The ride over, which we had assumed was 6 hours (depart Paris 14:00/2, arrive London 20:00/8). About 4 1/2 hours into our ride we became aware of our, for lack of a better word, stupidity. We had forgotten to factor in the one-hour time difference in London (behind Paris). This meant that our 6 hour ride quickly became 7 hours, which actually ended up being about 7 and a half. I know that extra hour doesn't sound like a lot, but when you've mentally prepared yourself for only 6 hours of sitting on a bus, 7 seems so much longer, especially with no food. Fortunately on our stop on the English side of the border, there was a vending machine. Best
processed waffle ever. All in all the hours went by relatively quickly thanks to my brilliant idea of bringing cards. The other highlight of the ride was the ride under the Channel. Obviously this was my first trip, and I wasn't sure logistically how the chunnel worked. Pretty darn cool. They have these huge pressurized train compartments that can withstand the water pressure and all the vehicles get loaded in and park. The compartments then speed along the tracks to the other side. Its weird because you don't feel like you're moving at all. All in all the crossing took about 30 min, and then just over an hour to finally arrive at Victoria station in the center of London.
Above left: Me with all but four of the cards. Being the champ that I am I still managed to win.Above: A bus being loaded into our Chunnel train. We were sitting at the very back. Cuz we're cool kids like that.
Arrival in London at Victoria Station and made our way over the Paddington station on the "Tube". I can't describe to you how surreal those first moments in London were. A- because I was actually in London. B- because randoms walking by were speaking in English. What is going on here!? Apparently in only two short months, hearing English spoken by the casual passerby has become practically alien to me. C- Not only do they speak English, but they have very hot, cute accents. D- They say funny words like CHAV (council house and violence) aka sketchy looking youth, and loo. E- They have wide sidewalks and very different buildings and front yards. Slow down, this is too much to process for a poor Canadian girl all at once who's still woozy from a 7 hour bus ride.
Anyways, I was a little overwhelmed in the best possible way with my arrival in London. We went to Paddington station to meet Peta, a friend of Annie's from Australia who has been living and working in the UK for the past two years. We went back to hers to get changed and headed out to a very authentic London Pub, the Duke of York, where Peta's friend Kiriay. It was just off new Bond street and Oxford street for those of you whom that might interest. After Annie and I quickly wolfed down kebabs for dinner at 11pm, we went back to the pub for the "lock-in". This is where the pub stops serving alcohol to customers and locks the doors. While the staff are cleaning up, they partake, and their friends, in a few pints on the house as congratulations for a good nights work. A very pleasant evening chatting with the bar staff, a few of whom had been to Canada, Ontario and Vancouver respectively. Did I also mention is was Halloween theme at the pub that night? All the staff had gone all out on their costumes, which included a dead bride and a english soldier complete with white wig. My favorite moment of the evening, which inspired the title of this post, was when around 2, Graeme asked if he could leave his gorilla costume at the pub, explaining that he was uncomfortable walking in his neighbourhood at night in a gorrilla suit. Maybe it was funnier if you were there...Oh well, it pleased me.
Saturday dawned clear and fresh, so Annie and I headed up to Camden Town as Peta went to work. On weekends, a bustling, albeit packed, market overflows into any nook it can find with vendors of food, accessories, clothing and nick nacks. It was a riot. This part of town is also home to the remains of London's punk movement and a hipster sanctuary. I was given quite a
few coupons for cheap tattoos, and was very tempted but knew my father might not be too pleased with me. Next time. We wandered around, in and out the stalls, as I was "very fascinated by this punk culture." Then we struck gold at the most amazing bag store ever. Since my arrival in Paris, I have been on the lookout for the perfect, tan leather school satchel for my books, since apparently the backpack is pretty much forbidden at Sciences Po. After two months, I was getting a bit discouraged, but finally, my dream came true. All real leather bags, absolutely gorgeous, sold at this very cute stall. The man who runs it is an absolute gem, having been here for years, he guarantees all his bags, no questions asked. It is one of those purchases that every time I use it I am filled with happiness.
