God Save the Queen (and bring us some more fish and chips)

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So, I'm going to try something new and relinquish control of my blog. I have recently found a new travel partner (some might call him my boyfriend, but why argue over semantics), we'll call him Chris (remember him from the trip to Japan?). Since he so graciously let me drag him through the UK, I figure I should let him voice his opinion on the trip. Have no fear - I will be editing and adding comments as necessary. 😊



Hello, faithful Kate in Africa readers. I sincerely hope none of you will take issue with the fact that this entry is neither written by Kate nor about Africa. But she's taken a very literal approach to our holidays - that is, by making me write her entries while she's lounging around and reading the latest issue of Cosmo.

In any case, Kate begged me to help her escape France for two weeks, promising that we could explore the United Kingdom together. Considering she lives in very, very rural France and her main pastimes consist of hanging out in the Harry Potter-esque broom closet she calls a dorm room and "teaching English" to small children, I really couldn't deny her parole from the Continent.

So I traveled from Japan to very, very rural France and spent one night there. French is not my first language and, despite what my university degree says, does not really qualify as my second language either. Fortunately, after visiting the pizzeria and coffee shop, we'd literally seen everything there and hopped on the Eurostar to London.

“Good Lord, it's actually clean here,” I sublimely noted after disembarking the train, which had pulled into Kings Cross/St Pancras station.

Something peculiar about the French: they take pride in the fact that their government funds professional cleaners to remove dog crap from their sidewalks. They also take pride in the fact that they work fewer hours than teenagers at McDonald's and that everyone, everywhere, goes on strike at least four times a week.

The net result? Watch your step in France!

In any case, I immediately noticed three striking things about Britain. First, the Tube (aka the underground) was impressively well-planned. Second, they randomly drop apostrophes from words in an absolutely maddening fashion. Three, apartments are tiny and cramped and the bathrooms even more so.

We only spent a few days in London, met up with a few of my friends, and saw the obligatory sights: the Tower of London, Westminster Abbey, Big Ben, and ate a Sunday Roast and Yorkshire Pudding (which is sadly not actually pudding at all). We learned that the Yeomen Warders at the Tower of London, those stalwart men who guard the historical complex, must have served in the Royal Army for over twenty years before earning the chance to zealously guard the Tower gift shop. [Editor's note: Also, they keep ravens at the Tower, and rumor has it that the British Empire will come to an end when all the ravens die. One died the night before we got there. Clearly they need to keep the Beefeaters around to prevent the sun from setting on the Empire. Oh wait...]

We also discovered that our team name for Quiz Night at The George Pub in Belsize Park, “We Never Learned This in America,” was all too apt. Kate and I are fairly intelligent, university-educated people. But neither of us knows a damn thing about Eastenders, footballers, or the Jersey Islands! We came in last place... but only by a point or two. We left with our heads held high and our stomachs churning with local brews.


Okay, back to Kate now. Somehow Chris COMPLETELY left out our trip to Oxford. Silly boy. We got to see lots of university buildings (yawn), but we were able to walk around Christ Church College. For those of you who don't know, this is where they filmed the Great Hall scenes in Harry Potter as well as some other random shots at Hogwarts. The Great Hall was actually much smaller than I had anticipated, but it was pretty funny to watch dozens of Japanese schoolgirls squeal with delight as they entered the glorified cafeteria. Also, we saw Platform 9 3/4...it's tucked away at the back of a sketchy train station and was pretty much a letdown. But we, of course, took silly pictures of ourselves trying to push the trolley through the brick wall.

After getting our fill of fish and chips, beer drunk in pubs, and Jelly Babies, we jumped a cheap flight up to Edinburgh and began the cooler half of our trip in the United Kingdom.

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Photos

the Millennium Bridge
this is the bridge from the latest Harry Potter movie that the Death Eaters destroy

Comments

[karin in mentor]

Good blogging, Chris
Nice job with the blog Chris! Were those really editor's comments or are you as much of a smartass as Kate?

[HeartandSeoul]

This
...is why I love you. Hilarious. Did you get to fly a broom around the Quiddich Pitch, too? :D

[Aunt Marie]

Smartass is the proper word that makes your blogs so hilarious. Keep it coming.

[Aunt Marie]

I see that Chris is quite a writer also. Enjoy the blogs and the pictures of xford were excellent.