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Published: March 23rd 2009
I have had the last week off of school for spring break, so now I need to update you on a lot more!
I honestly can't remember exactly what we did the last week in London before my break. I actually got another cold, so I did a lot of sleeping! We went to visit the architecture offrice of Ken Yeang and also went to a lecture he had at The British Library. The weekend before this (I don't think I wrote about this yet) we went to Cambridge. It is lovely there! Maybe it helped that it was avery nice day outside, but there are canals all over and they have something called punting, which is a lot like men rowing gondola boats like in Venice, but a little bigger. I also went and explored the financial district, Canary Wharf, with a girl on my trip, Erika. It was so much more like a bog city in the US. Everything was new, nothing was old at all. Also, lots of sky scrapers (well there aren't really huge sky scrapers here, they're probably about the height of the First National Tower in Omaha, or maybe a tiny bit taller), which
it seems that every major company based in this area is a bank, so it really is the financial district!
As for my break, there are a lot better stories to tell...
Two of my friends from grade school (and one went to high school with me as well) came to visit me. They are both names Kelsey K. and ironically another guy in our class also had a Kelsey K. coming to visit. There are more of them in this world than I thought!
The Kelseys got in on Saturday morning and after freshening up, I took them to Hyde Park to explore. We saw some of it that I hadn't really seen yet either which was fun. Then I took them to Covent Garden, which is an area in London that is kind of like a market-shopping area. It used to be called Convent Garden because it belonged to the convent of St. Paul's church nearby. Since it was a Saturday, we got to see a lot of street performers which was fun. We watched a magic show for a while in the street and ironically found out that the only other American in the audience was
a girl from Aurora, Nebraska! Crazy! After this we went shopping in the market, got some coffee and went down to Waterloo Bridge so they could get a good glimpse at all the sights.. St. Paul's Cathedral and Canary Wharf buildings on the left, the eye and Big Ben on and right. The girls were very tired from their travelling through time (zones) and all, so we hit the hay early that night.
Sunday we went to see Stonehenge. It rocked! Literally. Anyway, it was such a beautiful day, we had a nice little picnic lunch in front of it. We came back and went to a pub called Prince Albert's that's just down the road a bit from my place. They had live music and we had ciders and it was good. It's very sad how little the cider selection in in the US. The only brand I know of, Woodchuck, will never compare to the ciders here. Actually, it's disgusting in comparison.
Monday we tried to do as much touring as we could. This included The Tower of London in the morning, some fish and chips for lunch, going over to Westminster to see Big Ben
and Parliament as well as Westminster Abbey. Then we crossed the Westminster Bridge to the London Eye. Everyone tells me, "Oh, that's such a tourist thing to do, don't bother." If you are ever in London, do the London Eye!! I loved it! Especially after being here for 2 and a half months, and knowing all the areas of the city and then seeing them from above, is really cool! Plus, why is it so bad for a city to have a giant ferris wheel? I think more cities should have giant ferris wheels! After this we did a little London shopping and then went to Bella Italia for dinner, which is like the Olive Garden here.. they are everywhere. And it is amazing!
Tuesday we trekked off to Scotland! We took the train from London King's Cross to Edinburgh which took about 4-5 hours. It was a great time though, they even had wireless internet on the train so we were very well entertained and kept busy. Also the train was better than a place because we got to see all of the countryside and the ocean as well. It was kind of like taking a road trip,
which was nice! Edinburgh is sort of in a valley between two sets of mountains. When I say mountains, they aren't like hugely tall like the rockies or anything, they used to be volcanos actually. They are probably like 1000 some feet.. but also keep in mind they are not far from the ocean. You can climb them (which I did!) but it's a breather. Anyway, one of the mountains has the Edinburgh castle on it and the other is right next to a palace called Holyrood Palace, so the two mountain things on that side are Holyrood Park. So the first day there we walked around and explored a bit. We went in the Scottish Parliament building which is really neat. Then we hiked up the tallest point of the city in Holyrood Park. This was so amazing for me! I really miss nature and it just felt so great. Also it was a beautiful day (again.. we had no bad weather this entire week! The worst was it was a little gloomy over the Loch Ness, but nothing horrible). Then that night we met up with Erika and Chelsi for my class at a pub for dinner. Some
Stonehenge
Building my upper body strength!of the meals were: Sausage and Mash, Fish and Chips, and Yellow Fin Sole which was really just another kind of fish and chips. Also, ciders of course!
Wednesday we took a bus tour up to the Loch Ness. It was a really great tour company and tour.. it was 12 hours long and took us all over the country on the way up and the way back down. The first thing we got to do was stop for a potty break and also see a "Haggy Coo" which is a hairy highland cow. He was sooo cute! His name was Hemmish. We saw something like 381 or 581 lochs that day as well. The first one we saw was one of the most beautiful sights I have seen in my entire life! Again, with our amazing weather, even the bus driver/tour guide told us we really got an amazing view of it! It was like standing in one of the most amazing landscape paintings or photographs you've ever seen. Unfortunately it couldn't be captured on camera because we were on a bus and turning around sharp corners the whole time. I have some, but they are not good
Stonehenge
the Kelseys squishing Stonehenge pictures, so you'll have to imagine instead. When we got to the Loch Ness, we took a boat ride on it for an hour. We went to the deepest part of it and then to Urqhart Castle (which sounds in a Scottish accent more like a mix of flem and 'er' sounds). This is where most of the Nessie sightings have been. Here's some info for you about the Loch.. it used to be open to the ocean until the last ice age, then it closed up and became a freshwater loch (which is really just a lake in Scotland.. that's the only difference between a loch and a lake). Because of this, there certainly could be some type of large animals living down there. Also, the loch is almost 1000 feet deep in the deepest part and there are mountains and caves in the bottom. So there would be plenty of places for Nessie to hide. Also, after a certian depth down, you cannot see anything because of all of the peat in the water. The loch actually looks pure black. And it is a constant temperatre of 4 degrees Celsius because it is so much water that it
doesn't change temperatures from season to season. It was really cool, but also very eerie!
The next day we went and looked at some important buildings on top of one of the hills near Holyrood.. there was a monument and observatory and stuff. Also we climbed about half of the other mountain in Holyrood Park. We also did some souvinere shopping this day and went to go see the castle. We then went out for one last meal in Scotland at a pub called The World's End because originally the people of Edinburgh were never allowed to leave the city so, that was the furthest point of the town and it was the end of their world. The World's End pub actually had an amazing pasta dish that tasted a lot like Noodles and Company which I miss greatly! Who cares about Haggis when you can have creamy pesto penne? I was going to try vegearian Haggis, but it never happened.
The next day we left Edinburgh at 6 am and got back to London for some last minute things for the Kelseys to do while they were here. We went to Paddington station to eat pasties, which
London Wall
city wall form Roman times they of course loved! Then we saw St. Paul's Cathedral up close and walked across the Millenium Bridge to and went to the Tate Modern. Then we did some shopping, got a pint at my favorite pub, The Spice of Life. Then met up with some friends. One of the Kelseys lived here when she was in 2nd grade and somehow she got in contact with one of her friends from the time who is from Maidstone in Kent county which is like an hour southeast of London, so they came up to see us and we went to Chinatown with them for dinner, then out to a bar afterwards. Most of the fun we had was comparing accents and asking what a lot, but it's fun to have some english friends now!
Now they are gone and I have to buckle down and work on stuff, sad. I have 2 more weeks left of school, then three more weeks left of travelling, then it's time to come home. I'm excited to come home, but I've finally settled here and am used to being gone, so I don't know if I want to go home yet! Isn't that the
way life alwaaays works?
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