I am a Millennial, See Me Selfie: #LondonEdition

[WARNING: What you are about to witness cannot be un-seen. Do so at your own discretion, knowing that whatever amount of respect you have for me may be diminished. Nevertheless, I thought this was a fun project, as I wasn’t about to tote around my CanonT4i all the time.] Without further ado… 

[A Little More London]

Tea & pan au chocolate in Kensington Gardens. Life is good.

Crown Jewels & Kings Cross

Tower of London & Poppy Exhibit

I spent the morning at the Tower of London. More Travel Tips with Maya: Get your ticket online and arrive at the opening. There’s currently an exhibit around the Tower commemorating all those lost in the First World War—a poppy for every soldier. It’s quite beautiful. I went through the exhibit explaining the torture methods they used back in the day—some significantly more painful than others. Apparently there were ‘only’ 48 prisoners tortured at the Tower. Not to say that was England’s total. They just spread them out between the facilities. The White Tower within the complex was full of an exhibit with the various military capacities of various periods, complete with the armors of nearly every king. It was somewhat like visiting the gun museum in Wyoming (or North Dakota or Minnesota?) with my brother, cousins, and grandparents in 2005. I acknowledged the historical significance of the objects, but couldn’t bring myself to be very interested in it all. Just not my cup of tea.

Traitor’s Gate

Wandering the Streets

Found this on a side street. Reminded me of Corin.

After considering the state of my budget and the week’s foreseeable expenses, I was resolved to walk as much as possible, avoiding pricey tube tickets. As it turned out, this was also wishful thinking. I had a lovely stroll from Kensington into the heart of the city, but by the end of the day my legs wanted to fall off. Mari had a class tour of the Globe that afternoon, so I made my way there with the help of my semi-trustworthy phone map, making stops when something was interesting. I

21st-Century London

wandered past Buckingham Palace around 11:30, when the changing of the guard began. There seemed to be a gathering around a side gate, which I figured meant something was going to happen.
So I stuck around for a couple minutes, after which several (empty) horse-drawn carriages rode by. I didn’t stay for the whole ceremony, but I did hear a bit of band and watch some guards march past. I ducked into St. James’s Park, which was far less crowded and followed the lake further into the city.

Arriving in London

Breakfast of Champions, or Hostelers on a Budget

Monday afternoon I was quite frustrated to arrive at my hostel and discover the absence of a guest kitchen. The guest kitchen, which is so clearly advertised and photographed on the hostel website, was not in existence. As the most expensive city I could possibly have chosen for holiday, I figured I’d save a few pounds by getting groceries for my meals and eating in most of the time. They did have a microwave, the receptionists assured me of several times, and there was enough room in the small refrigerator at the bar to store a small container of milk. So as long as I planned on subsisting off cereal and cup-a-noodles, I’d be okay. Instead of going just slightly over-budget on this trip, I would be blowing it out of the water.

A Weekend in Suffolk

I landed in Gatwick Friday night, and hopped on the train to Victoria, and after a bit of confusion (supposed to meet at the Starbucks, apparently there are two at Victoria station) I met up with Katie & Tom Keating-Fedders. We visited them in England in 2001, and I’d seen Katie and Anna years before when they’d come to Tacoma to visit. Tom took my backs back to his flat (and joined us later) and Katie and I headed over to The Dublin Castle for a pint. It was a lot of fun, even though the music was pretty loud and we were probably the youngest ones there. We crashed at Tom’s for the night, and then Katie and I took the train up to Ipswich in the morning. Tom made us tea and toast+Nutella before we left. Best dorm breakfast I’ve ever had.

Rick picked us up from the station, and we had a lovely afternoon at their house. Anna and Ella and I took a trip into nearby Bury, to see the market and try to find yarn for a project of Ella’s. The yarn shop had shut down, but we did go to a patisserie and had tea & cake. I cannot count the number of cups of tea I had this weekend, or the number of slices of Rick’s bread. It was so nice just to sit around and chat and hear about what they’ve been up to, and giving them “all the news from Tacoma.” Anna even got out the photo boxes and we looked through pictures of L’Arche folks “back in the day” (and as Papa would say, “back when assistants were REAL assistants”). They asked me if there was anything in particular I missed, and I said dessert (my host family is very healthy) and so we got some cream ice for dessert. Yes, I typed that correctly. The farm Ella works at makes their own ice cream, except the cream content is so high they legally have to call it cream ice. Needless to say, it was delicious.

Sunday I woke up early to go to Mass with them- I hadn’t been since my last weekend at home, so it was nice to go again (even though, a they warned me before hand, it wasn’t much like St.Leo). We had tea in the parish hall, and tea when we got home, and then Anna, Katie, and Ella and I headed to the beach. It was a perfectly British afternoon. We sat and had Suffolk cider and shared fish & chips, and took a stroll among the shops and on the beach. I’m so glad Katie messaged me in September saying I should come visit- it really was the perfect start to the week, and it was so nice to reconnect after so long.