celebrated by...getting Subway. I've really been missing American food lately, even the crappy stuff, so a 5 Pound 12 Inch Subway sandwich with wonderful honey mustard tasted fantastic.
Afterwards, we got our tickets to go out to Canterbury (a city a little bit outside of London where we'd be staying that night) and began exploring. We experimented with the public transportation a lot that day, taking the tube and the bus. We took the tube first, and hit up the Buckingham Palace. Originally, we'd wanted to get there to catch the changing of the guard, but we got there just as it was finishing up. So unfortunately, no pictures with guys in red suits and tall, furry hats! But the palace was still cool to see, and as an added bonus, we got to see the Queen driven up in a carriage into the palace! We didn't realize this until later, though, but still, that was neat!
We saw Big Ben in the distance, and knew that that was where we wanted to go next. After a bit of a walk, we finally arrive. This was a nice catch, because it's Big Ben, Parliament, and Westminister Abbey all in one place. We messed around, took some pictures of the giant clock and Parliament, and then headed into the beautiful church of Westminister Abbey. Initially, I wasn't sure if I wanted to pay to go inside and see it, assuming it would be kind of like most other churches we've seen, but it was well worth it. It was a different style of architecture, and it was absolutely enromous! There were so many places you could explore. Plus, with the entrance fee, we got a free audio tour, and that really added to the loveliness of the whole place. Once again, it's too bad we couldn't take pictures (I may or may not have accidentally taken a few regardless), but it was so cool to see.
We got outside and kind of just walked around for a little bit. We walked around Parliament, including going on to a bridge to get a couple of nice pictures, but then it was time to catch our bus to Canterbury. After an hour bus ride, we made it to the little city and met up with one of Robby's friends from work, and her group of friends. They took us out to eat at a pretty cheap place, and we went in and chilled for the night. They had a really nice living complex -- it was kind of like a dorm, only much bigger and much nicer (more modern, too). One of my old basketball teammates was actually living their, too, so I got to visit with her for a little bit. We spent most of the night playing card games (one of the most intense games of Spoons I've ever played) and watching YouTube videos and went to bed early, which was fine given that we wanted to get up early and that we'd been walking around all day. Oh, and those beds were so comfortable! Trinity and I passed out like a rock.
We got up early (7:00...gulp, no wonder we never get sleep), made some breafast, and began our very quick exploration of the little town of Canterbury. We first walked over and saw the ruins of the Canterbury castle. It wasn't anything mind blowing, especially since they were small, but they were interesting nonetheless. As I said about Ireland's castle ruins, it's always neat to see big powerful structures like this still around,e ven if they are just ruins. After that, we went into the Canterbury Cathedral for a couple of hours, and I must say, that was one of the most impressive cathedrals I've seen so far. I don't know if I'd become adjusted to seeing the same styles of the Spanish cathedrals, but this was like a breath of fresh air in terms of churches. It was so big, and it had such a different style to it that it was simply amazing with multiple stained-glass windows, marble pillars, and more. For a little town, it was a heck of a sight to see, and we spent a while exploring both the inside and out. Of course, it was unfortunate that it was under construction...
Okay, so we get out of the Cathedral and head back into London. We grab some lunch, and then we head off to try and get to the Tower of London (and London Bridge). Parts of the tube were under construction that day, so that made getting there really difficult. We had to jump lines a few times, and then try and find a bus that would take us to the street we wanted. We got lost at one point, too, which made our exploration harder. Still, after quite some effort, we found our way and made it ot the tower. I wish we had been able to spend more time in there. It had everything my medieval heart would want to see -- swords (and other weapons), history of castle construction, battles, famous people, old crowns, like there were some many different places to explore. We had hit most of the buildings we wanted to see, but I really wish I could have seen more.
We get out at closing time of the Tower of London and ferociously attempt to contact the people we were supposed to meet up with. I officially dislike phones in Europe. I don't know how many times we attempted to contact people, or how many times we were missing a detail (like a + sign) in order to connect...just really weird. But we finally got a hold of Julie, a buddy of mine studying in tehe city for the semester who would also be our host for that night. We met up with her and Chenna again around her tube stop (again, more complicated tube jumping), dropped our stuff off, and then went out to dinner. Some of us (Robby) were aching to try fish and chips, but me, once again craving American food, went and got an American breakfast -- omelette, potatoes, pancakes...so good. Then we went to King's Cross, which is a train area with a cart going halfway through the wall. In other words, we were going to the place tha twould transport you to Hogwarts! We messed around and took pictures of it for a good fifteen minutes, until we had to leave so that Chenna could get back to our hostal and we could get back to Julie's to book a taxi and get some sleep. Booking a taxi was surprisingly difficult -- European customer service is really awful. Everywhere. I don't think there's one place in this continent where I've had outstanding service.
But that was basically the end of our London trip. It wasn't much, and we actually got rained on a bit on Saturday (it would not have been London without rain), but we still had a great time. We got to see some of the big things London had to offer, and the country spoke ENGLISH! Again, like Ireland, it was kind of weird coming into a country where English is their first language. We were definitely still used to Spanish at this point. Heck, when we first gotin at the airports, Trinity asked where the 'aseos' were (that's like 'restrooms' or 'toilets' in Spanish, and that's the word that are on the signs for the bathrooms). It was hilarious trying to just speak English, which is now broken. Seriously, I've realized just how bad my English has become over the last few weeks.
Alright, well I'd write more, but I have to get ready for EUROTRIP now! Sorry, but I'll have a lot of down time once I get back, though, so I will update with EVERYTHING after that, even though...I come back ot the States that week. Wow...
Next on the updates list (personal reminder and not all in one post):
- Finals
- Hannah, Abbie, Uchenna, and Brad come to Madrid!
- Lots and lots of pictures to upload
- Eurotrip
- Starting to wrap-it up...
Unreal how fast this all has gone.
Hasta luego!
~ LSquared
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