WELCOME TO LONDON

So, I went to London this weekend. It’s actually pretty cool how it came about, because I wasn’t supposed to really do anything this weekend, but last Tuesday, I was talking to my friend who lives in London and suddenly I was just like, “I’m going to come visit you!” So I booked a flight on Tuesday, flew out on Friday and left this morning…whew! And let me tell you, it has been an adventure…

So, Friday night I flew into London really late. Which prompted my last post, including lots of things I learned the hard way. Mostly that London. Is. Intense. I’m not sure why I thought that, Hey, I’ve been to San Francisco, I went to New York once, I can deal with London no problem. Incorrect. Quite wrong. In fact, London can take one look at both of those other cities and eat them alive. London is this entire other creature of city and intensity this San Jose girl had never experienced. Stepping off the bus into London at 1am? That was quite a culture-shock.

Another thing. I missed the memo somehow that London is Cold. I write Cold with a capital C because this temperature change is not California/Alicante/I wear-jeans-and-maybe-a-sweater-cold. This is get-in-your-bones-London-can-kick-your-sorry-ass-Kandace-because-you-don’t-know-anything Cold. However, in my defense, as I was packing for London, I was dying of heat in Alicante, wearing a tank top and shorts, pouring sweat because it was so hot there. I couldn’t even imagine having to wear a jacket. I’m trying to cut myself some slack. Hey, at least I brought gloves.

So, Friday night, somehow or another I manage to make it to my hostel. I was with these two other Spanish girls for a while – they had never been on an airplane before, nor did they speak any English, so I can only imagine what London was like for them. I was actually playing translator for a long time, which was a cool phenomenon. (Usually it’s the other way around! Living in an English-speaking society again was a nice little rest.) Now, I’ve never stayed in a hostel before. Once, I saw that ad for the movie Hostel and got the idea that hostels were haunted houses that stupid people stayed in if they wanted to get murdered. They’re actually just like dorms. My hostel was off of King’s Cross station, which, fun fact, is the station that Harry Potter takes to get to Hogwarts (more on this later). It had bright green walls and funky furniture and was actually pretty cool. I didn’t take any actual pictures of the hostel, but it was pretty basic. My room had 12 beds in it (4 sets of bunkbeds with 3 beds on each set), which was pretty intense. I had a middle bunk, which I thought was perfect, and I made myself a little nest. The beds have curtains around them, which is good for privacy, and also a lamp with an electrical outlet, and really really comfortable beds and blankets. All in all, a good choice for what I needed it to be. I spent a grand total of 8 hours there, so no big. I never even saw it in daylight!

I met up with my friend Jeana on Saturday (hey lady, if you’re reading this!) which was absolutely wonderful. I don’t think I anticipated how awesome it would be to see somebody familiar. So much fun. We decided to do the “Kandace and Jeana Walk Around London Tour”, which I highly recommend (tips accepted, of course. We take Visa, Mastercard, dollars, pounds, euros, yen, cupcakes, your first-born…) We hit all of the biggies: Piccadilly Circus, Trafalgar Square, Big Ben, Parliament, Hyde Park…probably more, but I can’t remember the names of things! Mostly we just walked everywhere and stumbled across things. The thing I love about London – and Europe – is that these buildings are just so intricate and intense to look at. We walked past this building, and we were like “Oh, this has got to be something.” simply because it was so beautiful, like a church or something…and it turned out to be a pre-school! So crazy. Also, all of the houses have names, which is very cool. Sort of like the parties at Santa Clara, except better. We also decided to go on the London Eye, which is basically this hugeee Ferris Wheel above the city. You get an awesome 360 view of everything. This was a good choice considering my intense fear of heights.

In front of the classic Red Telephone Booth of London

Statue outside of the National Gallery

Me and Bennie. We're just hanging out.

The London Eye overlooking the River Thames

Big Ben is rather big.

View from the London Eye. We are super high.

London Eye, looking down on the city.

One thing about London is how easy it is to get around. You can get anywhere. Also, I highly recommend riding the regular two-decker buses to get a view of the city. You can pay for those guided tours, or you can just ride the regular bus. If you get lucky, there are four seats in the very front of the top of the bus, so all you have is a window in front of you, and it feels like you’re flying over the streets of London. Incredibly, incredibly cool. Plus, you never know if your bus driver’s going to run over that Londoner who just stepped out into the middle of the street! (As Londoners do.)

Me in front of the Big Red Bus!

Then, on Saturday night, WE GOT TO GO SEE A SHOW IN LONDON. Right. So. I can die happy. I wasn’t sure what I wanted to see (Billy Eliot sounded cool) but I wanted to do something classic, so we saw the Lion King in the Lyceum Theatre. So great. So, so great. Jeana must’ve thought I was nuts because I was just so jazzed by being able to do this. I’ve waited my entire life to see a show in London. I’ve been dreaming about getting to London and watching shows since I was 13. I could’ve just watched things all day. Life is complete.

Sunday, woke up early again and this time I ventured through the streets to meet up with Jeana at her apartment by myself. Weirdly empowering, walking through the streets by yourself. First thing on the agenda was the GLOBE THEATRE. Yeah, you know, the one that Shakespeare performed in. NO BIG. (We had tried to get tickets to the show the night before there, but I’m sure they were just laughing at us. Turns out it was the last night of their season, and it was about 4 hours until the show at the freakin’ Globe. Yeah, okay.) I was like a kid in a candy store. Funny thing was, I was the only one who was really jazzed up (there were a couple of 10-year-olds who thought it was really cool) and our tour-guide was being a pretentious sour-puss so that was kind of a bummer. However, my enthusiasm could not be restrained, because I WAS STANDING IN THE GLOBE.

