Return Home: Day 14

View from the plane

Yesterday was our journey back home. It took 20 hours from the time we left our hotel in the morning to the time I got back to Brookings, so that should explain why I didn't write this until today. We said goodbye to our hotel in London and dragged our suitcases to a subway station, where we used our last ticket and took our last tube ride in London, which lasted at least a half hour, since we had to go all the way to the airport. We got through security and everything at Heathrow without too many hitches, and I finally tried one of these Cadbury Dairy Milk candy bars everyone had been eating. It was pretty good, probably even better than Hershey ones. On the eight and a half hour flight from London to Minneapolis, a girl wanted to sit by her friend and so switched with me, and I ended up with a window seat, which I thoroughly enjoyed. I couldn't sleep on the plane so instead I watched some of the free movies the plane offered, Les Miserables, Jane Eyre, and the Perks of Being a Wallflower, which were all pretty enjoyable.

Getting through customs in Minneapolis took a little while, but really wasn't too bad. I discovered my dream job while I was there, which would be to be the person who walks around the drug (and apparently fruit) sniffing dog while people are standing in line. The dog was an adorable little beagle, and he must have an incredible nose, because he smelled an apple in one of the girl's bags that she forgot was there, and the dog-walker confiscated it pretty politely. I guess I wasn't even aware that apples had a smell. We then had to grab our luggage, check our bag again for the next flight, and go back through security. Then we took the very long walk to the other end of the Minneapolis airport to catch our next flight to Sioux Falls. Apparently we didn't need to hurry as much as we did, because the flight was delayed. First I guess they couldn't find some of the crew, and then the 'sky bridge' or 'jet bridge' or whatever you call it that you cross over to board the plane was having technical difficulties, and then we sat at the runway for a while. So our flight was a bit late getting into Sioux Falls, and then to make it worse they lost Mickey's checked luggage. 

Michaela's parents took us back to Madison and I visited with my family and gave them souvenirs for a while before my boyfriend came to pick me up and take me to Brookings. By the time we got here, I had been traveling for 20 hours that day (as I said), and had been awake for all of them, so I slept pretty well last night! 

Overall this trip has been an excellent experience! I've seen and done so many things that I don't even know where to start when people ask me about them. I loved seeing the ancient Greek and Renaissance-era sculptures in the Louvre, the Impressionist and Post-impressionist paintings in the National Portrait Gallery, as well as the Rosetta Stone and other Egyptian artifacts in the British Museum. I'll never forget walking along the ramparts at Warwick Castle and hearing the music they played there, a mix of epic-sounding music that at different times reminded us of the soundtracks of Pirates of the Caribbean, Lion King, Narnia, or Les Miserables. And of course I'll never be able to forget the texture of haggis, the really cool pub where we tried it, or the street performers playing bagpipes in Edinburgh. I loved all six castles/palaces we got to see, and especially the ones we got to go inside! I loved Notre Dame and the bridge with 'love locks' behind it, and seeing the Eiffel Tower from the Trocadero that first night we were in Paris. I think someday I'll go back to London, as there is so much to see and do there--the museums, the West End musicals (Wicked was amazing!), Piccadilly Circus, Trafalgar Square, Big Ben and Parliament, Leicester Square and Chinatown...I'd still like to see a play at the Globe Theatre and go on the London Eye on a clear day. I really enjoyed this trip and learned and experienced so much, it's really indescribable.

I have to say though, one thing that happens when you travel, and one of my favorite parts of it, is that you grow in appreciation for your home and the place you come from. Even little things, like having garbage cans everywhere (we had a really hard time finding them in London), or the waiter bringing the bill without being asked (which is considered rude in the UK) are more appreciated now. I'm also much more grateful to live in a smaller city, with fewer people, as crowded places can make me anxious, and to see so much green around here. As much as I loved our whole trip, it's really good to be back. After all, there's no place like home. 

Finally tried one of these candy bars at the airport! It was delicious.

