London 2: Electric Boogaloo

I went to London on a day trip yesterday to meet up with six people I knew from Notre Dame's Dublin program: Allison, Marita, Kait, Ashley, Melissa, and Ryan. I had a complete blast with them and now I'ma blog about it all in between all of the reading I need to do for this week's round of papers.

So, like usual, I took the Oxford Tube from Gloucester Road to Victoria, but for some reason the bus yesterday morning was awfully full (every seat, seriously, was full) and awfully slow. It took me about two hours, counting all the stops, to get to where I needed to be. Then once I got in to London, I realized that they were doing Tube maintenance and thus a lot of the lines I needed that day were going to be closed. (Why would they close Jubilee? It's one of the few lines that services South Bank!)

Anyhow, after some creative subway managing and a lovely walk along the south bank of the Thames, I met up with everyone in the lobby of the Globe Theater. It was weird being back this time, because the last time I was there I was also hanging out with ND people. We hit up the gift shop, I found some Valentine's Day gifts for a certain special someone, I got erasers that say 'out, damned spot' on them (I have a soft spot for witty things), and of course needed more postcards to decorate my bulletin board here in my room.

We caught lunch at a Pret a Manger on the South Bank, hanging out and talking and sharing lots of stories, before taking another section of the South Bank Thames walk and hitting the bridges. In between all the bridges, there were also some pretty interesting things, like the ruins of an old castle's dining hall (complete with miniature neon green targets in the stone, and an empty rose window) and a steampunk-ed replica of a tea barge. We crossed London Bridge halfway and got pictures of Tower Bridge from there. For some reason, there was a giant destroyer ship ('I sank your battleship!') blocking the view, and once we got closer it was intimidating. There were a few posed shots of the six of us girls in front of Tower Bridge, and then we actually crossed it.

It was kind of cool to see that yes, they are actually towers, with windows and everything. I will say, though, that bridges are not my favorite things. They shake when there's too much pressure on them, you can see the seam where they release to let large boats pass through, and they're over water with only a waist-high barrier keeping you from Allison pushing you overboard. So yeah. Now you know another of my phobias.

We decided not to go into the Tower of London because some people in our group were running out of pounds; besides, we just wanted pictures of the grounds and of the posed archer leaning off one of the towers. There's a funny posed picture floating around that I will have to snatch because it's just too cute. I think it was around this time, too, that Marita and I started talking pretty extensively about marriage/wedding stuff, which was a nice conversation to have.

Then there was the adventure of trying to find a subway line that would take us close to the British Museum. It was really aggravating trying to figure out what lines were open where, especially since some of the Tube stations we saw were just very confusing. We ended up in the middle of the banking district, which I hadn't been to before. Thank goodness Ashley and I are pretty familiar with London and the Tube, so we didn't get anyone horrendously lost.

We spent about two good hours in the British Museum before they closed it. For it being my third time there in a month and a half, I still managed to see a lot of things that I hadn't seen before and get a lot of pictures that I had missed. This includes the Asia gallery and Americas gallery (they only had two rooms dedicated to the Americas... I guess because they can't steal our stuff). Then we were abruptly kicked out and had to decide something to do for dinner, because we were all pretty hungry.

We managed to find a Chinese place that served enough of a buffet for everyone to get something they liked. Since there were seven of us, the staff seated us in a back room where there was a karaoke station set up... with Chinese lyrics (except for that one strange American song). We also got to watch the music videos and determine exactly what was happening/dub over them ourselves, which was hysterical (though one of the videos was really sad). I mean, seriously, who drives a bus from Piccadilly to the south of France while singing in an American accent?

After dinner, it was pub time, and since we were in a neighborhood I knew relatively well, I said I'd take them to some of the pubs off of Grays Inn Road (where I stayed the last time I was in London). But alas, my favorite pub from last time was closed for the evening. They still had their menu up in the window, but we can't figure out why they would have been closed on a Saturday night. Thankfully, I still had part of my local map memorized, and so we ducked into a mew and managed to make it inside a pub called the Duke of York. Allison introduced me to a beer called Bulmer's which tasted like apples, so that was fun. I realized that Kait is dating someone I already knew (who apparently, oh my God, is a grad student and not the cynical freshman I totally thought he was when I first met him), Ryan is God's mistake (according to Allison), and that I should totally go visit Dublin whenever I get the chance (because I'll have a free place to stay and a few rounds of drinks for free).

Alas, after that we headed to King's Cross to say goodbye and catch the Tube lines we needed. We're vowing to keep tabs on each other with our blogging, and of course Marita and I will probably be exchanging e-mail like fiends as her wedding date gets nearer. I told them to make sure to be safe, but apparently couldn't keep my own advice: as I was ascending out of the underground to street level, I tripped up about three steps and mangled my left knee. Woo boy, was that fun to hobble to the bus on. At least I found the bus and it left for home soon after. The rest of the night was a bus ride while trying to finish a chapter of the story I have plotted out, and talking to Justin/wincing/eating chocolate once I got back into Oxford.

London was much more fun with friends. Much, much more fun. There was more talking, more laughter, more pictures, more drinks, more adventure in general. It just brought a different flavor to the city. Especially since the last time I went wasn't such a high point in my life, it was nice to go back and put a better spin on an excellent city.

This morning I woke up and my knee was still pretty banged up, so I'm resting it on a pillow as I try to get my reading done for Philosophy of Mind. At least I understand what I'm reading and the ibuprofen is working just a little. And I also have fond memories of yesterday buoying me and getting me through the day. I miss everyone already, but I think they'll be having a fun time in Dublin, so I don't envy them that they're leaving to go back there. Anyhow, speaking of back, since I'm here and I took a day off yesterday, I don't really have that much time to procrastinate, so back to work for me!

- Jen -