London--All Over the Map-Last Day

Slept in a little bit today.  Started out by heading to Camden in North London.  It was another rainy day today so I spent some time hiding in a Starbucks.  Camden is a very hip part of London.  It's a weird mix because it's definitely a touristy area (especially on the weekends) but it still manages to hold on to it's outsider cache a bit.

I love wandering through the stalls in Camden.  There are always really cute shirts and dresses to be had, and not very expensively.  The other side to that of course being that they aren't the kinds of shirts and dresses you expect to last for very long.  But I like walking around there and walking to the Lock.

The World's End--Famous pub right next to the Tube Station.

T-shirts for sale.

Shops on the Main Road in Camden

Food stall right near the begining of the shops by the Lock

Camden Lock

Camden Lock

Camden Lock

A boat in between the locks as the water rises.

After walking around Camden for a bit I headed to Hyde Park & Kensington Palace.  I love walking around Hyde Park.  On all of my other visits (except for when I lived there) I always stayed in a hotel or rented an apartment near Hyde Park.  I walked around Hyde Park taking pictures then went to the Palace.  

Tina had given me a ticket to go in and walk around.  It's much smaller than Buckingham Palace and doesn't seem like a "palace" at all.  It's hard to imagine it as somewhere people would live, now that it's a museum.  There was a room dedicated to royal fashion.  So it had all of these glitzy dresses in a glass case.  And there was a wall with lots of drawings on it that for some reason reminded me of the wall in "Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory" that you could lick and it tasted like whatever you'd licked.

Can you imagine trying to get through a door in that dress?
Or sit or do anything?

They had embroidered pillows for
the kings, queens, princes, and princess
going back a couple hundred years.

The garden at Kensington Palace.

To help you keep fresh on your journeys.

I've alsways stayed in the Bayswater area when I've visited.
It's relatively centrally located and has a lot of inexpensive
hotels, hostels, and apartments.  And Queensway has lots of
stores for food and pubs for drinks.

Then I walked over to Piccadilly Circus, which is a bit like Times Square with all the bright advertising signs.

Piccadilly Circus=smaller Times Square.

From there I walked over to Trafalgar Square where the National Gallery is.  I didn't go in this time but they do have some great artwork in there.  Trafalgar Square was known as the place to go to feed the pigeons, although that has been greatly curtailed.  

When I was there, there was a giant electric blue rooster on top of the fourth plinth.  Apparently the plinth was supposed to have a statue on it that never got erected and since the early 2000's various contemporary art works have been placed there for 18 months.  I got the rooster.  It's an interesting juxtaposition.  The very bright, modern piece of art that is the rooster next to Nelson's column and the famous 4 lions. 

Hahn/Cock (the blue rooster) and
Nelson's column in Trafalgar Square
and the London Eye in the background.

National Gallery in Trafalgar Square.

Famous London double decker bus.

So after all of this walking about, it was time for me to head back to Tina's.  I will be leaving tomorrow for Leeds to meet my teammates and get ready for my first derby bout abroad.  I'm so happy that I have had the opportunity to revisit these cities.  They both hold a special place in my heart.

Paris is just so beautiful and elegant and mysterious.  I just can't help but be in love with the city aesthetically.  And I love listening to people around me.  Even if I don't understand nearly as much as I would like to.  Paris is like that girl who just seems to have her shit together.  She's just really cool and confident and a bit intimidating.  But also you feel like if you can break that shell, get to know her, she's just super sincere and amazing.

London is like the most fun chick at a party, but not in an attention seeking way.  She just loves to make you laugh.  She wants you to have a good time.  She can be a little bit cheeky, but that's what you love about her.  She can be a bit of a whirlwind.

I just love them both.  I could go back once a year and still be excited every time...discover new things everytime...and revisit cherished old haunts everytime...

When do I get to go again?

London-- My First Full Day

So I got up relatively early-ish.  I knew it was going to be a long day as I was going to be going to practice with the London Rockin' Rollers in the evening and didn't want to have to think about coming back to Tina's, so I knew when I left the house that morning I wouldn't be getting back till around 10pm.

As I was walking to the train station I saw a dead fox on the sidewalk.  I assume the fox got hit by a car and maybe they moved it out of the road or it got to the sidewalk and died.  Anyway, it didn't like too gruesome except for the one eyeball that was popped out of the socket. Which was still pretty gross.

Made it to the train station without passing any other dead animals and headed to South London.  I walked on the South Bank along the Thames passing by the Tate Modern, The Globe Theatre and the London Eye.  

One of the great things about museums in London is that a lot of them are free.  Well, they ask for a donation.  But their form of asking for a donation is to put a box by the door and leave you to it.  Not make you walk up to someone at a desk and tell them you don't want to pay the full amount.  I guess I shouldn't care or be shy about paying what I want, but I do.  I like that there is just a box there for you to pay what you want, or really not at all.  It makes are so much more accessible.  And they seem to be doing okay, doesn't seem like the Tate Modern will be closing any time soon (hint, hint MOMA!!).  

