Tue Feb 17
I’ve been delaying writing this, because it just takes so much effort, but I guess I should start.
I decided I should split up the weekend in half because there is just too many days to write about. So this is PART 1.
This blog is about Thursday and Friday, Feb 12th and 13th.
Thursday Morning.
I wake up for London. Yay! No snow this time!!
We took the train and got into London before noon. We dropped off our stuff at a very nice hotel. Actually, the hotel looked ok from the outside and in the lobby and corridor, but the room was very nice.
Making tea in the hotel:
Our first stop was the London Museum. This is me blowing my nose while we are waiting to go inside J
(again, please click on the pictures to see them bigger, they do more justice that way)
And then checking out the picture of me blowing my nose.
I know it was only morning, but for some reason, I was really tired already and my legs hurt. I also was just not in a museum mood. So when we went inside, Angela and I walked around for a bit, until we got bored very quickly. We found these refrigerator magnets for kids to play with. This was the part of the museum where it told of the great London fire. So all the magnets had to do with the fire. We decided to arrange them. This took us like a half hour:
I know.. it’s terrible.. but we did it for a good laugh.
Also, we took pictures in a hut, that people would have lived in a long time ago, sweeping, cooking and (holding baskets?):
After the Museum, 8 of us pretty much ran through the tube and the streets to the Absolut Ice Bar. Our reservation was at 5:45 and we didn’t think we were going to make it. The Ice Bar is something Megan Homestead (for those who don’t know her, she is a friend of mine who did a semester in London last semester) told me about. We had tried to go last weekend, but it was full, so this time I booked it online ahead of time for the 8 of us.
The Ice Bar is exactly what it sounds like. It is a bar made entirely out of ICE. The bar counter is ice, the big blocks that serve as tables, the chairs, the chandelier, and most importantly, the glasses you drink out of are pure ice. They give you these coats to wear. They are huge and you wear them over everything you’re wearing, including backpack. And they had gloves attached! Which came super handy when drinking out of an ice glass!
Here’s the pictures:
Sitting in my ice chair and licking my ice glass
Ice chandelier and Ice table
Lauren, Angela and I
I also took some handstand pictures in there, which look funny because I was not allowed to take off the giant blue coat, so it covers my upper body when I am upside down. I’m sure those pictures are great .. but sadly they were not taken with my camera, and I haven’t been able to find on who’s camera they are yet! I’ll put them in here as soon as I remember.
So, I do not drink that often, and when I do, I pretty rarely get really drunk.. so I have to warn you right now, this is the day that I probably drank the most in one day, ever. I started my night with 3 drinks at the Ice Bar. (All with Absolut Vodka, since they are the sponsor who made this bar) Then we went to this buffet. I thought I wasn’t even hungry, but I ate a lot (surprise surprise). It was so good. I had half a glass of wine with this dinner.
Then, again, we were running late to our next destination. The next thing we did was very cool. We went on a “Jack the Ripper” tour. One of our professors, Andy, is actually the one who let everyone know about it, saying that whoever wants to come is welcome, and I think everyone came. Andy knew about this tour because back when he was an undergrad and studied abroad, they were doing this same tour and he took it.
After doing it, we came to find out that it was not done the same way Andy remembered it. Andy’s was a pub-crawl, where they went pub to pub, grabbing a pint while listening to the tour about Jack the Ripper.
Ours was not at all a pub-crawl. Our guide took us from place to place telling of the stories of Jack’s victims. If you do not know anything about this guy, he was a murderer in London in 1888. All his victims were women prostitutes. He mutilated most of them. He would cut their throats from one side to another (although speculated by the police of the time that he strangled them first to actually kill them, from the lack of squirted blood everywhere), and then cut their bellies open and took the guts out. Anyway, now that you know this happy history, our tour guide walked us through the streets where this all happened and at each stop would tell us of, “This is where this victim lived..” “This is the spot where her body was found” and also told us of the poor people’s living situations of the time. Which was actually very interesting. Up until the age of 2, my family (only 4 at the time, no Vallie yet) lived in Russia sharing an apartment with other families. Each family had ONE ROOM. Many people I know think that’s crazy when I tell them that. But this guy told us that poor people in London lived with multiple families to a room. (Along with chickens and any other live food they had.) They had ropes on the wall for people who didn’t have a home, and would come and STAND against the wall, tightened with a rope, to sleep. It would have been way too dangerous to sleep outside, so standing up is better.
Crazy huh?
