London- the Rest All in One

So since I'm so far behind on my blogs, I'm going to sum up London pretty quickly. The combination between our lack of internet and Italy's phenomenal weather lately has kept me off the computer. Plus, I have acquired my first sunglasses tan line. This kid is getting bronze! Something about not being attacked by every bug in a five mile radius here makes me go outside a lot. Anyway, the following is a brief summary of the rest of spring break!

I'd also haven't proof-read this- no time no time!

Sunday, March 20

Since this was the last time that Robert and Anosh could hang out with us (they had to go back to work during the week which entailed traveling elsewhere) we decided to go to a magical place that everybody loves-- the zoo! The zoo was pretty awesome, watching animals is always hilarious since they're sometimes very inappropriate, as they were that day. I made sure to wear my black and white stripped shirt so that I could get a picture with the zebras. They weren't cooperating, so I just got a picture with the zebra sign. We also saw a guy that seemed to poses the ability to summon mercats...like a mercat whisperer. after that we went to the petting zoo portion where I managed to mistake a sheep for a goat, don't ask me how that happened. We went to a few more sections of the zoo, Heather spent a lot of time trying to kick pigeons, and then we left for Regent's park which is adjacent to the zoo. The park was really beautiful. Some of it was rigorously maintained and some was more free and natural from the romantic movement. There was also a wedding company doing a photo shoot with gowns by a fountain, pretty sweet! After a day of pigeon kicking, we were quite hungry so we headed out to Chinatown (in Piccadiliy square) for some delicious Chinese food. I have to say, it was much better than the Chinese food we've tried in Italy.

Monday, March 21

This day was JAM PACKED! After a late start, we headed out to the tower of London where we saw the crown jewels. So Shiny! They also had armor from various kings as well as weaponry on display. What else does the tower posses you ask? Well, there was carved graffiti from several famous prisoners and apparently, the place raises it's own ravens. THESE BIRDS ARE ENORMOUS!!!!! While Brit and I were eating the little sack lunch we brought, the ravens were hopping way too close for our comfort. Little school children proceeded to taunt the monsters. Watch out for that beak kids! We also spent a lot of time looking for the Bloody Tower exhibit, which was supposed to house old torture devices and stories. My dad had mentioned that when he went the exhibit was really cool. Unfortunately, it has been diminished to a room with literally two things. Lame sauce.

After the tower we went to the Tower Bridge. The bridge is really beautiful and had some cute little movies and interesting exhibits inside. The interior was super industrial, so Brit and I took a lot of pictures there. Next was the engine room, with beautifully painted engines that displayed how the bridge worked. After the engine room, Brit and I started to make our way to the Monument for the London fire. Along the way, we found a Galleria that looked like an old industrial arcade and had a sweet pirate ship sculpture. Near the Galleria was a random tilted black egg sculpture, and probably my new favorite sculpture ever-- a giant cartoon looking tree in the middle of a small plaza with real trees. Now that was a tree that I was willing to hug. We finally made it to the Monument, where we proceeded to climb about a million steps. Every time any of us come upon some activity that involves climbing a lot, we think "we've done this a million times, this should be no problem". Lies. I discover this fallacy about three-fourths of the way up the tower where I'm pausing to pant. The view from the monument was beautiful, so the climb was totally worth it. Not to mention, when we climbed down there was someone waiting to give us certificates that said we climbed all those steps to the top. Precious! Lastly, Brit and I made our way to St. Pauls. We made it at the very end of its open hours, so we only stayed inside for a few minutes but it was gorgeous. Lots of white and candles, very classy. After the church, it was dinner time! In a city of a million choices, what did we select to eat? Why KFC of course. I have been craving fried chicken like no body's business. Brit and I finished the evening with some shopping. Lovely!

Tuesday, March 22

On Tuesday we took the tube to Kingston station to see the Natural History Museum. BEST MUSEUM EVER. The astronomy section was insane. They had a giant red and purple metal-esque globe that you could ride into on an escalator. I think I took about a million pictures of it. The museum also had lots of jewels, some dusty dinos, and a lab a research area called the cocoon. The cocoon had tons of interactive tables that were like a touch screen, but they looked like the images were just projections. I felt like I was in the future. This also brought me to the conclusion that there's nothing better than a Natural History Museum-- I feel like they're always high on my list of favorite things when I visit cities. We had a delicious lunch there with yummy lemonade and made our way across the street to the Victoria and Albert Museum. Wow, they have a lot of stuff in there. We found a section that housed post 1900 graphic design and furniture, which Brittany geeked out about since the Interior Architecture kids have taken furniture history classes. Lots of greats in that exhibit.

Next we went to Harrods to shop. Oh boy do you need a map in that place. Our favorite sections were probably the furniture, lighting, and autographed plaque section. They had a Gone with the Wind plaque with lots of autographs for only 1,800 Euro. Wrap that sucker up and I'll eat it on the way home. We wandered into the toy department where a really bored musician found a magical light in my pocket and talked our ear off for quite some time. It was moderately entertaining to say the least. By this time we were really tired, so we went back to the hostel/bar and got some food there with a guy staying there that was from the states and traveling on his spring break. While the three of us were eating, some Cockney kid came in the bar and started going up to people and rapping in their faces. By the look of the staff's faces I gathered that this wasn't a rare occurrence. They finally got him out of the bar, we finished our fish and chips, and made our way to the lounge to get some internet and watch youtube videos. I hadn't watched one since I've been in Italy because our internet is awful, so obviously I just watched Red Eye clips forever. Perfect end to a great day!

