We saw the: Tower of London, Tower Bridge, Eye of London, Charles Dickens' Museum, Westminster Abbey, British Library, British Museum, Big Ben, Abbey Road, Buckingham Palace, Leicester Square (and went to the theater), Picadilly Circus, and probably other stuff I'm forgetting.
We ate: a bunch of Indian food, some sort of pie, "bangers and mash," bubble and squeak soup, hummingbird bakery cupcakes, high tea (which included scones, cake and a raspberry meringue) fish and chips and strongbow. My parents, who rarely drink, have decided they love strongbow. I am proud that I was able to introduce them to that.
My dad took his obligatory nap in public (see above, that's at the British Library) and no one killed anyone. Really, this trip has been quite a success so far.
I would say my favorite "attractions" were the British Library for the amazing collection of original texts (alice in wonderland illustrations, texts from multiple religions, the magna carta, song lyric scribbles from the beatles, and papers of Leonardo da Vinci) and notes and Westminster Abbey due to the poets' corner. I'm admittedly a total nerd.
Although I still think London is kind of ugly, I enjoyed my morning runs and also some of the vocabulary. I am going to start using the word "brilliant!" after certain statements. Also, a line or a wait (i.e. at a theater ticket booth or a traffic jam) is called a "queue." I love it. And then there is just the general way of saying things. For example, as I was walking in a park today I saw an adorable dog and his elderly male owner. The convo went like this:
Me: can I say hello to your dog?
Old man: why yes, please do
Me: (bend down to see dog)
Old man: he seems to have gotten his nose in some fox poo!
Me: oh really?
Old man: disgusting dog!!!
Tomorrow a.m. it's off to Amsterdam and 1.5 weeks left of my trip! This last week, basically all through Rome and London, I've been a bit of a homebody (or a hotelbody I guess), doing all sorts of things during the day but taking my nights to just read or relax...kind of like back in Barcelona when it was my San Miguel night or back in Philly after a long day of work. I'm not upset about it. It's a weird calm...like I survived my trip and all my doubts and now I can just chill and soak everything else in however I please. (Bets,however, on whether I can get my parents to eat a brownie - although I would NEVER ever ever do such a thing myself!)
After Amsterdam I'm back to Italy for my last week - 6 nights in Florence/Tuscany and 2 nights in Rome (because I'm flying back from Rome). It should be a great week and probably the week I've been looking most forward to since Spain (even though people and places since then have been well more than I expected).
I feel like if I were to see myself 5 or 6 weeks ago I wouldn't even understand or recognize myself. I don't think I mentioned this on this blog, or really to anyone at all, but the night before and the day I left Philly to head out on this trip I just kept crying. I was scared and sad and confused and doubtful. At one point I was ready to skip the trip all together.
One of my friends asked me last night how I feel about the plans for the rest of my trip, about seeing people, and about making certain decisions, and I told her that I just have to do it and focus on the present and it will all come together as it should. It just came out without even thinking about it.
Then just a bit ago, I was speaking to another friend, about a weird (but good weird in a surreal way) situation and he said "it feels right so I'm goin with it." I guess that's where I am with the rest of my trip, with potential jobs I've applied for, with my upcoming Australia/New Zealand trip, and with where I'll end up when it all comes together.
All this deep talk and I'm not even in a cafe in Amsterdam yet!
No comments:
Post a Comment