Now here comes the second half of last weekend.
Saturday the 14th (Valentine’s day), Sunday the 15th (My birthday) and a little of Monday the 16th:
Sat:
Breakfast at the hotel was delicious again. Then the group left all our stuff in the lobby (we had to check out), and went to the Tower of London. Here are some pictures of the outside, before we entered:
Handstand in heels.. didn’t work so well
I am still not quite clear on what all the uses of this place were. I know one part of it was a prison, mostly for important people. “Locked up in the tower.” Elizabeth I spent time here when she was young. She also watched her mom (they would say mum here), Queen Anne, get her head chopped off there when she was six years old. (Man, they loved beheading people at that time.)
We also saw the tower where she watched from.
Some people were locked up in the tower for decades so a lot of graffiti is left there in the walls, graffiti meaning carvings in the walls.. no spray cans in the 1500’s. Some carvings were so detailed, I am sure they took years and years.
But this was also a royal palace. There is an exhibit of the royal crown jewels in here. There are crowns from past kings and queens as well as ones from today. These things don’t even have a value because they are so priceless.
I walked around the Tower with Bailee.
This is me walking up one the many spiral staircases up the towers
And with Mr. Guard
After tower of London, our official weekend tour was over. Some people went home to Bath. Me, there was no way I was going to waste being in London! Me, and the 15 other people I booked a hostel with went back to our hotel, got our stuff, and went to the hostel. After dropping off our stuff, many of us went to that Lebanese place that I wrote about last weekend, Ranoush Juice.
They specialize in lamb and chicken, but this time, I decided to be brave and try something new. I went for “Spicy Sausage”. It tasted good, but I think it was med-rare.. which.. I don’t think is how sausages are supposed to be.. it scared me a little.. Next time I’m sticking with chicken. Way to be brave.. and get burned..
After Ranoush Juice, many went shopping. Just like last weekend, I didn’t feel like it. And I finally figured out why. I wanted to shop, but I had no interest in walking around stores. What I really wanted was cheap, Berkley-style shopping: small stores, or.. no stores at all, but people outside.
Not getting this, while everyone else got to shop how they wanted, put me in a bad mood for some reason. So when we went to the pub in Whole Foods, (that’s right, Whole Foods has a pub), I fell asleep, because I didn’t feel like talking. Then we went back to relax at the hostel for 2 hours. I was all grumpy for a while, but I decided to stretch at the hostel, and I felt way better after some splits J Now I was ready for my birthday.
No one knew where we should go out, so I decided, why don’t we go to the bar by china town where Megan, Lindsey, my cousin Ales and I spent a couple hours last weekend. It is called the Crooked Surgeon. I thought it was fun because it was a bar atmosphere instead of a pub one. I wanted loud music and excitement on my Birthday Eve.
The plan was to go there for a short while, just to start there, and find other places to go after. When we got there, we claimed a nice little corner, and turned it into a dance floor. People kept buying me drinks, so I had a lot without paying for a single one J (I mostly had cocktails, and they are crazy weak here, so don’t worry, I was barely drunk.) We all counted down until my birthday, and kept partying afterwards. It was a blast. That was my birthday night.
We had a lot of people from our group too. There must have been like 15 of us.
After the Crooked Surgeon closed, probably about 1(?), we decided to find another place to go. We had to fight off a creeky guy who kept trying to get us to go to where he was going.. and started walking around the streets of London China Town. Angela, Megan and I got some Chinese food, (mostly because we had to pee and they wouldn’t let us use the toilet without ordering..) (Yes, they say toilet here, not bathroom or restroom) A group of 15, could not wait for us to eat, so they left. We met up 15 mins later.. and somehow, ended up at Burger King… at 2 am. .. I guess it happens when everyone’s had some drinks. After taking a couple taxi’s to our hostel, I fell asleep like that *snap*
Now Sunday. Woke up, breakfast, check out of hostel. We left our stuff in lockers at the hostel, and finally went to the place I’ve been waiting for all along: Camden Town. This a place many recommended to me before I left for England. It is Berkley-Style shopping. It was also very much like the shopping I had done in Peru, especially one area of it, which is probably why I loved it so much. It’s a bunch of tents, with people selling stuff. It is already cheap, but you can also bargain, much like Peru. I loved it. This is totally where I belong! The shopping through stores and malls, no way. This, totally my home J
I forgot to take any pictures of it, but Angela took one. This picture has construction in the way, so you cant really see the shopping, but in the distance, you can see the crazy amount of people.
After an hour or two, some people were hungry. They went to a sit down restaurant. I wasn’t hungry, nor was I don’t shopping, so Angela and I decided to see more. Until then, we were hanging out in this one area. We decided to see the shops further down the street. What we learned was that we were just skimming this place before!! There was sooo much more!! We didn’t even get to see it all. This new center we found had tons of take-away (to go) food, and there was a DJ playing music. I grabbed some delicious Chinese food, and Angela got Vietnamese. By this time the others were done eating and it was time to head back.
I decided that I did NOT have my fill of this place. Half a day here is not nearly enough. Next weekend I spend in London, I am spending ALL day in Camden.
Wanna know what I got?? I’ll warn you now… a lot of stuff..
I got a “Camden, London” sweatshirt (which is way cool. It has this side zipper going up the sleeve instead of down the middle), a peacoat/jacket (black and white plaid), thermal leggings (so warm!), a super cute scarf, leggings, a little present for my gym at home, a present for my little bro-ho, and earrings. Woo! Love it!
Then we got our stuff from the hostel, got on the train, and home to Bath. The plan was to go our separate ways to our houses for a bit, then go out for a drink or two for my birthday, but we didn’t get into Bath until 8, and after going home, everyone was way too tired to come back out again, which is OK, since we celebrated the night before.
I spent the night on my computer, skyping with my parents, called the g-ma, chatted on AIM.
Woo, 23!
Lastly, I must talk about Monday a bit. In the morning, the doorbell rang, and I signed for a huge box.
What is it? What is it!?
Its flowers! From my fam! It had a cute little card in there.. written by one of my brothers, I’m sure .. don’t think my parents would write: “keep it real sista”. And I also speculate that Val wrote it because it ends with: “Eugene, Lyuda, Konstantin, and your favorite Valentin”.
I stayed at home all day Monday doing homework, and at 630, my host family and I had dinner. What was really cute though, is that they made a big deal out of my birthday. Julie, my host-mom, remembered that I mentioned I love Chinese food, so she ordered take-away Chinese food for dinner. Her boyfriend, Chris, also came and brought his two daughters, who I hadn’t met before that. There was 7 of us eating. It was pretty fun too. Chris’ girls, and Julie’s boys get along really well. They were all laughing and having a great time. After the dinner, they pulled out a chocolate cake, lit candles, and all sang happy birthday. Then Tom (the 11-yr old), kept singing. Its kind of like the “and many more..” song, but it was completely different, something else that kids sing there after the birthday song. It ended with something along the lines of, “Don’t eat too much cake.”
That’s all folks. That is my birthday weekend in a nutshell.
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