London - like an older New England

I’ve spent a couple of minutes thinking of some clever or witty way to begin this blog, but no inspiration has come to me. So I’ll just jump right into it.

London was really awesome. I don’t think I loved it as much as I loved Paris, but I would prefer to live there over Paris – weird? Perhaps. I did enjoy it a great deal, though, it was much more friendly and familiar to me than anything I’ve had in the past couple of months, for two main reasons that I noticed. The first is pretty plain: everything was in English. This made me very, very happy, and confused me for a little bit at first. The second I realized on the bus back to the airport; London’s architecture and overall setup as very similar to (big shock here) New England back in the States. Minus the whole “New” part… I realized that it reminded me a lot of anything similar to home that I’ve seen, not to mention that I was hanging out with one of my best friends from back home, so I was in an incredibly familiar atmosphere. The only regret I have is not having enough time there… I got into my hostel about nine PM on Friday and left around 8h30 AM Sunday morning. Nowhere near as much time as I’d love to have in that city, but I feel like it’s one of the European cities I can return to several times in my life… hopefully. It’s made me realize that I really want to go backpacking in Europe after I finish college. Starting to save up as soon as I get back in the States!

So, London itself. I had quite a good time… I landed in Luton airport, about thirty miles outside of the city, and it was – surprise – raining. I was quite happy to be back on the ground, though; unsurprisingly after my whole January death threat, I still rather hate commercial flying (though I love going up with my dad!). Anyway. Killed some time at the airport before taking the two-hour bus ride into town, snoozed. (I had been up until seven or so the night before, listening to the Angels CRUSH the Red Sox! Still so joyous about that. This did mean, however, that I was exhausted.) I killed time by watching some TV in the court room of my hostel, the Clink, then went down and had a drink or two in the bar while waiting for my friends to come into King’s Cross. Met some interesting people, mostly Australians. Went to bed after Cally and gang got there, around three. This hostel was again quite different from the Aloha back in Paris; twelve beds instead of six. Kind of interesting.

Saturday we got up early, had breakfast, went on a free tour around London where we saw all the main sights, including the Changing of the Guards. (See Facebook album http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=113885&id=605917964&ref=nf for more on that.) Our tour guide, Pip, was very cute, very adorable. We went out to lunch as a giant group with him, and I had, shock and amazement, fish and chips! I figured it was part of the local cuisine, and I had to. It was pretty good, fishiness aside. After we wandered around to some of the sites before going back to the Clink. The rest of the night was spent napping, Henri, Cally, and I went to dinner over by the London Bridge (Mediterranean food, it was amazing), and then we just generally lounged around. Then Sunday I got up nice and early, hugged a sleepy Cally goodbye, then headed back to the bus and back to Luton.

So I definitely need to get back to London, that’s my first thought. I feel like there’s so much more that I need to see, though I think I got the basics done. Lets see… I rode the Underground plenty, I lost one day ticket and had to buy another (a single trip is four pounds and a day trip is 5.60 (Cally, you still owe me back for yours!) so you should really just buy a day…), though when I discovered I had lost mine I did end up having to dash through the exitway after an old lady in order to get out of the Tube. Other interesting stories… Oh, being in London the day that Obama won the Nobel Peace Prize was definitely interesting. While he’s generally liked overseas, I think just about everyone’s response is “wait- what? He hasn’t even done anything yet!” Talked with several people on that, getting generally the same opinion from everyone. So to finish that off, I know that I have at least one night in London left, the night before I go back to the States. Many thoughts on that… I could spend my last night in Europe drinking, or just wandering the city looking at the Christmas decorations, I could go to a play… The possibilities are limitless. I think I’ll be staying in a hotel rather than a hostel, though, since I’ll have two giant suitcases full of stuff, and I’ll pay for the extra security.

So, other life other than London… how about other travels? Yesterday, made two big travel plans: bought my plane tickets to Italy for a week with Becky, and plane tickets to Geneva for a weekend with Danita. Both look to be fun… Italy will be from October 23rd – 30th, we’re flying in and out of Rome, but hoping to go via train to Venice and Florence. Yet the stupid Italian train website doesn’t accept American credit cards, so we’ll just buy tickets when we get there. It’ll be an adventure, really. As well as that, I’m looking at another Paris weekend and a weekend in Edinburgh, both in November. Add Lyon into the picture, and I have a whole of three spare weekends before I leave. Not complaining at all, though, really. While I love Bordeaux, I see enough of it during the week, and I don’t necessarily need to be here all the time. On a good note, though, it’s cooled down so it’s in the sixties. Not quite the cold I was looking for, but I suppose we’ll get there eventually. (And if not, hell, I’m going to Edinburgh and Geneva!)

Other news… classes are fine. Uninteresting, surprisingly enough. Still on a baseball high after the Angels utterly crushed the Red Sox – I couldn’t help but whoop when they walked Torii, and then first pitch Vladdy hit gave us the win. Classic. Trying out our washing machine for the first time since we got here… The door doesn’t work so you have to use a knife to open it, which made me a little hesitant (I don’t exactly want my clothes to be stuck in a laundry machine to get mouldy) but the others have been using it without any problems, so I figure why not. Maybe my clothes will actually be clean now… What else. Honestly, there isn’t much going on right now. Travels, trying not to spend money while in Bordeaux. Classes. Trying to make my bright blue coat a signature trait of me and coldness. (And damn was it cold in London! Even though it was bright and sunny during Saturday.)

I think that’s all I have to say for now. Peace out.