Above right - the most amazing purse store ever, above, a view of Camden Town on a Saturday.
Riding the high from our purchases, we decided to have lunch at a good English pub, the Elephant Head, as part of my education in authentic English cuisine. First up: Steak and Ale Pie. Yummy :)
Steak and Ale pie at the Elephant's Head Pub.
Back on the tube and down to Portobello road in Notting Hill. Yes, the very road where much of the movie Notting Hill is filmed. On weekends it is another open air market, primarily antiques, where I managed to find a gorgeous pair of vintage earrings and a really cool necklack with an antique pocket watch on the end. So many cool trinkets and toys and everything in between. After strolling down the street, we ended up at Peta's Pub, the Castle, and enjoyed a drink and some nachos while waiting for her to finish work. And of course I had to snap a picture of me in front on the door where Hugh Grant lives in Notting Hill which is right across the street from The Castle. So happy!
Portobello Road and outside the door from Notting Hill!
After a quick stop at Peta's to grab some of my stuff I then tried to navigate through Tube closures on my three direct lines to King's Cross station and failed to do so in time to catch my 7:30 train to Stevenage. Finally able to get on a train 45min later, I was headed to the edge of London, to Hertfordshire to meet Christie, one of my best friend's from 1st year at UBC who had done her exchange at UBC. So it had been over a year and a half since I had seen Christie, and my visit was partially taken in order to visit her. She had just started her masters and was living at home in Stevenage, so I took the 25min train ride out to her place. Thankfully, despite my inability to contact her and tell her I had missed the first train (which so obviously figured out when I wasn't on it), she was there waiting for me and wisked me off to a dinner party at her friend Aman's. Not only was it great to see Christie, but also to meet some of her friends and see her interact with them. After a delicious dinner, we watched the X-factor, the all the rage singing talent show in England right now. Then back home and to bed seeing as the punch was putting me to sleep on the couch at Aman's.
Sunday, thanks to time change (which happens a week before North America) we benefitted from both sleeping in and being up at a reasonable hour to head back to London for a action packed touristy day. It was kindof surreal that all of a sudden, here I was, in England, with Christie, catching up and chatting about UBC people that I hadn't really talked about in a long
while as if this was common place. Hanging out with Christie, despite the time apart (which was longer than how long we knew each other for) was natural and like we hadn't missed a beat and picked right up where we left off. Not that I was worried at all, but it couldn't have been better. Anyways, we arrived in London to a morning of rain and hopped on one of those double decker sight seeing buses, the Original London Bus tour, to see the sights around the city. Best idea ever, a must do if you ever visit
London. As a history geek, I was relishing all of the anecdotes on the many London landmarks we went by, including Tower of London, Shakespeare's Globe, Trafalgar Square, Hyde Park, Buckingham Palace, Westminster the Houses of Parliament and the Big Ben, among other sights that were pointed out. For example, when going over London Bridge, it was noted that this was the first bridge to span the Thames, and has been here since Roman times. Well if that doesn't take you down a peg, then I don't know what is. Or maybe seeing the residence building of the Archbishops of Canterbury for the last 700 years, which far exceeds the age of your entire nation. Anyways, the tour was amazing, and we lucked out by getting to move up to rather early on and get actually front row seats on the upper deck for the main portion of the journey. We opted to stay on the bus for its entire 2 1/2 hour journey, but you could easily make a day of it by taking advantage of the hop-on/hop-off policy.
A statue of Winston Churchill. There is an electric current that runs over the surface of the statue so birds won't sit and poop on him. He insisted.
Perfect timing that over the course of the bus tour, it had stopped raining and there was to be no more rain for the rest of the trip, a rarity for London at this time of year apparently. We headed uptown for lesson English cuisine number 2, authentic fish and chips, back at my favorite pub, The Duke of York. Then onto Oxford Street to go to TopShop, Christie's favorite store ever which she had raved about since first year. It was gigantic, and I can't really describe it to you, but it was sweet and I wish I wasn't a poor student. I did however, manage to find a gorgeous cream coloured sleeveless blouse which was on my list to go with my new navy blazer. (All part of my new grown-up look that I'm trying to create now that I'm 20 and a big girl).
