It's a buttress! It abuts the wall!

Hyde Park in London

                Where did we leave off? Oh yeah, I was brutishly evacuated from Egypt and taken back to frosty New York City. The following two months did a pretty good job of giving me some silver linings. I was happy to be with my group, acting like refugees in the unexpected cold. Julianne and I roomed together in a double right next to Union Square. Due to the previous residents’ inability to clean up a room, we scored some old clothes, shoes, and décor. Soon the room looked like a home. It took some trips to storage, some emergency warm clothes drives from friends, some sleeping on floors, but I actually got my life together. I had a seminar with my Egypt group in the Institute for the Study of the Ancient World, or ISAW at NYU, two hours a day, five days a week. My friend Sofia, who I am now traveling with, got me a job working in Watson Library at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, so I had a little bit of cash flow. Needless to say, I was quite busy, especially with frequent, almost daily workout sessions with my friend Dani. To top it all off a few weeks ago my sisters Kelly and Julia visited, and we had a blast!

Sisters in Washington Square Park

Egypt group goodbye party

                The two months went by very quickly, and before we knew it we were saying farewell, packing our bags, placing stuff in storage, and boarding planes. Sofia and I were setting out for foreign lands for two whole months! Taking an Amtrak train (which I had the hardest time finding) from Penn Station and almost missing our stop, we made it with our bags to Newark International Airport. Absurdity ensued as we realized that Iceland Express was easily the most ghetto airline on the planet. The only printed one of Sofia’s boarding passes, they had recorded that I bought an extra seat, and they couldn’t seem to print out our bag tags. After a few tense moments, we were on our way, boarding passes and all. Security went smoothly, and soon we were at our gate. Settling into our seats, Sofia and I made our final phone calls to parents, and then we were called for boarding. We lucked out on the flight in terms of seats. We were in the back of the plane, unfortunately in front of a baby, but the last three rows of the plane were entirely empty, so Sofia went back to a row and I stretched out along mine. For a red eye flight, one couldn’t have hoped for more.

After five hours of pretty solid sleep, we arrived in Keflavic International Airport in Iceland. We went through passport checks, so we got some stamps, and then wandered our way over to our gate. Nothing really eventful happened in Keflavic, other than I finished the novel Siddartha, which was a wonderful read. Before we knew it, we were boarding our second flight to London. This was a smaller plane, and was quite crowded. Regardless I passed out against the window for the majority of the flight, and so ended up getting a total of 7 hours of sleep between the two flights. 

Once we landed in London, new challenges abounded. The first and most formidable of these was immigration. I got through with a stamp in my passport in about five minutes, after being grilled about what I was doing, where I got my travel money, where I went to school, and such. Sofia, on the other hand, was not so lucky. The woman that she had was tough. Once she found out that Sofia didn't have a return ticket, she kept her there for about 15-20 minutes. As I stood to the side, unable to hear their exchange, but only able to intense interrogative movements of the woman and the brave face of my friend, I feared that I would soon see Sofia dragged off to another room with unknowable consequences. Luckily, my fears were baseless. After what seemed like an eternity, and after an absurd amount of stamps in her passport, Sofia came out the other side. The woman had given her a stamp saying that she had to be out of the UK by April 5th, which was fine since we were leaving the second, but the whole process had just been unpleasant.

On a bus from the airport

Once we reached baggage claim, most of the bags had been picked up, and ours were lying to the side. We exchanged our money, glided through customs, and sat ourselves at  cafe to feed. Quickly after refueling we were on the move, finding a bus service to London proper, boarding, hitting each other with our large bags as we stowed them, and then we were finally on our way. It took about 45 minutes to get to the city. We arrived at around 2, but we couldn't meet up with my friend Kathryn, who we were staying with, until six. So, we got our bearings and started to walk. We briefly stopped in an internet cafe to inform people that we were alive and well, and then decided to walk through the nearby cemetery. This old cemetery, called Brompton Cemetery was absolutely stunning. The tombstones ranged from the 1700-modern, and everything was so green. It was barely Spring in New York, but in London it was in full bloom.