The tour was great. The guy was a GREAT storyteller. He could have made the whole thing up and I would have believed him. (He didn’t..) Here’s a picture of him talking to us.
I do have to tell you something about pub-crawls in England though. I have learned about this tradition here recently and it is pretty awesome, I might say. I’m sure you picked up that a pub-crawl is kind of like, bar-hopping in the US. You go from pub to pub, having one pint in each. The tradition here though is, when you do a pub-crawl, you DRESS UP. When I say dress up, I don’t mean put on a devil-horn headband, and say “I’m a devil!” I mean these guys REALLY dress us. A friend we made here named Miles told us that he went and did a pub-crawl in drag once. I thought his story was funny, because I didn’t realize how normal this was. Then, only an hour after Miles tells me that, a group of like 8 guys walk in, CRAZY dressed up! One is a Telletubby. Full-on big green suit; One is Moses; One has a “Super Lover” costume. Anyway, thought I’d share this awesome tradition. I guess Halloween is not enough for them here.
Anyway. Our tour ended in front of a pub. He told us that he’s done, but we are welcome to enjoy this pub (that existed in Jack’s time? I think?) We each had a drink there (me a cider), but it was way to crowded. We headed somewhere else. We found an empty bar, which soon wasn’t empty when 20 of us came in! The bartender was this older man who was sooo nice! He refused to take our tips and he gave us more than we asked for. (When I explained a car bomb as “half-shot Bailey’s, half-shot Jameson” he gave me a double shot glass with a shot of each in there. As if a car bomb’s not killer enough already!) Anyway, first I had a White Russian (because.. I am one.. and its my favorite drink). They don’t have those there either, I had to tell him what to put in. Then someone threw out the idea of Car Bombs. (Parentals, a car bomb is a drink that is a half a Guinness, and you drop a shot into it and drink it fast, you’ll see in the pictures) Anyway, I was the one to order them. I after telling the bartender what it was, I asked for about 5. Then people kept adding in, so I was like, “No, 6”. “No, 7”. “No, make 8” .. and he just kept making more. Finally, there were 10 of us, including one of our professors!!
I’m telling a story about pirates? I dunno..
And then, another White Russian
After that it was time to head back to the hotel. (I don’t really remember that adventure.) Some people decided to keep partying in someone’s room, but I PASSED OUT as soon as I got to my bed. (Next day we found out that our group got into big trouble with the hotel for that party upstairs. They were way too loud, and they broke a bed. We almost got kicked out of the hotel. Good thing I fell asleep so fast, so I wasn’t there!)
Anyway, in the morning, Friday the 13th of February, we had a great breakfast. The Traditional English breakfast: eggs, ham, sausage, fried tomato, beans (none for me) and toast. Quite delicious, (except the ham was weird.)
Our trip today was to Westminster. On our way, some great photos were taken:
Of course, me and jumping pictures.. love ‘em
In the TUBE
Westminster is the parliament building of the UK. This is it from the outside and a pic of the whole group waiting to get in.
When we got in through security and were waiting for our guide to go in, I saw this shoe print on the ground. Look! It says VAL!! You like that, little one?
We got a guided tour through the building, which was pretty cool. They took us through the great halls and living rooms where lords, even from hundred years ago would have their tea while they read and answered their mail. We walked through the actual parliament rooms where the Prime Minister speaks. We learned where the phrase “Keep your toe in line” came from. In this room are two sides of bleacher seats (soft cushiony bleacher seats) where opposing sides would sit. There is a red line on the floor in front of each side and we were told the lines are two sword lengths apart. This is because in the old days, when people carried swords, they would stay on their side of the court room, not allowed to cross the line and if both reached out their swords, they would just *clink* their tips, and would not be able to hurt each other. FUN FACT!!
We also saw where the Queen sits when she joins this parliament. There is a huge gold structure that goes around and an overhand over the chair. A LOT of gold in one place. We were not allowed to take pictures anywhere in there.
After Westminster, Angela, Lauren, Henry and I had lunch at a pub. It was quite delicious!
After lunch, we were not done with historical stuff. Next was the Imperial War Museum.
Me doing a Straddle Press in front of it:
This was my favorite museum by far. I was actually really tired that day from the long day already (and too much drinking the night before), that when we got to the museum, Lauren, Angela and I could not stand another minute without coffee. So I sat down in the museum café for about 30 minutes. When I started walking around the museum, I immediately regretted my 30-minute delay. As a result, I only saw 2 exhibits, and now really hope I go back again to see more.