Lesson in English cuisine 2: Legit Fish & Chips
Back down to the Thames where we had a lovely walk across the river to the next tourist attraction, the London Eye or Millenium Wheel. Thanks to advance fast-track ticket purchasing, we skipped 30min of line waiting and hopped right on. The ride was incredible, and very romantic. We arrived just as night was falling over the city and all the lights were aglow, yet it was still clear enough to see all the landmarks from our earlier tour. Amazing how high you go, and view from the top. I definitely recommend going at dusk as we did, I can't imagine what it would be to see the end of a sunset. Most spectacular had to be the view of the House Parliament and the Big Ben, all lit up against the night sky.
Next up a quick stop at a gift shop for a souvenir, and the beginning of my new world traveller's item - the magnet. I had been inspired by my world travelling friend Kyle's shot glass collection, and decided I wanted to start a collection of my own. I had thought long and hard as to what small token I wanted to collect at each stop on my world tour for the rest of my life and have finally decided on the magnet. Not only can you always find magnets, but they are cheap and you can display them easily in your home, a constant reminder of your wonderful travels. So magnet number 1 has been purchased!
View from the London Eye of Parliament and the Big Ben
We then strolled back across the bridge riding the high of our wonderful ride on the Eye and walked to Covent Garden, a gorgeous covered market where we went to a wine bar there that Christie and her family have been frequenting for years. We timed it perfectly to get one of the last tables 'outside' (of the restaurent, but under the covered structure of the market), and listened to a lively violin troupe serenade us while we sipped champagne and nibbled on nachos under the lovely Christmas decorations. Really I could not have imagined a more perfect day at all, everything was splendid and a huge thank you is in order to Christie and her parents for organizing the whole day and making it incredible. On the highlights of my year so far list.
Christie enjoying champagne at Covent Garden
We then caught the tube back to Picadilly and Peta's where we met up with Annie and got our Halloween on and costumed up, Annie and I as indian's with the most fabulous matching headdressed and Christie as a cave woman, which she had organized that morning (very impressive). With my heels and headdress on I would estimate I was about 6 1/2 feet tall. I had to bend to get to doorways, which was hard to remember a bit. Our evening didn't quite go as planned, and ended up being kindof random, definitely not North American Halloween epicness, but we embarked on a bit of a pub crawl and enjoyed some drinks etc. A decent night. A few things to note about Halloween in England. Dressing up is supposed to be scary. Your costume is lame unless there is fake blood involved and general death and scariness. Not everyone dresses up. Our party of about 10 did, and so we would forget about it until other in the street would start making pow-wow noises and then I would recall, yes, I was wearing a massive headdress.
Annie and I rocking our sweet headdresses.
Monday morning, Christie and I bid adieu to Annie and Peta and headed back to Stevenage to freshen up before heading out to Cambridge for the afternoon, which is about 40min down the highway. Sadly, my camera decided to die so I have pretty much no photo documentation of the city, but it is amazing. You can feel the history of the buildings and the streets. It was a real change from the bustle of London, the most delicious small town feel. I can't imagine going to school surrounded by such amazing, ancient architecture in a fairytale like town. I guess you get used to it. I, however, am continually thrown off in Europe by seeing establishements such as the dressmakers in Cambridge, that have been in operation since 1629. Its a bit mind boggling as I always contrast these dates with the age of Canada. We had a lovely day strolling through the town, into a few stores before sipping hot chocolates in the park as night came on. It was another perfect afternoon. I realized that time doesn't come between true friends as the two of us sat on our park bench admiring the fall leaves and talking about everything. They will always be there for you when you need them. This was particularly comforting for me as I think about my future after UBC and have no idea what lies ahead for me. Wow I am getting really sappy. Anyways the point is I really appreciated my really meaningful talks with Christie over the weekend, especially as since coming here, all of the friends I've made are still fairly new and you just haven'y built up that kind of connection yet. It was so good to have that back.
King's College Cambridge, one of the oldest colleges. If that doesn't inspire academia, I don't know what would. Note the spectacular gothic architecture.
