Navigation pride
My feet throb…
My heads’ full…
I can’t stop…
I want more….
I formally introduced myself to London, England on sunday, firstly by visiting The Eye ( The big ferris wheel for those who might not know )
and then walking around Westminster. Big Ben at night is a beautiful sight to behold BTW
***side note, Dear trains in London, why you move so slow (._.?) ***
They’re OK but aren’t as efficient as the metro in Paris (in my opinion) it seems that if you really want to get around fast, use one of the many double decker buses! (I eventually learned that ) They go everywhere and cover more ground, rapidly then that of trains…
just make sure to wave them down to get them to stop…or you’ll just stand there on a corner…smiling like an idiot staring at the driver as they drive pass you ( maybe, glad they don’t have to pick up the creeper that was staring at them)
…sigh, it’s happened twice now.
I awoke on Monday to a cold house….( for those who know me, you are well aware of the life long feud/struggle I have against the cold,
but specifically my sentiments on cold homes…even more specifically, houses with a lack of warm fluffy blankets)
The heater had cut off in the middle of the night in our flat, creating a tundra climate. My feet refused to leave their warm, safe haven from under the cozy blankets to venture out to touch the icy wasteland known as a wooden floor. (I ❤wooden floors…just not in the morning)
So I lingered in bed, much longer than I originally planned. When I built up enough courage, I ran around rapidly to get dressed. I and my aunt walked to a local cafe and I had a standard English Breakfast.…which let me assure you is no joke…it is a Force to be reckoned with. Eggs, toast, Real Bacon( Thick ) Real sausage, and beans. **I understand the beans as a side, but hey! ***
It was an enormous meal that cost 4£
and I needed the fuel for the day …And for what was to come. The cafe owner was a jovial, round brown Englishman that spoke with a Cockney-esqe accent. After breakfast we ventured from Westminster to Buckingham Place to watch the changing of the guards
and still walking went to Kensington, to go to the Albert and Victoria museum…I thought it would be a quick walk. Mistake.
I’m stubborn, I have these gut feelings about directions…that when something is close by, it usually is!
…well i’m 99 % sure…So a mile later, I knew it had to be close. I remembered my tendencies to be:
A. stubborn
B. my gut feelings might be more like 93% accurate. ( See Paris post)
I’m not a GPS so I shouldn’t take it too personally when I’m a bit, mistaken….but I do.
After that migration of a walk, we were much too tired to do anything else and went home.
I awoken again this morning, cold and wondering about the strange Justin Bieber with bad acne dream (where did that come from? Dreams when visiting a new country are interesting)
that I had dreamt.
The same icy floor tundra was still waiting for my feet…and a repeat of yesterdays events of running around to cover my feet and dress swiftly commenced.
We went inside Westminster and saw the various tombs and monuments of royals, politicians and poets. Some tombs were underneath, so you were simply strolling on the graves of the dead. (O.o)
My personal favorites/meaningful monuments/grave
were Elizabeth the I , William willborforce and Shakespeare.
The Shakespeare monument inspired me to want to see the globe theater, which wasn’t really that far from Westminster…I mean, we could take a bus…but…we could
At least walk it …
my poor aunt wasn’t aware of my ability to walk great distances out of pride…and refusal of ‘direction defeat’… so a mile later we made it to the Globe and the cold London wind blew right through my poor aunt. We hurried inside and She undid her scarf that she had wrapped like a Slavic/European granny and looked at me shivering. (Oops)
An older gent, tour guide-who had dried ketchup (or some other condiment) on his v necked sweater- led us to the open-thatched roof auditorium, and
around the space, in a very short tour 😦
Afterwards, We managed to go to and up, tower bridge ( my favorite piece of architecture right now )
And got some Carmel kettle peanuts from a vender under the bridge and went to the Tower of London.
It was pretty nifty to see some of the royals Bling collection…*****side note, I finally learned what that orb thing was that they held in their coronations :D****
We took the longer train ride home to give our throbbing feet time to recover…and both of us walked sorely, like limping grandmothers down the steps to our flat. I made dinner (an indirect apology for my miscalculations two days in a row)
(The long walks did allow me to get a few random telephone booth photo’s:)
And now I lay in bed, sore…but content, thinking on tomorrow And more walking… I’m excited….it’s kinda twisted I suppose…
Green Tea Lotus 