Ice Of Boston

More London and on to Cambridge...

London

Cambridge

Thursday night I spent at a hostel called Hyde Park Inn in an 8 bed dorm room. Though there was a French girl talking in her sleep (mumble, mumble, mumble, merde!") and a chorus of snores from some Americans and Spaniards, the reason I didn't get any sleep was surely from jetlag. I really felt like Bill Murray's character in "Lost In Translation" except without the cool pool. Friday I did some sight-seeing with some American girls from the hostel. One of them was from U. of Illinois and the other three were from Hanover College in Indiana and they're all studying in Belgium and were only in London for the weekend. We saw some touristy things and stopped by the Tate Modern which was really impressive. Right across the Millenium Bridge, I ran into Knightrider Ct., but alas, Kit was nowhere to be found.

Friday night Matt put me in touch with his friend Tasha from U of C who is now living in London. Tasha and I met her friend Fay and some other folks out at a pub near King's Cross station. It was nice to get a real pub experience with some locals. Unfortunately English beer is pretty sad. All the pubs I saw have essentially the same beer selection and none of those beers are that good. That didn't stop me from trying many of them however.

Saturday morning I made my way to Portabello Market near/in the Notting Hill section of London. The weather was relatively nice and I could have bought a lot if I had space to store souvenirs and the money to buy them with. I spent the rest of Saturday cruising around checking out other touristy attractions including Big Ben and the London Eye. I also searched out a building I had seen from the distance that looked like a huge glass egg. I found it just north of the Tower of London, but it's still under construction so I couldn't enter it or find out anything else about it. Matt later told me it will house a Swiss reinsurance company.

Spotted on the tube on Saturday: A boy opening his EA Sports Cricket 2004 video game, a woman that looked like how Chris Farley used to look when he dressed up in drag on SNL, a guy that looked exactly like Jamiroquai holding a puppy that looked like Lady from "Lady and the Tramp".

Saturday afternoon I took the train to Cambridge, leaving from King's Cross station platform nine (near platform 9 3/4 which is from Harry Potter I guess). The train ride was really pretty, but I had a hard time keeping my eyes open. Matt met me at the station and we went out to dinner in the beginning of a joke: An American Physicist, a Hungarian Economist, and an Irish Mathematician walk in to a restaurant. Cambridge is a lovely little city despite the randomly changing weather common to all of England. The last photo above is a group of Japanese tourists who asked Matt to take a picture of them on Cambridge's only hill. I thought I would join in the fun.

Ryan- I missed a few underground crosswalks too, until I tried to follow a "subway" sign to the tube and realized that that's their word for underground crosswalk. I think I saved my legs a bit on Saturday and covered more ground by taking the tube as much as possible, so thanks for the tip.

Annie- No bangers and mash yet, but I did have fish and chips. Haven't run into any princes either, but if I see them I'll try to keep the other ladies away. I have minded the gap along with all the other things it seems necessary to mind such as doors and steps.

Pauline- It's weird to think about what could have happened had I decided to begin my trip in Madrid rather than end it there. Thursday night in the hostel all the Spaniards were huddled around the little TV in the lounge watching BBC news. There was definitely a little buzz of tension around the hostel crowds for a couple days and it will be interesting to see if things will change at all because of that tragedy. Almost everybody in London seemed to be talking about Madrid on Friday as I think would be the case in the states as well. I haven't run across any Beatles tourist attractions yet, but Matt and I may head to Liverpool in the next couple days, so that could change. Maybe we'll take a pilgrimage to where Ozzy crashed his ATV instead, who knows?

Rachel- I swear it's just a coincidence that I'm going to the same places as you in England. I'm not following you or anything... but I am going to Italy next, so maybe I am. I'll email you about meeting up in Pisa.