It got dark and chilly so we headed over to d'Arry's, a very lovely gastro-pub for dinner. Once again thanks to Christie's parents for an amazing dinner. Such delicious food, including crispy duck salad and a beef and gravy casserole with horshradish mashed potatoes. The English sure know how to do comfort food. The atmosphere was classy yet homey, and we had a great time. On our drive home, journey came on the radio as we were talking about first year and I almost cried. It was one of our floor songs from 1st year and to have it come on then by coincidence was crazy. We sang along so loud. 2nd SL forever.
Notting Hill before bed (SO HAPPY) and all too soon, 5:30 was here for my wake up for my flight. Christie, being amazing, drove me to airport at that ungodly hour. As we said goodbye, it wasn't sad but comforting, knowing we'll get to see each other soon. And now for tackling my flight home...
All in all the best weekend yet in my European adventure. Let's see if Amsterdam this coming weekend can top it...
Anyways, I was a little overwhelmed in the best possible way with my arrival in London. We went to Paddington station to meet Peta, a friend of Annie's from Australia who has been living and working in the UK for the past two years. We went back to hers to get changed and headed out to a very authentic London Pub, the Duke of York, where Peta's friend Kiriay. It was just off new Bond street and Oxford street for those of you whom that might interest. After Annie and I quickly wolfed down kebabs for dinner at 11pm, we went back to the pub for the "lock-in". This is where the pub stops serving alcohol to customers and locks the doors. While the staff are cleaning up, they partake, and their friends, in a few pints on the house as congratulations for a good nights work. A very pleasant evening chatting with the bar staff, a few of whom had been to Canada, Ontario and Vancouver respectively. Did I also mention is was Halloween theme at the pub that night? All the staff had gone all out on their costumes, which included a dead bride and a english soldier complete with white wig. My favorite moment of the evening, which inspired the title of this post, was when around 2, Graeme asked if he could leave his gorilla costume at the pub, explaining that he was uncomfortable walking in his neighbourhood at night in a gorrilla suit. Maybe it was funnier if you were there...Oh well, it pleased me.
Saturday dawned clear and fresh, so Annie and I headed up to Camden Town as Peta went to work. On weekends, a bustling, albeit packed, market overflows into any nook it can find with vendors of food, accessories, clothing and nick nacks. It was a riot. This part of town is also home to the remains of London's punk movement and a hipster sanctuary. I was given quite a
few coupons for cheap tattoos, and was very tempted but knew my father might not be too pleased with me. Next time. We wandered around, in and out the stalls, as I was "very fascinated by this punk culture." Then we struck gold at the most amazing bag store ever. Since my arrival in Paris, I have been on the lookout for the perfect, tan leather school satchel for my books, since apparently the backpack is pretty much forbidden at Sciences Po. After two months, I was getting a bit discouraged, but finally, my dream came true. All real leather bags, absolutely gorgeous, sold at this very cute stall. The man who runs it is an absolute gem, having been here for years, he guarantees all his bags, no questions asked. It is one of those purchases that every time I use it I am filled with happiness.
Above right - the most amazing purse store ever, above, a view of Camden Town on a Saturday.Riding the high from our purchases, we decided to have lunch at a good English pub, the Elephant Head, as part of my education in authentic English cuisine. First up: Steak and Ale Pie. Yummy :)
Steak and Ale pie at the Elephant's Head Pub.Back on the tube and down to Portobello road in Notting Hill. Yes, the very road where much of the movie Notting Hill is filmed. On weekends it is another open air market, primarily antiques, where I managed to find a gorgeous pair of vintage earrings and a really cool necklack with an antique pocket watch on the end. So many cool trinkets and toys and everything in between. After strolling down the street, we ended up at Peta's Pub, the Castle, and enjoyed a drink and some nachos while waiting for her to finish work. And of course I had to snap a picture of me in front on the door where Hugh Grant lives in Notting Hill which is right across the street from The Castle. So happy!
