Kickoff in London

 Yes, I still owe you basically the entirety of my summer travels through Southeast Asia. But in the interest of maybe actually keeping current this time, just a quick update to let you know I have kicked off the next leg of my journey! I'm going to be in Europe in some fashion or other for most of the next year (that's the plan, at least), and right now I'm all set up to experience the holidays in London. My first Christmas away from my family, which is going to be odd. 

(This is from a few months ago, I am not dressed like this in London in December)

Of particular interest this first day, if I manage to stay awake for it, is that I have landed and made it to my hotel in time to catch England in the World Cup quarterfinals! If I'm on a second wind when the game starts I'll probably try to wedge myself in a bar somewhere near my hotel
with the faithful. If I'm fading fast, I'll watch it in my room but throw open my windows so I can hear the city lose its mind when they score. 

Trainus Interruptus - or: Bonus Time in London

 Going to jump way out of order here. I know I still owe you the rest of my time in Kerry (I haven't even started on all the fun stuff!), and the highlights of the last couple of weeks in London. But for right now, I'm going to tell you about this morning, because UGH. 

Long-time readers may recall a short trip I took to London during college, in which the first day was A Day That Will Live in Infamy. It actually wasn't that bad, if I were to lay it all out, but it was just very frustrating and tiring and everything seemed to go out of its way to go wrong. This morning has been a bit like that, though it is finally looking up. 

After several days of dithering about perhaps cutting my trip a few weeks short due to the skyrocketing Covid numbers over here, I finally decided on a middle ground of heading to the relative isolation of the countryside for a week and then heading home a week earlier than planned. I was supposed to take the train from London to Windermere today to start the final leg of my European jaunt. It was all going well - I got all packed up and checked out of my London hotel without incident, walked the few blocks to get to the train station with direct service to Windermere, and the train station at Windermere is only a few blocks from my inn. No transfers, no taxis, no nonsense. So smooth and simple. 

Well, no. 

Apparently there is some sort of "severe weather" event going on somewhere along the tracks, and all of the trains going to Windermere have been canceled. The workers at the station kept assuring me that my ticket will work tomorrow, but well, the ticket isn't really the concern! Having no place to sleep tonight is the concern. My place to sleep tonight is over a hundred miles away! 

I spent about an hour trying to find a cheap hotel that wasn't a hostel dorm (not willing to go that route during the pandemic). That wasn't working. I tried finding hotel rooms in Preston, the furthest town the train was actually going to. Shockingly devoid of any places to stay whatsoever. I finally remembered that I have travel insurance, and surely this sort of thing must be covered. Couldn't get anyone on the phone since apparently they keep US business hours, and my not having a place to sleep tonight was not deemed an "emergency." But I was finally able to dig up a copy of my policy, and confirmed that there is indeed coverage for up to two nights of "trip delay" reimbursement. I found the absolute perfect place, just a few minutes walk from the train station and cheap enough to qualify for full reimbursement. One room left. I pulled away from the screen just long enough to double check the conversion rate of pounds to dollars, popped back in literally less than 90 seconds later, and in that time someone snuck in and booked the room out from under me. 

Can I just tell you, in case it isn't already immediately obvious, a last-minute booking in London for a Saturday night, especially when there are probably several hundred people all in exactly the same boat as me, is not easy to come by, nor is it cheap. I tried two more hotels that were less conveniently located, but still "affordable" (a laughable usage of the term by any other standards). Again, they were sniped while I was trying to book them. I finally ended up in a pretty posh place that is over the reimbursement limit in the heart of the West End. Hopefully my insurance reimburses me for part of it, because this was literally the best I could do! But I finally just went for it before even something that expensive was no longer an option, and even if my claim somehow gets denied, hey, that's what the emergency savings is for. Emergencies like having nowhere to sleep! 

Still more drama trying to get to the hotel, lugging my enormous backpack the whole way. For some reason the Euston Underground was temporarily closed for about 15 minutes, and security guys were blocking all of the entrances, and it was just this chaotic crush of people. I had my mask firmly in place, which of course made me a sweaty mess, and kept causing my glasses to literally slide off my face and onto the ground if I so much as glanced at the floor. Took over 20 minutes to just get to the Tube (for reference - the Euston train station and the Tube station are one and the same, just above ground vs below ground. I didn't have to walk anywhere, all I had to do was go down). I had the good sense to wait for the second train that was literally a minute behind the first, which the entire backlog of people packed onto, and I was able to just float over to a seat on the next one. 

