This past Monday I visited one of the most beautiful chuches that I have ever been in Westminster Abbey. Now I been in a number of European chuches, so that were probably even more beautiful in oppulence, but what made Westminster Abbey so interesting was the fact that it felt larger then life. It was massive. The minute you walk in the Cathedral seems like it can go on forever. It has a kinda ominous vibe to it as well since many people are burried within the walls of the Abbey. What was nice about the tour was that it came with an audio guide, so you can listen in as you wonder from room to room. My favorite part of the abbey was probably the Poet's Corner, just because so many of the greatest authors, scientists and philosphers were burried there. Some of the names include, Charles Dickens, Lewis Carrol, Jane Austen, the Bronte Sisters, Rudyard Kipling, Tennyson, Issac Newton and Charles Darwin. Other parts of the Abbey that I found interesting were the older sections that date back to the 5th century, and the Tomb of the Unknown Warrior, which marks the burial site of a fallen soilder from the first world war who remains unknown in indentity, "THEY BURIED HIM AMONG THE KINGS BECAUSE HE HAD DONE GOOD TOWARD GOD AND TOWARD HIS HOUSE".
Westminster Abbey cloisters
The London Eye
Westminster Abbey
This week I also saw my first London theatre production. It was a play called Greenland, held at the National Theatre. Kristina managed to arrange for me to get a pair of free tickets from her internship. The play was kinda interesting, though we both agreed that they could have done a lot more with it. It was about global warming, and how many people on this planet aren't taking the issue seriously. It seemed kinda far fetched, some of it was over the top-but it was in the safe zone between being realistic and being over the top-I think it would have worked better if it went one way and ran with it. But overall it was a good night out. Im so excited for tomorrow night because I am seeing Wicked for the first time, and I know that show will be amazing.
Anyways this past weekend was pretty awesome. Friday night we went to Zoobar. It was me, Sarika, Genesis and Sarika's friend Hitasha. Zoobar is located in Leicester Square, so it is kinda out of the way. It was a fun night though, a lot of crazy memories, from me almost punching a woman in the face on the subway, to Sarika walking around Russell Square barefoot at three in the morning. When we finally made it home-it was 4AM and we had to get up at around 8 AM to get ready for Oxford.
Oxford was so much fun. We had planned to make it our first international couch surfing experience as well. During the day we did mostly the touristy stuff. When we first got into the city we went to the oldest building in Oxford, dating back to the Saxons. It was this really old church with a bell tower. We climbed to the top of the tower and saw the most beautiful views of Oxford, we also took a ton of pictures. After our impromptu photoshoot we went to get a quick snack at Burger King and continued to walk around the city. I decided to do a Harry Potter walking tour, just because I had to. The tour wasnt too pricey (7 pounds), and I got to see a lot from it, which was good. We went to many of the different colleges at Oxford, including Jesus College, Exerter College , Trinity College, Worcester College and New College. New College was probably my favorite, just because it is where most of the Harry Potter sites were. I got to see where they shot the banquet hall scenes in the Goblet of Fire, as well as the cloisters and corridors used in all the movies as the hallways of Hogwarts, and the tree where Draco was turned into a weasel by Mad Eye Moody (aka Barty Crouch Jr.). After the tour I met back up with Sarika and Genesis and we continued to walk around the city. We decided to get something to eat, and went to this italian restaurant called Bella Italia. It was probably one of the best meals I have had thus far. I had a panini with roasted Chicken, peppers and mozzorella. After dinner we went and met up with Olivier and Tom who were hosting us for the night. We went to this pub and did alittle bit of wine drinking before we left for their house. They lived in Abingdon, which is a suburb of Oxford. It was quit nice, and reminded me a lot like the U.S. They lived in a house a few other girls. Most of them were from France, aside from Reca who was Bulgarian. But they were all very nice, and it was a cool experience to be talking with people from a different part of the world. I had a second dinner with them later that evening that was very good, and then we decided to go clubbing later that night, to see the Oxford night scene. Oxford at night is a completely different place, I like to say it goes from a Medieval Beauty to a Hot Mess Express. Since its mainly a college town, there are a ton of college students who go out to clubs almost every night. We went to this club called Lava. It was really cool. There were three floors and each floor had a different style of music. It was like if you got tired of one floor you can just relocate and its like your in another completely differrent club, more or less. So we danced for a few hours, and then decided to head back because the last bus left at 3 and we didnt want to miss it. As we were walking back to the bus station we saw trash everywhere. The streets were dirtier then the streets in London and New York City, put together. This place that was once so beautiful, now looked like a city slum. There were also people everywhere passed out drunk on the streets, it seemed like every direction you turned someone was screaming-even in the club there were moments of craziness. It was a very entertaining night. The highlight of the night had to of happened on the bus, when this guy that peed himself tried to sit on Sarika's lap-it was pure insanity, a great ending to the night.
Where Draco was turned into a Weasel.
The Hogwarts Banquet Room
Quidditch Fields!
Christ Church Coat of Arms
Today (Sunday) after getting back from Oxford I decided to meet up with Kristina. They were heading into Trafalgar square to see the Chinese New Year Celebratioin. It was really cool. Their had to have been at least 20,000 people there. They had some shows going on and vendors everywhere. After walking around for a while we went into Chinatown to get dinner. We decided to get Chinese food at this restaurant that seemed to be the least crowded. There were still masses of people eating there it was a good night to be Chinese. The food at the restaurant was also really good (and cheap). I had Spring Rolls and Sweet and Sour Chicken with Rice. For an appetizer and a main dish it only came out to be around 7 pounds. I know I will definitely try to get to that place again.
Overall this weekend was awesome. Even though I probably spent more money then I should have, I had an amazing time and have no regrets. I figure I am only going to get to see these places once in my lifetime. I might as well live it up while I can.
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