la dolce vita: you sound like you're from LONDON!

Buckingham Palace

Thursday, March 3rd, I left the Global Campus after destroying my last two finals - that’s right, your girl killed ‘em out there – and then rushed home to start packing for the epic spring break adventure that was to start in just a few hours. In case you’re wondering parents, this late stage packing would later come back to haunt me, as I forgot my suspenders, a belt, and pajama pants. Anyhow, after packing I had just enough time to shower before a week of limited showers – hostels are not my favorite place to shower plus I’m not sure how clean you can really get in a dirty bathroom? At 4:15, I headed to Piazza San Marco to grab a cab to the airport where I then sat for an extra hour and half past boarding time upon being told that a strike in Bologna was delaying the flight crew from arriving. No skin off my back, I had my iPod and a good book and it was spring break…why worry?

Westminster Abbey

The flight flew by (literally) and in no time I had arrived at Gatwick airport in London. Actually I’m not quite sure you can call it a London airport since it was a decently long train ride away. The tube, as the Brits call it, was a bit confusing at first. Lines of different colors cris-crossed all over the map making what looked to me a color-by-numbers page out of a children’s book. To my utter pleasure, London is located in England, which happens to be an English speaking country (SCORE!) so I could ask for directions to my hostel in English and get a response that I could actually understand. With directions and a map in hand, I made my way to the hostel to wait for Nell and Teague to get there.

About two hours later, the handle of our room turned and the two faces of my roommates peered around the door; I quickly woke up from my doze. Spring break had officially started at this very moment! Nell, Teague, and I sat for a minute grasping the reality that the three of us had made it to London alive and had nine more days of sheer bliss to come then headed downstairs to get a plate of nachos and plan out our first day in London.

[Bossy] Ben

Bright and early, we woke up and headed to the grocery store to grab some groceries for the next couple of days’ breakfasts. English muffins (so fitting, I know), peanut butter, apples, yogurt, milk, and granola make for a lovely start to the day. And so it was! We even got to stop at a Starbucks for a LARGE cup of coffee, something we are rather deprived of here in Florence. This Starbucks even uses only fairtrade coffee so this gurl go tot have her coffee and drink it too! Then we hopped on the tube to Green Park, and oh how green it was my friends. The park was flooding with grass, flowers, trees, people jogging – basically most things Florence lacks – so the rush of happiness I felt at seeing these things was overwhelming. Across the park was the Buckingham Palace, where we had tea with the Queen. She’s quite a lady I admit, and her tearoom is splendidly decorated. Okay I didn’t have tea with her, but she did say she’d call me the next time she was free.

Ya ya, lady. Join the club.

After Buckingham Palace, I navigated us over to the Westminster Abbey. On the way we passed by Big Ben, the red telephone booths London is so famous for, and tons of little English kids who sounded more polite than anybody I’ve ever met in the states merely because they have English accents. After seeing numerous churches and cathedrals throughout Italy, I thought I was churched out. Westminster Abbey proved me wrong. This church was a treasure chest of stained glass, tombs, coats of armor, history, and possibly the most breath-taking ceiling I have ever set eyes on. Ironically, it turns out that Charles Darwin is buried here. Call me crazy, but I’m pretty sure being buried in an institution that was responsible for repressing your life’s work is a bit twisted.

Our next move was over the Tate Modern to indulge in a bit of confusion that is modern art. This museum is amazing. As subjective as modern art is, I feel extremely confident in that statement. My favorite section was titled “Poetry and Dream” which had an enormous collection of surrealist art. I got so lost in the art that even my phone lost service and I almost made everybody late for our tour of the Globe Theater. The Globe Theater was pretty interesting to see because it was a replica of the same that Shakespeare used for his performances but I wouldn’t necessarily mark it as a must see while in London.