And once I finally got to the hotel, I was too early for check in and my glasses fell off TWICE as I was trying to offload my bags for the porter to stash. I also didn't know it at the time, but my hair was sticking out in about eight directions, and as previously mentioned, I was a sweaty mess. I did not feel up to snuff for a swanky hotel. 

But I was able to finally remove the massive literal weight from my shoulders, and wander around Leicester Square for 45 minutes - there was a little Christmas market set up in the middle of it! I wandered through a protest in Chinatown, saw the movie theatre they held all of the Harry Potter premieres at (and sadly did not go inside in deference to the lack of vaccine and mask mandates here), and found a side street that consisted entirely of Italian restaurants. And now I'm finally in my room, and it is darling. Cool view over the rooftops of London, a robe and slippers, and a big squashy armchair. 

Not entirely sure what the next day or two shakes out like. If the ice or whatever it is clears overnight, then I'm going to continue on as planned and take my train up to Windermere and enjoy a week of hiking around in the Lake District. If trains are cancelled tomorrow as well, I think I'll just heed the Very Loud message from the universe and move up my flight home. Off to research Covid testing centers in case I need to do that! 

Benevole a Paris

Thought I would update you all on my volunteer activities here in Paris. I wasn't aware when I signed up for my program that the "Service Learning" was mandatory, but it's actually turned out to be pretty cool. It's not really what I would choose to do with my Friday evenings, but I'm coming to enjoy it.

We are all assigned, in groupings of 2-3 of us (Central Folk), to various community centers in the poorer neighborhoods of Paris. I myself am in the 19th arrondissement, in Belleville. Which appears to be Chinatown. It's a heavily immigrant neighborhood, emphasis on the Asian influx. All of our centers involve working with children.

[Side note: I forgot to mention this in my London updates, but there is an incredibly large Middle Eastern influence in London. Part of it was probably just the area I was travelling through, but I don't think I have ever seen so many hijab and business signs in Arabic in my life. I wonder what the history and politics are behind that?]

I have been assigned to a good age group- 7-9 years old, mostly girls. This makes me incredibly happy, because at this age, they are still cute and easily cowed by authority, but they are old enough to have a sense of reasoning and logic. They haven't learned how to gang up or be malicious yet. Working with kids always scares me- I always feel like I don't have the knack for it. Generally I attribute this to always being the baby in every situation. I'm still not a Kid Whisperer, but as it turns out I'm not a Kid Repeller either!

I help them with their homework for about an hour. This is where I appear to have my knack with kids, if I do indeed have one. Somewhere along the line I seem to have picked up the concept of "teaching." I don't just give the kids answers, I show them why, and new tricks. Thus far, I can claim to have taught one girl the concept of subtraction (in French, than you very much), and another girl the concept of 100 cents in a Euro. It took about ten minutes of me going through various examples (and they were probably very annoyed that I wasn't just confirming their correct answers), when suddenly the light of comprehension would explode onto their face and they would suddenly rush through and finish everything else, beaming. There's a bit of a high that comes with that. I guess the program director has noticed, because apparently he has already given my program director glowing reviews, when normally they say nothing or offer critiques.

After homework, the kids play for the rest of the time, and I sort of watch to make sure nothing goes wrong, and chat with other benevoles.

Benevole: A volunteer. Etre benevole: to be a volunteer, or, essentially, to volunteer. 

There is one guy who tends to volunteer on the same day as I do who is great fun. His name is Daniel, and he is a retired grandpa type who is an absolute sweetheart. He speaks very little English, but my French is improving, and he is very good at adapting to my level, so we are able to hold quite lengthy conversations with relative ease. I continue to get little thrills whenever I realize that I have successfully functioned solely in French for a length of time- at the end of one of my language classes, or after an hour-long conversation with Daniel about travel- where we both had been, where we would like to go, the wall in Mexico, etc. 

