Wow I can't believe how quickly the time is passing! I only have two weeks left to do everything else I still want to do! And this week was pretty crazy. We left Monday morning super early for our journey to Scotland and the lake district. It was kind of like camping... with a lot of time on a coach (ew) but really cool stops in between... like castles... and sir Walter Scott's house. Anyway I don't know how to make paragraphs cohesive and interesting (I am a biology major after all) so I will simply continue my loving london list only this week it will be Savoring Scotland and Loving theLake District! But first, from last Saturday I still have a few more gems from london:
So, Saturday:
* The antiques shops on Portabello road with all their old sports equipment! I especially love the little kid "football" shoes from the 1930s. Soccer + leather + something associated with little kids + antiques = utterly amazing!
* The dresses and purses of Portabello! If I was a rich girl....
* Going to watch the changing of the guard at Buckingham palace with E. and speculating at the flag bearer's unusual twitch. Did the guy have a bee in his hat? Water in his ear? Whatever it was it was a serious hazard to both his insecurely attached hat and his serious reputation.
* Mantovera's pizza: cheap, close to the tube, delicious. What more could a girl want?
* Going to watch a real football game! Perching precariously on the fence to be able to see amidst a crowd of drunk but amiable fans singing enthusiastically (if off tune) close enough to see the sweat on the player's brows is the best ever!
* Getting together with an old friend in London and getting to hear about all his adventures in Rome and showing him around and laughing at how excited he was to see the London Eye
Scotland etc.:
Monday:
* Jorvik Viking Museum in York! It was way cool! Ok so the wax people and the taxidermy animals were a little creepy and the smell simulation was definitely unnecessary but learning about how they were able to recreate the faces from the skulls was awesome!
* Finally eating a vanilla icecream cone with a chocolate flake in it! A+
* Seeing the sign for "kinky donuts" Am I immature? Yes. Do I care? Not enough to not get a kick out that!
* Climbing the billions of stairs all the way to the top of Yorkminster cathedral and being able to see the whole city laid out below me all gorgeous with its little winding streets and old buildings that have seen so much life,
* Cobbled streets so narrow that the houses almost touch across from them. It's so whimsical!
* The incredible beauty of Fountains Abbey. I used to think that the poets who romanticize ruins were sadly ridiculous but now I have to admit they're right. They invite so much imagination!
* I know I've said this before but I love the sky here! It's such a gradient of colors: light, bright, deep and gentle. I think I will have some serious withdrawals when I have to return to the depressing gray sheet of the P-town sky.
* Late night, totally unauthorized tour of Durham castle by an opera singing, Shakespeare quoting former student who lived there. This gem of a man happened to have keys to all sorts of interesting places and also happened to know good stories about them. He was so priceless! My favorite was when he took a couple of my friends and I down into this ancient little old chapel in the depths of the castle. It was very small and intimate (unlike all the cathedrals we keep going to) and it had the most beautiful sandstone pillars I have ever seen in my life. And he told us it might even predate the Normans because of the unusual animal carvings on top of the pillars! How cool is that?!
* Me and E. sneaking into A.'s room late at night while she was in the shower and hiding in her closet and then scaring the living daylights out of her when she came out! So, so priceless!
Tuesday:
* White sheep with little black faces and curled horns! they are so cute from afar! Thank goodness I didn't have to get close to them and be jerked back to reality :)
* Horses running through the rain! What could be more beautiful?
* Roses climbing up stone walls! They just make me want to sit in a fancy dress and drink lemonade... and play poker. haha
* The wonders of Sir Walter Scott's house Abbotsford: the chair made from wood taken from the house where William Wallace was killed (ah Braveheart, how I love thee!), the clock that belonged to Marie Antoinette, and the armor Scott stole from dead soldiers on the field of Waterloo and brought home with him (so cool to see and so disturbing that he somehow that that was an ok thing to do!)
* Hamburgers from Wannaburger in Edinburgh
* I.'s face when she found chocolate at the bottom of her immense mug of hot chocolate in the best shop ever: Chocolate Soup!
* Underground ghost tour of Edinburgh! Not as scary as I was hoping but amazing storytelling! Best moment: D. scaring the guide! Who knew he could scream like a damsel in distress?
Wednesday:
* Due to my newly developed ring fetish I am now in love with rings and subsequently bought two in Edinburgh. They are so beautiful!
* The Scottish Alloa and Aberdon pottery! It is so unique and beautiful in a much different way than the simple blue and white china you see all the time. This pottery is all green and brown and earthy and marvelous!
* Going to Edinburgh castle and seeing those funny reenactor men who taught us about how musketeers had 13 canisters of powder and each was called an apostle except the one big on was called Christ the Lord. Gotta love them holy wars eh?
* Organ recital in Giles Cathedral by the man who won the international organ competition last year! It was absolutely amazing! The depth and range of the instrument is incredible! It can be playful and light as a piper whistling through the woods and then the next moment a deep and powerful presence that fills the mighty cathedral and reverberates through your whole body. Ant the cathedral itself was amazing too! You'd think that such a vast stone building would feel cold and empty but it doesn't at all! It feels almost... cozy. Which is so unnatural!
Thursday:
* Thunder and Lightning icecream is quite possibly the best ever! And the wonderful people of Ambleside actually believe in giving you a full scoop of it too! None of those dinky little ping-pong ball sized scoops vendors use in London to rip people off.
* Wishing Wells!
* Rowing on the lake near Ambleside for only 4 pounds!
* Ducklings! And the hissing swan! Probably the most memorable moment of the whole trip!
* Learning K.'s dance in the park and laughing at D. and D. shaking their hips like girls.
* Watching a few of my more insane comrades jump in the freezing cold lake. And A. pull A. in fully clothed!
* Playing the most intense game of Egyptian ratscrew ever! Those who are attached to the flesh of their palms beware!
* The beauty of the lake district all emerald and amethyst and sapphire with silver clouds!
* The bread. Everywhere I have been in the whole Great Britain has had amazing bread! The sole non-repugnant aspect of a certain hostel's dinner.
Friday:
* The Preston Temple for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints and the wonderful peace and reassurance I felt there. The spirit is undeniable.
* Going to an old cotton mill and learning really awesome things like how silk actually comes out of a silk worm's head! So they like have a whale blowhole.. only for silk! Silly me I always thought it was the other end.
* Also at the mill there was this painting of the family that had owned the mill that I was completely fascinated by. The family has 13 children and 1 child is missing in the painting today although she appears in earlier copies of the painting. Also they haven't identified which child is which in the painting because their ages appear to be arbitrary. I looked at it so long just wondering.
Saturday (back in London):
* Rugby game! Rugby is my new fav. The men are beast and the game is so fast-paced! It's like hockey but not as cold!
* Stomp! The. Most. Amazing. Show. Ever! There are no words for how much I loved it!
And that is my life. I am quite satisfied. If only homework ceased to exist and everyone I love were here too it would be paradise. But even with the homework and missing people, this is still the best summer of my life! Peace folks :)
ya soccer is much more entertaining in europe because of the fans. ya the UK fans have the reputation of pregaming before the soccer match and being drunk as can be. the dutch came to florence and you could hear them down the streets drunkly walking and singing before the games, making the florentines frown.
ReplyDeletethe sky was a beautiful color here in santa rosa while i was driving home from cake decorating. i wish i could have stopped on the side of hwy 12 and snapped a picture of it. most of it was a dark blue of clouds and than is sliver of orange sky peaking out towards sebastopol. it looked unreal.
i am glad you aren enjoying it so much and my only wish is that i was right there with you.