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Published: February 22nd 2007
The Tower of London
let the torture begin...'Ello Fellow English speakers!
I did it! I took a break (much needed rather) from the land of Babel, lost in translation, and mix up that comes with living in a foreign speaking land. Katie, Kelly, Carla, and I decided to hop the English Channel over to the land of crumpets, red phone booths, tea, hot accents (princes too!), and the Queen. We all figured that "Of Course!! London will be such a breeze, totally a piece of cake!!", since we could speak their Official langauge. Well, were we ever wrong!!!
Right off the bat, we were flabbergasted by the complexity and disorganization of the city. If we could manage our way through Budapest in a jungle of hungarian signs, why could we not get from point A to Point B in an English speaking country??? We concluded that London is in total disaray because all the English are vacationing in France. It gets to their heads, they lose their logic. I will admit, score one for France...the Paris metro is superb in comparison to the London Tube!! GO Frenchies!!!
The weekend was a complete whirlwind! We used the excuse of celebrating my 23rd as a reason to
take a mini holiday with the Brits. The trip was off to a fast start as kelly and I ran through the city looking for opened museums and sites to see before they closed. We made it to the Tower of London, where many a royal was held captive. Apparently it takes about 2 and 1/2 hours to see it all...well we had 45 minutes before they closed the doors. It really is quite impressive! It was my favorite place that we visited.
Also on the agenda were a visit to St. Paul's Cathedral, Buckingham Palace, Shakespeare's Globe Theatre, The Tower Bridge, Big Ben and Parliament, and Westminster Abbey. Since it was kelly and my first time we literally ran through the city to all the various sites, in about 5 hours. I know, a round of applause for us, thank you.
The nights were spent rubbing elbows with the English. We paid a visit to the " World's Largest Pub", which was huge!!! And spent a night out at a very...interesting british comedy show. They sure do have a strange humor! The weekend was topped of by a night out at a wacky disco. I sported my
fab birtday cake hat and got many a drunken a "HAPPY BIRTHDAY"s and hugs from passing strangers. I can't tell if that is a good thing, or not?
I had a close call on the way back to France... all the horrible problems with my carte de séjour (that piece of paper will be my demise this I am sure!) caused me to be stopped by the Customs officers in France. I did not have my carte de séjour ( like a long stay visa) just an expired visa in my apssport and a paper saying I worked for the French Embassy. Oh la la, Ce n'est pas suffit!!! MERDE!! So I cried my way out of being stuck in the Poitiers police station and got myself the heck outta that itty bitty airport as soon as they gave me the "go ahead"! They were nice enough to trust me and let me off the hook...but I don't think I would ahve been so lucky if I had flown into Paris!!
So friends, the lesson learned is to not assume that just because your first words were in the english language, that you can survive in London. I
The Tower Bridge
not to be confused with the London Bridge! ( I heard that one was falling down or something...) would say that it is a pretty difficult city to get around for the first comers. But, the people love to party at the pubs, the scones are great, and who can get enough of the tea??
Tomorrow I leave for Spain and Portugal with Carynn!! See you soon! Keep a look out for another blog!!
bisous, Shelly
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Ngaire
non-member comment
You get around girl!
What an awesome birthday bula!