well, it was not quite a white Christmas here in London. Last weeks snow had mostly melted away - although the white remains of snowmen still dot yards and are strewn across Clapham Common. It looks like a snowman massacre.
There is also still snow in our driveway in the form of a giant snowball Jed rolled last Saturday. it is still about 1m in height and the bets are on for how long it will survive. My bet is on late February. So I guess the Christmas was slighty a white one?
Last Sunday (the week before Christmas) the housemates all had a lovely Christmas dinner at the Devonshire, which is a really nice pub on the high street. We had roasts (I had venison mmm yummmy rudolph!) and pulled crackers and celebrated a week in advance.
Pre Christmas, I had a rush to get presents. I got Phebe a scarf from Topshop(that is like.. a circle as the ends are joined together.. it's cooler than it sounds), A mug for Jed (that is plain white but has "i'm a twat" written on the bottom so when he drinks from it.. fun ensues!) and packets of roses for tom and Lucy.
Christmas eve was alot of fun. We danced around in the kitchen drinking wine and eating cheese and dips whilst singing christmass songs along with itunes. Phebe was cooking up a storm in preparation for Christmas day.
On CHristmas day we woke up and opened our presents. I got a 20 pound topshop voucher from Jed and Phebe, a packet of roses and guidebooks for berlin and amsterdam from Tom and Lucy AND Kristy (one of the housemates- a very lovley girl) gave me a moisturiser/bath lotion set. I didn't expect it, but I went away and drew her some pictures to give her for christmas. I am not the world's best artist - I'm OK, but it's nice to have drawing as a part of your skillset when urgent presents are needed.
I went and prettied myself up for lunch and we started drinking wine and watching christmassy stuff on TV. Finally, the roast was ready to go and the 5 of us bundled in Jed's very small mini-car to have lunch at his brother's house.
The food was delicious and there were cocktails everywhere! It was good fun.. although we did have to start a kitchen dance party/rave when Guitar Hero started up in the lounge room. It's true that videogames are a little anti social.
We headed home eventually to find that all the heating in the house had broken. The housemates were all huddled around a single heater in the loungeroom. So we joined them, opened some more wine and stayed up to the wee small hours celebrating our orphan's Christmas cheer!
Today was boxing day but the tube was cancelled so we just lay in bed all day (as the house is absolutely freezing. As I sit here writing this huddled in my blankets, my breath is creating steam in the icy air. I would have got up to go to the boxing day sales, but the tube drivers decided to strike - so there was no transport in to oxford street. I'm going to go in tomorrow though and use my 20 pound topshop voucher as I may not get the chance to go in again - on tuesday we begin the EurotrIP phase of the holiday with a red-eye flight to Berlin. I'm SOOO EXCIteD! can't wait! NYE in BErlin here we come!
Sunday, December 26, 2010
natural history museum is the best place ever
With Cat White heading off to explore the North until after christmas, I was left to my own devices in London for a few days- what better time than to do a little more Museum hopping.
I was excited to go to the natural history museum, having heard so much about it over the years. It was a freezing day and I was excited to get inside. The builiding itself is absolutely gorgeous - and it has been a Museum since the 1850;s - so a trip there is not only an education in natural history, but in the history of museums (they still have the bird exhibit as it was 100 years ago - and alot of taxidermy too!)
I had a WONDERFUL DAY (well 2 days, because I came back agian the next day)! I spent hours wandering the halls. I loved the "red zone" which was earth sciences - they had the most wonderful minerals and crystals on display! I liked this seciton as well because I learned alot. Most of the sections were more of a memory jog for me - it is nice to feel I have largely conqured "popular science" as a subject area. The Blue zone - the mammals section, was AMAZING!! so many beautiful creatures - and very well set out too - with taxidermied animals everywhere.
There was also a great exhibit on the human body - extremely detailed- especially the perception and brain section! There were dinasaur bones aplentyy as well. I should mention that each of these exhibits (of which there were so many I loved but havn't written about) were MASSIVE. The human body took me at least 1.5 hours - and I spent 3 hours in the earth science section (made up of 4 huge secitons).
I also went to the David Attenborough studio, where I attended a fascinating lecture on Meteorites. They were interviewing a meteorite scientist. Did you know that most of the meteorites found on earth are in the antarctic? and she had been there, collecting. It was SOOO awesome.
Then I went to the spirit house (where all teh animals in formaldehyde are kept). THen I checked out the newest section - the coocoon - a huge 8 story structure within the museum shaped like... well, a coocoon.
Inside, all teh displays were about science in action and were super interactive - with special touch tables. You also got a special card when you went in, which you could swipe to add to your online NHM account- so you could look at the information again when you got home.
It was SOOO rad. It was interesting to see the oldest exhibits (the birds) and then the ones that were dating a bit (the ecology one was from the early 90s for sure- as was the creepy crawlies). I liked how you could tell the "era" of each exhibit by it's presentation styles, detail and technology.
I love the Natural History Museum. It is my favourite place for sure.
Oh i also went to the Victoria and Albert Museum - a very cool (and very huge) design museum. it was neat-o. but the NHM rules 4EVA!!
I was excited to go to the natural history museum, having heard so much about it over the years. It was a freezing day and I was excited to get inside. The builiding itself is absolutely gorgeous - and it has been a Museum since the 1850;s - so a trip there is not only an education in natural history, but in the history of museums (they still have the bird exhibit as it was 100 years ago - and alot of taxidermy too!)
I had a WONDERFUL DAY (well 2 days, because I came back agian the next day)! I spent hours wandering the halls. I loved the "red zone" which was earth sciences - they had the most wonderful minerals and crystals on display! I liked this seciton as well because I learned alot. Most of the sections were more of a memory jog for me - it is nice to feel I have largely conqured "popular science" as a subject area. The Blue zone - the mammals section, was AMAZING!! so many beautiful creatures - and very well set out too - with taxidermied animals everywhere.
There was also a great exhibit on the human body - extremely detailed- especially the perception and brain section! There were dinasaur bones aplentyy as well. I should mention that each of these exhibits (of which there were so many I loved but havn't written about) were MASSIVE. The human body took me at least 1.5 hours - and I spent 3 hours in the earth science section (made up of 4 huge secitons).
I also went to the David Attenborough studio, where I attended a fascinating lecture on Meteorites. They were interviewing a meteorite scientist. Did you know that most of the meteorites found on earth are in the antarctic? and she had been there, collecting. It was SOOO awesome.
Then I went to the spirit house (where all teh animals in formaldehyde are kept). THen I checked out the newest section - the coocoon - a huge 8 story structure within the museum shaped like... well, a coocoon.
Inside, all teh displays were about science in action and were super interactive - with special touch tables. You also got a special card when you went in, which you could swipe to add to your online NHM account- so you could look at the information again when you got home.
It was SOOO rad. It was interesting to see the oldest exhibits (the birds) and then the ones that were dating a bit (the ecology one was from the early 90s for sure- as was the creepy crawlies). I liked how you could tell the "era" of each exhibit by it's presentation styles, detail and technology.
I love the Natural History Museum. It is my favourite place for sure.
Oh i also went to the Victoria and Albert Museum - a very cool (and very huge) design museum. it was neat-o. but the NHM rules 4EVA!!
harrods and glorious mimco purchase
I was sick on monday after the snow/MOS weekend. A horrible cold had come up and caught me by surprise. I was meant to meet Cat White that day for London Adventures, but I was just not well enough to go. We did catch up the next day though.
It was time for Harrods. All my life i've heard about Harrods and seen people walking around with souvenier bags. It was time to see if it lived up to it's reputation. The best part of Harrods for sure, was the food hall. rooms opened up onto still bigger rooms filled with deluxe edible treats. At Christmas time, of course, it was extra packed with Christmas day delights! We took a brief jaunt around the building, taking in the Harrods souveiner shop and all the fasions, but were precluded from buying anything by our tightly strecthed hip pockets.
After Harrods (which didn't take as long as I thought it would), we were in a shopping mood - so I decided to show Cat White the glory of Westfield London at Shepherds Bush. WHist there, we randomly wandered into the Mimco store where we discovered EXTREME SALE HEAVEN!! mimco bags, wallets, jewlery all LESS THANHALFPRICE!!! I almost died. I ended up making a purchase. It would be a CRIME not to at these prices. I now have a beautiful mimco bag to call my own. I have always wanted one, but with price tags of $450+, I thought that it was something i would have to wait for.
NOT ANYMORRE!!! I got a gorgeous black handbag, large enough to hold my netbook if necessary, with very typical Mimco features (the metal circle things on the.. oh whatever). I am IN LOVE with it. And I got it for $145!!! that's 83 quid!! unbelievable. it's like.. 1/4 price!!! Joyful joyful. I bought myself the best christmas present ever. MEGAEXCITED!!
It was time for Harrods. All my life i've heard about Harrods and seen people walking around with souvenier bags. It was time to see if it lived up to it's reputation. The best part of Harrods for sure, was the food hall. rooms opened up onto still bigger rooms filled with deluxe edible treats. At Christmas time, of course, it was extra packed with Christmas day delights! We took a brief jaunt around the building, taking in the Harrods souveiner shop and all the fasions, but were precluded from buying anything by our tightly strecthed hip pockets.
After Harrods (which didn't take as long as I thought it would), we were in a shopping mood - so I decided to show Cat White the glory of Westfield London at Shepherds Bush. WHist there, we randomly wandered into the Mimco store where we discovered EXTREME SALE HEAVEN!! mimco bags, wallets, jewlery all LESS THANHALFPRICE!!! I almost died. I ended up making a purchase. It would be a CRIME not to at these prices. I now have a beautiful mimco bag to call my own. I have always wanted one, but with price tags of $450+, I thought that it was something i would have to wait for.
NOT ANYMORRE!!! I got a gorgeous black handbag, large enough to hold my netbook if necessary, with very typical Mimco features (the metal circle things on the.. oh whatever). I am IN LOVE with it. And I got it for $145!!! that's 83 quid!! unbelievable. it's like.. 1/4 price!!! Joyful joyful. I bought myself the best christmas present ever. MEGAEXCITED!!
backtrack - getting robbed at tooting
Ok so I think I forgot to write about it at the time (possibly I was so drained by the experience) but I got pick pocketed 2 weeks ago wilst on a Sunday afternoon walk.