Shakespeare's Globe Theater

Following the Globe Theater, Nell, Teague, and I went off to meet up with Emily, a friend of Nell and Teague. We met up at a pub, where I had a pint of bitters (yummm) and a pie sampler (pies included: Sheperd’s Pie, Chicken and Mushroom Pie, Steak and Ale Pie, and Steak and Kidney Pie). With full stomachs, we headed over to see a film called Archipelago. The whole movie-going thing is very different in London than we’re used to back home. The theater was extremely posh. People came dressed up and the movies had extensive info pages in the lobby describing how the movie was directed, emphasizing lighting, back-stories to the plot, and even small details like background sounds - much different from the grab a large popcorn and coke and woof it all down while watching an action movie back in the states.

Me and Nell at the pub with our pints of bitter ;)

Monkeyin' around at the zoo

The next day brought us to the London Zoo. Now, I must say that I absolutely detest zoos and it pained me a bit to contribute money to such an idea. The experience at this zoo only solidified by feelings. Upon entering the Gorilla Kingdom, I met a gorilla who sat in the hay with his hand resting on his chin bobbing back and forth with a dull gaze in his eyes. This gorilla was not a happy gorilla and I’m most certain that he would have been doing something very different had he been in the wild. Along with that, it seemed every animal in the zoo was hiding from the cold air of London or perhaps they had gotten tired of humans sitting and pointing at them all day long. I can’t say I blame them. We quickly left in disappointment and went off to Camden Market.

the fam

Now, this place is where it’s at. Camden Market is an enormous hippie, alternative market made up of all sorts of different shops (more like holes in the wall with merchandise overflowing out to the sidewalks). You can, and we did, get lost in the aisles and caverns of this market. If I had brought another duffle with me, I would’ve bought up the whole place. The stuff here is awesome and with one visit you can leave with everything you ever need for an entire lifetime or two. Not to mention, here there are food stands that have the most delicious foods you can ever want. Noodles, Thai food, Chinese food, brazilian food, Italian food. All cheap. All good. You name it, they got it. My heaven.

If you think you're drooling, you should see my keyboard right now...

From Camden Market we headed to St. Paul’s Cathedral for a quick pop in and a bit of coffee at our missed favorite, Starbucks. And then all hell broke loose. We checked out of our hostel and headed over to King’s Cross Station where our next hotel accommodation was supposed to be. Ladies and gents, do not, I repeat, DO NOT, ever stay at Melville Hotel or any of their sibling hotels. Nell and Teague walked into the hotel to give the name for our reservations while I waited outside since we only booked for two people and had planned on sneaking the third in. I soon saw Nell and Teague walk out of the hotel with a man as they beckoned me to come with them. Apparently the hotel had overbooked – how they got enough people to stay in their dump is beside me – and we were now walking to the other hotels to see if they could fit us in. Luckily, Teague’s wits convinced the frazzled bellboy (if you can even call him that) that our reservation was for three, so I suppose there’s a silver lining to this disgustingly dirty cloud. Eventually we found a place called King’s Hotel. Let’s just say no king would ever stay here. Ever. Thankfully, I had brought my antibacterial sleep sac with me which served as a clean cocoon of safety in this brothel-like hotel.

Like a knight in shining armor, Tom Simoncic saved us from our frazzled state and met us for dinner. After spending two months living with Teague, I couldn't wait to meet half of the party who raised her. As expected, I was not disappointed. To give you an idea of what he looks like, picture Andy from the Office, only taller and more grown up. Tom met us in Soho and led us to Masala for some well needed Indian food. We sat an talked about our time so far in Florence, about London, about Teague, ourselves, and everything you could imagine. I'm not sure what it was, but having a person that one of us knew around was extremely comforting. It felt almost like having you're favorite sweater around you when you really need it - if the description is any indication, it's a weird feeling to describe, but it felt great. A quick visit to the pub followed where the four of us got on chatting and drinking and just hanging out. After the stress of the hotel situation, Tom had somehow managed to make everything better just by being there; his light-hearted character and sense of humor just seemed to erase the reality of King's Hotel.

Unfortunately, the night grew old and we had to head back to our, "hotel," if you will. I immediately crawled into bed to spend as little conscious time as possible in the room.