This Time Last Year
London
November 7&8, 2015
What a hectic (but very fabulous) weekend. 40 hours in London is not enough.
That being said, I am rather impressed with how much I managed to pack into those few hours.
Day 1 - After arriving late the previous night, I crashed. I took full advantage of having a hotel bed significantly larger and more comfortable than my dorm bed, it was incredible. The group met for breakfast in the hotel the next morning (it was the most impressive hotel breakfast. They had custom coffee machines, coco krispies, a bar of hot food..okay mostly I was impressed by the coffee and krispies). After breakfast the Galway group met with the students studying in Dublin and we took a walking tour of the city with a real Londoner. She was great and knew a lot about the city, and had a lot of insight about how London has changed in the past few decades and what London pride is all about (its not all about the monarchy, she says). We saw Big Ben, Houses of Parliament, Trafalgar Square, Westminster Abbey, and St. James Park before taking a break at the Borough Market.
The Borough Market was an expanse of little shops and stalls selling all sorts of homemade and sometimes homegrown foods. There was bread, fudge, cheeses, sausage, fresh juices - we even found one place that sold ostrich, python, and kangaroo meat. After grabbing lunch we walked around the corner to see the street where Diagon Alley was set in the Harry Potter movies, and I convinced a couple of girls to accompany me to the Southwark Cathedral, which was really beautiful. The group then walked along the river and saw the London Bridge (which is actually just a series of bridges, the bridge labelled ‘London Bridge’ is really less than impressive) and Tower Bridge. We toured the Tower of London before heading back to the bridge. There are multiple stories of the bridge and one level has glass floor, so one can look down over the river and watch boats pass under the bridge.
We saw the London Eye on our walk to buy theatre tickets, then wandered around Leicester Square for a while. It was decorated for christmas and string lights were strung between the buildings with giant sparkling snowflakes scattered among them. It reminded me of Times Square, all the lights and big buildings and street performers. My little group got dinner before heading to Kings Cross Station where our theatre was. We had some time to kill so of course stopped at platform 9 3/4 for a photo op.
We had tickets for In the Heights, a show I have been wanting to see since it won the Tony for Best Musical in 2008.
Day 2 - A calmer day, spent mostly alone before having to leave in the afternoon to head back to Ireland. I started with a trip to the National Gallery Art Museum. I know very little (read: nothing) about art and artists but I like looking and trying to learn more through visiting these museums. Plus, museums are cool. It was a good morning. I had a little time before I was expected anywhere so I wandered around the city with no particular purpose. I ended up at the river again and there were street performers set up on the sidewalk and people drawing chalk murals. I saw a bit of the Remembrance Day parade before walking around in St.James Park, where I saw all sorts of birds! I’ll do a post about the birds later, because they were very interesting and I had never seen lots of them before. After wandering for a bit I took the train to visit Angela and her little family, my Grandpa’s friend and colleague. She made us afternoon English tea and talked to me about her work and asked me about what I would like to do. It was a great way to end the trip and I am so pleased I got to spend time with her and see what a real flat in London is like! I had to rush back to the hotel to meet the group and we headed back to the airport and back to the emerald isle.
