[before I start talking about London, enjoy some photos of the adorable town of Assisi, where our Wednesday field trip took us last week; it is probably my favorite Tuscan town so far because it was clean, lively, and had GREAT shops. If you’re ever here buy ALL the olive wood stuff!! I got so many cool olive wood trinkets]
Now for the main course— My most recent weekend adventure was all the way to LONDON! Will and I had booked some great [cheap] tickets the month before to meet up with Cameron, a mutual friend from A&M, and some of his friends from another TAMU study abroad program in Bonn, Germany. So, last Thursday we ditched out on afternoon studio (turns out a flight out of Rome at 8:30 pm still requires one to leave Castiglion Fiorentino at 2pm, oops) and made the 2.5 hour train ride to Rome. A funny side story from that- as Will and I are about to board the train to Rome, at 2:24 pm (24 mintues after we are supposed to be in class….) our STUDIO PROFESSOR gets off the same train we are about to board, same car, same DOOR, and tells us ‘ciao’ as we get on the train while he gets off to go teach the class we are definitely not in. I mean, all we could really do was laugh, and when do you get the chance to ditch class to go to LONDON for Easter weekend….?? Yeah, never. SO with that hilariously awkward moment behind us, we made the 2.5 hour bus ride to Rome, where we endured another 1 hour bus ride to the airport through rush hour traffic (also, Easter weekend traffic in Rome…………..yeah). Finally, we got to our gate 6 hours later….. and we hadn’t even made it out of Italy yet. Thank goodness we were flying British Airways because getting on a RyanAir or EasyJet flight after that marathon of a day would have been awful! We touched down in London, got on the train to take us into the city, and then took the tube to South Kensington, where our hostel was on Hyde Park. By now it’s 12:45am, so we check into our hostel and go to our room, where we find a pitch black bunk room full of sleeping people, no idea who is in our group or not (getting the full hostel experience for sure). We quietly got ready for bed and went to sleep!
The next morning, once we figured out which mounds of blankets & pillows contained people we knew, we all set off to get breakfast and see Westminster Abbey. London’s subway system is truly incredible- you can be anywhere in the city within 20 minutes (and London is HUGE). So we piddled around there, saw where Kate got married and where the iconic wedding dress photo was taken, and then made our way across Westminster Bridge to see the London Eye. We had a good time chilling right under the enormous white ferris wheel; got some good photos and got to chat a little until…………. I set my hand down directly into the most massive wad of bird poop you’ve ever seen. You can imagine the laughs at this point.
Lucky for me, a very nice woman offered me a moist towelette she happened to have (Londoners are seriously as clean as their city). Then, not five mintues later, Aaron rests his bum up on ANOTHER spat of bird poop, getting all over his pants…. that REALLY set us off, and we decided to get going to the next sight before we had anymore accidents. From the Eye we went and climbed the Great Fire of London memorial to get a 360 view of the city. From here it becomes really obvious how modern London is- I could see at least 3 famous skyscrapers we had studied in my arch classes! London may be a historic city but it has certainly embraced modernism well.
After our climb we went and had lunch at a pub, and then checked out Borough Market! We found the umbrella installation that I was dying to see, and then got some dessert in the market! Borough Market is seriously cool- any type of food you could imagine, a ton of pop-up shops and street vendors with twinkle lights and brightly colored tents. I could spend the whole day in there just tasting everything and taking photos!!
Then, we did what any 90’s kid would do in London- we went and found Platform 9 & 3/4 at King’s Cross Station!!! The station has since moved the popular site up from the actual train station to prevent people from buying tickets they don’t intend on using and clogging up the underground system, but we happily waited in line among the children to get our Harry Potter pic!
Finally, I dragged the boys to Longchamp so that I could buy myself a purse- of course we walk in and all four boys immediately bolt towards the single courtesy ‘male couch’ in the store while I pick out my bag. From here we walked over to see Herrod’s as the sun was setting. They closed just before we got there but the exterior was just as impressive. I also have to talk about how AMAZING it was to be able to communicate with the people around us- to hear chatter and conversations around us IN ENGLISH was by far one of the most comforting things I’ve experienced after two months of being the foreigner…. By the time we made it back to the hostel, everyone flopped on their beds and caught up on wifi- probably for a little too long because by the time we went out to get food all the pubs were no longer serving food, which put us at a Thai restaurant for dinner. Our plans to go out collapsed after that, and we spent the night in the hostel lounge making friends with some people in our room and talking (mostly laughing) until 3am, which I wouldn’t trade for ANY night on the town!!
The next morning we were up and out the door, first to Hyde Park where we made the BEST decision of the whole weekend- WE RENTED CITY BIKES! Basically, it’s this genius system where you pay a small amount to rent bikes for 24 hours, and they have stations all over the city where you can dock/undock them. So we rode over to Buckingham Palace for the changing of the guard and some breakfast (nutella waffles!!)
Then, off to the British Museum! I was very interested to see the British Museum because a professor here in Italy has been telling us about the controversial issue of Greece’s artifacts being kept at the British Museum (The Parthenon pediment sculpture, statues, etc). Greece wants them back, claiming them as “innately belonging to Greece” while the British stand by “finders keepers.” At first hearing this I was on Greece’s side, why shouldn’t they have part of their heritage back in their own country? However after seeing how beautifully and carefully these important works of art have been displayed and taken care of, I have to say that I think they should stay where they are. You can see the respect and care these pieces have received- I mean, the museum seems to be specifically built around these Greek pieces, and honestly it is beautiful and done to perfection. This museum was honestly one of my main highlights of the weekend.
After the museum we went across Tower Bridge and saw the Tower of London- pretty cool, but what wasn’t cool was the 18.50 pound (27$) price to see the inside. It was interesting to see this old, stone castle with modern skyscrapers and modern glass buildings surrounding it… but like I said, London is the perfect mix of new and old!!
So, we looked from the outside before deciding to squeeze in one last London must-see: The Beatles crosswalk!! We took the tube to a more residential area, found Abbey Road, and then just walked towards the place where there was a crowd of people on either side of the street. The best part about all of this is that Abbey Road is most certainly still a functioning, busy street. So to get the famous photo of your group, you have to 1) find someone brave enough to stand in the middle of the street to take your picture and 2) time it so that you don’t block traffic and get honked at. It was the most hilarious, adrenaline packed game of tourism we have ever played. The people who live on that road must SERIOUSLY hate all the dumb tourists who throw themselves in front of oncoming traffic to get that picture. We (kind of) got the pic, and then took the bus back to Hyde Park where we rode the bikes back through the park to get to our hostel, get ready for dinner, and find some food!!
It was Will and my last night in the city (Cam Aaron and Mitch were staying until Monday) so we went to the center of town to find a fun pub! I couldn’t have asked for a better last night in London meal- fish & chips, wine, and chocolate mousse!! After dinner we went to see the London Eye at night- INCREDIBLE! The London skyline is seriously one of my FAVORITES! We walked along the Thames river, stopped into a Mexican restaurant (which made me want to CRY from homesickness!!! I miss Mexican food!) for a drink, and then caught the tube just before midnight back to the hostel so that Will and I could get up with our 5am wakeup call the next day.
It was a perfect weekend- I wasn’t expecting to enjoy London as much as I did!! It is a classy, clean, beautiful city that I definitely need to visit again. Two days certainly wasn’t enough!! There is less than a month left for my study abroad, so these next few weeks will be packed with studio work, but also last-minute sight seeing! Get ready!
Syd
studiare all'estero 