It was a beautiful sunny day and I just had to get out and about. I also needed a new pair of jeans. THe "fat" jeans I bought in Brisbane were too loose and poor fitting (curse you, Jay Jay's). So I thought I would walk down to Tooting Broadway (3 tube stations South) and check out the offerings in Primark and New Look.
I began to walk. It was lovely to be out in the snowy sunshine. I walked briskly, bopping along to my ipod tunes. After passing Tooting Bec station however, the mood of my surroundings changed. You can really tell the difference between a good area and a bad area in this town. It happens so quickly and suddenly. But before you know it, you're walking amongst bric a brac shops with the majority of their produce strewn around in the snow outside in a completely ramshackle fashion, and covered markets so seedy that if you walked in, you would be likely to come out without a kidney if at all.
Still, it was a happy scene as everyone was bustling around doing their sunday shopping. I went into New Look first and found a great pair of jeans for 20 quid. I thought I'd just check out Primark before catching the tube home. Big Mistake. I browsed happily for a while. I left the store and walked towards the tube station. I fished in my pocket for my Oyster card holder and, to my nightmarish horror, found it was gone. It and my credit card.
I immedialtey went back to Primark and searched the floor for my card. I reported it to the security and customer services and checked in all the other stores I had been. Despondent and slightly panicked I realised I had no way to get home. I didn't want to walk - I needed to get home and cancel my cards ASAP.
I walked to the train station and stood near the ticket machine, steeling myself for the fact that I was going to have to ask strangers for money. I waited and waited.. I couldn't do it. So I decided to ask at the ticket desk. The man told me to go through and see the station master. THe station master was the loveliest man. He sat me down, gave me a tissue to wipe my eyes and called the police for me to report the crime. Once I was done, he told me to catch the train to clapham south and that he would call ahead and tell them I was coming. So nice.
I got a free tube ride home. The man at Clapham south was also very nice when he let me through, wishing me good luck in finding the criminal. I know they wont catch him - although the police did come around to get further details from me a week later (to look at CCTV footage from Primark). I won't get my cards back, but maybe they'll catch the scumbag who stole them.
It was a beautiful sunny day and I just had to get out and about. I also needed a new pair of jeans. THe "fat" jeans I bought in Brisbane were too loose and poor fitting (curse you, Jay Jay's). So I thought I would walk down to Tooting Broadway (3 tube stations South) and check out the offerings in Primark and New Look.
I began to walk. It was lovely to be out in the snowy sunshine. I walked briskly, bopping along to my ipod tunes. After passing Tooting Bec station however, the mood of my surroundings changed. You can really tell the difference between a good area and a bad area in this town. It happens so quickly and suddenly. But before you know it, you're walking amongst bric a brac shops with the majority of their produce strewn around in the snow outside in a completely ramshackle fashion, and covered markets so seedy that if you walked in, you would be likely to come out without a kidney if at all.
Still, it was a happy scene as everyone was bustling around doing their sunday shopping. I went into New Look first and found a great pair of jeans for 20 quid. I thought I'd just check out Primark before catching the tube home. Big Mistake. I browsed happily for a while. I left the store and walked towards the tube station. I fished in my pocket for my Oyster card holder and, to my nightmarish horror, found it was gone. It and my credit card.
I immedialtey went back to Primark and searched the floor for my card. I reported it to the security and customer services and checked in all the other stores I had been. Despondent and slightly panicked I realised I had no way to get home. I didn't want to walk - I needed to get home and cancel my cards ASAP.
I walked to the train station and stood near the ticket machine, steeling myself for the fact that I was going to have to ask strangers for money. I waited and waited.. I couldn't do it. So I decided to ask at the ticket desk. The man told me to go through and see the station master. THe station master was the loveliest man. He sat me down, gave me a tissue to wipe my eyes and called the police for me to report the crime. Once I was done, he told me to catch the train to clapham south and that he would call ahead and tell them I was coming. So nice.
I got a free tube ride home. The man at Clapham south was also very nice when he let me through, wishing me good luck in finding the criminal. I know they wont catch him - although the police did come around to get further details from me a week later (to look at CCTV footage from Primark). I won't get my cards back, but maybe they'll catch the scumbag who stole them.
ministry of sound and winter snowman weekend
I left Catherine White quite early on the afternoon of our visit to the Tower of London as exciting things were to happen that evening that required some preparation.
Namely, Phebe and I were going out clubbing- London Style.
I came home and got showered and changed. I have been relying on the one party dress to get me through this trip. It is a black mini dress with puffy sleeves that are adorned with many silver studs. This dress is fortunate because it is quite stretchy but also fitted - which means that as i've fattened up over the last year, it has still fit me very nicely. It also takes me a fair while to do my hair these days- it's grown out of its style and I have to fully blow dry it then straighten the life out of it to achieve "average" hair.
Dressed up to the nines (but still wearing by Doc Martens - they're the only shoes I ever wear), we left the house and shivered our way to the tube station. Outside is not so bad in a double layer of wool tights, but in thin patterned stockings, it's not so much fun.
We were off to Ye Olde Cheshire Cheese, apparently the oldest pub in London (later discovered to be a lie) to meet some of Phebe's friends. We found 1.99 pound pints of some in-house brewed beer. It was my first experience of "warm" beer. I believe it was about 4 degrees- but it was an unpleasant experience. However it was so cheap that the temperate brew became the drink of the night and more rounds were in order.
That day, Phebe's brother Tom (and his girlfriend Lucy) had arrived from Australia, and it was fun to head out drinking together. At about 11pm, Phebe and I left for the Ministry of Sound. I have always loved the Ministry of Sound compilations - I have Annuals dating back to 2002 and have every australian release since 2008 (and there's LOTS of them). I was really excited to finally go to the birthplace of all this. Fortunately Phebe had some tickets for free entry.
I didn't really know what to expect - it's not a NEW club - it started in the early 90's before megaclubs really took off. We got inside, handed over our free tickets and handed in our coats. Inside, it was very dark and not much was going on. There was one main room with a really big bar and quite a shallow dance floor. Then there was another room "baby box" that was quite small but had some good tunes playing. Upstairs there was a chill out room with another bar and lots of seats. It seemed like a bit of a non-event, until we realised that the doors to the main club open at midnight. Surely, at that magical hour, curtains were drawn aside and the door to the main room was revealed.
The room wasn't as "tall" as the family, or even the met - there was no big open balcony or anything - but the lights were pretty impresssive - and the DJs were great Guiseppe Ottaviani was especially good. It was a "trance" event, but the music kept going to random house breakdowns. But it was still a great night.
At about 1, 3 of the housemates turned up, making it a bigger party and even more fun.
At 4 am we left and jumped in a cab home- Fortunately MOS is at Elephant and Castle, which is on the south bank of the river and hence a much quicker (and cheaper) ride home.
We roused ourselves at about midday and were shocked to find that there had been EXTREME BLIZZARDS that morning and that the whole of London was blanketed in 3-4 inches of snow. Phebe and I dragged ourselves out of bed and into several layers of clothes and then went down to the local cafe for eggs benedict whilst we warmed up for the day.
We then walked up to Clapham Common for some snowplay. THe place was packed with people out enjoying the saturday snowstorm (mostly families and Australians, however). We created a sensational snow man - who had devil horns, smoked a cigarette and was generally badass. This feat was even more impressive as we were constantly pelted witha barrage of snowballs from random idiots across the field. It was our proudest moment when, as we walked away from our "George", two girls started laughing at him and posed for photos with him. Our first ever snowman was a total success!
Phebe then made a snow angel but my feet were so frozen that I had to go and thaw out. As we walked home, we wrote funny messages on every car window that we passed/
All in all, a successful day!
Namely, Phebe and I were going out clubbing- London Style.
I came home and got showered and changed. I have been relying on the one party dress to get me through this trip. It is a black mini dress with puffy sleeves that are adorned with many silver studs. This dress is fortunate because it is quite stretchy but also fitted - which means that as i've fattened up over the last year, it has still fit me very nicely. It also takes me a fair while to do my hair these days- it's grown out of its style and I have to fully blow dry it then straighten the life out of it to achieve "average" hair.
Dressed up to the nines (but still wearing by Doc Martens - they're the only shoes I ever wear), we left the house and shivered our way to the tube station. Outside is not so bad in a double layer of wool tights, but in thin patterned stockings, it's not so much fun.
We were off to Ye Olde Cheshire Cheese, apparently the oldest pub in London (later discovered to be a lie) to meet some of Phebe's friends. We found 1.99 pound pints of some in-house brewed beer. It was my first experience of "warm" beer. I believe it was about 4 degrees- but it was an unpleasant experience. However it was so cheap that the temperate brew became the drink of the night and more rounds were in order.
That day, Phebe's brother Tom (and his girlfriend Lucy) had arrived from Australia, and it was fun to head out drinking together. At about 11pm, Phebe and I left for the Ministry of Sound. I have always loved the Ministry of Sound compilations - I have Annuals dating back to 2002 and have every australian release since 2008 (and there's LOTS of them). I was really excited to finally go to the birthplace of all this. Fortunately Phebe had some tickets for free entry.
I didn't really know what to expect - it's not a NEW club - it started in the early 90's before megaclubs really took off. We got inside, handed over our free tickets and handed in our coats. Inside, it was very dark and not much was going on. There was one main room with a really big bar and quite a shallow dance floor. Then there was another room "baby box" that was quite small but had some good tunes playing. Upstairs there was a chill out room with another bar and lots of seats. It seemed like a bit of a non-event, until we realised that the doors to the main club open at midnight. Surely, at that magical hour, curtains were drawn aside and the door to the main room was revealed.
The room wasn't as "tall" as the family, or even the met - there was no big open balcony or anything - but the lights were pretty impresssive - and the DJs were great Guiseppe Ottaviani was especially good. It was a "trance" event, but the music kept going to random house breakdowns. But it was still a great night.
At about 1, 3 of the housemates turned up, making it a bigger party and even more fun.
At 4 am we left and jumped in a cab home- Fortunately MOS is at Elephant and Castle, which is on the south bank of the river and hence a much quicker (and cheaper) ride home.
