Canterbury Girls go to Canterbury

Having finished my last paper on Friday, I had my weekend free for when Stephanie and Caitlin came back to London. We decided that it would be fun to take a visit up to Canterbury and see the cathedral there (not least because we all work in the office for Canterbury USC, home to the Episcopal/Anglican group on campus). Stephanie and I left a bit early for the train station to find coffee and hot chocolate, as all the cafes near campus were mysteriously closed. Unfortunately, Hilary and Caitlin got caught on a slow tube train when coming to meet us and missed the train, so they came on a later train and we ended up touring Canterbury seperately, but other than that slight hiccup, it was quite a lovely day.

We started out exploring the Westgate Gardens, which were absolutely gorgeous.


We then wandered up and down the main thoroughfare, which was loaded with shops and restaurants, ranging from old time pubs to Marks and Spenser outlets. We grabbed pasties from the West Cornwall Pasty Company (a popular pasty chain in England) and ate them as we walked. Our best discovery was the multiple used book shops, where I picked up two books for around 5 pounds (8 dollars) total. I'm becoming a very big fan of this second-hand book system in London; it seems more common here then it does at home. Then again, I haven't really looked beyond the nearest Barnes and Noble, so maybe I'm missing something. It's so much fun because you never know what random book you'll find on the shelf, and you can usually find books in relatively good condition for very cheap.

We finally made it to Canterbury Cathedral after spending 15 minutes looking for it (you'd be surprised how hard it is to find a giant Cathedral in a small city). Below is yours truly standing in front of this massive structure.

The cathedral is made even more impressive for the amount of decoration all over it. I was particularly fond of this statue next to the entrance:


The inside was so tranquil and peaceful, particularly the back part of the cathedral where the many small chapels are located, as seen below:

We lucked out in our time of arrival, as the 100+ person choir was practicing for their concert that night, so we got to listen to music for free while we explored the church. Full pictures will be posted at the end of this post. For now, enjoy the video below.





A shot of me and Stephanie:


After the cathedral, we made a quick stop at the city's Roman Museum, which had archeological finds from the Roman city that had been discovered underneath Canterbury. Then, after stopping at a place called Shake Shed for a mid-afternoon snack, we headed back to the train station, taking this lovely picture as we went:



You can enjoy more albums here and here.

Stephanie and Caitlin have sadly gone home now. But, life's still good because classes are now over, all my papers are turned in, and I only have one final in early May. For now, I look forward to my week in the Highlands and Paris, followed by an extended chance to explore London before I have to start thinking about studying, or perhaps worse, coming home.

Cheers!

To Do List: Pool, St. Patrick's Day, Study, Masquerade, Study.....

This week has been an interesting dichotomy of zany fun and tiresome paper writing, but luckily I've just about wrapped up my last paper! Only two small finals next week and I am done with the school part of study abroad! Well, aside from that pesky two-hour Medieval Europe final in May...but we'll ignore that for now.

I've finally put up an album for the Tower of London. Enjoy the photos at your leisure.

So aside from slaving over my computer, what have I been up to? Monday and Tuesday nights were devoted to showing Stephanie and Caitlin M. around some of the local spots near campus, including an obligatory trip to Brick Lane and the Hayfield on Monday night. Tuesday night was on St. Patrick's Day. We hopped on the tube to Leicester Square to see just how seriously England takes this Irish holiday. Apparently, they take it fairly seriously. Nearly every single pub had a line of 50-100+ people waiting to get inside. After taking a gander at the lines we decided it wasn't worth it to stick around very long, but it was still fun to see what the heart of London was like on a national drinking holiday.

Wednesday was fairly dull and studious, as my guests dashed off to Paris for a few days and I had to actually do work, but my architecture class did take a trip to London's City Hall to look at the architecture, which was fun. I've actually shown you a picture of City Hall before, only I didn't know what it was at the time. Here's a refresher:



Strange, isn't it? Let me assure you it's just as strange inside. This is City Hall Council Chambers. You can see the walkway that encircles the building about half way down the picture. There are two corkscrewing walkways to get to all the offices and what not. The Council itself is in a completely glass-walled room, to give the sense of the government being open and above-board in its dealings--apparently they even broadcast the council sessions on loudspeakers throughout the building.


