Well, this is it! My last day in London. It's so strange, I've spent so long looking forward to tomorrow and counting down to it, and now that it's basically here I'm thinking "no, that's ok, I can wait a bit longer"! Maybe because of all the work I had, but still. I really do love this city, it's just so vast and amazing. Yesterday I went to the National Gallery with Liz and we talked art - it was SO great. Then Liz, Sarah, Nathan and I went to dinner on the embankment (Giraffe, so yummy!) and THEN Liz and I went to see Les Mis. The perfect London day folks, right there. Today I have no real clue what I'm doing. I think the plan right now is to go to St. Paul's with Blair and possibly Sarah and Nate, and then maybe (hopefully? finally!?) Hyde Park. I have to give my computer (Del) back today, and finish packing. And hopefully make my peace with leaving this wonderful city for an indeterminable amount of time. Maybe one day I'll come back.
So, to anyone out there who read this, or even skimmed it, thank you. I hope you enjoyed visiting London through my eyes, and, if I know you, I hope this blog helped me seem not so far away.
Ta!
Showing posts with label museums. Show all posts
Showing posts with label museums. Show all posts
Tuesday, 18 December 2007
Monday, 17 December 2007
I can't be as sorry as you think I should...
Holy crap, I haven't updated about Scotland yet?! The days are just running away with me, I'm trying so hard to squeeze in all the things I want to do before I fly home. On WEDNESDAY. Wow. That came up fast.
In one word, Scotland was AMAZING. In many, it was funny, and beautiful, and a great opportunity, and historic, and cultural, and exciting, and, and, and! Just so great! I went on a bus tour and we started in Edinburgh and travelling up into the Highlands hitting up places like Glencoe and Loch Ness, and drove even further North to the Isle of Skye, which was so pretty and actually reminded me a lot of Canada! Our tour guide was this small young Scottish woman named Debs who was this hilarious spritely girl who doubled as our bus driver! And Dianne and I made friends with these two Aussie girls, Louise and Hannah, and now I'm really tempted to go to Australia (as if I wasn't tempted already with Ryan being down there). I learned so much history and random facts about Scotland, Nessie, clans, and whisky! I bought a little souvenier for myself and a small bottle of whisky to try! All in all, a fantastic trip - I can't wait to go back!!
Now I'm in packing/sightseeing/soaking-up-London mode. I went on a huge walk from my res, down Baker St, across Wigmore, then down Regent to Oxford, then across Oxford (CRAZY CHRISTMASY OXFORD - so many people!!!) to Marble Arch. That's a looooooong walk for those of you who don't know the area - about 3km! Ok, I know, that's not a whole lot, but it is considering I didn't plan any of that. Yesterday Liz, Sarah, and Sarah's boyfriend Nathan and I saw Natalie off (so sad!) and then went Christmas shopping at Whiteleys (very posh mall in Notting Hill) and then to Oxford Circus, then to Picadilly/Leicester to see about getting theatre tickets. We couldn't get any for last night so we'll go back today and see about getting some £20 tickets to Avenue Q. So then we grabbed dinner and went to this pub I've been meaning to go to since I got here. Then we went to Vic and hung out for a bit. Long day, but a good one!
So today our foresome (aptly named Remainder Four) are hitting up the National Gallery in Trafalgar Square, and then hopefully the Christmas festival in Hyde Park, and also hopefully Avenue Q tonight. Should be a good day if everything goes as planned!
In one word, Scotland was AMAZING. In many, it was funny, and beautiful, and a great opportunity, and historic, and cultural, and exciting, and, and, and! Just so great! I went on a bus tour and we started in Edinburgh and travelling up into the Highlands hitting up places like Glencoe and Loch Ness, and drove even further North to the Isle of Skye, which was so pretty and actually reminded me a lot of Canada! Our tour guide was this small young Scottish woman named Debs who was this hilarious spritely girl who doubled as our bus driver! And Dianne and I made friends with these two Aussie girls, Louise and Hannah, and now I'm really tempted to go to Australia (as if I wasn't tempted already with Ryan being down there). I learned so much history and random facts about Scotland, Nessie, clans, and whisky! I bought a little souvenier for myself and a small bottle of whisky to try! All in all, a fantastic trip - I can't wait to go back!!
Now I'm in packing/sightseeing/soaking-up-London mode. I went on a huge walk from my res, down Baker St, across Wigmore, then down Regent to Oxford, then across Oxford (CRAZY CHRISTMASY OXFORD - so many people!!!) to Marble Arch. That's a looooooong walk for those of you who don't know the area - about 3km! Ok, I know, that's not a whole lot, but it is considering I didn't plan any of that. Yesterday Liz, Sarah, and Sarah's boyfriend Nathan and I saw Natalie off (so sad!) and then went Christmas shopping at Whiteleys (very posh mall in Notting Hill) and then to Oxford Circus, then to Picadilly/Leicester to see about getting theatre tickets. We couldn't get any for last night so we'll go back today and see about getting some £20 tickets to Avenue Q. So then we grabbed dinner and went to this pub I've been meaning to go to since I got here. Then we went to Vic and hung out for a bit. Long day, but a good one!
So today our foresome (aptly named Remainder Four) are hitting up the National Gallery in Trafalgar Square, and then hopefully the Christmas festival in Hyde Park, and also hopefully Avenue Q tonight. Should be a good day if everything goes as planned!
Tuesday, 25 September 2007
city livin'...
I'm trying to update more so I don't forget things when I go to write about the last 489509238748 million things I did in the last little bit. I'm trying to do the same with my paper journal.
