To Market To Market To Buy a ? ? ?

As much as I have loved seeing the 'sights' of London like Big Ben, London Bridge, and the Tower of London, some of my favorite experiences are when I'm walking around the city just doing normal everyday things. Visiting London's markets is definitely one of those everyday experiences that are just awesome! I've been to Portobello Rd. Market twice. Portobello Rd. is in the Notting Hill area, as in the movie Notting Hill. In fact, the sceene where Hugh Grant walks through the market and the seasons change was shot in Portobello Rd. The best day to go to Portobello Rd. Market is a Saturday when it's packed with people and things to see, taste, and buy. Notting Hill itself is very eclectic and so is the market. You can find just about everything in Portobello Rd. Market from magenta leopard-print tights to flasks, to knockoff purses to paella and crepes. If you're claustrophobic you might want to go early and avoid crowds, but otherwise you just have to elbow you're way in to see what you want to. There are a good number of clothes booths which are for the most part cute, but sans dressing rooms, so I tended to avoid those. There are great purses there if you take your time and shop around before buying, the nicer knockoffs are more expensive, but you can find decent prices. Pashminas are a hot market item as is sparkly jewelry of all varieties and persuasions. The market also has a good number of antiques booths. I bought some teacups and saucers which were really pretty, but I'm sure would not make it to Antiques Roadshow. One thing that I was not expecting to find was a food market in the middle of everything else. There is produce, cheese, meat, seafood, and readymade food, too. I sampled some paella which is made in huge pans. I chose chicken paella in saffron rice with beans mixed in. Delicious! I've also visited Borough Market which is made up of only food. Everything there is incredibly fresh and looks tasty. The prices aren't too bad there either. You could easily eat breakfast and lunch there while you shop. There are Indian booths, Italian, traditional English, baked goods, fresh juices, etc. The only drawback is that every booth you pass tempts you to buy something to enjoy!

Final Week!

So I have been decidely lax about updating my blog in the past two weeks! Shame on me. I'll try to make up for it in this entry. This last week I've been checking things off my list of stuff to see and do, so my days tend to be a mishmosh of experiences all over the city. Today I made it out of bed in time to get a decent spot and watch the changing of the guard at Buckingham Palace. The best part was hearing the guard's band play. You would expect them to play really stuffy music, but they were fabulous. They played marching band type songs that you would expect to hear at a parade or a football game. They also played some jazz which was awesome! I then sauntered over to St. James Park where I ate my lunch under a tree. I felt so bohemian and chic! It was sunny and gorgeous for once so I read a book and watched everyone go by. The parks are definitely one of my favorite things about London. They are always full of people and they are all gorgeous. I hopped on the tube after lunch and rode north to Hampstead Heath. Hampstead Heath is part park and part forest. It was nice to wander around for a while. They also have a house there which acts as an art gallery, so I looked around. Then I stopped for tea around four o'clock as any true Londoner would. They have a cafe in the park looking towards the garden house. So I sipped my wild berry tea and delicately nibbled my scone with clotted cream and jam while gazing at an adorable little cottage with roses and wildflowers growing all over it. I read my book again and just enjoyed the atmosphere. I wandered around the rest of the park then hopped on the tube to visit Abbey Road, the shrine for all things Beatles here in London. The long tube ride was putting me to sleep and I almost decided to call it a day and go back to the dorm, but I pushed through and made it. The studio itself is right behind the famous cross-walk where the Beatles were photographed. Obviously you can't go in because they are still actual studios there. Oustide there is a white wall enclosing the studio where people have written their names or Beatles' lyric. When in London . . . I chose the lyric from "Hey Jude" where they sing "take a sad song and make it better." I added "Let It Be"since that's another of my favorite songs and then added my name and the date. I also walked the famous cross-walk and took numerous photos of the ground and different people crossing it. It was definitely a trip highlight for me. "All you need is love, bum ba bum ba bum"