We roused ourselves at about midday and were shocked to find that there had been EXTREME BLIZZARDS that morning and that the whole of London was blanketed in 3-4 inches of snow. Phebe and I dragged ourselves out of bed and into several layers of clothes and then went down to the local cafe for eggs benedict whilst we warmed up for the day.
We then walked up to Clapham Common for some snowplay. THe place was packed with people out enjoying the saturday snowstorm (mostly families and Australians, however). We created a sensational snow man - who had devil horns, smoked a cigarette and was generally badass. This feat was even more impressive as we were constantly pelted witha barrage of snowballs from random idiots across the field. It was our proudest moment when, as we walked away from our "George", two girls started laughing at him and posed for photos with him. Our first ever snowman was a total success!
Phebe then made a snow angel but my feet were so frozen that I had to go and thaw out. As we walked home, we wrote funny messages on every car window that we passed/
All in all, a successful day!
Thursday, December 23, 2010
London, The Tower Of
The second installment of my London Adventures With Catherine White begun the next day, with our visit to the Tower of London. I had been putting off visiting the tower until Cat arrived, so was chomping at the bit to get in the gates.
It was an absolutely frigid London Morning, with a cruel wind whipping off the Thames. We were very cold as we crossed the little bridge into the tower. I couldn't feel my face at that point. We were both very excited at the promise of a tour by one of the Yeoman Warders (aka Beefeaters), and were somewhat dismayed to have just missed one as the prospect of waiting 20 minutes in the arctic climate of the bridge was not a happy one. After 3 minutes, the cause was lost and we wandered on our iceblock feet into the tower grounds.
However, all was not lost as we noticed a large crowd of people about 50m ahead crowded underneath the "bloody tower", and as we drew closer realied that they were the group from the "just missed" tour. So we assimilated ourselves and focussed our attentions on the Warder, in his blue and red splendour.
This warder was pretty much the coolest guy ever. He told his stories with such drama, and so many hilarious asides, and mock-distainful promises of doom to individual audience members that he was absolutely riveting.
We toured around the tower, and learned its gory history. I especially enjoyed the lawns.. in the knowledge that possibly on the very spot we were standing Anne Bolyen or Lady Jane Grey was executed!
Once the tour had reached its conclusion, we left the tundra-style conditions in the courtyard into the warm building that housed the crown jewels. It was nice to see all the royal insignia and watch videos of the Queen's coronation on the way to the jewels. I assume all this has been set up as a distraction for people queueing for long hours to see the jewels in the high season, but we simply breezed through. The main jewels were situated on a long podium, beside which ran two airport style travelators at a low speed. You simply rode the travelators until you got bored of looking. They were spectacular. Especially spectacular was the amazing "star of africa" diamond, and it was fun to pick which crown/sceptre/ring was our favourite.
There were also an array of stunning golden kitchen utensils that were amazing on their own, but paled so in comparison to the jewels that they were mostly ignored.
When we emerged from the jewel enclave, we stepped out into an extreme blizzard. Seemed like a good time to go into the White Tower.
The White Tower was filled with amazing armourments from accross the centuries. It was very cool to see - and i think my favourite suit of armor was that of this "giant" 6foot 8 inch knight. He would have been terrifying to meet on the battlefield. The building is undergoing renovations, but it was interesting to be able to track (through many exhibts) the number of renovations the castle had seen in the past - it has been constantly changing throughout the centuries.
After this, it was time for a lovely roast lunch in the restaurant. We happily sat down in some strangely empty seats near the door, and hastily moved when we realised that every time the door opened, we would be recieving arctic blasts to our faces.
FInally we stopped by the Bloody Tower to see the implements ot torture. The rack and other horible devices were all layed out in a horrible, cold and damp dungeon. I only wish there had been more!
following this, Cat and I went our separate ways - I had to get ready for Friday evening Fun at the Ministry of sound.. coming soon...
It was an absolutely frigid London Morning, with a cruel wind whipping off the Thames. We were very cold as we crossed the little bridge into the tower. I couldn't feel my face at that point. We were both very excited at the promise of a tour by one of the Yeoman Warders (aka Beefeaters), and were somewhat dismayed to have just missed one as the prospect of waiting 20 minutes in the arctic climate of the bridge was not a happy one. After 3 minutes, the cause was lost and we wandered on our iceblock feet into the tower grounds.
However, all was not lost as we noticed a large crowd of people about 50m ahead crowded underneath the "bloody tower", and as we drew closer realied that they were the group from the "just missed" tour. So we assimilated ourselves and focussed our attentions on the Warder, in his blue and red splendour.
This warder was pretty much the coolest guy ever. He told his stories with such drama, and so many hilarious asides, and mock-distainful promises of doom to individual audience members that he was absolutely riveting.
We toured around the tower, and learned its gory history. I especially enjoyed the lawns.. in the knowledge that possibly on the very spot we were standing Anne Bolyen or Lady Jane Grey was executed!
Once the tour had reached its conclusion, we left the tundra-style conditions in the courtyard into the warm building that housed the crown jewels. It was nice to see all the royal insignia and watch videos of the Queen's coronation on the way to the jewels. I assume all this has been set up as a distraction for people queueing for long hours to see the jewels in the high season, but we simply breezed through. The main jewels were situated on a long podium, beside which ran two airport style travelators at a low speed. You simply rode the travelators until you got bored of looking. They were spectacular. Especially spectacular was the amazing "star of africa" diamond, and it was fun to pick which crown/sceptre/ring was our favourite.
There were also an array of stunning golden kitchen utensils that were amazing on their own, but paled so in comparison to the jewels that they were mostly ignored.
When we emerged from the jewel enclave, we stepped out into an extreme blizzard. Seemed like a good time to go into the White Tower.
The White Tower was filled with amazing armourments from accross the centuries. It was very cool to see - and i think my favourite suit of armor was that of this "giant" 6foot 8 inch knight. He would have been terrifying to meet on the battlefield. The building is undergoing renovations, but it was interesting to be able to track (through many exhibts) the number of renovations the castle had seen in the past - it has been constantly changing throughout the centuries.
After this, it was time for a lovely roast lunch in the restaurant. We happily sat down in some strangely empty seats near the door, and hastily moved when we realised that every time the door opened, we would be recieving arctic blasts to our faces.
FInally we stopped by the Bloody Tower to see the implements ot torture. The rack and other horible devices were all layed out in a horrible, cold and damp dungeon. I only wish there had been more!
following this, Cat and I went our separate ways - I had to get ready for Friday evening Fun at the Ministry of sound.. coming soon...
Wednesday, December 22, 2010
Winter Wonderland and Carols at St Pauls
When I arrived back in London Town from my saucy trip to Worcester, something marvellous had happened. Catherine White had arrived, fresh from rainy Brisbane! I met her at 10am at the Odeon in Leicester square and we sat for some time in McDonnalds (in the warmth), where I was caught up on Brisbane business.
We then went on a quick janut throgh the halls of the National Portrait gallery - where the finalists and winners of .. umm.. that really important international photo portrait competition were being displayed. However, we had only just finished with that exhibition before we realised we were almost late for a very important date.
That important date was to meet the fabulous Josh Pearcy at Winter Wonderland in Hyde Park. Winter Wonderland, as with most CHristmas markets around here, appears to be "German" themed. There were endless stalls selling crazy winter hats, small christmas figurines and various CHristmas wares. There were also many fabulous rides including a crazy mouse coaster, a coaster thta was largely inside a mental dome thing, giant drop and a million zillion kids rides. I was disppointed to note that the zipper wasn't there. The zipper is the only ride that has my heart. After cold donuts and a delicious crepe, we purchased a whole lotta lollies and strolled the alleyways. I would probably have paid to go on the funhouse. it was pretty awesome- all crazy mirrors and moving floors up in there. After this, we walked through Hyde park to Oxford Street - the street I seem to always end up on. Here, Cat was introduced to the concept of "Primark". It truly is a wonderful street. (as an aside, Phebes and I have decided to brave the boxing day sales there.. just for fun).
We then had an important task to do. At 5pm we started lining up outside St. Pauls for the 9 lessons and Carols service, due to begin at 7:30 pm. Even at this early hour, the line was already out the door, around the corner and behind the construction work. About 2 minutes into lining up Cat looked up and sighted snow. And it begun. Waiting in the snow. fortunately there were 2 gorgeous kids with their grandparents in front of us, whose "hiding under coats" antics kept our spirits up. As the line began to move we became anxious. not only were we waiting for ourselves, but we were also holding places in the line for Hannah and Amy, who had not yet turned up. However, both arrived in the nick of time and we settled on a pew towards the back.
The little boy singing were gorgeous, the orchestra was triumphant, and the lessons (with their celebrity readers) were quite funny in parts, but certainly evoked a Christmas magic in the air. My only complaint as, with only natural amplification, you had to concentrate REALLY REALLY hard to hear the choir at times. The singalongs were great as well- although Hannah and I really struggled to NOT sing the descants. We did have a childish break down at one point when the lyrics of O Come all ye faithful - "very God" as a whole line to take up a lot of notes was hilarious. Also, the rhyming of womb an come in one of the other carols was quite humerous.
After the Service, we packed in to a tight space at a pub overflowing with Work-Christmas-Party-Revelers in a nearby street. It was nice to have a beer with my australian friends whilst on the ohter side of the world.
A fabuloulsy christmassy day!
We then went on a quick janut throgh the halls of the National Portrait gallery - where the finalists and winners of .. umm.. that really important international photo portrait competition were being displayed. However, we had only just finished with that exhibition before we realised we were almost late for a very important date.
That important date was to meet the fabulous Josh Pearcy at Winter Wonderland in Hyde Park. Winter Wonderland, as with most CHristmas markets around here, appears to be "German" themed. There were endless stalls selling crazy winter hats, small christmas figurines and various CHristmas wares. There were also many fabulous rides including a crazy mouse coaster, a coaster thta was largely inside a mental dome thing, giant drop and a million zillion kids rides. I was disppointed to note that the zipper wasn't there. The zipper is the only ride that has my heart. After cold donuts and a delicious crepe, we purchased a whole lotta lollies and strolled the alleyways. I would probably have paid to go on the funhouse. it was pretty awesome- all crazy mirrors and moving floors up in there. After this, we walked through Hyde park to Oxford Street - the street I seem to always end up on. Here, Cat was introduced to the concept of "Primark". It truly is a wonderful street. (as an aside, Phebes and I have decided to brave the boxing day sales there.. just for fun).
