Gakkk! I have so much blogging to do! (+ London)
Okay. I’m going to skip the apologies this time as this is the first free weekend I’ve had since….I got to Limerick. I am so grateful that I get a break, as my money supply and traveling superpowers cannot last forever. I have so much to write from the past month, so I think I’m going to break up the blogs from each trip. In the past month, I’ve been to London (twice?!), Munich, Salzburg, Prague, and Barcelona. Oh, and of course St. Patrick’s Day in Dublin. I’ve literally been in class Monday through Wednesday and then traveled the rest of the week for most of the past month. I think I should get a frequent traveler trophy from Ryanair or something at this point. So here goes….London.
My fantastic trip to London seems so long ago already. I went the 24th-28th of February, half in London and half in Norwich, England. I kind of booked it on a whim, as I just had recently discovered the new album of Hot Chip and scarfed it down so fast I had to see them whenever, wherever (you may slap me for the Shakira circa 2001 reference). (Yes, I just immediately went to YouTube to listen to Shakira. I’m truly embarrassed. This is a horrible video.)
So I saw that Hot Chip was playing in Norwich, which is about 2 hours by train from London. I did a little research and decided that I wanted to make the trek alone. I was slightly nervous, but I kept reassuring myself that at least they spoke English there. I also decided to try my hand at this new-fangled thing called CouchSurfing. I am obsessed with offtrackplanet.com , which is where I read about couchsurfing. It’s a website where you create a profile like Facebook, but it’s for the purpose of creating connections with random people worldwide by staying a night or two on his or her couch. It is free to participate in; however, it is not just a place to sleep when traveling. It’s an experience where you trade cultures, make new friends, and get an insider’s look at the location. It’s a win-win-win-win. I have an automatic tendency to trust people who seem trustworthy, (how silly of me) so of course my parents weren’t too happy about the idea. I explained that the website is legit in that your identity and location can be verified by a donation and a returned postcard. I’m sure there are still weirdos out there on the interwebs but I felt like I did enough adequate research.
I settled on contacting Paulina, a Lithuanian girl my age studying at University of East Anglia in Norwich. I made a quick profile, emailed her, and crossed my fingers for a response. I’m at least a quarter Lithuanian thanks to my Grandpa, so I was very interested in Lithuanian culture. Paulina confirmed my request only a week in advance, and promised to squeeze me in between her birthday trip to Portugal and her studies.
Paulina and I at the Cantina getting a bite to eat
I left for the London-Stansted airport very early Wednesday morning with really no idea how to get around, except that I had to get to the train station at Liverpool street by 1 pm. After snacking on my staple mini-pancakes from Burger King for 1.50 euro, I figured out how to take the hour-long bus to London. I also should mention that I didn’t even know that pounds were used instead of Euros until the Shannon airport early that morning. I was very disappointed to find out that my dollar was worth even less in pound form. I spent an obnoxious amount of money in London.
Long story short, I messed up my travel plans so much in the next couple of hours that I almost cried on the streets of London in frustration. When I got to the bus station, I asked a handful of people how to get to the train station, and none of them could help me. I could see the clock ticking away as I frantically tried to find a cheap way to get from point A to point B, and a nice man finally noticed me pacing back and forth like a crazy person I’m sure and offered to help. He pointed me toward the Underground, the subway system used in London, which I was previously unaware of and that its location was twenty feet behind me. I ran downstairs (I did a lot of running that day, jiggling my backpack booty up and down stairs) and got an all-day pass for around 6 pounds. I grabbed an Underground map (which I now cherish as it is creased with both panic and love) and headed into the dungeon that Londoners call home. I ended up taking the wrong tube two times in the opposite direction, and dragged two poor English people with me who tried to help. They even kept pace with me as I sprinted from tube to tube. I was pretty impressed with their athleticism and ability to dodge other tube-goers that insane day.
Finally, I arrived at King’s Cross station, where I sprinted up to the desk to claim my pre-paid tickets, only to find out that I was at the complete wrong train station. What?! Liverpool street?! !#%@@! The train ticket salesman just shook his head at me and helped me purchase a new and pricier ticket to Norwich that left an hour later. At least I got to snag a deelish brie-basil-tomato baguette along the way. While I struggled with putting my money away, my various levels of jackets and sandwich, I dropped a handful of money all over the train station ground. Did anybody bother to stop and help an obviously struggling-with-life girl with her baggage? Absolutely not. I watched as I saw a lady stare at me with a half-grin as I stupidly bent over to clumsily gather up my change off the cement without dropping my lunch. Ugh.
Finally, I settled into the train across from a 30-something English white-collar man who let me eat some of his spicy wedges to accompany my sandwich. He pointed out the location of the future Olympic stadium for the London 2012 Olympics and a few other landmarks along the way. I pretty much passed out from exhaustion after that for the rest of the train ride.
Okay, I’m taking way too long to describe my first day. I’m just trying to illustrate my frustration as a lone traveler in London. I think you got the jist.
I took a taxi to Paulina’s college flat as I had no map to reference the address she gave me. Norwich is a medium-sized university town with some of the best shopping in England. I instantly loved it. When I walked up to the door to Paulina’s house, I almost second-guessed myself. What in the world was I doing?! Staying at a stranger’s place?! Yep.