Triumphant Return . . . Sort of

Well I enjoyed Scotland, but missed London and was glad to return last Sunday. The best and worst part of Scotland was taking a ghost tour around the city's most famous graveyard on Friday the 13th. Of course, we did not realize that it was Friday the 13th until we were already on the tour. It was a little scary but mostly fun and interesting. In fact, a ton of Harry Potter references in the cemetary and Edingurgh in general because that is where JKR wrote the first few books and where she lives. Heriots school in Edinburgh was said to be a school for witches and wizards in the 16th century, and Heriots and Hogwarts are not too far from each other. Also, Goblet of Fire features a cemetary very prominently, hmmm. Anyway, the worst part was that it rained on the tour and during our walk home so that we got soaked and I got a cold. Boo, hiss! Anyway, I am on the mend and trying to see as much as possible during my last few weeks here in London. Monday I spent an hour at the National Portrait Gallery and only made it through the first floor! However, I got to see all the portraits that really mattered to me, namely Shakespeare and Jane Austen. In fact, the NPG houses the only life-drawn portrait of Jane Austen! There were a ton of great portraits of lesser known authors, royalty etc. They also had the famous Gilbert portrait of George Washington. Then Tuesday I packed in the Charles Dickens House Museum, the Sir John Soanes Museum, and a stroll in Hyde Park. The Sir John Soanes Museum exceeded all expectations. Soanes was an architect who purchased No. 12,13,14 on Lincoln's Inn Fields (a street) tore them down and rebuilt them according to his own designs. He was also a ravenous art collector. The house itself is incredible! There are mirrors everywhere reflecting all different aspects of the rooms as well as sort of riotous windows that are yellow and red and even purple. So when the sun shines in, as it did on Tuesday you can see the entire room change color. Going back to the mirrors, I should clarify that they aren't all normal looking-glass sort of mirrors, but some are small circular ones placed in ceiling or outlining something. Then there was a sort of courtyard inside the house covered, literally every inch, with Greek and Roman sculpture. Busts, full length statues, small pieces of buildings, columns etc. In the middle of this courtyard you can look down and see the sarcophogas of Seti I of Egypt. Another room was decorated in the regency style with a gorgeous circular skylight and a painted design on the ceiling. Another room had rotating walls that were filled with pictures and etchings he had collected. Then downstairs you could see the heiroglyphics on the sarcophogas! So unbelieveable. The basement was a little eerie, but playfully so. There were some skulls in one room, along with gothic statues and on one windowsill a grinning Chinese dragon cast in black stone that, for me at least, resembled a lap dog. It was so cute! I was tempted to take it home with me, but I think if I had tried security ninjas would have jumped out and tackled me. One final touch to the basement was that when you walked back up the stairs to the main house there was a small window through which you saw a complete human skeleton, literally, hanging in a closet. I laughed out loud, it was so funny and disturbing at the same time. Upstairs the sitting room was bright yellow with red and white windows. It sounds really disgusting, but for whatever reason it worked for this house, in an old-fashioned sort of way. There were also some beautiful views of the park across the street from the upstairs windows. But, the best part about the Sir John Soanes Museum was that all the gorgeousness and creepiness was absolutely FREE! Sir John intended his house to be an example for architecture students and art lovers to be able to come and view his collection. Hence the mishmash of Greek/Roman/Egyptian/Gothic/Chinese dragons. It was the kind of house where you could visit it a hundred times and see something different every time. Walking through rooms multiple times I definitley saw different things. Probably my favorite museum of the trip thus far. Although, the Jane Austen house could definitely trump that. We'll see if I get there or not!

