Righto.
Perhaps because of the whole it's-our-last-city thing, our days in brittain have been completely packed. We completely overplanned it, and then somehow managed to see everything we planned anyways. .
Our first day, we were practically just checking things off our tourist list. We armed ourselves with a map and a google doc and just started heading towards the closest attraction we had previously staked out. This took us to all the must-sees - big ben, buckingham palace, etc. - and dropped us off at Speaker's Corner, which wins the prize for coolest attraction of the trip. The premise is that, every Sunday, you can bring a footstool to the corner of a certain park and start talking about anything at all. A crowd inevitably gathers, someone inevitably disagrees with you, and the speech inevitably morphs into a spirited debate, complete with dramatic increase in volume. After checking out several different speakers, we decided to throw ourselves headlong into a debate on religion. The crowd soon splintered into mini-debates, and we wound up in a group with a like-minded middle-aged Brit and a like-minded guy our age against a slightly older (30-40, maybe?) man. Anyways, after awhile, we realized that the issue was not so much that we disagreed as it was that he was somewhat insane (and I mean that literally - he tried to convince us that we all had two angels on our shoulders, one writing down good deeds and the other bad deeds, and when you die they weigh the lists and see whch one is heavier. He was completely serious). At that point we decided to leave, but it had been nearly two hours and we all agreed that it had been a blast.
Other cool thing we saw while walking around: there was an invisible man street performer. He had his hat cleverly supported by his coat and his glasses dangling from his hat, while his head was inside the jacket itself. It looked awesome.
Next day we hit some secondary sights via bus. It was pretty much right up my proverbial alley. We watched a court case in Old Bailey (the British courthouse, if you couldn't puzzle that one out on your own). It was fairly interesting, and also the court officials all wore those white curly wigs that you thought they discontinued sometime in the nineteenth century. We then went to an econ museum associated with the bank of England (the brittish Fed), which all of us enjoyed. We then had some fish and chips (French fries, for you bloody Americans), just to be stereotypical. The last night was fun, and fortunately, unlike many fun nights before it, the next morning was fun too.
We got a fair amount of sightseeing done on our last day, including a holocaust library and the national galleries. Then we watched harry potter 6 (which I thought was phenomenal, but the others disagreed). It had a number of hillarious parallels to our trip. The ron potion scene is chris (in certain situations you may be able to divine). The harry-dumbledore potion scene is cameron-kunal, respectively, in Rome. I was also greatly amused by the fact that a certain couple I once knew is portrayed hillariously accurately in the first half of the movie, in both mannerisms and appearance. Seriously - watch the movie, folks.
So now I am a-bloggin' from the cold hard airport floor, awaiting my flight tomorrow morning (for which, bytheway, I managed to book the same kickass seats as before). This is probably the last summary update. This may devastate some of you, but I will make a few summary posts as consolation. Or maybe not; who the hell knows.
Update from the plane: this seat is actually not so amazing after all, because I am sitting next to a family of four that seems content to let their 4ish year old kids run amok in the area I thought would be reserved for my feet. They keep kicking my tv (not cool) and tripping over my legs (which, I'm finding, is a pretty entertaining alternative to the on-demand system). They don't even have British accents! Spending a few days in London affirmed my previous belief that there is absolutely nothing funnier in the world than small children with thick English accents.
Thursday, August 6, 2009
Saturday, August 1, 2009
A proper sienne-d off
Mon suer has informed me that the river in Paris is pronounced "senn". I hope she is happy.
So after doing practically nothing for a day after our late night Eiffel fiasco (which, indeed, ended that night), we decided to have an easy night down by the sienne. This was a blast and made me love Paris even more. Then we returned to the hostel, made fun of the receptionist with our dear english friends (the consensus was that he hates fun), and slept because we had managed to put all the big stuff off to the last day.
But we managed to see it all. We climbed the Eiffel tower early, which was decent. I like heights and they did a good job pointing out the relevant parts of the city from up there. Then we visited the arc d'triomph (sp?), although we failed to climb it. It is located in the middle of an exceptionally busy roundabout, and we didn't find an easy way to cross. Of course, it was only after that that my mom and sister told me they would disown me if I didn't climb it (or something like that - it was a strange email).
Then we went to the louvre, which was awesome. It's almost unfortunate that so much good art is in one place - after awhile different works start to eclipse each other and look generic even though I'm sure they're not. At any rate, there was still plenty to mull over. Apparently my three amigos have never heard of winged victory or madonna on the rocks. Is that ridiculous or what? Madonna on the rocks was my favorite painting, because it looked so strangely posed. It's a good thing, too, because I had to drag my faithful companions through half the museum in order to find it. For all it's virtues, the louvre is not a well-designed museum.
After an easy night at the hostel, we spent the next morning at Notre Dame, which was just like any cathedral, only more so. Then we passed a pleasant train ride under the Atlantic ocean, and now here we are in London.
On our way to the hostel, we came across a strange bicycle-polo game. Hoping there's more stuff like that to be found in London.
Our hostel is the exact opposite of the last - very nice amenities-wise, but the people aren't so social. But people come and go in these places, and that could change. Although were not here long before we move on to London hostel number two.
Oh, and one more thing I forgot to mention in my Switzerland post. They have the coolest urinals ever. One was a soccer game, another lit up if you didn't have enough water in your system, etc. It's Switzerland, I guess, so what else are they going to do with their money? Loan it to the united states government so that they can then give it away to nonprofitable financial institutions? That would just be ridiculous.
So after doing practically nothing for a day after our late night Eiffel fiasco (which, indeed, ended that night), we decided to have an easy night down by the sienne. This was a blast and made me love Paris even more. Then we returned to the hostel, made fun of the receptionist with our dear english friends (the consensus was that he hates fun), and slept because we had managed to put all the big stuff off to the last day.
But we managed to see it all. We climbed the Eiffel tower early, which was decent. I like heights and they did a good job pointing out the relevant parts of the city from up there. Then we visited the arc d'triomph (sp?), although we failed to climb it. It is located in the middle of an exceptionally busy roundabout, and we didn't find an easy way to cross. Of course, it was only after that that my mom and sister told me they would disown me if I didn't climb it (or something like that - it was a strange email).
Then we went to the louvre, which was awesome. It's almost unfortunate that so much good art is in one place - after awhile different works start to eclipse each other and look generic even though I'm sure they're not. At any rate, there was still plenty to mull over. Apparently my three amigos have never heard of winged victory or madonna on the rocks. Is that ridiculous or what? Madonna on the rocks was my favorite painting, because it looked so strangely posed. It's a good thing, too, because I had to drag my faithful companions through half the museum in order to find it. For all it's virtues, the louvre is not a well-designed museum.
After an easy night at the hostel, we spent the next morning at Notre Dame, which was just like any cathedral, only more so. Then we passed a pleasant train ride under the Atlantic ocean, and now here we are in London.
On our way to the hostel, we came across a strange bicycle-polo game. Hoping there's more stuff like that to be found in London.
Our hostel is the exact opposite of the last - very nice amenities-wise, but the people aren't so social. But people come and go in these places, and that could change. Although were not here long before we move on to London hostel number two.
Oh, and one more thing I forgot to mention in my Switzerland post. They have the coolest urinals ever. One was a soccer game, another lit up if you didn't have enough water in your system, etc. It's Switzerland, I guess, so what else are they going to do with their money? Loan it to the united states government so that they can then give it away to nonprofitable financial institutions? That would just be ridiculous.
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