Paulina gave me a big hug and a warm welcome into her flat, where she lives with a handful of British boys I believe. She took me to a lovely spiritual experience at the local Cathedral. It’s called Taizé, and it involves lots of singing and prayer among youth of different Christian backgrounds. It reminded me a lot of peer ministry back in high school, and made me miss my St. Joseph’s Parish back in Minnesota. Paulina has a stunning voice and can sing in Latin, and the atmosphere of sitting on cushions in the red candlelight was very relaxing after my stressful day. Afterwards, we chatted and had tea in the Cathedral’s kitchen with the two other men who showed up to Taizé.
Afterwards, Paulina dropped me off at the main campus square where the concert was going to happen later that evening so she could study in the library. I grabbed a bite to eat at the cheap cantina diner and made fast friends with some Star Trek super fans while inhaling my shrimp stirfry. I bid them farewell and went to the concert by myself. This is not something new, as I drove 6 hours to see Sufjan Stevens last semester by myself, which was both the best and worst idea ever.
I ended up meeting some really cool English boys at the Hot Chip concert. Will, Steven and Tom were some pretty goofy characters, and we danced like it was 1985 to Hot Chip’s epic electropop. They somehow convinced me to stay another night to go dancing with them and their friends. I figured that London wouldn’t have as much English flavor as much as small-town Norwich, and it ended up being a fantastic choice. I slept in at Paulina’s place, met her swell housemates (Jonny “let’s have a facebook stalk” Wattley) and meandered around the covered outdoor food, clothing and trinket market in the downtown area for a few hours. This is where I found my new favorite pair of skinny jeans. Why, you ask, are they my favorite? 1) I got them for 15 pounds and 2) They were in the little girls’ section under a sign that said “for 13 year olds.”
*Note: Hot Chip isn’t actually a boy band. The actual band members are the group of guys that get lasered in the end.
I met the Hot Chip boys at their dorm and met their kooky friends for some late night fun. I’m pretty sure Claire and I were best friends in another life, and I hope we get to meet up again before I leave Europe. Simon and Chris were awfully nice as well. We went to a club called Po-na-na’s, where they played non-stop obscure techno the whole time. Well, except when the DJ played “It’s Tricky” for some odd reason. The boys were literally drinking plastic tubs full of vodka redbulls, no big deal. It was a grand evening. I was sad to leave my new friends, but I had to continue on to London for the remainder of my trip.
I met up with my friend from home Nate, as he is studying for the semester in London, and stayed with him and his friends for the second two nights. Nate took me to the typical tourist sights of London on Friday, although I missed Shakespeare’s Globe Theater and Buckingham Palace. We all went out to a club called something like “Zoo bar,” and I witnessed one of Nate’s friends take a shot of vodka through his eye. He tried to convince us to do it but we didn’t want to have the “crying out vodka for 30 minutes” sensation he described. Must be a British thing?
Taking a shot through his eye=never a good option.
On Saturday, I went shopping by myself in the Oxford Circus area for a few hours. I tried to get into “Wicked” at the last minute but it was sold out, so I snagged the last ticket to see “Priscilla, Queen of the Desert.” I had no idea what I was getting myself into (as usual), so I found myself watching cross-dressing men lip sync disco hits and wear flamboyant costumes. At first I was shocked, and then I warmed up to it halfway through. There’s a movie version made of the musical in 1994 and I really want to rent it now.
Here's the gaudy musical I saw.
After that, things got crazy again. When I walked out of the musical, I realized that I had no plans for the next couple of hours while I waited for Nate and his girlfriend Linds to finish with their masquerade ball. Naturally, I wanted to go out in London…but I needed 1) a venue to go to and 2) new friends !! Check and….CHECK. I chatted up some girls who looked like they were going out, but found that they were on their way back from a musical as well. They guided me toward the tube station where I took it to the recommended student bar area called Covent Garden. I ran into the teenage mutant ninja turtles in the underground, singing to classic rock played by a random guy with an acoustic guitar. Outside, I found myself surrounded by a huge group of people all singing in Spanish and hugging like it was a campfire song or something on the streets of London.
TMNT in the Tube.
I ended up meeting some British boys on the street my age who were going out, in the least creepiest way possible. How does one go about making friends on the street, you ask? It takes a lot of random small talk with the right people. A guy happened to be handing out tickets for a club around the corner, and it caused the boys to pause and talk to him, giving me a chance to do the same. I’m such a sneak attack friend-maker. They told me it was their friend Sam’s 21st birthday, and invited me to join them as I was friendless. Sam the girl ran up to me and drunkenly hugged me and welcomed me to her birthday party. They gave me the name of a girl in their group so I could get into the club for free on the list. Woody, Olie and Olie were very generous to me, the token American girl. I was in a club full of British students jamming to throwback hits, including the Baywatch song where the all the boys insisted on removing their shirts. This was my fourth and final night out of dancing so I was exhausted afterwards.
Naters & I in London
So basically, I decided that traveling by myself is pricey but amazing. I am slightly scared to go alone to a country in which English is not widely spoken (see Germany post, coming soon!) so we’ll see where I head next by myself.