Brompton Cemetery

After leaving the cemetery, we attempted to find our way to some museums, but were consistently lost. We walked for miles with our bags, eventually stopping in Hyde Park, a large and gorgeous park in London. By then it was about 6, so we decided to walk towards the area that Kathryn lived. Along the way, we found a swan, a statue of Peter Pan (which I had a mini photo shoot with, being Wendy and all), and amazing fountains. At around 6:30 we called Kathryn and met up with her in her neighborhood, which everyone seems to call "Little Afghan" even though most of the inhabitants seem to be Lebanese. It felt like we were back in Cairo once again. The smell of roasted meats, hookah, and wonderful fragrant dishes filled the streets. Signs were in arabic, and everywhere I could hear it being spoken.

Peter Pan and Wendy

After dropping off our bags and meeting some of Kathryn's roommates, we went out for a real meal. We ended up in a Persian place called Patogh, where for six pounds (roughly 10 dollars) we got a plate full of chicken/lamb shanks, jasmine rice, and roasted tomatoes. It was AMAZING! After gorging ourselves, we walked to the nearby cheap grocery store called Tesco and bought our breakfasts and lunches for the next few days. This consisted of: Whole Wheat bread, peanut butter, jelly, clementines, granola bars, and bananas.   Having our supplies, we got back to the flat, put our stuff down and collapsed on the couches. We chatted with our new roommates for a bit, watched some ridiculous British television where obese people have to eat like an anorexic and an anorexic has to eat like an obese person,  then attempted sleep on the couches that served as our beds.

Remainders of dinner at Patogh

I hadn't been able to get to sleep until 2 because of jet lag, so Sofia and I woke up around 11am. This didn't effect our day too badly though. What did effect it, was the stereotypical London rains. We walked about 2 miles in the rain to see Buckingham Palace, and then walked to Westminster Abbey. After standing in line in said rain, we got into Westminster Abbey. The abbey was beautiful! We saw the tombs of many English kings, Geoffrey Chaucer, Isaac Newton, Friedrick Handel And Charles Darwin. Many effigies and memorials were also there for artists and people of distinction such as William Shakespeare, George Eliot, and Dylan Thomas. Plaques covered the floor, indicating where some important Englishman was buried, so it was impossible to see them all. We also saw where Queen Elizabeth I and Queen Mary were buried; interestingly enough they were in the same tomb structure. We walked around in the cloister, had lunch of peanut butter and jelly sandwiches, and heard a guide in a strong British accent explaining what buttresses are; "It's a buttress, it abuts the wall"!   After finishing up at Westminster, we moved on to see Parliament, then Trafalgar Square, and then Covent Garden where a string quartet was playing and the bass player would pick up his bass and follow people around. After this we continued on to the British Museum. As I confidently strode down the streets with a map in my heads and a good sense of direction, I knew we were on the right path. I could handle London streets. My confidence was dashed however, when we found ourselves at least half a mile away from the museum, much farther in the wrong direction than I intended. Disappointed, tired, and confused, Sofia and I ended up walking an hour and a half back home, as the museum had already closed by the time we would have gotten there. Exhausted, we crashed, sleeping easily that night.

Bass player following people around in Coven Garden

Our second day was much less rainy and tiring. We got a day pass to the tube in London and saw the Tower of London, which was amazing! The whole place is so old and beautiful. It's very peaceful and pleasant, which makes for an odd experience considering all who have died there, been tortured there, or been imprisoned there. This becomes exceedingly clear when you see all of the names, drawings, and verses scratched into the walls of the rooms from the prisoners who had spent months or years there. One man had his name all over the place, and we read that he had been imprisoned for being a Jesuit Catholic priest and he refused to give up the names of other Catholics, so he was hanged, drawn, and quartered. It was intense to see what he had written, how he had been in that room, and then to know how he had died horribly. Much of the rest of the Tower was fun and light hearted however. They had reconstructed crossbows to pick up, interactive displays, and beautiful crowns from England's royalty. We even got to see all of the crown jewels! It was a beautiful sunny day, so we ate our lunch of PB&J outside in the courtyard, nearby where Anne Boleyn had been beheaded. A little morbid perhaps, but it was very interesting. 