First, I walked through “The Children’s War”. This was an exhibit showing what it was like for British children during WWII. It was so sad. There was so much detail and information I probably spent an entire hour making my way just through this exhibit. There were letters and pictures of children from the war. One quote that really struck me was someone looking back, and saying how some children understood that this was a hard reality, but many children thought it was a “great adventure”. That quote made me think of the movie, Life is Beautiful where the father and young boy are in a Nazi Camp, and the dad pretends for the boy that they are in a fun, magical place so that the boy doesn’t know they are in a terrible place. (My eyes are totally tearing up right now, thinking about that movie.) The exhibit told of how kids were sent all over the world, like Australia, to be away from combat, and therefore away from their parents. With the war lasting 4 years, many young children could not even remember their parents after 4 years. There was a quote from a girl that said that upon returning home, and waiting at the train station to find her parents, she stood for quite some time because she could not recognize them, and they could not recognize her.
They had a lot of pictures of kids on swings and happy in “the country” and away from the war, and letters to their parents about what it is like there. One was that really cute and funny said something like, “Mum, they have something here, they call it Spring. They have it every year!” .. Because.. haha.. England is always cold, the kids don’t know what warm weather and a sunny sky is!
It was also interesting to see propaganda from the war. They had to posters right next to each other, one saying, “Mothers! Send your kids to the country where they are safe!” and others saying things like, “Keep your kids at home!” Another, I forget what it was talking about, but it said something like, “Don’t do (this), it’s what Hitler would want you to do!” And has a picture of Hitler whispering into a mother’s ear.
The youngest boy to die in combat was 14, which is crazy to think that boys that young would be let into the army, but I guess desperate times call for desperate measures. The youngest person to die in the war was a baby 11 hours old. I could not even imagine what it would be like to have a baby growing inside you for 9 months, go through labor, have a healthy baby come out, only to be bombed – or whatever happened – and have that baby killed 11 hours later.
The other exhibit I walked through was the WWI. That exhibit did not hit me so hard because I honestly could not remember the details of that war. WWII hit close to home for me, remembering the reasons for war, where it was fought, and knowing people who were there. But WWI did not. The only part that really stuck out to me from the WWI exhibit was the real-like trench. I walked through what an actual trench would have looked like in WWI. It was like a cave, because the ceiling was black, with no lights; the lights only coming from the soldiers’ stations – very life-like – and the noises they had in the trench felt like it was very real. I was honestly scared walking through there. The statue figures were life-sized and looked real, they were even “talking” to each other, and one was talking into his radio. I didn’t think to get a picture of it, I am really bad at that, but here’s a pic Bailee took. The flash does not do the trench justice by lighting it up too much and making the figure look fake, but you get the idea,
Also, this pic shows a part with the trench walls on one side and a fence to open space on the other. Most of the trench was walls on both sides with only about 2 or 3 feet of room between. .. Man! I should have gotten a picture!!
What I did not get to see in this museum was exhibits on other wars, as well as more exhibits about WWII, like the holocaust exhibits. I will make sure I go back there during another free weekend, because like I said, this museum was amazing. I loved it. And I didn’t even get to see half of it.
The last thing of this lovely Friday the 13th, was going back to the hotel to get ready for the play. It was my first time wearing a skirt in England!! We went to a theatre to see a Shakespeare play. I’ve never seen one before. We saw Taming of the Shrew. I had no idea before hand what Taming of the Shrew is about, so I asked Angela and she said that the story from the movie “10 Things I Hate About You” is based on that play. I’m glad she told me that, because that is THE ONLY reason I had any idea what was going on! And since the movie is only based on the play, and is really quite different, I still had no idea most of the time. This is partly because I was super tired (it was a long day! Look at how much you’ve read!!). And also probably because we were so far from the stage. (They were good seats, but were really high up.) So, sad to say, I found it boring, because I really did not understand it L
I went to bed Friday night peacefully. Because of last night’s trouble with the hotel, our group had made a pact that in order to get on good terms with the hotel tonight, no one was allowed to drink. Which was just fine with me. There was no way I would have drank anyway. That was the first thing I said when I woke up in the morning. I don’t understand how people could have a hangover, and WANT to drink to get rid of it. Drinking is the LAST thing I want to do after a wild night. So to end this longggg blog, I have to tell you that Friday night was very relaxing, Lauren, Angela, (my hotel roomies), and I, just watched TV. It was the British version of SNL. Lily Allen was the guest star. It was hilarious.
Now aren’t you glad I split up the blog? This is just HALF!!