Alas, Parting is Such Sweet Sorrow

Alas, faithful readers this weekend I will be traveling from my home away from home here in London and will not be able to post again until Monday. Never fear though, I will supply one final installment before this commercial blog break.
To finish my thoughts on Stonehenge, it was indeed an awesome sight. The audio guides said that up to 1/3 of the stones remain anchored underground, so they are actually much larger than what you can see. Also, some of the smaller stones come from a remote place in Wales, and scholars don't really know why they were brought from so far away to be placed in the circle. I was also surprised to learn that the circle of stones actually developed over hundreds of years and was changed and redesigned by many different groups of people. The stones themselves have inspired a number of tales about how Merlin or even the devil were responsible for their location. One interesting thing about the stones is that they sit right next to a highway, which sort of ruins their ancient and mysterious atmosphere, however in the next few years the highway will be routed underground, so that the site will not be disturbed. The surrounding coutnryside is absolutely gorgeous with lots of sheep and rolling green hills.
Before I depart, I also have to tell you about my favorite part of the trip so far . . . visiting the Globe Theatre and seeing Shakespeare's The Merchant of Venice performed!!! At first I was not so enthused about the performance because our tickets were for the groundlings section of the theater. During Elizabethan times, and today, the groundlings stand for the entire performance. On top of that, the Globe does not have any sort of roof to protect the audience, and if it rains, the show must go on. Of course it did rain, and of course you are not allowed to use umbrellas and of course I got soaked. So that part was not so good. However, seeing the Globe Theatre as Shakespeare would have seen it, being only five feet away from the stage, and watching The Merchant of Venice as Elizabethan theatregoers would have was unbelieveably cool! My English nerd popped out again. I took pictures of the stage and the theatre, though not of the play because that is not allowed. Standing in a crowd of people, hearing their laughter and sorrow all around you, looking up into the night sky, and hearing Shakespeare's beautiful poetry was a feeling that words can only faintly describe. My feet hurt as they have never hurt before (we also went on a walking tour that day!) but it was all worth it. And, I will get to see two more plays there, Love's Labours Lost, and Othello!!!

Stones on a Hill

So, I promised more about Stonehenge. Here goes . . . As I've said, we drove an hour from Bath to get to Stonehenge. At the time we had just left the Jane Austen Centre without getting to tour the museum, so I was not particularly excited about the long drive to see a bunch of giant stones sitting on a hill. The drive was not bad, though. On the way we saw something called the White Horse. Bath and the surrounding countryside sits on top of a layer of chalk and a very distinct form of land art has sprung up because of this. Centuries ago, I believe when Celtic tribes still inhabited the area, the layer of soil was removed from the hills in the shape of different symbols, sometimes dragons, sometimes horses, or even geometric shapes. In the case of the White Horse a huge White Horse was imprinted on the hill which can be seen from miles away because the chalk is so bright against the grass. That was awesome in and of itself. I guide told us that every few years volunteers clean the White Horse so that it will stay bright fro years to come! It's sort of strange to see a huge white horse in the middle of farm country, but awesome at the same time. When we arrived at Stonehenge we picked up our audio guides and walked to stones.
I must say that compared to auido guides in the states, the Brits are much more theatrical. Their auido guides contain sound effects and sappy admonitions to "Turn in a circle. . . Take one last glance at Stonehenge and the surrounding countryside." It made me laugh, at least. It was enjoyable to watch the people actually turning in a circle, trying not to look foolish.
Apart from that I enjoyed Stonehenge a lot. Right now we're off to a briefing at the Treasury Department (also called the Exchequer!) More later.

The Immortal Bard

We've had a constant stream of Shakespeare since we arrived in London. We've been reading The Merchant of Venice in class and on Saturday we took a train to Stratford to see where Shakespeare was born, and later was buried. The town has been built up as a tourist attraction with all things Shakespeare. The Royal Shakespeare Company has a theatre there and there are street upon streets filled with shops and restaurants with names like Shakespearience, or Montague House. We picniced near the river Avon where is a sort of mini carnival with a merry-go-round and some game booths. There are a large number of barges on the river and a good number of swans ans ducks, all kept well fed by gullible tourists such as ourselves who enjoy feeding them. The house where Shakespeare was born was very interesting. First you're taken through a small exhibit on his life and writings then you walk outside through gardens and into his family's house, which was quite large in comparison to historic houses from say, Williamsburg. Shakespeare's father was a glove maker and a community leader, so I guess he did fairly well. There's not too much in the house from when Shakespeare would have lived there, but recreations have been placed in the rooms to simulate the Renaissance period. I will confess that I got goosebumps being in the room where Shakespeare was born, my English nerd side came out. It was also interesting to see that the windows of the house had a good bit of names carved into them where people had left their mark on the house. Several famous authors like Mark Twain and Charles Dickens, as well as Presidents Jefferson and John Adams had visited the house. The birthplace as it is often referred has been a literary pilgrimage of sorts for hundreds fo years. Shakespeare's tomb is quite ordinary and simple, but housed in the church he would have gone to during his time in Stratford. I just realized I forgot to write about Stonehenge . . . oh well, more tomorrow!