Portobello Road and outside the door from Notting Hill!After a quick stop at Peta's to grab some of my stuff I then tried to navigate through Tube closures on my three direct lines to King's Cross station and failed to do so in time to catch my 7:30 train to Stevenage. Finally able to get on a train 45min later, I was headed to the edge of London, to Hertfordshire to meet Christie, one of my best friend's from 1st year at UBC who had done her exchange at UBC. So it had been over a year and a half since I had seen Christie, and my visit was partially taken in order to visit her. She had just started her masters and was living at home in Stevenage, so I took the 25min train ride out to her place. Thankfully, despite my inability to contact her and tell her I had missed the first train (which so obviously figured out when I wasn't on it), she was there waiting for me and wisked me off to a dinner party at her friend Aman's. Not only was it great to see Christie, but also to meet some of her friends and see her interact with them. After a delicious dinner, we watched the X-factor, the all the rage singing talent show in England right now. Then back home and to bed seeing as the punch was putting me to sleep on the couch at Aman's.
Sunday, thanks to time change (which happens a week before North America) we benefitted from both sleeping in and being up at a reasonable hour to head back to London for a action packed touristy day. It was kindof surreal that all of a sudden, here I was, in England, with Christie, catching up and chatting about UBC people that I hadn't really talked about in a long
while as if this was common place. Hanging out with Christie, despite the time apart (which was longer than how long we knew each other for) was natural and like we hadn't missed a beat and picked right up where we left off. Not that I was worried at all, but it couldn't have been better. Anyways, we arrived in London to a morning of rain and hopped on one of those double decker sight seeing buses, the Original London Bus tour, to see the sights around the city. Best idea ever, a must do if you ever visit
London. As a history geek, I was relishing all of the anecdotes on the many London landmarks we went by, including Tower of London, Shakespeare's Globe, Trafalgar Square, Hyde Park, Buckingham Palace, Westminster the Houses of Parliament and the Big Ben, among other sights that were pointed out. For example, when going over London Bridge, it was noted that this was the first bridge to span the Thames, and has been here since Roman times. Well if that doesn't take you down a peg, then I don't know what is. Or maybe seeing the residence building of the Archbishops of Canterbury for the last 700 years, which far exceeds the age of your entire nation. Anyways, the tour was amazing, and we lucked out by getting to move up to rather early on and get actually front row seats on the upper deck for the main portion of the journey. We opted to stay on the bus for its entire 2 1/2 hour journey, but you could easily make a day of it by taking advantage of the hop-on/hop-off policy.
A statue of Winston Churchill. There is an electric current that runs over the surface of the statue so birds won't sit and poop on him. He insisted.Perfect timing that over the course of the bus tour, it had stopped raining and there was to be no more rain for the rest of the trip, a rarity for London at this time of year apparently. We headed uptown for lesson English cuisine number 2, authentic fish and chips, back at my favorite pub, The Duke of York. Then onto Oxford Street to go to TopShop, Christie's favorite store ever which she had raved about since first year. It was gigantic, and I can't really describe it to you, but it was sweet and I wish I wasn't a poor student. I did however, manage to find a gorgeous cream coloured sleeveless blouse which was on my list to go with my new navy blazer. (All part of my new grown-up look that I'm trying to create now that I'm 20 and a big girl).
Lesson in English cuisine 2: Legit Fish & ChipsBack down to the Thames where we had a lovely walk across the river to the next tourist attraction, the London Eye or Millenium Wheel. Thanks to advance fast-track ticket purchasing, we skipped 30min of line waiting and hopped right on. The ride was incredible, and very romantic. We arrived just as night was falling over the city and all the lights were aglow, yet it was still clear enough to see all the landmarks from our earlier tour. Amazing how high you go, and view from the top. I definitely recommend going at dusk as we did, I can't imagine what it would be to see the end of a sunset. Most spectacular had to be the view of the House Parliament and the Big Ben, all lit up against the night sky.
