Part One: London!

I figured that since I have finished the first part of my journey, which from now on I will refer to as my "bounce around the world tour 2009," it was time to post something. For those of you who do not know, I am spending this semester taking some time off to travel around Europe and South America a bit. This is all very new and exciting for me as I have never done any travel outside of the United States save for Canada where the biggest culture change I experienced was the fact that they called hot dogs "tube steaks".

So, after many hours in JFK that convinced me that the whole thing about getting there three hours early is some sort of scam to make people spend more money once locked in the terminal, I boarded my plane. The pilot predicted turbulence which made me excited. Yes, excited. I think I am about the only person in the world who actually enjoys turbulence. Something about it makes it feel more like an actual ride, a roller coaster or something. Anyway, I sat next to this very old Irish lady whose family referred to her only as Nana. She slept most of the time; most of which she spent leaning on me in a very awkward position. But who could possibly wake up an old lady called Nana? Not me.

I had a brief layover in the Dublin airport and then it was on to Heathrow in London. After about 45 minutes of circling over the London fog, which has been a staple of my five day stay here, we we finally got the o.k. to land. Tired and confusedly hungry (the airplane's beef ravioli left my stomach confused), I collected my luggage and wandered through the airport. As I left the gate I was met by my friend Jordyn from Trinity! It was very nice to see a familiar face after the several hours of travel. She knew the subway system quite well and we were quickly on a train back to Queen Mary, University of London, where she is studying for the semester.

We arrived at her campus in Mile End, in the East end of London, where I dropped my stuff and went in search of food. At a small cafe type place I got what I thought would be grilled cheese with tomato but turned out to be toast with unmelted cheese and a nice cold tomato. Oh well, it was still pretty good. Then I proceeded to nap for a while and try to catch up on sleep (a truly exciting arrival, huh?).

When I awoke, Jordyn and I set out for my first sights of the city. I can't quite remember the areas we walked around but we wandered for a bit and then found a pub to get some dinner at. Fittingly, I had some fish and chips (which slightly redeemed the London food scene from the fake grilled cheese debacle). We then left and attended another pub with Jordyn's friend Jill who is doing the same program as her.

The next day brought some very cold, foggy weather. We attended the Globe theater, which I will count as the first dorky English major thing I did on this trip, and then went over to the Tate Modern museum which was really cool though quite the strange building. By Sunday, the cold weather had passed (but not the fog and clouds) and we went to a bunch of different markets. The first was called Brick Lane and the second Old Spitalfields, a name that I find quite gross. The places were filled with more clothes than I have ever seen and lots of painfully hip vintage things.

Monday, I had my first day of exploring the city myself. For the most part, it went really well. I have to admit, I did some of those shamelessly touristy things. But hey, I've never visited London before and I really wanted to see the sights a bit. I took the "tube" (not to be confused with the aforementioned Canadian hot dog) to Hyde Park corner where I walked through some parks down to Buckingham Palace. I then continued on through St. James park (I've been really impressed with the amount of parks in London) to Westminster Abbey and the Embankment, Houses of Parliament, all that stuff. Then I hopped on the tube again and went up to this funky part of the city called Camden Town. It was filled with all sorts of shops and markets and fun stuff. My personal favorite was in this tunnel, known as the horses tunnel because it used to be stables, where they have kept the stables and instead of real horses now have big horse statues. Very interesting.

Day four, Tuesday. I went about the city alone again. A little bit of a late start as I haven't quite been able to adjust to the whole time change thing. I went on quite the long walk from Mile End down to the Tower of London (marking about the fourth historical place I didn't go in because it was absurdly expensive). On the way, I walked through some more really interesting shops and and markets. Got to see some gambling on the streets; a version of what I think is kind of like three card monte? I'm not sure. You know, the one where the guy has three things, in this case little black disks, and you have to guess which one it is. If I wasn't so timid I think I could have won a bit of money. He wasn't very good and most of my guesses, which I kept to myself, were right.

So, I walked around the tower of London a bit and then across the Tower bridge which I found out was not the actual London bridge, more on that in a second. I walked up the the bank of the Thames and then back across the actual London Bridge which, despite the fact that it has its own song, is not as impressive as the Tower Bridge. A long walk home found me back at Queen Mary.

For my last day, Jordyn joined me in my wanderings. We sort of went at it aimlessly and just walked around, allowing me to take lots of fun pictures. I'm really into jut wandering around. I'd have to say it is my preferred way of travel. I must say, for me, the highlight of the day was the run down sort of graveyard we stumbled upon. Turns out, it is the burial place of Daniel Defoe and William Blake! (Dorky English major sight number two).

Now I am back in the dorm where I await my bus! Today, well this morning, well whatever it is (it is currently 1:30 a.m. here) I leave for Prague! The unfortunate part is that the cheap flight was at 7 a.m. meaning that in order to buy into that scam of getting there very early (thanks travel anxiety), I have to board a bus slightly before three a.m., transfer to another bus, then board a train out to the airport. Shouldn't be too bad provided these buses do actually run on time which Jordyn assures me they do.

So yeah, the trip is going very well so far! London has been great and I have seen a lot of great stuff and my share of weird things, most of which occurred on public transportation. A brief sidenote, on my train in from the airport a woman boarded the train with her seeing eye-dog prompting another woman to ask her if she was blind. Needless to say, this prompted a very angry response of, "Of course I'm blind! What kind of a stupid question is that? What do you think the dog is for?" The other strange instance happened on a bus when a woman asked an elderly lady if she could have the empty seat next to her which the elderly woman stubbornly refused to give up. This prompted about a ten minute verbal battle about respect, disrespect, the elderly, the young, and who "owned the bus." All very weird. But London was a super starting place and it was so fun to see Jordyn! Many thanks to her for the hospitality and lovely place on the floor.

I am very excited to go to Prague where I will be staying with my friend Oz from Trinity whose family lives there. As an added bonus, my good friend Vince, also from Trinity, is there visiting and we will overlap for a few days. I can't wait to see Prague; I've heard many great things about it.

So, for those of you who may be reading this thing, I will try and update as often as possible. Feel free to leave comments, suggestions, or anything at all. And thank you so much to all of you who sent me travel advice and offered places to stay. Much appreciated!

Hope all is well with everyone!