currently: @780 (10:44am) on thursday 9.9.10 | 1067 hours since last post
"It's a decent concept, but its execution is so... open-source." -Morn
Well, I've been back from London for about two weeks now. Sorry I didn't post anything sooner, I kept forgetting. I still think of this as his blog.
Anyway, it was AMAZING. I've been missing it so much, it's like an achey feeling. Best place I've ever been and I definitely want to live there someday.
First of all, the city is gorgeous and clean. There are people paid by the city who clean the streets everyday, so they always look very clean and hardly-walked on. The cleaning machines are quiet, they hardly get in your way, and they do different parts of the city at different times so you'll only normally run into one or two a day anyway.
The people are way nicer, it seemed. If you pulled out a map or looked even a little confused, a person would walk over and ask where we were going and give us great, short directions that would always take us to the right place. When James and I were trying to find Abbey Road we didn't even look lost because we thought we were going the right way, but we must've looked like tourists because a guy asked where we were going. When we said Abbey Road, he told us we were going completely in the wrong direction and then told us how to get there. We LOVED the people.
Everything in London is very easy to learn. After awhile we didn't even need a map, and sometimes people asked US for directions! It was so funny. We were even able to point them in the right way. Also, the Underground is fantastic. Anywhere you want to go, and it's super cheap. You pay 5 pounds for a ticket that will take you anywhere in London for the whole day, unlimited usage. There's also a special one you can buy that works for two weeks and it's like 25 pounds.
We were very lucky in that we got to go into Westminster Abbey for Evensong, an actual service. It was so beautiful and sad at the same time. It's amazing being inside the Abbey and you can feel how old it is. They let anyone in for Evensong or any other service, but Monday through Friday when services aren't going on you have to pay to go in. We saw Churchill's burial spot. It was pretty amazing.
One of my favorite things to do was to just sit on the ledges around Nelson's Column in Trafalgar Square and just watch the city move. It's a huge intersection, so there's always big buses, fancy cars, black cabs, bicyclists, and people moving through it just going about their day. Also, there's a great view of Big Ben from the ledge. Also in Trafalgar Square they have four big ledges to put statues on around the square. However, there are only three statues. On the fourth ledge, they're doing what's called "living statues" up until October. Every hour, they put a person up there to do whatever they want for their hour. One girl was doing her taxes, one guy was dancing crazily, another guy was holding up banners for things he supports...it was very cool to sit and watch them.
Next up, the parks. The parks are amazing. Nothing like the stupid playground ones we have here. The closest I can think of is Central Park in New York. Hyde Park/Kensington Gardens are basically just like huge plots of land. The grass is well-maintained and soft, there are beautiful trees all over it to lounge under, and there are more statues and fountains and beautiful gardens than I could begin to describe. It's like being in a huge garden. And I mean huge. It took us all day to see everything in Hyde Park and Kensington Gardens. Also there's a place called Speaker's Corner where, on Saturdays and Sundays, huge masses of people gather to talk about whatever they want - preaching the gospel, speaking out against gay people, aid to Darfur - you name it. And anyone can get up and speak. Also there's this amazing pond/river type thing called the Serpentine where you can get out and paddle boats and stuff. AND, in front of Kensington Palace, there's a giant pond thing that has SWANS in it. Yes, SWANS. The park was like a dream.
Of course we went to Abbey Road - we took a bunch of pictures of us walking across the crosswalk and a bunch of the wall in front of the studio. People have been writing on it for years so it's covered in writing, mostly dedicated to the Beatles. I even wrote something.
I saw everything I wanted to see, I did everything I wanted to do, and it was even more than I thought it would be. I loved London sooo much and I miss it terribly. I can't wait to go back and stay there.
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