Wednesday, March 23

Since this was Heather's birthday, we went to Hampton Court for the day (which was her selection). We saw lot of exhibits about King Henry VIII and his wives/advisers. Not me mention we saw Henry walking around himself. We had to kneel when he walked by. The court obviously had lots of beautiful rooms, but even more beautiful was the gardens. Not to mention there was a hedge maze! I am always game for a labyrinth. After making it to the middle and trying to find the way out, Heather, Mark, Brit and I could only find the wheelchair exit so we finally just took that. After spending the day there, we met up at Topshop with some British guy named Christian that Heather and Mark had met. We went to his favorite pub which had beautiful stained glass and an intricate wood bar. Classy place. After good conversation for about an hour and a half, we got dinner and then split with Christian. Best part of the night- Icebar London!Literally, the whole bar is made of ice. They split people into 35 minute parties and you get a huge blue poncho with gloves. Even the glasses are made of ice, it's pretty epic. After that, the cool night felt really warm so we strolled for awhile before we made it back to the hostel.

Thursday, March 24

Super busy day. We visited Parliament and Big Ben, Westminster Abbey (this one we actually went in to, there's about a million people buried there), Saw a random protest about government budget cuts, saw Buckingham Palace, Hyde Park, where people were playing leap frog and feeding squirrels, a horse museum, and Somerset house. We thought we could actually tour the house, (that's what the guidebook said) but instead it was just modern art exhibits. They did, however, have a really cool furniture exhibit which made up for the rest. Westminster Abbey had a lot going on inside, wayyyy too much to look at. Thankfully they had a great audio tour that explained a lot of the chambers and sculptures on graves.

Friday, March 25

First thing on our list was to go to Waterloo Bridge since it's my second favorite Vivien Leigh movie. My plan was to take a picture where she stands several times on the bridge, but alas the bridge today is not the same as in the movie (it was filmed in 1940). Boo. Brit and I made our way to the Tate modern and along the way, we found a really cool underground graffiti skateboarding park. One of the walls had a mural of an elephant swimming under water and a girl diving in after. Next we crossed the Millennium bridge to the museum. They had some pretty good artwork actually, Richard Sera, Dali, Tanguay, and so on. One thing that was not good, a million little school children yelling and running around with pencil and paper. Whose idea was it to give grade-schoolers pencils in a fine arts gallery?! I predict those walls will be repainted very soon. We left the gallery and got some Starbucks, which I have desperately missed. Brit and I went back to Camden to explore the markets the rest of the day. The market's are huge!!! Camden is kind of the punk rock center of London, so the markets had some entertaining merchandise and people. In one of the stores, Brit and I talked to a guy who kept staring at a chick across the way wearing super tight, thin green tights as pants. He kept asking us if we thought it was fashionable, and when we said nope, it's scary, he talked to us forever about all the scary fashions he sees women in. He also thought we barely looked like we were out of high school. That ol thing again. I have noticed that people seem to look older in London, but I'm not sure why. We finished the day with McDonalds happy meals...and boy were we happy.

Saturday, March 26

This day was awful. We had a plane to catch at 7:30 so woke up in the middle of the night to catch the first bus available. After the bus let us off not where Heathrow Airport's website said it would, we found a subway station to take the only tube line that went to the airport. The tube broke down. So here we were stranded on the only line to the airport with tons of other people who also had international flights to take. They finally took us to the nearest station, where we waited for the workers to find an alternate route. The workers had us get on a different line there to another station to take a different tram which you need different tickets for to get to the airport. By this time, it was already about 6:45 so we and a lot of others we met on the train knew we were missing our flight.

When we got to the airport, we were informed that we had to buy a completely new ticket (which cost more than the original two way ticket). we rushed through the airport to make that flight and got to Milan were we had to find a bus to the train station. First we got on the wrong bus. We waited about 30 minutes till the right one came and took the bus to the Duomo. There we haled our bags through the streets to the station were we took a metro to train station. At the train station, we bought tickets and had 5 minutes to find and get on the train. We just made it. After the train let us off in Arezzo, we ran to the bus stop to catch the bus (which actually waited for us since the guy saw us running) to Castig F.no. Finally made it home. At this point we had been up since the early hours of the morning and had only eaten a muffin all day...which meant it was time to scarf a pizza at pirate bar. I'd like to mention that if you count the different modes of transportation we used this day, we were on 11 different vehicles. ridiculous.

after that happy note, some fun things the English say:

Silverware = Cutlery
Bangs = Fringe
Bathroom= Gents or Ladies
Mind the Gap!
Exit = Way Out

Things I've learned:
too many things, but I've learned that English fashion (at least right now) is scary! It's a cross between ugly shapeless vintage and ill fitting tights as pants. Not to mention the cool thing right now (in Italy too) is to wear short jean shorts with brightly colored tights under. Dude, it's spring, just wear capris like a normal person. And that is my rant :)