Thursday night was much more fun than Wednesday. One of the on-campus groups hosted a masquerade dance at Draper's, the student on-campus bar, to raise money for charity. The Group went and had a good time--quite by chance, we all owned rather nice looking masks from Venice, so we went to the party in style. They had a professional photographer there, so we had our pictures taken. Here is the end result below (I apologize if it is a bit blurry, but it's a photo of a photo). Can you guess which one is me?


Friday was EXTREMELY dull as I was literally glued to my chair to write my last paper, which is thankfully all but wrapped up. Steph and Caitlin get back tonight, so hopefully we can get up to some fun tomorrow before they leave on Sunday.

Cheers!

The SoCal Faction Takes on London

Stephanie and Caitlin M. arrived safe and sound Saturday, and brought a smattering of California weather with them! We have a high of 17 C/63F today; weather that normally has me digging out my scarves and heavy jackets now has me shedding layers. What's more, students are picnicking along the canal, spread out to soak up the rays of this mysterious yellow orb that has appeared in the sky.

Sunday was an extremely busy day for the Caitlin's and Stephanie. We began by trekking down to Westminster Abbey for Eucharist. I'd never been inside the Abbey before, but I most definitely will be making a return trip to inspect the place more carefully. As we were there for a service, there are understandably no photos for me to post, but the architecture was beautiful, especially the stained glass windows. And to add to the wonder, the building is a "Who's Who" mausoleum; I passed Isaac Newton's coffin on the way in, and I'm fairly sure that I sat nearly on top of the grave marker for William Gladstone, one of Queen Victoria's most famous Prime Ministers.

After service we wandered down to Trafalgar Square where we happened upon London's St. Patrick's Day Parade; since the holiday falls on a weekday, a good chuck of the festivities were held early on the weekend, probably to prevent people from taking the day off. The parade was a very informal affair, full of school bands, teenage cloggers and various groups marching along just to have a good time.




After wading through the crowd (and using a few Underground Tube walkways to get from one end of the square to the other), we had lunch at a small cafe, then made our way to the Tower of London, a location I had yet to visit. We arrived just in time for a Yeoman Warder Tour, where we were introduced to the various roles the Tower has played (besides prison, the Tower has been a palace, a royal observatory, and a mint), as well as some of its more gruesome tales and interesting lore. For instance, the Tower is famous for its ravens. Legend has it that if these ravens are ever removed from the Tower, the monarchy and England will fall.

Another fascinating tidbit: to become a Yeoman Warder, one has to serve for at least 22 years in the Army or Royal Airforce (but Naval Officers are not allowed) and receive a ribbon for honorable conduct before one is even considered for the position of Warder. Phew! After all that effort, our "Beefeater," as Warders are nicknamed, was amazingly energetic and boisterous.


After the tour, we wandered around the Tower, seeing the Crown Jewels (my, those are big diamonds), as well as the Armory, which had fascinating displays about the different kinds of weapons that were used by soldiers over the years.

This memorial marks the spot where the more prestigious prisoners were executed, among them Anne Boleyn and Lady Jane Grey.


A suit of armor on display inside the White Tower.

One of the infamous chopping blocks.


Prison "graffiti." When one has a lot of time on one's hands....



Later that night we met up with Hilary and Vanessa for dinner; coincidentally that meant that our dinner crew consisted entirely of USC girls. We ventured a bit off the beaten path in search of a pub called The Camel in search of pie and mash for dinner. Although we had a bit of a wait, dinner was worth it; I had a Steak and Ale pie which was quite good. On the way back to campus....or maybe not on the way, but more like in the course of getting back to campus....we stopped at Cookies and Creme, a local desert parlor, where I indulged in Brownie Temptation--brownie and ice cream drenched in hot fudge sauce.

Tonight I introduce the girls to Brick Lane! More amazing food lies in my future!