I have just passed the 1/3rd of the way through mark, and it is amazing how much my French has improved. I find myself using all of the grammar and vocabulary I learned at Etole (the little language school we were at for the first month) without a thought. I can follow my history class (though I do a little double-checking online in English later). I still have a long way to go, but I'm starting to feel the effects of total immersion, the way I wanted to before I came. It was so frustrating, the first few weeks, when nothing was happening. Now, I still have twice this amount of time to go, and I've already come this far. I sometimes have to consciously stop having my mental conversations in French, because I realize that whenever it is I have them, I will be someplace where they speak English. As it is, my mind has gotten used to the fact that everything is in French now, and automatically gets to work on translating anything that comes into my mind as potential speech (i.e. imagining future emails, future conversations, etc.). 

So, nothing too exciting from a tourist standpoint, but some nice little personal victories. I hope to update you soon with some plans I am making for Scotland, once they become more concrete! 

Zen and Future Travel

I've come to a new philosophy just over the past couple of days, and I'm pleased with it. I'm no longer going to stress out over getting to all of the places in Europe I want to go before June. I'm only twenty. I will be back in Europe. This means that my Spring Break will be much more relaxed (also likely cheaper, which is a bonus), and the rest of my time in Paris will be more relaxed.

This weekend, I am not biking the Loire Valley. This is mostly due to the random foot injury of London Day One , but I'm actually very okay with the decision. I am certain there will be a few regrets when I see all of the pictures of chateaus that the girls will post, but it means I am not gone two weekends in a row. I've done that before, and it is very tiring.

This is how Spring Break is shaping up:

After my classes that Thursday (I have no Friday classes), I am going to take the Eurostar up to London again, then catch the overnight bus to Edinburgh. The other option was an overnight train, and this is much less expensive and apparently not sketchy. I will be sleeping on Clarissa's floor for a few of the nights, but then Katie will be arriving and booting me, as she made her plans first. So I'll move into an excellent hostel I found nearby. Need to confirm the exact nights I'll be doing that....

While in Edinburgh, my plans are to laze about and sight-see and enjoy the city for several days, then take a trip to the Highlands (probably the first weekend, with Clarissa, but that part is still in the planning stages) for a day or two, and I think I will also take a day trip to Glasgow, the coast, or a good castle on a different day. I doubt I will do all of them, because I'm finding that I like having slightly extended vacations places, rather than jumping about like crazy. Spring Break freshman year, I spent the entire week within the city boundaries of Dublin, and had a wonderful time.

Then, in the wee hours of the following Sunday (a little over a week later), I will fly first to London and then to Athens via EasyJet, and meet up with a group of Central Folk who are doing Greece together. I'm not sure of the exact timetables, but I think we have a night in Athens (Sunday night), then 4 or 5 nights on Santorini, then another 1 or 2 in Athens. So, I'll have time to see some sights in Athens, but spend most of my time lazing on a Greek island and swimming in the Mediterranean!

I think it sounds like excellent times.

That all starts up in a little more than a month, and in the meantime, I have a weekend in the South of France coming up in about two weeks, I think. I think any additional traveling might take place the week after classes end, if I can find someplace to stash my stuff in Paris, or taking an extended layover in Iceland on my way home, or just the next time I travel to Europe! I'm no longer stressing about hitting Barcelona and Italy and Prague and Amsterdam and Berlin and somewhere in Scandinavia and... even making the list gets me tired and stressed.

Really, when you think about it, this is the way people approach being anywhere except Europe on study abroad. In New Zealand or Australia, it would be very expensive to go most anywhere else. I don't hear too much of people doing inter-Latin American travelling. If they do, it is one place, for one week, on Spring Break, and that's it. And it's a big deal. Whereas, by the time I fly home at the end of May/early June, I can be assured of having done the following:

1. Walked across the Thames
2. Walked across the Seine
3. Hiked the Scottish Highlands
4. Swum (swam? I honestly have no idea which goes here) in the Mediterranean
5. Eaten a crepe in front of Notre Dame
6. Visited the Parthenon 
7. Seen castles
8. Lived in Paris!

4 countries, the capital cities of all. Not too shabby. I am counting Scotland and Great Britain as different countries, but I'm not really sure how that works. And this is assuming no final week of traveling. 