Anyways. When did I last update? Friday evening? So Saturday Dianne, Steph, and I went to Buckingham Palace to tour through the State Rooms. It was really nice, the rooms are really opulent and ornate and really interesting to walk through. We got a complimentary commentary to listen to which I really appreciated because it had a lot of history of the building. I learned about the palace's history, how it used to be a house and was then renovated and recreated into a palace, and then redecorated by King George IV and then finished by Queen Victoria. I especially liked listening about how the Queen's Garden's got bombed during WWII, and then the King and Queen took lunch in an air raid shelter and then went to East London to tour around, which was the part of London that got bombed the heaviest. Oh, and for future reference, Buckingham Palace staff are not allowed to take pictures for you. Go figure.
Saturday night was good. Dianne and I went to South London (Clapham, to be exact) to meet Dianne's friend of a friend, James. He was really nice! Typical British guy, likes soccer (football) and cricket (we had a good chat about how much I like cricket, despite having never actually seen a match), is from Northern England (Yorkshire) and works for HSBC bank in the city. The three of us went out to dinner, which James generously paid for (I tried to offer money, he wouldn't take it... oh well?), which was really nice of him (!) and then went to see his flat and watch some British tv, which ended up being us watching a couple episodes of Friends (lol) before heading home. All in all, it was a good evening. We invited him to ISH karaoke.
Sunday was boring because I didn't do anything or go anywhere, and have no computer or tv to occupy me. I did some work, but there really isn't all that much to do here. So I got a little homesick, and then got frustrated with being homesick and decided that from now on I need only devote half-days to schoolwork in hopes of staving off the homesickness.
Anyways. Yesterday was pretty good. Lots of class. We had a really lively discussion in Drama about the show we saw last week (Poe's Masque of the Red Death at Battersea Arts Centre). It was really really great to discuss some of what we all saw and did, and I was pretty disappointed when the prof had to cut off the discussion. After class we went to Shakespeare's Globe to see The Merchant of Venice, which was so good! It was definitely an experience standing in the yard for three hours and watching the show very much like I would watch a costume today. I had visions of Shakespeare in Love, it was pretty cool. I took as many pictures as I could, and will put them up on Facebook and Flickr for y'all to see. (I have a link to my Flickr account in the sidebar, by the way) The show was bawdy and funny and the crowd got a little raucous and it was just so enjoyable. Add onto that the fact that the acting was amazing and Bassanio was gorgeous and I'm sold. :)
So that's about it. Oh! Dianne and I went to the Victoria and Albert museum today to look at the fashion stuff they had. It's a really nice place, I'd like to go back there.
In other news, it's about two weeks until Cara and Evan get here, and I'm SO excited! And in other other news, I foolishly didn't bring my tan cord jacket and I'm regretting it huge. Oh well. I guess I'll just wear my trench more.
Anyways. When did I last update? Friday evening? So Saturday Dianne, Steph, and I went to Buckingham Palace to tour through the State Rooms. It was really nice, the rooms are really opulent and ornate and really interesting to walk through. We got a complimentary commentary to listen to which I really appreciated because it had a lot of history of the building. I learned about the palace's history, how it used to be a house and was then renovated and recreated into a palace, and then redecorated by King George IV and then finished by Queen Victoria. I especially liked listening about how the Queen's Garden's got bombed during WWII, and then the King and Queen took lunch in an air raid shelter and then went to East London to tour around, which was the part of London that got bombed the heaviest. Oh, and for future reference, Buckingham Palace staff are not allowed to take pictures for you. Go figure.
Saturday night was good. Dianne and I went to South London (Clapham, to be exact) to meet Dianne's friend of a friend, James. He was really nice! Typical British guy, likes soccer (football) and cricket (we had a good chat about how much I like cricket, despite having never actually seen a match), is from Northern England (Yorkshire) and works for HSBC bank in the city. The three of us went out to dinner, which James generously paid for (I tried to offer money, he wouldn't take it... oh well?), which was really nice of him (!) and then went to see his flat and watch some British tv, which ended up being us watching a couple episodes of Friends (lol) before heading home. All in all, it was a good evening. We invited him to ISH karaoke.
Sunday was boring because I didn't do anything or go anywhere, and have no computer or tv to occupy me. I did some work, but there really isn't all that much to do here. So I got a little homesick, and then got frustrated with being homesick and decided that from now on I need only devote half-days to schoolwork in hopes of staving off the homesickness.
Anyways. Yesterday was pretty good. Lots of class. We had a really lively discussion in Drama about the show we saw last week (Poe's Masque of the Red Death at Battersea Arts Centre). It was really really great to discuss some of what we all saw and did, and I was pretty disappointed when the prof had to cut off the discussion. After class we went to Shakespeare's Globe to see The Merchant of Venice, which was so good! It was definitely an experience standing in the yard for three hours and watching the show very much like I would watch a costume today. I had visions of Shakespeare in Love, it was pretty cool. I took as many pictures as I could, and will put them up on Facebook and Flickr for y'all to see. (I have a link to my Flickr account in the sidebar, by the way) The show was bawdy and funny and the crowd got a little raucous and it was just so enjoyable. Add onto that the fact that the acting was amazing and Bassanio was gorgeous and I'm sold. :)
So that's about it. Oh! Dianne and I went to the Victoria and Albert museum today to look at the fashion stuff they had. It's a really nice place, I'd like to go back there.
In other news, it's about two weeks until Cara and Evan get here, and I'm SO excited! And in other other news, I foolishly didn't bring my tan cord jacket and I'm regretting it huge. Oh well. I guess I'll just wear my trench more.
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