Tower Bridge.  Often mistaken for
London Bridge.  So I've heard, someone
wanted to buy this bridge and asked to buy
London Bridge, which they got, but it
wasn't the bridge they meant, and now
it's sitting somewhere in Arizona.

The dome of St. Paul's Cathedral
in the background.

Shakespeare's Globe Theatre

Screw the girl, that's Eddie freakin' Izzard.
My damn phone had no battery and
I would have been too nervous
to ask for a photo anyway.

Small skate park on the South Bank.

Public toilet on the South Bank

There was a South Bank festival happening.  Lots of books
for sale.  I couldn't even allow myself to really stop.

The London Eye and Thames River

Big Ben...Parliament...
Big Ben...Parliament...

 After walking along the South Bank, I walked over Westminster Bridge and eventually ended up in Chinatown and walked to Covent Garden.

Bar located in Covent Garden.

The pub was crowded so I was sharing my standing table with
a group of three.

    

Performer in Covent Garden.  The view is from the balcony
of Punch & Judy

So after walking around all day I went to the London Rockin' Rollers practice.  I wasn't sure what to expect.  I had contacted them to see if I could come to a practice since I was going to be away from my own practice for so long.  And they asked me if I wanted to run the practice!  I was surprised and flattered, but also a bit nervous when I got there.  I didn't want the practice to be too easy or boring.  I wanted people to learn stuff but also have fun.  Everyone was super nice and I think the practice went well.  I had a good time leading.  

After it was over, I rode on the tube with a couple of the girls, then realized I had totally miscalculated where I had to get off.  So had to backtrack a bit, which wouldn't have been too terrible, except I ended up running into one of the girls while I was checking a map and had to be like, "Yeah, I'm an idiot who can't read a map and didn't get off at the right stop."  But it was okay because it was early enough that the tube and trains were still running and I didn't have to spend a ton of money on a cab or sleep in a hotel lobby (hello, year 2000).  Got back to Tina's okay and hit the hay looking forward to tomorrow.

London--Day .5

It's hard to say my first day in London was a full Day 1 as I didn't get in till around 5 or so.  I left Paris and took the train.  At the train station in Paris I had to do a sort of exit interview with Border Control for France, then I walked about 10ft and had to do entrance interview with UK Border Control.  They were literally within spitting distance of each other (if you were a really good spitter, or using a straw and spitballs).  You could see one set of desks from the other.  I didn't get much in the way of questions from the French border guards--what did they care, I was leaving, but I got a couple of questions from the UK border guards, but who could say no to my cute mug?  LOL.

So I got onto the train.  And before we left I had 2 different people try to tell me I was in the wrong set.  I wanted to be like, "Listen, I've traveled enough to know how to read a fucking ticket.  I'm not in the wrong seat!"  One person wasn't even in the right train car.  Whatever, I love train travel.  I like looking out of the window and seeing the landscape pass by.  Seeing towns zip pass the window and wonder, "Who lives in that town?"  "What are they doing right now?" "Is someone standing at their window watching the train go by, wishing they were me, going to wherever it is I'm going?"

There is something about train travel in Europe.  The thought that within hours you can be in a completely different culture, speaking a different language...it's amazing.  In the time in may take me to get to the Jersey Shore during heavy traffic, I could travel by train from Paris to London.  In the time it took me to drive from New Jersey to Cleveland, Ohio, I could be on a train from Paris to Batcelona.  It's nuts.

Once I got to London I went to meet my friend Tina.  I was going to be staying with her and her family while I was in London.  I met Tina when I worked in London about 10 years ago.  She and I, and our friend Kate all started on the same day at the London Eye (at which time we had a debate about the merits of certain boy bands). Tina and I got a beer at a couple of pubs near her job and then grabbed a cab to bars in a different area to try and catch part of the Germany v. Brazil World Cup match.  The bars were packed.  I guess not surprisingly.  I did think it wouldn't be that hard to squeeze in two people, but we spent at least 15 minutes looking for some place to watch the game (and in the meantime Germany scored like 3 times will we were walking around and all we could her was the screaming).  We did finally manage to find some place to sit down and have a couple of drinks and watch Brazil get thrashed.

Germany v. Brazil 7-1, ouch!

How convenient!  A holder for your drink
so you don't have to put it on the floor,
try to balance it on the toilet roll holder or
hold it in your hand while trying to get your
pants down.

One thing about public transportation in London and Paris is that the subways don't run all night so you have to take the Night Buses, which I guess run on some kind of schedule, but I could never figure out what it was and it never seemed to be going anywhere near where I needed to be.  (Pretty sure that was because I was too drunk to really figure it out, but, well...)  So we didn't stay out too late.  Where Tina lives is kind of like me living in Montclair in respect to the city.  Trains run on a schedule and not all night.  So we didn't stay out too late.

It's definitely one of my favorite cities.  It's like New York in the sense of how busy it can feel and the shops and shows and theatres and hodgepodge of cultures, but it also feels more laid back.  And it's got some of the "old world charm" that you find in older cities that have a history that you can see and feel.  London has those old builidngs like Westminster Abbey and that old world feel in the traditional pubs and random tiny alleys.

I was ready to get out the next day and see London.