Next up a quick stop at a gift shop for a souvenir, and the beginning of my new world traveller's item - the magnet. I had been inspired by my world travelling friend Kyle's shot glass collection, and decided I wanted to start a collection of my own. I had thought long and hard as to what small token I wanted to collect at each stop on my world tour for the rest of my life and have finally decided on the magnet. Not only can you always find magnets, but they are cheap and you can display them easily in your home, a constant reminder of your wonderful travels. So magnet number 1 has been purchased!
View from the London Eye of Parliament and the Big BenWe then strolled back across the bridge riding the high of our wonderful ride on the Eye and walked to Covent Garden, a gorgeous covered market where we went to a wine bar there that Christie and her family have been frequenting for years. We timed it perfectly to get one of the last tables 'outside' (of the restaurent, but under the covered structure of the market), and listened to a lively violin troupe serenade us while we sipped champagne and nibbled on nachos under the lovely Christmas decorations. Really I could not have imagined a more perfect day at all, everything was splendid and a huge thank you is in order to Christie and her parents for organizing the whole day and making it incredible. On the highlights of my year so far list.
Christie enjoying champagne at Covent GardenWe then caught the tube back to Picadilly and Peta's where we met up with Annie and got our Halloween on and costumed up, Annie and I as indian's with the most fabulous matching headdressed and Christie as a cave woman, which she had organized that morning (very impressive). With my heels and headdress on I would estimate I was about 6 1/2 feet tall. I had to bend to get to doorways, which was hard to remember a bit. Our evening didn't quite go as planned, and ended up being kindof random, definitely not North American Halloween epicness, but we embarked on a bit of a pub crawl and enjoyed some drinks etc. A decent night. A few things to note about Halloween in England. Dressing up is supposed to be scary. Your costume is lame unless there is fake blood involved and general death and scariness. Not everyone dresses up. Our party of about 10 did, and so we would forget about it until other in the street would start making pow-wow noises and then I would recall, yes, I was wearing a massive headdress.
Annie and I rocking our sweet headdresses.Monday morning, Christie and I bid adieu to Annie and Peta and headed back to Stevenage to freshen up before heading out to Cambridge for the afternoon, which is about 40min down the highway. Sadly, my camera decided to die so I have pretty much no photo documentation of the city, but it is amazing. You can feel the history of the buildings and the streets. It was a real change from the bustle of London, the most delicious small town feel. I can't imagine going to school surrounded by such amazing, ancient architecture in a fairytale like town. I guess you get used to it. I, however, am continually thrown off in Europe by seeing establishements such as the dressmakers in Cambridge, that have been in operation since 1629. Its a bit mind boggling as I always contrast these dates with the age of Canada. We had a lovely day strolling through the town, into a few stores before sipping hot chocolates in the park as night came on. It was another perfect afternoon. I realized that time doesn't come between true friends as the two of us sat on our park bench admiring the fall leaves and talking about everything. They will always be there for you when you need them. This was particularly comforting for me as I think about my future after UBC and have no idea what lies ahead for me. Wow I am getting really sappy. Anyways the point is I really appreciated my really meaningful talks with Christie over the weekend, especially as since coming here, all of the friends I've made are still fairly new and you just haven'y built up that kind of connection yet. It was so good to have that back.
King's College Cambridge, one of the oldest colleges. If that doesn't inspire academia, I don't know what would. Note the spectacular gothic architecture.It got dark and chilly so we headed over to d'Arry's, a very lovely gastro-pub for dinner. Once again thanks to Christie's parents for an amazing dinner. Such delicious food, including crispy duck salad and a beef and gravy casserole with horshradish mashed potatoes. The English sure know how to do comfort food. The atmosphere was classy yet homey, and we had a great time. On our drive home, journey came on the radio as we were talking about first year and I almost cried. It was one of our floor songs from 1st year and to have it come on then by coincidence was crazy. We sang along so loud. 2nd SL forever.
Notting Hill before bed (SO HAPPY) and all too soon, 5:30 was here for my wake up for my flight. Christie, being amazing, drove me to airport at that ungodly hour. As we said goodbye, it wasn't sad but comforting, knowing we'll get to see each other soon. And now for tackling my flight home...
All in all the best weekend yet in my European adventure. Let's see if Amsterdam this coming weekend can top it...
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