Cheers!

Who Dunnit?

Friday night, Emily and I took off once again for Leicester Square where we scored some rather reasonable tickets for Agatha Christie's The Mousetrap. This murder-mystery has been running on the West End for nearly 58 years, the longest running show in history. There are multiple Guinness Book of World Record certificates throughout the theatre, denoting an actor or actress who has successfully gone the longest time playing a role on stage. In the lobby, there is a board that tells one which number performance you are attending. The play is really worth seeing, a twisting mystery tale with a second act that reveals one twist after another. Can you guess Who Dunnit?

For interesting information about the show, including a photo of the current cast, you can go to the official website.

Preview of Coming Attractions

This week has been rather slow, as all of the Group (including myself) have been bogged down in work, trying to write those nasty old papers so we can have fun. But never fear, Caitlin will be out adventuring again soon! Future fun events in my life:

1. My friends Stephanie and Caitlin M. are coming to visit! USC spring break kicks off next week, so they are flying to Heathrow airport to spend some quality time with me. I'm very excited to see them, and it's sure to be a blast.

2. Highlands Trip: Once the dust of the last week of class settles at the end of March, I will be off with my USC comrades on one of USC's delightful sponsored trips, this time up to Scotland and the Isle of Skye. We leave March 31st and return April 2nd.

3. After a night to catch our breath, Vanessa, Hilary and I will be boarding a plane for Paris to spend five days in the City of Lights! (Luckily, Hilary speaks much more French than I do...). We'll leave April 3rd and return late on April 7th.

That's all for now. Cheers!

A Day in the Park

Somewhere in between writing a paper on Brutalist architecture in London and writing a paper on Cary Grant's star persona and its impact on Notorious, I managed to find time to head out with my friends to visit Regent's Park and the London Zoo. The weather has been warming up over the last week, and we decided to take advantage of the more hospitable climate.

Regent's Park is quite lovely. I'm simply amazed at how much green space one can find within London. It often seems so cramped, and yet you can turn a corner and find an enormous lawn stretching into the distance. Here are some shots I took while we walked through the park. I was particularly enamored with the statue in the second picture, which has curious mythical beasts supporting the garden pot.



The London Zoo is fairly small, easily doable within a few hours, but full of a surprising variety of animals, from river otters to okapi.

This particular Reptile House had a special place in our hearts as it is the setting for an incident in Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone, where Harry accidentally magically sets loose a boa constrictor before he is informed of his wizarding origins. They have a small display card inside that marks the cage where they shot the scene for the movie (which sadly contains a snake that is not a boa constrictor).



Some of the monkey habitats are connected by these enclosed walkways so the monkeys can rotate around the different areas.

The penguins seem to know that it is almost feeding time, based on the way they're gathered together....


So do the river otters. And we did get to watch them eat. So cute!


If you think that's a kangaroo, you're wrong. It's actually a wallaby, complete with a baby in its pouch.



If you want to wade through three albums of photos of animals, you can do so below. Otherwise, until next time!

A Day in the Park
If I could talk to the animals....
Whaaat?? MORE animals?

Luzern, Geneva, and the Return to the Island

Hopefully I can wrap up the retelling of my adventures in this post, so that I can get back to telling you about life on campus. To be truthful, however, there hasn't been that much to report, as the sad realization that classes only continue for one more month couples with the realization that I have four research papers due at the end of that month, which means most of my spare time is spent in the library or in my flat rifling through books in an attempt to get these papers done as soon as possible so I can go back to having fun in my life. I will report that we have recently purchased tickets to see Romeo and Juliet at the Globe Theatre in May. The Globe is a recreation of Shakespeare's original theatre, so that audiences can get a taste of how a production looked and felt when it was first performed (right down to 5 pound standing area--though we opted for seats instead).

But on to the main attraction.