Okay, for those of you who do not know the significance of this place, I shall tell you. The Globe Theatre was Shakespeare’s theatre, the place where all of his plays were originally performed. It was the place for all the revelry and mayhem and magic of the London stage. It was where everything happened, where Romeo and Juliet fell in love, where Hamlet went nuts, where people flirted and danced and the common-folk laughed at crude jokes while the intellectuals listened to this beautiful, lyrical verse. Essentially, my mecca. Remember when I said I could die happy after seeing Lion King? Well, just strike me down right now, lightning!

Me in the Globe Theatre! With Shakespeare!

Afterwards, we met up with our mutual friend Lindsey, another Kappa, who is also studying for her Master’s in London. We met her in the King’s Cross Station, which of course meant that we had to go find Platform 9¾! I got such a kick out of that, because I am alllllll about Harry Potter. I told everyone in Alicante that if I didn’t come back from London, that meant I had gotten through the platform and I was going to Hogwarts and never coming back and going off to live as a wizard. Alas, we did not, so we moved on to this really cute pub, and got fatty cheeseburgers. Mmm.

Yes. My life is now complete.

Then we walked next door to the British Library, which happens to be incredibly cool. It’s the deepest basement in London but even cooler, it has this special collection of all these super old and important documents. For example, the MAGNA CARTA. (History flashback: This was the document that the barons forced the king to sign to show that he was subjected to law as well. It was the precursor to most other independence-documents in the world, including the Declaration of Independence.) Also, I saw things by Beethoven (who had scribbled out music and re-composed!), Leonardo da Vinci, a piece of the Guttenberg Bible, the original Alice in Wonderland, a letter by Slyvia Plath and her composition of a poem, and a bunch of the original Beatles’ compositions on backs of envelopes and greeting cards and the like. I was totally in intellectual heaven. Of course, Britain has pretty much everything, and I wanted to stay and look at all of the museums, (the Rosetta Stone is in Britain!) but, of course, I couldn’t. We picked a good one, though.

Still acting like wizards outside of the British library.

After all of this, (yes, there’s still more to tell!) they took me to the Camden Market, which is this hugeee outdoor market. It is sortof where all the hippies and trendy people hang out – so, you know, me – and they sell pretty much anything you can think of. It went on forever. I bought a scarf (you know, so when people ask me where I got it, I can say, “Oh, you know, just picked it up in London, no big deal”) !!!! and a cool little coin-purse thing. I have American money, Euros and now pence in my wallet, so I’ve decided I’m starting a coin collection.

Unfortunately, after the market adventure, Jeana had to head off to do her homework. (What, do you mean she’s like, in school? Studying? To get her master’s? Ugh. Lame.) However Lindsey and I continued adventuring! At this point, it was pretty late by London-standards and getting dark. (And Cold. If you haven’t forgotten, I don’t have a big jacket, just a light one and gloves.) But, being cold is a small price to pay for seeing London by night! We went down to the River Thames and walked along it – the British really know how to light their city. It was breath-taking. I got to see Big Ben and Parliament by night as well, which was spectacular. We walked by Westminister Abbey (however, it was closed considering it was night), which was really cool even if we did just see the outside. This was when we realized that we had never seen Buckingham Palace!

So, of course, we must go.

The sign for Buckingham Palace. Note it is night, hahah.

We scrounged around a bit on the map and finally figured out how to get there. After a couple wrong turns and turn-arounds later, we finally got there. And it was cool. But also, clearly the sort of thing you need to see by day. Because, it closes. (Duh.) And there’s not really anything to see when everyone’s sleeping. (Duh.) And apparently, the cool guards with big hats that aren’t ever supposed to smile don’t have a 24-hour shift. (WHAT! I know. I know. I feel like I’ve been deceived. I thought they had to stand outside of the palace 24/7! To guard! What if I had decided to storm the building! Who would stop me! We also determined that, Britain, being Britain, would simply glare at us with her Britain-esque gaze and we would fall, stunned, to the ground instantly. Because Britain wins. Always.) Despite all of this, though, it was still really neat because, since it was all closed, there was nobody around and no crowds, so we could stay and look and hang out as long as we wanted!

We didn't see any guards, Britain! Fail.

After this, we were completely exhausted and headed back over towards King’s Cross, where Lindsey lives as well. My flight left at 6:15, meaning I wanted to get there by at least 4:30, meaning I had to take the shuttle at 3:30, meaning that I wasn’t getting much sleep. Everything worked out perfectly, though, which was nice. There was even a girl who was studying in Alicante and on the same flight who was staying in my same hostel! Weird. But good to have a buddy!

Whew. London. Overall feelings: Intense, awesome and completely alive. Not sure where it ranks on top-favorite-places-of-all-time yet. I loved it, to be sure, but it has a completely different feel from Spain. I think if I lived in London, I would be lonely there. It’s very harsh and grey. London has my heart but Spain, with its warmth, flavor and culture, steals my soul. I still want to go back, though. As I was flying away in the airplane, I looked back down on the city and swore that this wouldn’t be the last time I looked at it.

Next up, Paris!