Falling (coincidentally?) on the same day as Memorial Day, the UK also had a long weekend (called "Bank Holiday" here). That means I got to spend two full days in London without having to worry about getting back to Ipswich for work on Monday, which was very nice.
My friend David (see my very first entry) invited me up for the weekend to stay at his house, which is in Hitchen (about a 20-30 minute train ride from London). I got to Hitchen on Friday night, where, having acquired a cold via my rather irresponsible all-hours-of-the-night galavants last week, I proceeded to fall asleep more or less instantly.
Point 1: I love trains. David is, understandably, rather bored by trains at this point, but having spent at least 5-6 hours this weekend on trains, I have to say I've grown rather fond of them. There's something really relaxing about sitting in a (very comfortable!) train seat while the British countryside passes you by out the window.
Anyway, I woke up on Saturday feeling slightly congested but not incapacitated, so we head into London around 10AM or so. We first stopped at UCL to check email and schedules (pronounced "shejules"). David asked me what I wanted to do, and I insisted the only thing I was really set on doing was riding the London Eye (the giant ferris wheel where you can get some of the best views of London). Upon further investigation, turns out the Eye costs 17 quid, so that was out.
After that, the day consisted mostly of walking up and down the Thames doing various touristy things while I tried to look as non-touristy as possible (hint: one cannot do this while carrying a camera and taking pictures of absolutely everything). There are pictures up on facebook documenting the exactly locations of the trip, so I won't go into too much detail here.
We ended up near the end of the day at the British Museum, which is unequivocally one of the greatest museums in the world and, like all museums in London, free. This is great for several reasons, the first of course being that I would rather not pay money for things. The second, though, is that I actually enjoyed the whole experience of going more when I didn't feel like I had to get my money's-worth out of the place. I could go into a room, and if it didn't interest me I could leave without feeling like I had wasted my money at all. We spent most of our time in the Egypt and Greek wings, which were really fantastic. One of the highlights was seeing the Rosetta Stone...a really incredible experience. There was also an ancient instrument that was a relative of the violin (it had the four strings and a bridge except it was laid on the ground and plucked). Really neat!
After the British Museum we went to one of David's favorite cinemas in London to watch a new British film (biting yet hilarious political comedy) that just came out called "In the Loop." If this movie ever comes out in America, SEE IT! Really fantastic movie, in my opinion.
When were at UCL, David noticed that the Brahms violin concerto was playing at the Barbican (concert hall: home of the London Symphony). Of course we immediately bought tickets for Sunday night (more on that later). We ended up heading home shortly after the movie finished up.
Day 2 started much the same way. After a trip to UCL for email-checking we went to Hampstead, which very quickly worked it's way into my heart as place-I-want-to-live-except-will-never-be-able-to-afford-to-do-so-without-selling-soul. Ah well, perhaps property values will do another nosedive and I'll win the lottery. You never know. Anyway, Hampstead is a really, really trendy neighborhood in London bounded by Camden (another neighboorhood in a trendy area of London with a slightly different feel) and Camden Market (a very youth-centric counter-culture outdoor market) and Hampstead Heath, which is essentially I giant park in the middle (ok, not the middle, sort of the periphery) of London. Except it's not groomed or manicured at all (with the exception of Kenwood House, more later). It's like one second you're in London and the next you're walking on trails through the woods. It's AMAZING! A few highlights:
1) Kenwood House: an old mansion that was converted into a museum and picture gallery. It has paintings by many famous artists, but of note is one of Rembrandt's last self-portraits
2) Parliament Hill: you climb a hill and all of a sudden you have a view of all of London. It's hard to describe just how breathtaking it is.
On the way to the Heath, we stopped for tea at one of David's favorite tea shops in the Camden/Hampstead area. We had traditional British Tea and cakes (so delicious), after which I could not even think of eating for about 5 hours. I really want to visit that particular shop again before I leave. It was so charming.
We head back from the Heath through Camden Market, where I tortured David by looking at all the trendy clothes and then deciding I couldn't afford them (although cheaper than the rest of London, even Camden Market is pretty expensive). We ended up at the Barbican, where we had an hour and a half for me to go around and take pictures of the absolutely amazing building to my heart's content (and slide down the banister!).
Funny story:
There are a lot of stairs and at the Barbican, and the banister's basically scream "slide down me!" Of course, I wasn't going to, until David confessed that he did it all the time. After convincing myself that no one was going to notice (or at least pretend not to), I finally got up the courage to slide down. It was really fun! At the bottom, though, I was stopped by an elderly gentleman, who I was convinced was going to yell at me. Then this incredibly formal, cultured, British man says "you know, I've always wanted to do that." Unfortunately, my "well, you should, it's never too late you know" arguments went unheeded, but I'm pretty sure seeing a 70 year old upper-class Englishman slide down a banister would have made the entire trip to the UK worthwhile in and of itself.
Anyway, back to the concert.
It.
Was.
Incredible.
Really. The acoustics were wonderful. The orchestra was unbelievable. The soloist was amazing (I love Brahms, I loved his interpretation of Brahms...really, the soloists are better in Europe). That, and the huge concert hall was packed on a Sunday night. It was just a great experience all around. I can't wait to go back for more concerts.
We went back to Hitchin after the concert, and then in the morning I head back to Ipswich (where I am now) after a brief sight-seeing tour of Hitchin itself.
In other news, my coworker lent me a copy of this book called "Watching the English," which is an English social anthropologist's dissection of English culture. I read a decent amount on the train back, and I am horrified at how many gaffes I have already made. Apparently you're not supposed to introduce yourself outright and shake hands (oops) or disagree with someone's assessment of the weather (double oops), accept a compliment (good thing I already suck at this), share any personal information about yourself (triple oops)...etc etc. Must rectify behavior immediately (become more awkwardly polite, I suppose). I really should have read this book a month ago...
That does it for now! Looking forward to the four-day week!
Haha wow... well you wouldn't believe how hard it was in France, where you don't shake hands period. Everyone knew I was an American though, so we did this awkward well-let's-not-shake-hands-but-not-do-le-bisou stare at each other thing. Oh well. Half the experience is exposing other people to American culture... or lack thereof! :-)
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