We then had an important task to do. At 5pm we started lining up outside St. Pauls for the 9 lessons and Carols service, due to begin at 7:30 pm. Even at this early hour, the line was already out the door, around the corner and behind the construction work. About 2 minutes into lining up Cat looked up and sighted snow. And it begun. Waiting in the snow. fortunately there were 2 gorgeous kids with their grandparents in front of us, whose "hiding under coats" antics kept our spirits up. As the line began to move we became anxious. not only were we waiting for ourselves, but we were also holding places in the line for Hannah and Amy, who had not yet turned up. However, both arrived in the nick of time and we settled on a pew towards the back.
The little boy singing were gorgeous, the orchestra was triumphant, and the lessons (with their celebrity readers) were quite funny in parts, but certainly evoked a Christmas magic in the air. My only complaint as, with only natural amplification, you had to concentrate REALLY REALLY hard to hear the choir at times. The singalongs were great as well- although Hannah and I really struggled to NOT sing the descants. We did have a childish break down at one point when the lyrics of O Come all ye faithful - "very God" as a whole line to take up a lot of notes was hilarious. Also, the rhyming of womb an come in one of the other carols was quite humerous.
After the Service, we packed in to a tight space at a pub overflowing with Work-Christmas-Party-Revelers in a nearby street. It was nice to have a beer with my australian friends whilst on the ohter side of the world.
A fabuloulsy christmassy day!
Saucy times in Worcester
So, after my trips to two museums on monday, I decided I needed to do something different the next day. Too many museums in too short a time = death drain. I was on facebook chat with my mate Toby, who I met on JACD training on the Sapphire Princess back in April. Toby is a total champion and we have kept in touch ever since. I thought "why not go and visit him?". So I asked, and before I knew it I was booking a train ticket for the next day.
Meeting toby at the station was very exciting! I hadn't seen him for ages, but straight away we were getting along like a house on fire. My first question was "where do they make the sauce". THe answer was a disappointing "nowdays, in China".
Toby took me to Worcester Cathedral, where we were greeted by a very super-friendly guide man who promised to test me on my knowledge of the cathedral at the end of our visit. This friendly fellow frequently popped up at random intervals and provided us with huge quantities of information about manythings, including a special octagonal vesper room that was currently closed.
THe cathedral was beautiful- but this beauty was made endlessly more fabulous by the group of school children that were in the church practicing for their end-of-year christmas concert. The choir of primary school students were singing, and as we were leaving cathedral, they had spread all over the altar and spaced down the aisles. THey then began to sing and do hilariously cute dance moves (including jazz hands rainbows) as their teacher shouted encouragement. It was so cute we actually died.
We then went to the Commandery - the main museum in town. Worcester is especially famous as the site of the last battle of the English Civil war- and this was one of the many themes of the museum. We went in, and I paid my four pounds entry fee whilst Toby (as a worcester resident) filled in the form for his official "COmmandery Membership Card", meaning he can visit free whenever he likes. The lady organising all this was just so sweet, taking such good care of us and getting all excited whilst explaining how the museum and accompanying audio guides worked.
check out the website here btw
The Commandery is not a normal museum. It is in an ancient building that was once an abbey and has had 6 different uses in it's time - Abbey, private home, civil war headquarters, school for the blind, printing shop. THe rooms are more-or-less empty - and the experience is created by listening to yoru audio guide, which is like a little mobile phone. You "choose" one of the 6 eras to follow and proceed through the house, typing in the code of each room. THe audio guide plays a lively narration with an actor re-creating the time for you. We did the civil war era, and our guide was constantly telling us to run to the window and look out at the battle on the hill before us, or "quickly, let's escape to the next room"- and we would find outselves running there! It was great fun!
Spaced throughout the house were lots of interactive activities! there was a room where you could write in the styles of each era - type writers, quills, braille! another room where you could try on hats of the different eras - and aanother where you could "smell" what the kitchen would have smelled like in each age. There was a fun room where you had to "build" (using plush houses) what the building looked like in each era. We were throwing houses across the room! Randomly, there was also a very sweet christmas crafting station in one room. They had just left out lovely christmas pictures and doilies, cards, glue and glitter for visitors to make christmas cards for their loved ones.
It was absolutely wonderful! We had a ball in the museum, where I guess we really weren't expecting to. I would recommend it to ANYONE who visits Worcester. It was really a very informative and interactive experience.
After that we chilled around Worcester. We had a fab cheap lunch at an apparently "Aussie" themed pub (not very). We caught a black cab home (in london very expensive, but in worcester not so much) and I met toby's family.His mum and dad are lovely. We lazed around watching the 25th anniversary Les Miserables, and then we had an awesome pork dinner. It was then time to get into our glad rags and hit the town.
Tuesday night, as I was soon to find out, is a massive night in Worcester for the gays. They all converge once a week to a night club called "the velvet lounge" where they play fantastic tunes and serve 2.50 double vodka redbulls. That plus the ridiculous friendliness of the gays made for a great night out. I met so many great people (none of whom's name I can remember), taught line dance to strangers and saw the most extreme projectile vomit of my life in thebeer garden. It was.. like a 5 m spew. disgusting- but impressive. We danced up a storm and struggled home at 3am to awaken the next morning nursing the godawful hangovers that only vodkaredbulls can cause. After lazing on the couch all day eating "bacon sarneys" and crisps, I finally got my act together and struggled to the station , wehre I borded my train for a brisk (although somewhat nauseating) 2.5 hour trip back to London.
It was a great two days! Thanks so much for having me to stay, Toby!
Meeting toby at the station was very exciting! I hadn't seen him for ages, but straight away we were getting along like a house on fire. My first question was "where do they make the sauce". THe answer was a disappointing "nowdays, in China".
Toby took me to Worcester Cathedral, where we were greeted by a very super-friendly guide man who promised to test me on my knowledge of the cathedral at the end of our visit. This friendly fellow frequently popped up at random intervals and provided us with huge quantities of information about manythings, including a special octagonal vesper room that was currently closed.
THe cathedral was beautiful- but this beauty was made endlessly more fabulous by the group of school children that were in the church practicing for their end-of-year christmas concert. The choir of primary school students were singing, and as we were leaving cathedral, they had spread all over the altar and spaced down the aisles. THey then began to sing and do hilariously cute dance moves (including jazz hands rainbows) as their teacher shouted encouragement. It was so cute we actually died.
We then went to the Commandery - the main museum in town. Worcester is especially famous as the site of the last battle of the English Civil war- and this was one of the many themes of the museum. We went in, and I paid my four pounds entry fee whilst Toby (as a worcester resident) filled in the form for his official "COmmandery Membership Card", meaning he can visit free whenever he likes. The lady organising all this was just so sweet, taking such good care of us and getting all excited whilst explaining how the museum and accompanying audio guides worked.
check out the website here btw
The Commandery is not a normal museum. It is in an ancient building that was once an abbey and has had 6 different uses in it's time - Abbey, private home, civil war headquarters, school for the blind, printing shop. THe rooms are more-or-less empty - and the experience is created by listening to yoru audio guide, which is like a little mobile phone. You "choose" one of the 6 eras to follow and proceed through the house, typing in the code of each room. THe audio guide plays a lively narration with an actor re-creating the time for you. We did the civil war era, and our guide was constantly telling us to run to the window and look out at the battle on the hill before us, or "quickly, let's escape to the next room"- and we would find outselves running there! It was great fun!
Spaced throughout the house were lots of interactive activities! there was a room where you could write in the styles of each era - type writers, quills, braille! another room where you could try on hats of the different eras - and aanother where you could "smell" what the kitchen would have smelled like in each age. There was a fun room where you had to "build" (using plush houses) what the building looked like in each era. We were throwing houses across the room! Randomly, there was also a very sweet christmas crafting station in one room. They had just left out lovely christmas pictures and doilies, cards, glue and glitter for visitors to make christmas cards for their loved ones.
It was absolutely wonderful! We had a ball in the museum, where I guess we really weren't expecting to. I would recommend it to ANYONE who visits Worcester. It was really a very informative and interactive experience.
After that we chilled around Worcester. We had a fab cheap lunch at an apparently "Aussie" themed pub (not very). We caught a black cab home (in london very expensive, but in worcester not so much) and I met toby's family.His mum and dad are lovely. We lazed around watching the 25th anniversary Les Miserables, and then we had an awesome pork dinner. It was then time to get into our glad rags and hit the town.
Tuesday night, as I was soon to find out, is a massive night in Worcester for the gays. They all converge once a week to a night club called "the velvet lounge" where they play fantastic tunes and serve 2.50 double vodka redbulls. That plus the ridiculous friendliness of the gays made for a great night out. I met so many great people (none of whom's name I can remember), taught line dance to strangers and saw the most extreme projectile vomit of my life in thebeer garden. It was.. like a 5 m spew. disgusting- but impressive. We danced up a storm and struggled home at 3am to awaken the next morning nursing the godawful hangovers that only vodkaredbulls can cause. After lazing on the couch all day eating "bacon sarneys" and crisps, I finally got my act together and struggled to the station , wehre I borded my train for a brisk (although somewhat nauseating) 2.5 hour trip back to London.
It was a great two days! Thanks so much for having me to stay, Toby!
London Zoo, National Gallery & Museum of London
When I got back from Paris, I spent Saturday lazing around and Sunday at London Zoo.
Phebe and I were excited for our trip to the zoo. We caught the tube to Camden Town and wandered down across Regent's Park towards the zoo gates. After spending far too long stuck in conversation with two random photographer guys standing outside the gates, we finally made it inside.
It was 12:30 and time for the creatures show. The show "arena" was quite small and a little delapidated, but the background music of "Circle of Life" was quite successful in getting the crowd (of about 20 people) excited about the impending appearance of exotic animals. The man presenting the show was extremely excitable and I must admit, Phebe and I were jiggling around like crazy people with cuteness anticipation.