Take the water of life freely!

"Oh! Who can ever be tired of Bath?" . . . So said Jane Austen in Northanger Abbey. Don't credit me for actually memorizign the quote, I found it in the guide book under Bath and thought you might enjoy it! Anyway, Bath was really gorgeous! It took us about 45 minutes by tube and another hour and a half on the train to get there, but I felt it was worth it. Bath looked very different from any of the other places that we've been so far. It was very hilly and the buildings were mostly white with very intricate architecture, but really beautiful against the green of the hills and the blue of the river near it, no clue what the name was. The buildings were white stone, presumably limestone, but I don't really know that either. The architecture had a gothic feel to me even on houses and shops. We passed through the town's most famous street, Great Pulteney St. and our tour guide told us that houses there sell for over 200 million pounds!!! I mean they were nice, but not overly big, they were just white stone row houses one after the other. We also saw where Jane Austen lived when she resided in Bath, at No. 4. Today it's a private residence so you can't go in or anything like that. There is a Jane Austen Centre but we didn't have time to take the tour, so we plan on returning for that. We did take pictures with the Jane Austen statue outside and the Coling Firth/ Mr. Darcy welcome plaque at the entrance. Our entire group toured the Roman Baths which was interesting, but not as cool to me as the Jane Austen Centre. The Baths have evolved over time from the Roman occupation of Britain to the 18th century when they were a fashionable place to visit for the upperclass to the museum that currently stands there. The Romans used the Baths as a temple to the goddess of water, Minerva. It was interesting that many Romans used to make pilgrimages to the baths to make an offering to the goddess and today hundreds of thousands of people make a different sort of pilgrimage to marvel at all the Romans accomplished with so little technology! It was neat to walk around the Baths where the Romans might have walked and toss in a coin to the pool where they may have made an offering to the goddess. It was incredible to see the way that the Romans were able to build plumbing of a sort and control the water the way they wanted to.
Bath also has an old abbey which was really pretty on the outside, we didn't go in. On one side of the abbey there was a statue of a woman with a water jug and a inscription that read "Take the water of life freely." So we all took goofy pictures of drinking from the water fountain there. None of us drank from the purified Roman Baths water, which is supposed to taste like sulfur. Bath also had a lot of cute shops and cafes, and although there were a good number of tourists didn't feel overly 'touristy.'
After spending a few hours in Bath we drove an hour to visit Stonehenge . . . more on that in the next post.

Wimbledon Rules!

Today consisted of shopping at TopShop after class and walking from Oxford Circus (sadly no monkeys or elephants) to Leiceister square and exploring near our flat at Queen Mary University of London (QMUL). However, yesterday we rode the tube to Wimbledon! It was about an hour's ride on the District Line, which is prettier than most because it travels outside a lot of the way instead of just under the city. We got off the tube and walked through the town of Wimbledon on our way to its legendary tennis courts. There were a ton of boutiques and cafes, a few flower shops and even a Chinese restaurant with tennis balls hanging in its outside seating area. The houses there were incredibly pretty and different from what we've seen so far because Wimbledon is a small town in the country compared to London. Although they were pretty big they reminded me of the typical English cottages you picture when you think of the English countryside. Once we finally made it down to the courts, which form an enormous complex, we planned on just walking around and taking dorky tourist pictures of the signs that say Wimbledon. Much to our surprise we could buy tickets to get in to the complex and watch courts 2-19! The gift shop was lavish but pricey. I must say it seemed like they screened Ralp Lauren models who looked very cute and British in their polos to man the counters! While we were there Serena Williams beat Sharapova, enabling us to take pictures of her name on the scoreboards and Andy Roddick was also there although we didn't see him, sadness. The entire place was gorgoeus, the flowers were so perfect that if you didn't see them in person you would think they were fakes. There were atually a lot of British tourists from all over England so we didn't feel too touristy. Also, shoutout to the Wimbledon staff they were super helpful (two staff members offered assistance when we were lost)! There was also a ton of police on patrol, our bags had tobe x-rayed and we walked through metal detectors. There was even barbed wire surrounding the entire complex! We saw a lower level women's tennis match which we also saw later on a tv in a restaurant, so we were sort of on tv . . . Anyway it was all very posh and completely British. We're keeping our fingers crossed that Serena will continue to win in the semi-finals!