Me on a sample King pillow in the Tower of London

Oh no!

After the Tower, we went to St. Paul's Cathedral. Unfortunately, I needed some convincing to go in, as the admission was 13 pounds, or about $25. Once in though, I had no regrets. The cathedral was STUNNING! Built by Christopher Wren, it has one of the largest domes in the world. We weren't allowed to take pictures, so I can't show you anything, but much of the ceiling was covered in glittering gold mosaics, and the dome is insanely massive. Princess Diana was married in St. Paul's! After wandering the nave and gaping at the dome, we got to go down into the crypt. It was a lovely system of tombs, not like how one imagines a crypt to be. There was a full chapel down there, and VIP's such as Christopher Wren, William Blake, Florence Nightingale, and the Duke of Wellington are buried in the crypt. We moved through fairly quickly as we were excited to go to the dome. St.Paul's lets you climb A LOT of stairs and you can reach the base of the enormous dome. But we didn't stop there. After that, which was really cool, we climbed further up and reached the outside of the 'lantern' on the top of the dome. This area gave AMAZING views of London, and was also insanely windy. My hair was everywhere and I was just so happy to be in London in that moment, seeing the view I was seeing...traveling. 

Tempest on the roof of St. Paul's

After St. Paul's we finished our amazing day by going to the Globe Theater, an accurate reconstruction of the original Globe, only a hundred yards or so away from where the original had stood. We got a great tour around the theater by a guy with crazy awesome long curly hair. Sofia and I wanted to see a show there sooo badly, but unfortunately they don't start their plays until late April because of weather and their open roof. But, we were happy with our tour, and went home happily. 

Tour guide and the Globe Theater

For our final full day in London we went to the British Museum where we saw the Rosetta Stone, amazing Egyptian antiquities, the Parthenon marbles, a bunch of clocks, some great Mesoamerican pieces, and some interesting mummies. This took numerous hours, so by the time we were finished we were famished and took the recommendation of one of the people we were living with and went the Borough Market. This gourmet market sits near Southwark Cathedral, the oldest church in London, purportedly being in existence since 606 CE. We walked around, smelling the amazingly delicious smells of this market.  I was force fed a seafood curry by a well-intentioned cook, and got to sample some delicious ravioli. In the end, Sofia and I got sandwiches, mine with spicy sausage. We also got dessert. I had a huge brownie and Sofia got carrot cake. Full and happy, we wandered our way to the Tate Modern museum. This museum is honestly hideous on the outside. It looks like a factory of some kind with a large smoke stack. Inside though, it has some amazing pieces of modern art. They had some great Francis Bacon works, a few Pollocks, a few Picassos, and a lot of theoretical contemporary works. One of the least impressive of these was simply a mirror on a wall. Overall though the museum was great!

Me and Parthenon marbles at the British Museum

Sofia near Borough Market where we had lunch

The Tate

Our last activity in London was walking to the Rose Theater, only about a block from the Globe, and seeing Antony and Cleopatra. This was a really cool theater because it was built right on top of the original Rose Theater, where many of Shakespeare's earliest plays had been performed. However, a whole office building was supposed to be built on the site, so the community had gotten enough money together to excavate 2/3 of the original Rose in the basement of the building. Then, they created a platform over the remaining third so that it can be excavated in the future. This platform is the current stage and audience. It's small, but it works. The excavated walls of the Rose are outlined with red strings of lights so that while you are watching the show, you can look out and see the layout of the original Rose! The show was wonderfully acted, and was only 10 pounds! I got home early and Sofia went out to meet up with a friend, so I hung out with Kathryn and her friends, watching bad movies, then napped for a few hours, and got up at 5am for our train, then ferry, to Dublin, Ireland. 

Tune in next time to hear of my adventures in Dublin!