Goodbye England

View of Ireland from the plane

Hello North America!

xoxo, xenophile

Return to London: Day 13

At Abbey Road

Today, our last day in London, was definitely a fun day! Sarah, Tawny, Emily, the other Laura, and Chase joined us for the first part of the day (we split up at lunch time). We started out by visiting one of the oldest and largest department stores in the world, Harrods. It's known as a very fancy department store, but many of the items there were a lot more affordable than we expected.  We got there a bit early and so walked around the store (which is very big!) and checked out the window displays. It was really cool because about half of them were Great Gatsby-themed, and Mickey and I had just seen that movie last night! The food halls were the first part we went through, and probably my favorite. Most of us ended up getting cupcakes we could eat outside, which were delicious and cost 3.50 pounds. We all thought it was worth it to say we bought something at Harrods, eat a delicious cupcake, and get a Harrods bag to put it in. We also wandered through some sections with handbags and jewelry, then men's clothing. They have each room set up in a different style, but they are all rather elegant, and it was a very nice place just to look around. We also got to ride on the Egyptian escalator, which is basically what it sounds like, an escalator with decorations around it in an Egyptian style. We also realized you could basically live at Harrods--we bought food, exchanged money, mailed postcards, went to the bathroom while we were there, plus we saw some beds that looked rather comfortable!

Next up we wanted to get a picture walking across Abbey Road like the Beatles do on the cover of one of their albums. This is easier said than done. It's on a rather busy street, and while some of the drivers are nice and will actually stop so you can cross, most of them were not happy campers. It was actually a pretty fun time though, dodging cars while trying to pose, and even more fun watching other people do the same. After this experience, we of course had to go to the Beatles store, so we hopped on the tube and got off at the Baker Street station. This also happens to be where the Sherlock Holmes Museum is, and there was a really long line out front to get into there. We looked around in the Beatles store for a bit, and then we all decided to part ways for lunch, since Mickey and I were planning on going to the British Museum and the rest of them had other interests to pursue. 

Mickey and I then ate lunch at a little Italian place, and while talking decided that it would be nice to stop by Trafalgar Square again, as Mickey had been searching for something for her dad and thought she could find something in a gift shop there, and I wanted to see a few more paintings at the National Portrait Gallery. Mickey's errand was successful, and so was mine. I was able to see Monet's The Water Lily Pond and a few more Van Goghs, as well as the two works by da Vinci they have there, which Mickey had suggested we see. I also bought some postcards, one of the Water Lily Pond, one of The Umbrellas by Renoir, and a matted one of Van Gogh's A Wheatfield, with Cypresses. So all around it was a successful detour.

We then briefly stopped by the hotel to rest up a bit before heading to the British Museum, which is just a few blocks down from us. The main thing I wanted to see was the Rosetta Stone, and it was more or less the first thing we saw, since the Egyptian area was our first stop. I would say that was my favorite part of the museum (the Egyptian artifacts) that we saw, since most of the items were not behind glass and were very large and impressive. We also saw some Greek sculpture and pottery, as well as the Nereid Monument. We then went in search of the Lindow Man, a bog body and interest of Mickey's. He was a lot grosser than I had expected, having seen pictures of other people preserved in bogs who were not quite so deformed as his body was. We then wandered through the Europe section and saw some pretty artifacts, before heading to the Enlightenment room, which I rather liked. It was sort of like a library, but with some artifacts encased in glass and sculptures thrown in. We also made sure to see some mummies while we were there.

Now it's pretty late and I need to get packing and go to bed so I can be ready to hop on the plane tomorrow. It's been a great adventure, this trip, but I am definitely ready to go home now!

Harrods

The jewelry gets its own furniture...

One of the Great Gatsby-themed windows

Cupcakes in the Harrods food hall

Chocolates in the Harrods Food Halls

Part of the Egyptian escalator

The jewelry department

Another decoration along the Egyptian escalator

My carrot cake cupcake from Harrods

Our attempt at a Beatles-esque Abbey Road picture

Window display at the Beatles store

The Beatles Store

The Sherlock Holmes Museum

I've been meaning to take a picture of this, and finally got
around to it on the last day

Trafalgar Square

A lion in Trafalgar Square

National Portrait Gallery and fountain in Trafalgar Square

Outside of the British Museum

Inside the British Museum

The Rosetta Stone

Statues in the Egyptian exhibit

Lion in the Egypt section

Vases in the ancient Greece area

Sculptures near the Nereid Monument

The Nereid Monument

Lely's sculpture of the bathing Venus

The colossal head of Ramses

Ancient treasure!