THe show that followed was supercute. The animals were not especialy rare or special, but they were awesome. First was the rats. Then was Bob, the fabulous burrowing owl. He was very small and loved to run along the ground with his wings out forward like a zombie. Apparenlty they aren't very good at burrowing and live in ground hog burrows. he also flew around above us. A very handsome gentleman. Next up was some other kind of owl (I forget). This owl was a pro silent flyer- as he flew around above us we couldn't hear him until he flew past our faces. Then there were ferrets - which we got to pet. Very cute.
I think that the zoo is.. low on cash as the show wasn't exactly spectacular, although it was very cute. We then ambled around the zoos grounds. THe zoo in general, was not what we are used to in Australia. It has been around for almost 200 years and as such, is an "older" style zoo - the enclosures are not as "natural" as at home. Most of the enclosures were fine - and alot had been done up (the new gorilla kingdom was great), but the Big Cat enclosures were not good. There were 3 tigers, and they were all just pacing along the edges of their cages. You could see the track in the mud where they had been walking - back and forward, back and forward- for hours. THe lions had only a small enclosure and the serval was alone and also pacing.
At home, the big cats always have lots of stimulation - at dreamworld they are constantly kept interested - and it is the same at Australia zoo - lots of training and playing and work from the keepers.
It was really sad to see the tigers like that. We walked away from the enclosure unhappy, until seeing a sign that they are planning a huge new big cat enclosure to be opened in 2011... it looks great - i just hope the tigers can last that long without going crazy.
We kept going with our zoo time - exploring the insect house, the birds and the monkeys. An awesome surprise was wating for us in the "tropical forrest habitat". This was like a giant room that, once inside, had no bars. THre were lots of little Marmosets, monkeys, birds flitting around the heated greenhouse environment- ant the BEST thing of all were the two 3-toed sloths. OHMYGOSH they were just the raddest things ever. THe walkway was on the second storey, and there was a keeper on the ground level feeding the various creatures running to-and-fro. SHe gave the low hanging sloth a carrot, which it clasped like a bottle between its long, curved fingers. It did this sooo slowly, and after a few dropping incidents, finally began to slowly chew it's carot-ty treat. However, monkeys had been waiting in the wings to assail this sleepy tree dweller, and swarmed the poor sloth, stealing his carrot as soon as the keeper's back was turned. The sloth appeared to not notice the carrot was gone for a good 3 seconds, and kept trying to direct the food to its mouth. Poor Sloth-friend was totally bamboozled. THe keeper then gave him a lettuce leaf, which he rejected- and then another carrot, upon which the same monkey-ambush was performed. It was the cutest thing ever.
Another fun thing at the zoo was the giraffe enclosure.It was very.. pony club in appearance - except the stables were 3 storys high. The doors had the same open top and closed bottom as a stable door - only the top portion exposed the whole of the giraffes neck making for very comical dimensions.
We went to visit the owls, and they were very sad so we went away to a newer part of the zoo - and possibly the very best - the otter enclosure. It must have been feeding time, because the cheeky little fellows were all standing on their hind legs, looking over the fence and squeak squeak squeaking. THere was an "outcast" otter, who kept away from the group and occasionally randomly attacked one of them, starting a rolling otter punch-up. THey were constantly relocating in their enclosure and squeaking. at one point, the were squeaking so hard a few of them fell over. Most wonderful!
It was then zoo closing time, and we left feelig a little... underwhelmed. I don't think either of us could forget that path the tiger had made in the mud.
PART 2 - National Gallery
this was awesome.. but i now can't remember anything really about my visit other than I SAW VAN GOUGH'S SUNFLOWERS for real! I had a great day at the gallery.. but the specifics elude me
PART 3 - Museum of London
I visited the Museum of London the same day as the National Gallery. I can absolutely recommend this to anyone who visits London. The Museum of London charts the history of the London area since paleolithic times - through roman, medieval, tudor, victorian and modern times. It was absolutely fascinating - especially the roman section - imagining they they had lived here, exactly on the ground I was walking. THey had so many amazing artefacts and really informative exhibits.
I especially was fascinated to learn about the way people lived here throughout the past.
The modern section was really interesting as well - with every decade covered individually from the 1880's to present. Swinging london in the 60's was great - but I was very moved by the exhibit about the suffrogettes. They fought very very hard for their rights, and it was really eye-opening to see artefacts of the sort of opposition they came up against.
Of course, the 40's, encompassing the Blitz, was extremely powerful. I can't even imagine what it would have been like for Londoners in that time. So brave. I am definately a pacifist, but if someone was attacking my country like that, I would surely go and fight- do anything. Yes, the Londoners of that era were a brave lot.
Of all the museums I've been to so far, I would recommend the Museum of London first to any traveller - It's so important to learn about the places you travel to, and this museum told me everything I wanted to know - and more.
Phebe and I were excited for our trip to the zoo. We caught the tube to Camden Town and wandered down across Regent's Park towards the zoo gates. After spending far too long stuck in conversation with two random photographer guys standing outside the gates, we finally made it inside.
It was 12:30 and time for the creatures show. The show "arena" was quite small and a little delapidated, but the background music of "Circle of Life" was quite successful in getting the crowd (of about 20 people) excited about the impending appearance of exotic animals. The man presenting the show was extremely excitable and I must admit, Phebe and I were jiggling around like crazy people with cuteness anticipation.
THe show that followed was supercute. The animals were not especialy rare or special, but they were awesome. First was the rats. Then was Bob, the fabulous burrowing owl. He was very small and loved to run along the ground with his wings out forward like a zombie. Apparenlty they aren't very good at burrowing and live in ground hog burrows. he also flew around above us. A very handsome gentleman. Next up was some other kind of owl (I forget). This owl was a pro silent flyer- as he flew around above us we couldn't hear him until he flew past our faces. Then there were ferrets - which we got to pet. Very cute.
I think that the zoo is.. low on cash as the show wasn't exactly spectacular, although it was very cute. We then ambled around the zoos grounds. THe zoo in general, was not what we are used to in Australia. It has been around for almost 200 years and as such, is an "older" style zoo - the enclosures are not as "natural" as at home. Most of the enclosures were fine - and alot had been done up (the new gorilla kingdom was great), but the Big Cat enclosures were not good. There were 3 tigers, and they were all just pacing along the edges of their cages. You could see the track in the mud where they had been walking - back and forward, back and forward- for hours. THe lions had only a small enclosure and the serval was alone and also pacing.
At home, the big cats always have lots of stimulation - at dreamworld they are constantly kept interested - and it is the same at Australia zoo - lots of training and playing and work from the keepers.
It was really sad to see the tigers like that. We walked away from the enclosure unhappy, until seeing a sign that they are planning a huge new big cat enclosure to be opened in 2011... it looks great - i just hope the tigers can last that long without going crazy.
We kept going with our zoo time - exploring the insect house, the birds and the monkeys. An awesome surprise was wating for us in the "tropical forrest habitat". This was like a giant room that, once inside, had no bars. THre were lots of little Marmosets, monkeys, birds flitting around the heated greenhouse environment- ant the BEST thing of all were the two 3-toed sloths. OHMYGOSH they were just the raddest things ever. THe walkway was on the second storey, and there was a keeper on the ground level feeding the various creatures running to-and-fro. SHe gave the low hanging sloth a carrot, which it clasped like a bottle between its long, curved fingers. It did this sooo slowly, and after a few dropping incidents, finally began to slowly chew it's carot-ty treat. However, monkeys had been waiting in the wings to assail this sleepy tree dweller, and swarmed the poor sloth, stealing his carrot as soon as the keeper's back was turned. The sloth appeared to not notice the carrot was gone for a good 3 seconds, and kept trying to direct the food to its mouth. Poor Sloth-friend was totally bamboozled. THe keeper then gave him a lettuce leaf, which he rejected- and then another carrot, upon which the same monkey-ambush was performed. It was the cutest thing ever.
Another fun thing at the zoo was the giraffe enclosure.It was very.. pony club in appearance - except the stables were 3 storys high. The doors had the same open top and closed bottom as a stable door - only the top portion exposed the whole of the giraffes neck making for very comical dimensions.
We went to visit the owls, and they were very sad so we went away to a newer part of the zoo - and possibly the very best - the otter enclosure. It must have been feeding time, because the cheeky little fellows were all standing on their hind legs, looking over the fence and squeak squeak squeaking. THere was an "outcast" otter, who kept away from the group and occasionally randomly attacked one of them, starting a rolling otter punch-up. THey were constantly relocating in their enclosure and squeaking. at one point, the were squeaking so hard a few of them fell over. Most wonderful!
It was then zoo closing time, and we left feelig a little... underwhelmed. I don't think either of us could forget that path the tiger had made in the mud.
PART 2 - National Gallery
this was awesome.. but i now can't remember anything really about my visit other than I SAW VAN GOUGH'S SUNFLOWERS for real! I had a great day at the gallery.. but the specifics elude me
PART 3 - Museum of London
I visited the Museum of London the same day as the National Gallery. I can absolutely recommend this to anyone who visits London. The Museum of London charts the history of the London area since paleolithic times - through roman, medieval, tudor, victorian and modern times. It was absolutely fascinating - especially the roman section - imagining they they had lived here, exactly on the ground I was walking. THey had so many amazing artefacts and really informative exhibits.
I especially was fascinated to learn about the way people lived here throughout the past.
The modern section was really interesting as well - with every decade covered individually from the 1880's to present. Swinging london in the 60's was great - but I was very moved by the exhibit about the suffrogettes. They fought very very hard for their rights, and it was really eye-opening to see artefacts of the sort of opposition they came up against.
Of course, the 40's, encompassing the Blitz, was extremely powerful. I can't even imagine what it would have been like for Londoners in that time. So brave. I am definately a pacifist, but if someone was attacking my country like that, I would surely go and fight- do anything. Yes, the Londoners of that era were a brave lot.
Of all the museums I've been to so far, I would recommend the Museum of London first to any traveller - It's so important to learn about the places you travel to, and this museum told me everything I wanted to know - and more.
Tuesday, December 14, 2010
Paris Paris PARIS!
after a four day whilrwind tour and a lot of walking around in blizzard conditions, I think that Paris is possibly the most beautiful city in the world. Even seeing it in it's ugliest (and most uncomfortably frigid) season, it is still an absolutely captivating place.
