european adventure: london

Once upon a time, there was a girl. she was full of adventure and all sorts of craziness.  she once applied to go to europe with the humanities and art programs at her school. and she got accepted. as she pondered and reflected if she should accept this great opportunity or not she couldn't decide because pondering and reflecting major life decisions hasn't ever really been a part of her itinerary.  too many options.  so fate was left to a coin toss.  heads yes, tails no.  luck just had it that it landed on heads.  months and months passed in waiting to journey to a new land.  finally that day was drawing nearer.  she started packing and realized she should grab her passport... and to her dismay, the passport was no where to be found. the entire house was turned upside down and inside out looking for it.  after four days of tears and no luck she and her parents drove to denver, colorado to get a new one... hopefully. 

april 22:

okay, okay.. everything worked out fine.  but i really was so worried that i wouldn't be able to go.  i've been dreaming of going since probably my birth! so that slight passport interruption kinda made my heart skip a beat or two. so i got one in denver and flew to london all by myself. that was an adventure all by its self even.  i ended up only being a couple ish hours behind the group.  it worked out extremely well considering the mess it was only hours earlier.  also i have pretty neat parents and siblings.  probably a boring weekend for them to tear the house apart to look for something they wouldn't even benefit from.  they are a neat bunch to say the least.

april 23:

i landed in heathrow.. which is just a bit outside of london.  there one of my professors came and picked me up.  what a gem.  basically i felt super wired and was having an adrenalin high.  i was strangely ready to go even though i had gotten hardly any sleep and the time zone change didn't help any either.  my current obsession like an hour into exploring london was accents.  they are so awesome.  accents, telephone booths, and double decker buses.

the first major thing i did was went to the national gallery.  this museum is home to the arnofilni portrait by van eyck, combing the hair by degas, the umberella's by renior and many other great ones as well.  but those were just some of my favorites.  it is crazy how much you can study a piece of art and think you understand it or know what it looks like when in fact you have no idea until you are standing there right in front of the arnofilni portrait and noticing everything you never saw to begin with or their brush strokes, or their lack of brush strokes and wondering how they did it.  it is such an amazing feeling.

plaza in front of the national gallery

 architecture there was also a current obsession, and now a current thing to be missing.

we rode the tubes to get around.  they lead to anywhere and everywhere.  it seriously is a magical world underneath the city.  i miss them.  and the man getting on the intercom saying 'mind the gap' as the doors would open to let passengers on or off.  they are very concerned so you don't topple over.  

this night was theater night! i went to the phantom of the opera at her majesty's theatre.  it was amazing. i sat on the second row which was also a treat.  i could see the phantoms drool as he was crawling across the stage.  or when the fire blew in a part for special affects i could feel the heat. or the smoke or anything.  it was more than i expected it to be.  and i am a sucker for that musical, so that is saying a lot.  the phantom was so passionate.  the way he pronounced his words or his facial expressions.  so well played, the actors, the special affects, the costumes, the orchestra.. it was so fun.  

after the play we found street performers!

 london felt like a whole different city at night.  the lights danced off the buildings and there was music on every corner.  it was kind of amazing.

april 24:

note to self:  europeans love this thing called sparkling water.  this first time i got asked if i would like still or sparkling i had no educated response... uh.. anyway its not as hard as it seems, and made sense once the man explained himself. he just said 'oh, madame, its like a pooof inside your mouth.'  (but in a sick british accent) carbonated water was neat to try once, but it isn't so good to drink all the days.  especially if you are super thirsty.  i stuck to still water the rest of the trip.  today i saw my first whatever these things are.  they aren't really street performers, but they just stand there all day and such with lots of different costumes and such.

on this day we went and saw the british museum.

this museum had a lot of ancient egypt, assyrian and greek art or ruins.  way cooler seeing all of that in real life instead of in a text book.  my favorite from this museum would probably be what was left from the broken pediment from the parthenon.  greek sculpture is sort of amazing.

or close behind that some assyrian engravings.

not to mention the rosetta stone. i guess that's pretty important.

philosophers 

 we had this afternoon free, so we went to st. paul's.  i expected it to be a pretty building, but i didn't expect it to be so beautiful.

the dome of st. paul's

we went to go to the service.  so you walk in and it is pretty and such, but then you turn the corner and it is so so so beautiful.  i could have stared at the murals on the walls forever.  they said no photography, but i snuck in a couple:)

 after st. paul's i went to the tate museum to see a special exhibit they had there with a collection all from lichtenstein.

after the exibit we did some major people watching by the bridge.  my favorite was the shaggy street performer.  and the children who chase the birds around.

tonight was theater night number two.  i went to les mis.  i was actually a little worried, because i love love love the movie, so how could a play compare.  but there was nothing to worry about.  the first song had me hooked and just got better with each act. 

the rainy london doesn't come as alive as it did when it wasn't rainy.  it seemed to bring out more creepers.  so we went back to the hostel.  taylor and i had on matching sweaters and just chillin on the lobby couches when some random boy walked past us and just said 'same.' then left.  a boy named conner saw this and came and made friends.  he's from australia.  then the same boy came back in.  apparently he and conner are friends.  his name is sergio.  sergio from spain.  and when he came back he was wearing the same sweater as us.  his english was a little broken so we got sentences with more spanish than english in them, but that made things interesting.

so i think london stole my heart. literally, figuratively, metaphorically, emotionally, and such.  i'm already thinking of planning a trip back.  any takers?