Description near the Lindow Man (I couldn't get a good picture)

Glass and ceramic items in the Europe section

Some Italian plates with a beautiful, almost metallic glaze

An Egyptian mummy

Sculpture from Copan

xoxo, xenophile

Return to London: Day 12

Mickey and I in front of the cinema

Today we got up early to finish packing and catch our train to London. As we were walking to our subway station and saying goodbye and good riddance to Paris, we were greeted by a scene of two men fighting fairly violently right in front of our subway station. It was pretty scary. One of them was whacking the other one with who knows what and they both ended up on the ground... Told you Paris is a terrible city. Then some scary guys seemed to be following us in the subway, and one offered to carry my bag, which I refused, expecting he'd run off with it or something. We were

all very happy to leave Paris. 

We had a bit of a wait at the airport and of course the train ride back through parts of France and England and the Chunnel, and I managed to finish my Pride and Prejudice book today. Getting back to London was such a relief! People are much nicer here than in Paris (e.g. no one gets all in your face trying to sell you mini Eiffel Towers), we speak the language, and there's not a great cloud of cigarette smoke hovering over the city. Basically, compared to Paris, it was paradise. 

Once we got done hefting our suitcases up and down stairs and escalators and across streets and made it to our new hotel, we found out that our rooms were not quite ready yet. So we went and got a bite to eat and then came back. The new hotel is really nice! It's a little more expensive than the others, but they carried our bags up for us (which we were VERY grateful for, since we'd just had to deal with them all through the subways of two different cities, and  since all of us are on the fourth floor of this building). I also really like the decor here; you can see a few pictures below. However, the one thing I do NOT like is that the internet is horrible. I spent a very long time trying to connect with no success, and finally am only able to post this after about an hour and a half of attempting to connect.

Anyways, on to what we actually did today. Mickey and I went to a service at Westminster Abbey. It was the 3:00 Evensong, which the bulletin they gave us said they've done every day in that church for about 1000 years. The choir that sang was really beautiful, although I didn't realize until they walked passed us during one point that it was made up of all males, young boys singing the high parts. There is a huge organ in there, and at times it seemed to overpower the organ a little. There were all sorts of vicars (I think they called them) around there, and their importance seemed to be signified by how colorful and elaborate the decorations on their robes were. The service was very formal, and they had parts were they paraded around with banners or large golden crosses on sticks and were swinging incense (clearly I didn't pick up on most of the symbolism), but it's a very pretty church on the inside and the choir sounded great, with a slight echo off of the very high ceilings in the church. Afterwards we took a few pictures of the outside and then headed off to Piccadilly Circus.

Piccadilly Circus is basically a sort of square with a fountain crowned with a statue of what everyone thinks is Eros or Cupid, but I think is actually something else. Internet is too sketchy to look it up right now. There are also neon signs in the background, and people sit around the steps of the fountain. Some call it the "crossroads of the world," and you're supposed to run into someone you know there (we didn't). The signs are reminiscent of Times Square, I would say. We spent maybe 15 minutes there, enough to say we did see it at least while we were in London, and then headed off to our next destination.

We had discussed that it would be fun to see a movie while we were here, and decided on The Great Gatsby. We then went to Leicester Square and found the cinema we'd looked up, Vue Cinema, and bought our tickets, which were in the second row. We grabbed a bite to eat from a place selling pizza by the slice, and then proceeded into the cinema. I've definitely never gone up four escalators to get to the screen where my movie was playing before, and the cinema was probably the nicest I've been in! They also show commercials before the previews, of things as random as car ads, perfume, dog food, and coffee--and probably a good ten minute's worth, before the previews even start! And they're not ads just playing until the time the movie starts, but our commercials didn't start until 6:10, the time stated on the ticket.

The Great Gatsby was directed by the same guy who did Moulin Rouge, so when watching one of his movies it takes a little while to get used to his perspective, but then I really enjoyed it. I didn't remember too many details from the book since I read it four years ago, but the movie was definitely entertaining to watch and hit the highlights of the book that I remembered. I also liked that it included quotes from the actual book.

After our movie we just headed back to the hotel and started the epic battle with the internet. Once I get this posted, I'm going to bed. We have a big day tomorrow, and a lot of sights to see--Harrods, Abbey Road and the Beatles store, a fish and chips place, the British Museum, and maybe Camden Market again. Good night!

Lobby of our hotel

Decor in our hotel's lobby

Big Ben and St. Margaret's Church

Westminster Abbey

Side view of Westminster Abbey

Westminster Abbey

Westminster Abbey

Piccadilly Circus

Statue atop the fountain in Piccadilly Circus

Piccadilly Circus

Piccadilly Circus

Piccadilly Circus

Cinema in Leicester Square

Our bedroom

xoxo, xenophile