My trip begun with an early morning rise. 3:30am up, 3:35am out the door, 3:40am on the night bus heading for King's Cross/St. Pancras station. Everyone at the station was bleary eyed and as I was trying to work out how to scan my ticket (more complicated than it would seem) I encountered my first example of French Rudeness. The help man was very rude "when you go to places, you should read the information on the ticket and pay attention". Bastard.
I joined the extreme sized line for coffees- grabbing a chocolate croissant for the trip (the first of 6 consumed in the 4 days to follow). The Eurostar was great. It was very spacious and very fast - only 3 hours to Paris under the sea! When I got off the train, I was met by my host for the trip, Julien.
Julien is a great guy - he's very friendly and has a lot of interest in world events. I met Julien through couchsurfing.org - which means I was able to stay for free with him in the middle of Paris. He took me back to his apartment - which was really just two rooms, on the 5th floor of his building (so many stairs) just off rue de la fayette. He sleeps on a futon and had a blow up matteress for me. It was small, but comfortable and perfect for one person to live in the centre of a big city.
After dumping my stuff, I walked down rue lafayette towards the Opera and my date with an open air bus. I had earlier purchased 2 days on the L'open Tour open top busses (see the website here) for sight-seeing over the internet. It was recommended to me by Phebe, and it certainly was worth 30 euros. The busses take you on four different routes around Paris, taking in all the biggest and best sights!
Totally overwhelmed by the CHristmas decorations at the massive Printemps & Galleries Lafayette department stores (some randomly haloween & Mama Mia themed), I almost missed my bus and had to sprint across 5(ish) lanes of traffic to get there. I say 5ish, because as anyone who has been to Paris knows, there are no "lanes" but an insane melee of weaving traffic heading in random directions.
I started on the "orange" bus route - Montmatre & Sacre Cour. I was given my map and incredibly uncomfortable green earphones. Although it was sleet-y conditions, I opted to sit up top in the open air. It was an amazing vantage point for scenery and photos, but I have never been more cold in my life. Still, for my entire open bus tour, I sat obstinately up top. People must have seen the bus coming and wondered why there was an eskimo riding up top, with me perched up there shivering in my faux fur hooded jacket.
We drove through the "red light" district, past the many Cabarets- including the somewhat externally unimpressive Moulin Rouge. THere were many hilarious shop signs in this area. Then it was time for Sacre Cour, where I hopped off the bus to explore. It's quite a walk up to the church on the hill and I experienced the awkward feeling of being sweaty under my coat and freezing on the outer layer. The church was magnificent- extremely deluxe. My favourite part (apart from the stunning stained glass windows) were all the beautiful tea-lights and candles that visitors had lit in prayer to the random saints whose alters stood above.
After a thorough inspection of the inside I was ready to go down to the crypt. However, the crypt was closed. So it was tower time. It was quite vertiginous there in that tower. high up, and very cramped and crowded. But the view from the top across Paris could not be beat.. well .. maybe if it wasn't foggy.
On the way down I saw the people I had been warned about by my friend Arlene on my highland tour. There are these African men standing around down the bottom of the hill with little ropes in their hands. What happens is that they approach an unsuspecting tourist and put the little cord around their hands or fingers, trapping them. They then ask for money to be let go. Apparently you can escape if you yell "I AM CALLING THE POLICE I DID NOT ASK FOR THIS" but I wasn't ready to give it a go. The men came up to me and I tucked my hands under my armpits and ran away. I saw them catch some poor unsuspecting girl though. What total bastards.
I hopped back on the bus and rode it back to the opera, where I changed onto the "blue" line - the ultimate sight-seeing tour line. This bus took us down the boulevards and through the crazy skinny arch into the Louvre, where we glimpsed the famous glass pyramids and on the other side, could see down the tulleries to the obilsk and all the way down the champs elysees to the arc de triumph. The bus stopped for what felt like 10 minutes at the Louvre, as I sat freezing on top. Eventually we got moving again. THe nice thing about the bus is that you plug in your earphones and can listen to the commentary about where you are. It's very nice.
we then drove along the south bank and looped back to Concorde, where we got to see the egyptian obelisk close up, as it had previously be obscured by a ferris wheel of the type that seem to pop up in european cities over christmas (there was one in edinburgh as well). I hopped off here to explore the Champs Elysees. Oh so awesome! a whole building of Louis Vuitton.. and the Sepphora make up shop was the greatest thing i've ever seen - when the world cup anthem came on all the staff went and danced at the front of their megastore. It was very cool. I meandered up to the Arc Du Triumph, but I didn't climb it - it wasn't exactly a nice day. Here I got hassled by gypsies as well.
Now, I must say that there were a HUGE number of "homeless" people in Paris. The thing is alot of them were young and healthy and had great english so I don't understand why they didn't have a job or the kids wern't at school. They were out running countless scams against tourists in stead. In my time, I got hassled about 10 times. Can I please have money. I am raising money for the deaf (when not deaf because clearly could hear what I was saying). I need food. It's all the kids out on the streets and I bet the parents are just sitting there at home raking in all the cash. The worst ones are the people who sit there in the street with lots of pets. IF YOU CAN'T AFFORD TO FEED YOURSELF PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE DON'T HAVE AN ANIMAL. I felt like calling the RSPCA or equivalent body. THey only had the animals becaue they thought people would give them more money. I saw one guy with three kittens- he was young and healty and just lying in the street with 3 kittens. what a JERK.
anyway, that's enough of my rant about these people. btu really, the problem is very severe. it's the worst thing about Paris for sure.
After that, even though the weather was cloudy and snowy, I decided to take the plunge and climb the eiffel tower. The elevators were quite fun. The line up only took about 35 minutes, so it was no where as bad as I was led to believe it would be. except for the constant harassment from said people and from people trying to sell souveniers.
I should mention I had a crepe for lunch. oh so delicious.
After that, it was time to head back to Julien's apartment. But first, he took me on a walk through Paris by night. Very nice. Julien cooked dinner and had wine and cheese for me. So much cheese. We stayed up talking about international relations. Then I blew up my blow up bed and went to sleep.
The next day, after a chocolate croissant power-up, I took in the green and red routes. I saw Notre Dame (very very nice), the Bastile, the finance department buildings (actually very cool), the latin QUarter, Montparnasse & Saint Germaine, Hotel des invalides and .. well alot more. however, this day was quite blizardy and I spent alot of time on the bus huddled in a corner.
I had intended to check out Pompidu centre that day, to see the modern art collecion. However, it was closed (as it was a tuesday) and I got somewhat lost as the snow fell heavily. I found my way into a "quick" which is a European version of Mcdonalds. I ordered in french and the teenagers standing next to me were laughing. Jerks. I ordered a Big Mac Equivalent and was impressed by the delcious dijon mayonaise that acompanied my french fries.
Stuck for something to do until Julien finished work at about 7 (Parisiens start work late and finish late, then stay up late), I placed my bets on the Musee d'Orsay. A bet which payed off. I love art galleries. In france they x-ray your bag before you go in. Monet, Manet, Vermeer, Gaugain, Seurat (up close - oh so good), Van Gough - all the masters. it was fabulous!
I was unfortunately kicked out at 5pm (with booming voices yelling "THE MUSEUM IS CLOSED" in 13 languages) as there was a concert happening in the gallery that evening. TO kill the extra time, I walked all the way back to the opera. Once there, I explored Printemps and Galleries Lafayette. These shops are UNBELIEVABLE. Think of every mega-posh, super expensive, ultra designer you can imagine- they are all there in their own little shops. Louis Vuitton, Chloe, Christian Louburtin, Berkin.. I cant' even name them all.. but it was extreme.
I don't know- even if I was a millionaire I really couldn't be bothered to pay $500 for a scarf. Or $3500 for a pair of shoes. I would buy nice things - but let's not get ridiculous. Still I saw people walking around with 5 or 6 bags from different designers. How the other half live, I guess.
I went back to Julien's apartment where he had a surprise for me. the greatest dinner ever. It was a traditional French type of thing - he melted thick slices of a mild soft cheese in little frying pans (one per cheese slice) on a special heater, then we poured the melted cheese over our baked potatos and meats (ham, bacon, parma ham etc). It was SO GOOD. we ate a block of cheese each though. then some special soft cheese for dessert. Cheese dreams ensued. but it was worth it - what a marvelous meal.
And I needed all the calories of a block of cheese for the following day - my day at the LOUVRE. I'm not going to write about it. It was awesome. I got the audio guide (highly recommended) and did all the tours. Napoleon III's apartments were AMAZING and then I spent ages trying to take photos of myself with venus di milo, mona lisa and victory of samathrace. I was there from 10am to 8pm. I had the best day. At the end, I decided to walk back to the apartment. The whole day of walking taken into account, I walked for about 10 hours. it was epic. and the egyptian exhibition was BETTER than the one at the British Museum (which was awesome to begin with). It was a good thing I chose this day to be my day indoors however, becaue it was an ACTUAL blizzard outside.
THen Thursday, my last day in Paris. After obligatory chocolate croissant, it was time to finally do the Pompidu centre.
coming soon... london zoo
My trip begun with an early morning rise. 3:30am up, 3:35am out the door, 3:40am on the night bus heading for King's Cross/St. Pancras station. Everyone at the station was bleary eyed and as I was trying to work out how to scan my ticket (more complicated than it would seem) I encountered my first example of French Rudeness. The help man was very rude "when you go to places, you should read the information on the ticket and pay attention". Bastard.
I joined the extreme sized line for coffees- grabbing a chocolate croissant for the trip (the first of 6 consumed in the 4 days to follow). The Eurostar was great. It was very spacious and very fast - only 3 hours to Paris under the sea! When I got off the train, I was met by my host for the trip, Julien.
Julien is a great guy - he's very friendly and has a lot of interest in world events. I met Julien through couchsurfing.org - which means I was able to stay for free with him in the middle of Paris. He took me back to his apartment - which was really just two rooms, on the 5th floor of his building (so many stairs) just off rue de la fayette. He sleeps on a futon and had a blow up matteress for me. It was small, but comfortable and perfect for one person to live in the centre of a big city.
After dumping my stuff, I walked down rue lafayette towards the Opera and my date with an open air bus. I had earlier purchased 2 days on the L'open Tour open top busses (see the website here) for sight-seeing over the internet. It was recommended to me by Phebe, and it certainly was worth 30 euros. The busses take you on four different routes around Paris, taking in all the biggest and best sights!