We arrived in Luzern on Tuesday night, after a lengthy day of train travel. It was snowing, which was both beautiful and frustrating, as we had to lug our suitcases from the bus stop to the hostel, no mean feat on slippery walkways. Thankfully, Switzerland's transportation system is MUCH better than Italy's. In Rome, stops went unannounced, meaning you had to either know the route well enough to know where your stop was, or guess and hope it was the right one. In Switzerland, not only are the stops announced, but all the buses are equipped with monitors that show the route, the next four or five stops, and which routes you can transfer to at the upcoming stops. So much less stressful to deal with.

On Wednesday, we decided to do the tourist version of Luzern, seeing the historic sites and taking lots of pictures. It was then that we discovered that Fasnacht, Luzern's winter carnival (designed to scare away the winter spirits), was scheduled to take place the next day! You can imagine our amusement when we discovered that we were basically hopping from country to country, going from party to party.

By far my favorite site in Luzern was the Lion Monument. Carved into a cliff face, it is a memorial to Swiss mercenaries who died in the French Revolution.



As you can tell by my second picture, it was VERY cold in Luzern, much colder than we had anticipated. I ended up wearing close to five layers on the second day, and was still not completely warm.

Thursday was a full agenda for us. We got up early to see the sites at Fasnacht, which were some of the craziest antics I've ever seen. Essentially, Fasnacht is a city-wide festival, where everyone dresses up, there's a marching band on every street and in every plaza, and an open bar every few feet. It literally ran all day, and we could easily have spent our time in Luzern just wandering about Fasnacht, enjoying the insanity. We didn't, however, as we had already scheduled a different activity: SKIING!

That's right, Caitlin's first time skiing EVER was on the slopes of the Alps. We took an hour-long train ride to Engleberg, where we rented ski equipment and took a tram to the bus route. As four out of six of us had never skiied before, we started on the "easy" slopes (easy in name only, IMO). Hilary and Vanessa did their best to teach us how to do such trivial manuevers as stopping, but there's a point where you've just got to get out there and try it yourself. And oh my, what dubious results. After a glorious first run where I did everything perfectly, I was convinced skiing was a piece of cake. On my second run however, I ended up having to choose between crashing into the ski lift or a snow bank (I chose the latter) and had to reevaluate my initial assessment. Luckily I walked away with no broken bones (but several nice bruises). It was a glorious day, with the sun shining and a clear blue sky, and was great fun; skiing was over much too quickly.


We spent the night back in Luzern enjoying more of Fasnacht (which hadn't calmed down a bit since we left), but turned in early so we could get up in time for our early train to Geneva. We only spent one day there, but the goal was to cut up our train travel to Paris, where our flight was leaving from. With our Eurail passes, it was much cheaper to take a train and fly out of Paris than it was to fly out of Switzerland. At least, it was initally. As luck would have it, when we showed up at the train station ticket window the day before we were to leave Geneva, we found that they were all out of Eurail spots to Paris. Instead, we would have to Eurail to Lyon and then pay for a ticket to Paris. Forced with remaining in Geneva for the forseeable future or returning to England, we forked over the cash.

Geneva was still a good time. We would have visited the UN, but found a protest of considerable size going on outside, which both shut down the UN to visitors and ruined our photo opportunities. Not to worry, as instead we went to CERN (European Center for Nuclear Research) where they keep a giant supercollider. While most of it went over my head, there were enough engineering majors in the group that it was a must-see spot.

After another night of wandering another city, looking at hotels named for Woodrow Wilson and Swiss Banks, we turned in early again, as Saturday included getting up at 5 AM to be sure to be at the train station for our 7 AM train (no mean feat when traveling in a large group). A whirlwind day of running from train platform to trainplatform, figuring out Paris's underground train (luckily everyone besides me spoke at least some French), landing in London Luton Airport, Taking a train to St. Pancras, a tube to Mile End, and the ordeal of lugging my suitcase up four flights of stairs, and I was able to collapse on my bed. Whew!

Thus ends my tale of my week on the Continent. I'm sure I've left out dozens of stories, but I can tell you all about them when I return to the States!

For now, here are my albums:

Fasnacht!
Luzern--the historic side
Out in the Cold...in Switzerland
Skiing!
Winding Down in Geneva

Enjoy!