I predict that this will lead to a significantly less stressful rest of the semester. And I'm not really missing anything- I'm just not smashing it all into the next three months. As previously mentioned, I like having longer periods of time places. Time to develop a favorite restaurant, to see all of the little things to see, to not feel guilty when I want to spend an evening in. I was able to see a really impressive amount in London, but let's face it- most places don't have those tour buses. I tried to look for something comparable in Paris, and they all run over 100 euro each. For a day tour! Ridiculous. [Side: I did find some English-language walking tours though, which I am excited to try as soon as I buy some flats that aren't flip flops] And I didn't get to see plenty of places in London- Greenwich, Notting Hill, or the insides of most of the places we passed. So not running around for more 2-day stays in major cities works for me. Yes, it would be nice to have a list 12-strong of countries I visited when I fly home, but I think I've found a nice mix of stretching my boundaries and comfort level and doing what will make me happy and keep me zen. I value my zen. 

Thoughts?

To finish, the formatting was being weird when I was finishing up London Day Three, so a few pictures got left out. Once we made our way to Trafalgar Square, we wandered the National Gallery for about an hour, mainly in the Impressionists, and then she departed for her train and I spent my last free hour walking around the Tower of London (though not actually in it). Behold:

Soaking wet and lugging an extremely large backpack in front of the National Gallery in Trafalgar Square

Can you see Big Ben in the background?? From the steps of the National Gallery

   

Inside St. Pancras. It seems so wonderfully International Traveller, doesn't it? I felt very grown up and glamorous. 

London: Day Three

The very wee hours of London Day Three were lightly disrupted by Katie scurrying about to get to her early morning flight, but then Clarissa and I re-zonked and had a nice rest until around 8, when we hopped up and headed into central London again for our day. She had a train at 5, I had a train at 7.

The first order of business was The Changing of the Guards at Buckingham Palace. This only happens every few days, and by chance it was happening that morning (Sunday). It officially starts at 11:30am, but we wanted to be there early so we could actually see.

The "Front" of Buckingham Palace

People lined up to see the Changing of the Guard

Some guards changing!

The would walk right up in our faces, then spin around and march off. A few of them were adorable and wished us a good morning as they approached. Always the guys in the fluffy hats, never the other one.

The band gets ready to march off.

The new guards, I am fairly certain

Then we wandered through an extremely expensive neighborhood on our mini-adventure to Hyde Park (trying not to get too horribly lost on the way). 

This one is for Daddy 

We still don't quite know what this sign was telling us

It started raining when we hit Hyde Park, but we persevered nonetheless.... 

Our other main goal of the day was to take a walk Clarissa found in her Rick Steve's Great Britain guide, from the Eye of London to Trafalgar Square. We hopped the Tube from Hyde Park to the Eye, and on our way stopped by an amaaaaazzzzing bakery/sandwich shop. We think it was called The Queen of Tarts. HIGHLY recommended. 

I cannot even explain how utterly amazing this cake was. Marble cake with what I believe to be buttercream frosting. Moist and vanilla-ey and oh so excellent

Oh so wet

National Gallery in Trafalgar Square

We are confused by the black telephone box

Also possibly worried

London: Day Two

London Day Two was a pretty excellent day all around. Yes, my foot still hurt, but beyond that, yesterday was pretty much put well behind me.

The night before, I had checked on the first tours of the morning, and so set my alarm to have me up, breakfasted, and in central London at that time. It went swimmingly. I was tired enough the night before that I had gone to sleep plenty early, and sleep quite deeply, so I was up and bouncing with my alarm. Wasn't thrilled with the breakfast offerings (I'm finding breakfast to be quite an anemic affair in Europe thus far), but remembered the hunger of yesterday and scarfed down a quick bowl of cereal. I checked out and was on my way! Knew the right bus to take this time, and where to get off, and was on my tour bus easy as pie. As it turns out, I could have saved myself some of the stress of the previous night by just reading my ticket- the ticket was valid for over a year- the 48 hour countdown wouldn't start until I exchanged it on the bus! So I was good through Sunday, should I care to go cavorting after my friends returned to their respective countries.

Now comes the picture heavy part. Are you ready?