Totally overwhelmed by the CHristmas decorations at the massive Printemps & Galleries Lafayette department stores (some randomly haloween & Mama Mia themed), I almost missed my bus and had to sprint across 5(ish) lanes of traffic to get there. I say 5ish, because as anyone who has been to Paris knows, there are no "lanes" but an insane melee of weaving traffic heading in random directions.
I started on the "orange" bus route - Montmatre & Sacre Cour. I was given my map and incredibly uncomfortable green earphones. Although it was sleet-y conditions, I opted to sit up top in the open air. It was an amazing vantage point for scenery and photos, but I have never been more cold in my life. Still, for my entire open bus tour, I sat obstinately up top. People must have seen the bus coming and wondered why there was an eskimo riding up top, with me perched up there shivering in my faux fur hooded jacket.
We drove through the "red light" district, past the many Cabarets- including the somewhat externally unimpressive Moulin Rouge. THere were many hilarious shop signs in this area. Then it was time for Sacre Cour, where I hopped off the bus to explore. It's quite a walk up to the church on the hill and I experienced the awkward feeling of being sweaty under my coat and freezing on the outer layer. The church was magnificent- extremely deluxe. My favourite part (apart from the stunning stained glass windows) were all the beautiful tea-lights and candles that visitors had lit in prayer to the random saints whose alters stood above.
After a thorough inspection of the inside I was ready to go down to the crypt. However, the crypt was closed. So it was tower time. It was quite vertiginous there in that tower. high up, and very cramped and crowded. But the view from the top across Paris could not be beat.. well .. maybe if it wasn't foggy.
On the way down I saw the people I had been warned about by my friend Arlene on my highland tour. There are these African men standing around down the bottom of the hill with little ropes in their hands. What happens is that they approach an unsuspecting tourist and put the little cord around their hands or fingers, trapping them. They then ask for money to be let go. Apparently you can escape if you yell "I AM CALLING THE POLICE I DID NOT ASK FOR THIS" but I wasn't ready to give it a go. The men came up to me and I tucked my hands under my armpits and ran away. I saw them catch some poor unsuspecting girl though. What total bastards.
I hopped back on the bus and rode it back to the opera, where I changed onto the "blue" line - the ultimate sight-seeing tour line. This bus took us down the boulevards and through the crazy skinny arch into the Louvre, where we glimpsed the famous glass pyramids and on the other side, could see down the tulleries to the obilsk and all the way down the champs elysees to the arc de triumph. The bus stopped for what felt like 10 minutes at the Louvre, as I sat freezing on top. Eventually we got moving again. THe nice thing about the bus is that you plug in your earphones and can listen to the commentary about where you are. It's very nice.
we then drove along the south bank and looped back to Concorde, where we got to see the egyptian obelisk close up, as it had previously be obscured by a ferris wheel of the type that seem to pop up in european cities over christmas (there was one in edinburgh as well). I hopped off here to explore the Champs Elysees. Oh so awesome! a whole building of Louis Vuitton.. and the Sepphora make up shop was the greatest thing i've ever seen - when the world cup anthem came on all the staff went and danced at the front of their megastore. It was very cool. I meandered up to the Arc Du Triumph, but I didn't climb it - it wasn't exactly a nice day. Here I got hassled by gypsies as well.
Now, I must say that there were a HUGE number of "homeless" people in Paris. The thing is alot of them were young and healthy and had great english so I don't understand why they didn't have a job or the kids wern't at school. They were out running countless scams against tourists in stead. In my time, I got hassled about 10 times. Can I please have money. I am raising money for the deaf (when not deaf because clearly could hear what I was saying). I need food. It's all the kids out on the streets and I bet the parents are just sitting there at home raking in all the cash. The worst ones are the people who sit there in the street with lots of pets. IF YOU CAN'T AFFORD TO FEED YOURSELF PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE DON'T HAVE AN ANIMAL. I felt like calling the RSPCA or equivalent body. THey only had the animals becaue they thought people would give them more money. I saw one guy with three kittens- he was young and healty and just lying in the street with 3 kittens. what a JERK.
anyway, that's enough of my rant about these people. btu really, the problem is very severe. it's the worst thing about Paris for sure.
After that, even though the weather was cloudy and snowy, I decided to take the plunge and climb the eiffel tower. The elevators were quite fun. The line up only took about 35 minutes, so it was no where as bad as I was led to believe it would be. except for the constant harassment from said people and from people trying to sell souveniers.
I should mention I had a crepe for lunch. oh so delicious.
After that, it was time to head back to Julien's apartment. But first, he took me on a walk through Paris by night. Very nice. Julien cooked dinner and had wine and cheese for me. So much cheese. We stayed up talking about international relations. Then I blew up my blow up bed and went to sleep.
The next day, after a chocolate croissant power-up, I took in the green and red routes. I saw Notre Dame (very very nice), the Bastile, the finance department buildings (actually very cool), the latin QUarter, Montparnasse & Saint Germaine, Hotel des invalides and .. well alot more. however, this day was quite blizardy and I spent alot of time on the bus huddled in a corner.
I had intended to check out Pompidu centre that day, to see the modern art collecion. However, it was closed (as it was a tuesday) and I got somewhat lost as the snow fell heavily. I found my way into a "quick" which is a European version of Mcdonalds. I ordered in french and the teenagers standing next to me were laughing. Jerks. I ordered a Big Mac Equivalent and was impressed by the delcious dijon mayonaise that acompanied my french fries.
Stuck for something to do until Julien finished work at about 7 (Parisiens start work late and finish late, then stay up late), I placed my bets on the Musee d'Orsay. A bet which payed off. I love art galleries. In france they x-ray your bag before you go in. Monet, Manet, Vermeer, Gaugain, Seurat (up close - oh so good), Van Gough - all the masters. it was fabulous!
I was unfortunately kicked out at 5pm (with booming voices yelling "THE MUSEUM IS CLOSED" in 13 languages) as there was a concert happening in the gallery that evening. TO kill the extra time, I walked all the way back to the opera. Once there, I explored Printemps and Galleries Lafayette. These shops are UNBELIEVABLE. Think of every mega-posh, super expensive, ultra designer you can imagine- they are all there in their own little shops. Louis Vuitton, Chloe, Christian Louburtin, Berkin.. I cant' even name them all.. but it was extreme.
I don't know- even if I was a millionaire I really couldn't be bothered to pay $500 for a scarf. Or $3500 for a pair of shoes. I would buy nice things - but let's not get ridiculous. Still I saw people walking around with 5 or 6 bags from different designers. How the other half live, I guess.
I went back to Julien's apartment where he had a surprise for me. the greatest dinner ever. It was a traditional French type of thing - he melted thick slices of a mild soft cheese in little frying pans (one per cheese slice) on a special heater, then we poured the melted cheese over our baked potatos and meats (ham, bacon, parma ham etc). It was SO GOOD. we ate a block of cheese each though. then some special soft cheese for dessert. Cheese dreams ensued. but it was worth it - what a marvelous meal.
And I needed all the calories of a block of cheese for the following day - my day at the LOUVRE. I'm not going to write about it. It was awesome. I got the audio guide (highly recommended) and did all the tours. Napoleon III's apartments were AMAZING and then I spent ages trying to take photos of myself with venus di milo, mona lisa and victory of samathrace. I was there from 10am to 8pm. I had the best day. At the end, I decided to walk back to the apartment. The whole day of walking taken into account, I walked for about 10 hours. it was epic. and the egyptian exhibition was BETTER than the one at the British Museum (which was awesome to begin with). It was a good thing I chose this day to be my day indoors however, becaue it was an ACTUAL blizzard outside.
THen Thursday, my last day in Paris. After obligatory chocolate croissant, it was time to finally do the Pompidu centre.
coming soon... london zoo
Sunday, December 5, 2010
Shopping!
The past two days have been good days for shopping- in both traditional London Style and extremely modern-deluxe-style ways.
This week, due to unseasonally cold weather in London, I have become painfully aware that my new (and very lovely) H&M coat (and my old coat for that matter) are not warm enough. Walking anywhere has been causing me pain - but I have realised, after seeing the new coat Phebe ordered online- that this does NOT have to be the case. Some coats (albeit puffy ones) are very VERY warm.
So, for the past week, i've been searching online for THE perfect Jacket. But due to my increasing size (yea.. I'm a fatty now), I was reluctant to purchase one online. Coats are a big investment and I was too cold to wait for delivery.
Thus, when Gemma (one of Phebe's 9 housemates) declared her intentions to go to Westfield on Friday, I immediatly decalred my intentions to tag along.
Westfield (at Shepherds Bush) is London's only "shopping centre". Everywhere else, shopping is done on the very cold streets. We took the tube over and froze our ways in the door. Once inside, it was obvious that I wasn't in Brisbane anymore. This Westfield shits all over any Australian shopping centre I have ever seen. You are met at the enterance with a champagne bar, sitting between the Prada and Louis Vuitton shops. At this wine bar, snooty people sit drinking posh champagne before midday for no particular reason. The size, the shops, the aesthetic - this is the world's poshest shopping centre. The food court does not have fast food - but deluxe vendors that serve food on plates. I had a deluxe kebab - no sorry "chicken wrap" from the deluxe kebab (ahem) Wrap shop.
Gemma and I wandered aimlessly amongst the terrifyingly expensive shops, searching for our own "price range". I had my heart set on a Superdry Coat.. but unfortunately, the decision was made that the coats at Superdry were not long enough, as it is apparently important to keep the derierre warm.
I am very happy with my eventual purpose- a very nice semi-puffy jacket from Bench. I tried to find a picture of it online.. but it's only in white on the website and doesn't look as cool. I also got a pair of thermal gloves. I'm officially set for winter.
That evening Phebe, Jed, Ali (phebe's cool NZ work friend) went out for 2 for one cocktails and steak in clapham. it was AWesome.
Yesterday, after a late rising due to the cocktails of the night before getting a little out of contol, we went shopping LONDON style. We went to the Borough Markets - the greatest food market in the world (in my opinon). Amazing fresh food booths line either side of the walkways selling every different kind of food you could imagine. Amazing cheezes beside fresh seafood beside the most beautiful cuts of meat you've ever seen.
