My last week in England... for now

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Driving on the left side of very narrow roads; weaving in and out of parked cars facing both directions on both sides of the road, tiny cars in comparison to those in the States, the side mirrors fold into the car to avoid being knocked off by the cars getting so close, it was amazing to drive around England! It was very different and quite interesting. Strangely, the public post boxes, public buses, public telephone booths all are painted red. There are no fire hydrants around. All the houses are made of brick and usually houses near each other in the cities all look identical to their neighbours, while the ones in the country all looked similar because they were brick but had more individuality. Milk gets delivered in glass bottles by a milk man a few days a week! They also deliver chocolate milk and juice. In some areas, like in London, they would hand out free newspapers out on the streets.

On Monday, Step, Steve, Helenka and I all went on a walk originally intended to be about a four mile walk. Step got a map off the internet with the worst directions ever written. It was so vague because the walk started just outside a bar in a small town in England and we had to, for example, walk from one gate of a pasture across a field, turn left and cross to another fence. So we just had to walk in a general direction until we guessed what the next landmark was. It was interesting but Step and i wore willies to avoid the two mud puddles we got to walk through while Steve and Helenka took a minute more to climb a fence around. After walking almost two times more than the intended four miles, my feet hurt a bit. And we took a wrong turn and walked about 15 minutes out of our way completely. We did stop to play Top Trumps and have some tea.

Next day, we went to London, which like many other large cities was everything you could expect it to be. We took the train there in the morning. There were lots of people and traffic back-ups, plenty of things to see and watching the people always amused me. We took underground subways all around. After stepping up from the subs, the first thing i saw was Big Ben, which was just as i expected... saw many of the other places everyone sees on a trip to London, like the Houses of Parliament and Buckingham Palace. At the Palace, it was drizzling and the guards were under small shelters when it rained. They did their walking back and forth thing they do. I really liked the gold shield emblems on the tall, dark, iron gates, and the cement carved statues of lions, unicorns, women and statues for the countries around the world. We enjoyed a picnic at St. James Park where overweight domesticated squirrels, pigeons, and crows harassed people with food; one squirrel even climbed up a woman’s leg when she wasn’t looking! We went to the London Dungeon which was alright, but would have been so much better if the groups were smaller. There were guides that led us from room to room and each room was guided with a theme of a murderer or some scary story in history all based in London . It was fun but a few of the rooms would lead you up to something ‘scary’ to happen to you, then it flops like a pregnant pole-vaulter, something else happens, and that’s it- they take you to the next room... We (strangely) ate at Burger King for dinner since we were both craving Pepper Jack cheese that doesn’t exist otherwise in England.

Getting stuck in rush-hour in London was well interesting... On the underground, it was so packed but people kept squishing in like sardines. People would run by, presumably to catch a bus or train or sub they had to make. The Underground station was full of advertisements and movie boards. The subs ran by every couple of minutes. London was bustling and full before rush hour but then afterwards it was pretty ridiculous. After the majority of workers ending their 9 to 5 days died down a bit, we took the underground to the train station, and it was still a bit full, but just seeing the similarities among everyone on the underground [or in many westernized nations] was staggering; everyone on their cell phones or texting, reading the newspaper, all in business apparel-suits and dress shoes, all done working for the day probably on their way back home to check their email or watch their soaps and eat their TV dinners, it was mind boggling... People being lost in all the technologies and what’s next on their agenda- it was just amazing ... i just can’t imagine being in their dress shoes... so fascinating.

But anyway, that weekend we went to Dover Castle which was very cool! The whole area was set up to five different areas of different time periods. There was a Roman Pharus Lighthouse which i really liked, made of large rocks and also was an old church with stained glass windows and modern pews; we took a tour of the secret wartime tunnels, mock tapes were played with wartime effects, it was set up with material from WWII including an underground hospital and bunker area where they helped people injured during the war. The Keep and Keepyard was based with King Henry VIII, we took a tour through the castle and learned about warfare during the 16th century. There were nearby medieval tunnels we were able to explore as well.

The day before i left, Step dressed me up in his old Cricket uniform and tried to show me how to hit... Then he, Ad, Josh and i all went to the Chislehurst Caves which are miles of man-made underground and used by the Romans, Druids and Saxons and also in the 1900’s as a mining source, to grow mushrooms, and as a place for bands to play . During “The Blitz” the cave was an underground town where families would live under strict rules inside the cave. It was a maze of tunnels and roomed areas into the walls where several families would live together. Rules applied for the families included a strict check in where if you aren’t in your ‘room’ for four days you lose your ‘room’, no noise after quiet hours, food was rationed, etc. Allegedly the cave was believed to be haunted by a woman, so they were paying 5 pounds out to anyone who could stay the night there; although a few people tried, none made it the night, one was found in the cave had gone mad and another one got so sick he had to be taken out, so they stopped doing it.

The next morning Step took me to London Heathrow and i had to fly back and take the Greyhound buses back. I didn’t meet as many weirdos... In NY bus terminal and Cleveland, there were birds flying inside the terminal. In NY terminal, there was an older man working i asked for directions, and he then talked to me for a while trying to convince me to change my career-of-choice to being a doctor in Jamaica so i can help people... the reasons for this being people can thank me, he is from Jamaica and you can’t pluck mangos from trees in NY and you can drink all you want and smoke all you want, and you can get paid more. ... i think i will stick with the animals biting me and peeing on me and traveling not making money (: Also met a very nice Ecuadorian in some military on a large ship somewhere in the ocean... i couldn’t really catch a lot what he was saying, my ears were still goofed up from the plane, so he gave me an entire pack of bubblemint Orbitz gum.

Well, that was all of my England adventure for now, i will be returning in October and i can’t wait...

This May i am going to the bears for more than a month, then to Central America for 3 ½ months, then to England in October to be determined from there what i do. Can’t wait to leave!

Út Í Óvissuna
Brosandi!

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Photos

London 1
View from the train on the way into London

Big Ben
... and some of the houses of Parliment

London 4
Buckingham Palace

London 5
Outside Buckingham Palace

London 6
Statue outside Buckingham Palace

London 7
Statue outside Buckingham Palace

London 8
Gate entering Buckingham Palace

London 9
The Guards - but not in traditional red for some reason...

London 10
The Guards - hiding from the rain

London 12
The Red phone booths