Foggy London Town

Today I was in "exploring mode" as we seasoned travelers like to call it. Basically, that means that we sort of know where we're going, or at least where we want to go and meander around until we find something interesting. After our classes we hopped on the tube and went shopping near Oxford Circus. Our first stop was H&M, oh the wondrous mecca of fashion! London style is very funky, lots of prints in bright neon colors, very 80's. Sizing is interesting, even when you find the equivalent American size, things seem to be cut differently and don't always fit the way you expect them to. Being the fashion goddess that I am I was able to find a magenta top that's really cute and a purple zebra-striped scarf ( a light one that can be worn year round). If you didn't know, purple is my favorite color. By the way, British slang is jut unbelieveably adorable! People say things like in't ( isn't it) and Sign the receipt, love, or mmmm and yeah, cool in conversation. The French Connection was also very European and cute, but really pricey. Ah well, when I'm rich and famous . . .
The UK premiere of Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix was today in Leicester Square which was mobbed with people. In fact, hardcore fans started queing up yesterday to see the stars. We didn't get there till aobut 4:30 and were able to see a lot of Mercedes Benz arrive, but I did not get to meet JK Rowling or Daniel Radcliffe, sadness. However, after asking three people for directions we did find the Pottercast/Mugglecast discussoin of the movie, which was exciting for me as I'm pretty much obsessed with Mugglenet and Mugglecast (a huge Harry Potter fan website). we met a lovely girl named Emma who was from Kent and had the most gorgeous accent, if I could I would have asked for a mouth transplant, that's how cute it was.
Later, we went out to explore Charing Cross Road, which is actually closer to the Leicester tube stop than the Charing Cross stop, those crazy Brits!). We found a lot of cute places to eat on the cheap and enjoyed a refreshing gelato ( mine was pistachio, yum). Charing Cross Road has a lot of bookstores yet to be explored! I have a feeling I'll know my way around there really well before I leave . . .

Mind the Gap!

Ahhh, my first blog from across the pond! Well, actually my second because I tried to blog yesterday but my internet connection failed me. Yesterday our group bought our tube passes and familiarized ourselves with local grocery stores and such. Today we started an orientation for our classes and then went on a walking tour of the big sights of London. We started out in Green Park, which was absolutely gorgeous and full of people enjoying the afternoon sun which is something of a rarity in London town. From there, we saw St. James Palace, where William and Harry used to live, St. James park, Buckingham Palace, Westminster Abbey, the Palace of Westminster (aka the Houses of Parliament), Big Ben, Number 10 Downing St., Trafalgar Square, Leicester Square, and later on when we split into groups and went exploring we walked through Chinatown. The famous sights like Big Ben and Westminster Abbey are breathtaking, but just as beautiful are the streets in the heart of London, very expensive mind you. The architecture is so different from our own and there's lots of colour (check that UK spelling!) all over, from the doors on beautiful townhouses, to flowers everywhere ( the copious amounts of rain help with that) to the pubs and shops that line the streets. Today on our walking tour we saw Pall Mall which is filled with proper gentleman's shops and seemed to carry a lot of top hats and hunting gear.
While it may seem from my rosy description that I am sitting in an armchair with my laptop smoking a cup of tea I have encountered the usual travel experiences that make any trip laughable. It rained sideways yesterday for a good two hours while we were foraging for food, and today it would pour for a few minutes then stop and become sunny, then pour again. We also took the bus line in the opposite direction of our dorms while carrying groceries, this resultued in a small hour and a half detour, but in the end we arrived a little wet, but happy to see the dorms ( which are surprisingly nice!) Well folks, as they say in the tube, mind the gap!