We started our cullinary adventures with pork rolls all round. Roasted pork and stuffing with apple sauce in a crispy baguette. Awesome. We then wandered around sampling dips and oils (one dip tasted exactly like the chips from Grill'd). We then went to the oyster stand and chose our own oysters - which were then opened up for us and consumed on the spot. there's nothing like a fresh oyster! then we went to the cheese shop. this shop was amazing. wall to wall cheesemania - and the woman helpig us knew SO MUCH about cheese. we must have sampled at least 10 different cheeses before getting a hard orange cheese and a beautiful soft cheese from wales. Phebe then kept sampling some kind of spanish aged pork legs and eventually (after more oysters) we left, full and contented.
Last night we stayed in with hot chocolates and watched X factor (ugggh) and the final of "i'm a celebrity-get me out of here"- nice to see it's raining in QLD.
oh I should add that on thursday night I went out for drinks with the lovely Hannah douglas! It was nice to see that curly haired friend once more.
CUrrently we're sitting in the room drinking coffee and eating the cheeses we bought yesterday. it is actually sunny outside and I want to go there very soon.
This week, due to unseasonally cold weather in London, I have become painfully aware that my new (and very lovely) H&M coat (and my old coat for that matter) are not warm enough. Walking anywhere has been causing me pain - but I have realised, after seeing the new coat Phebe ordered online- that this does NOT have to be the case. Some coats (albeit puffy ones) are very VERY warm.
So, for the past week, i've been searching online for THE perfect Jacket. But due to my increasing size (yea.. I'm a fatty now), I was reluctant to purchase one online. Coats are a big investment and I was too cold to wait for delivery.
Thus, when Gemma (one of Phebe's 9 housemates) declared her intentions to go to Westfield on Friday, I immediatly decalred my intentions to tag along.
Westfield (at Shepherds Bush) is London's only "shopping centre". Everywhere else, shopping is done on the very cold streets. We took the tube over and froze our ways in the door. Once inside, it was obvious that I wasn't in Brisbane anymore. This Westfield shits all over any Australian shopping centre I have ever seen. You are met at the enterance with a champagne bar, sitting between the Prada and Louis Vuitton shops. At this wine bar, snooty people sit drinking posh champagne before midday for no particular reason. The size, the shops, the aesthetic - this is the world's poshest shopping centre. The food court does not have fast food - but deluxe vendors that serve food on plates. I had a deluxe kebab - no sorry "chicken wrap" from the deluxe kebab (ahem) Wrap shop.
Gemma and I wandered aimlessly amongst the terrifyingly expensive shops, searching for our own "price range". I had my heart set on a Superdry Coat.. but unfortunately, the decision was made that the coats at Superdry were not long enough, as it is apparently important to keep the derierre warm.
I am very happy with my eventual purpose- a very nice semi-puffy jacket from Bench. I tried to find a picture of it online.. but it's only in white on the website and doesn't look as cool. I also got a pair of thermal gloves. I'm officially set for winter.
That evening Phebe, Jed, Ali (phebe's cool NZ work friend) went out for 2 for one cocktails and steak in clapham. it was AWesome.
Yesterday, after a late rising due to the cocktails of the night before getting a little out of contol, we went shopping LONDON style. We went to the Borough Markets - the greatest food market in the world (in my opinon). Amazing fresh food booths line either side of the walkways selling every different kind of food you could imagine. Amazing cheezes beside fresh seafood beside the most beautiful cuts of meat you've ever seen.
We started our cullinary adventures with pork rolls all round. Roasted pork and stuffing with apple sauce in a crispy baguette. Awesome. We then wandered around sampling dips and oils (one dip tasted exactly like the chips from Grill'd). We then went to the oyster stand and chose our own oysters - which were then opened up for us and consumed on the spot. there's nothing like a fresh oyster! then we went to the cheese shop. this shop was amazing. wall to wall cheesemania - and the woman helpig us knew SO MUCH about cheese. we must have sampled at least 10 different cheeses before getting a hard orange cheese and a beautiful soft cheese from wales. Phebe then kept sampling some kind of spanish aged pork legs and eventually (after more oysters) we left, full and contented.
Last night we stayed in with hot chocolates and watched X factor (ugggh) and the final of "i'm a celebrity-get me out of here"- nice to see it's raining in QLD.
oh I should add that on thursday night I went out for drinks with the lovely Hannah douglas! It was nice to see that curly haired friend once more.
CUrrently we're sitting in the room drinking coffee and eating the cheeses we bought yesterday. it is actually sunny outside and I want to go there very soon.
Thursday, December 2, 2010
Ok so before I force myself to retell my two weeks in the North, I'll first address the far eaiser task of retelling the past two days.
I've spent the past few days roaming london on my own. Because I'm by myself at this point I thought I'd do the sorts of things that may annoy other people if they were to come with me- THe British Museum & Tate Modern.
Wednesday was the British Museum. In total, I spent 6 hours exploring the labyrinth of rooms. I paid my 5 pounds for the audiovisual guide. As a pauper, I was a little reluctant at first - but it was SO worth it. The guide gave you all sorts of extra information about the most important items in each room- but you had time to look at everything. I absolutely adored the ancient egyptian rooms - and to see the Rosetta stone? amazing. I spent an hour looking at the marbles from the parthenon. THere are always calls to send them back to greece.. but I think there are more people to apprecieate them here in London - and they were taken because they were in danger of being destroyed. THe skills of the classical sculptors was just.. amazing. you could see the veins bulging in the horses' flanks and every fold of flowing fabric was executed to precision.
I also really enjoyed the medieval Europe exhibition. very cool.
I emerged from the building into the darkness of 5pm London. It feels so unwholesome to emerge into darkness from a museum.
TOday I went to Tate Modern. Before heading in , I decided to wander along the South Bank of the Thames. In theory this was a wonderful idea, with a German style CHristmas market stretching 150m along the water's edge under the London Eye. In practice it was ABSOLUTELY FREEZING. Snow snow everywhere, plus a cruel wind off the river and temperatures that according to google went as low as -7 today! I now understand Londoner's obsessions with the weather - it's an important factors in daily decisions around here. Apart from the cold, it was very beautiful. I bought a lemon and sugar crepe.. which i could not taste through the cold.
Finally, I made it to the Gallery. Again, I spent a few quid on a well-worth-it audio guide. There was a whole section on Surrealism - it was wonderful to see Dali close up. I also enjoyed the section on the Italian "poor art" movement- where traditional artistic materials were rejected in favour of.. coal dust and sticks and other random items. The most exciting thing was seeing the Roy Licthenstien "Whaam". I have ALWAYS LOVED this work - it's my favourite work from the pop-art movement and it sent shivers through my spine to see one of my favourite works in real life.
There was also a large canvas of one of Monet's seemingly endless paintings of the waterlillies in his garden taht was also lovely to see.
I then strolled back over the bridge, amid a group of eastern european school children who insisted on scuffing their feet on the metal of the bridge creating a nightmarish sound to accompany the evil wind off the thames. I then walked along Fleet Street and the Strand before making my way up to Leister Square and down into the comparative warmth of the tube station.
Tonight I am meeting the lovely and gorgeous Hannah Douglas for after work drinks in Clapham south. This means I'm goign to have to brave the winter wonderland outside again - but where we are meeting is only a short walk away from where I'm staying. It will be nice to see her curly hair once more!
coming soon - tales of my travel in the north (procrastinate procrastinate)
I've spent the past few days roaming london on my own. Because I'm by myself at this point I thought I'd do the sorts of things that may annoy other people if they were to come with me- THe British Museum & Tate Modern.
Wednesday was the British Museum. In total, I spent 6 hours exploring the labyrinth of rooms. I paid my 5 pounds for the audiovisual guide. As a pauper, I was a little reluctant at first - but it was SO worth it. The guide gave you all sorts of extra information about the most important items in each room- but you had time to look at everything. I absolutely adored the ancient egyptian rooms - and to see the Rosetta stone? amazing. I spent an hour looking at the marbles from the parthenon. THere are always calls to send them back to greece.. but I think there are more people to apprecieate them here in London - and they were taken because they were in danger of being destroyed. THe skills of the classical sculptors was just.. amazing. you could see the veins bulging in the horses' flanks and every fold of flowing fabric was executed to precision.
I also really enjoyed the medieval Europe exhibition. very cool.
I emerged from the building into the darkness of 5pm London. It feels so unwholesome to emerge into darkness from a museum.
TOday I went to Tate Modern. Before heading in , I decided to wander along the South Bank of the Thames. In theory this was a wonderful idea, with a German style CHristmas market stretching 150m along the water's edge under the London Eye. In practice it was ABSOLUTELY FREEZING. Snow snow everywhere, plus a cruel wind off the river and temperatures that according to google went as low as -7 today! I now understand Londoner's obsessions with the weather - it's an important factors in daily decisions around here. Apart from the cold, it was very beautiful. I bought a lemon and sugar crepe.. which i could not taste through the cold.
Finally, I made it to the Gallery. Again, I spent a few quid on a well-worth-it audio guide. There was a whole section on Surrealism - it was wonderful to see Dali close up. I also enjoyed the section on the Italian "poor art" movement- where traditional artistic materials were rejected in favour of.. coal dust and sticks and other random items. The most exciting thing was seeing the Roy Licthenstien "Whaam". I have ALWAYS LOVED this work - it's my favourite work from the pop-art movement and it sent shivers through my spine to see one of my favourite works in real life.
There was also a large canvas of one of Monet's seemingly endless paintings of the waterlillies in his garden taht was also lovely to see.
I then strolled back over the bridge, amid a group of eastern european school children who insisted on scuffing their feet on the metal of the bridge creating a nightmarish sound to accompany the evil wind off the thames. I then walked along Fleet Street and the Strand before making my way up to Leister Square and down into the comparative warmth of the tube station.
Tonight I am meeting the lovely and gorgeous Hannah Douglas for after work drinks in Clapham south. This means I'm goign to have to brave the winter wonderland outside again - but where we are meeting is only a short walk away from where I'm staying. It will be nice to see her curly hair once more!
coming soon - tales of my travel in the north (procrastinate procrastinate)
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