The Marble Arch

I got on at the Marble Arch. Apparently this area is where all of the public executions (hangings) were carried out for hundreds of years. A few interesting phrases came about from this:

1. The hangings were a hugely popular form of entertainment for the masses. Thousands would turn out (hangings were only held every few months, and multiple prisoners would be executed at a time), and the over-consumption of alcohol was commonplace. Thus, the effects of such an indulgence were dubbed a "hang-over." Not only was it the effect of alcohol hanging over from the night before, but it was the lingering effect of the hanging.
2. The prison were the condemned were kept was almost a mile away from the hanging grounds, and the men would naturally not feel overly cooperative during the transportation. To counter this, it was standard policy to get the men insensible with drink so that they would be compliant as they were walked down the road to their deaths. Thus begins the phrase "One for the road," the road in question being the one that leads from what is now the Old Bailey to the modern home of the Marble Arch- or from the medieval prison to the gallows in London. 
3. Finally, the guards that drove the wagon that watched over the prisoners had to be stone sober- thus, they were literally "on the wagon."

The regular double-deckers, as seen from the top deck of my sight-seeing bus

All of the fancy car dealerships line Hyde Park- including Aston Martin!

We drove past Buckingham Palace (though not in front- buses are deemed commercial vehicles and thus not allowed to drive across the... East Front? It's actually the back of the house- the front faces the gardens. But they don't want to call it the back, so it is I believe called the East Front. Or whatever other direction it faces.), and then over to Parliament, with Westminster Abbey and Big Ben. 

Crossed the Thames for the first of many times that morning, and had our classic view of Old Facing New- Big Ben and Parliament directly opposite the London Eye. 

We wound our way past Downing Street (not on Downing Street- it appears to be cordoned off. Security, one presumes) and through Trafalgar Square for the first of many times. I cannot tell you how many pictures I took of Trafalgar Square, and how hard it is to actually get a good picture. I blame the extreme height of Nelson's Column. Also, it had started to pour at this point, so I moved under the little bit of cover at the front of the top deck, and was unable to get as many good pictures from that point. 

Nelson's Column, as I believe it is called. Many people think it is Napoleon standing a top the column, because of his stance, but it is actually Admiral Nelson himself- he lost an arm in battle, and kept his sleeve pinned over his chest. Moreover, Nelson and Napoleon were archenemies, so a statue of Napoleon would never have the place of honor in a place dedicated to Nelson. 

Fountains in Trafalgar Square

Rainy London!

From that point, we wound our way through the City of London. This is actually distinct from London the city- the City of London is a little 1-square mile chunk that is the original Roman settlement. The boundaries are marked by dragons! Central London is made up of the City of Westminster and the City of London, and London itself of 30-something boroughs. 32? It's the number of pods on the Eye of London, at any rate. 

This is what most of London would have looked like pre-Great Fire. All wood. Can you see why the fire spread quickly?

Dragon! Also, London Bridge!

We went past the Tower of London (which I explored on foot a little the next day) and crossed the iconic Tower Bridge- twice!

Fun note about the Tower- when it was originally built, it was in the middle of the Thames. But when the Thames was wider and shallower, it build up a horrible stench. One year during Victoria's reign, it got particularly bad, and she had a genius architect figure out how to build inwards. So now the Tower of London sits on the edge of the Thames. Which explains why I honestly thought that the prisoners were kept in the Tower Bridge up until last weekend. Because I knew it was in the middle of the water...

I got off briefly at Leicester Square (apparently pronounced Lester), which is where they have held all of the Harry Potter premiers, and dabbled with the idea of getting lunch, but it was freezing and no place appealed to me, so I hopped the bus for another half go-round and then took the Metro to meet these lovely ladies...

The ladies

The Katie

The Clarissa. And the New Hair. 

We found an Italian restaurant straight away for lunch. Very yummy food, pretty snotty waiters- at least one of which was actually Italian. I myself had my first every gnocchi- in a wonderful gorgonzola cream sauce. Oh yes. I think I'm a gnocchi convert, and now I'm absolutely dying to make the pumpkin gnocchi in gorgonzola cream sauce recipe I have saved on my computer.... But that's for another season, on another continent. Must concentrate on Europe right now...

We checked into our hostel, after wandering around in a complete circle to get to the right street. We literally chose the street about 10 feet to the left of our intended street, and walked counter-clockwise (read, further to the left) in a huge circle for about 20 minutes until we reached the proper street. We are silly that way. We had our own room at the hostel, one actually meant for 3! It had a twin bed and a queen bed. Katie had a very early flight, so we let her have the single bed, to minimize early morning disturbances.

We had a show that night- Our Private Lives, starring Colin Morgan. A-ma-zing. Totally twisted, but then, it is billed as a black comedy.

Must end now so I can post before my internet runs out!