Beatles, Big Ben, and (insert B word)

It seems my great days here come in blocks. One week might be boring, the other might be tainted by unwanted drama, but the best are highlighted by some of the best days of my life and ones that I certainly won't ever forget. I was fortunate to experience the latter last week. Yeah, maybe I skipped a few classes to go, but in those classes I didn't miss much, and I'd rather miss nothing than miss a trip to the Royaume-Unis.

Thus, I met my buddy Scott in Liverpool on Tuesday. It was an awesome flight. I'd had been a few months since I had flown, and when I did it was dark out. This time, it was in the middle of the day and I could see everything. And lucky for me it was a cloudy day, because we were flying over white puffy clouds. Though I've never been to the North Pole, in my head, the tops of these clouds made me think that this is what it might look like. Rolling hills of white with blue skies on top. No polar bears though. Anyways, it was nice just to listen to music and enjoy the calmness above a crazy world. There are no economic crises above the Cumulonimbi.

We landed in Liverpool and I took a bus to the center of the city. I can't seem to put my first impressions of the English landscape into words. There were lots of brick houses, open spaces, front yards, winding roads. I think the reason why I can't describe it well is because I haven't seen anything like it. It didn't blow my mind, but there was a subtlety about Liverpool that made me feel welcome. After I got off the bus, I had no clue where I was. Fortunately, they let us off right by a travel center and I hopped in there to ask them where the hostel was that I was meeting Scott at. They directed me on a map that it was clear across town. Scared by what looked like a daunting distance on the map, I was pleased to hear from the teller that it was only about a 15 minute walk. I've been so used to looking at Paris maps and expecting 40 minute-2 hour walks to go somewhere that this short walk was refreshing. I made it to the hostel, met up with Scott, and we quickly hurried across town (again only about 10 minutes power walking) to catch the Magical Mystery Beatles Tour. This was great. Liverpool is the true home to these guys, and they were anything but shy about it. They wrote a bunch of songs about this place, including Penny Lane and Strawberry Fields, both of which were quite charming.

After the tour, we had a pint a local pub (I got a free silver beer bottle opener out of it, more on that later) and then went back to the hostel to go online to use the internet to find train tickets. Unsuccessful at that, we made the decision to just go to the train station and buy the tickets there. If they were for the next morning, so be it. But the nice gentleman at the terminal, after cracking some lame jokes, helped us to find some cheap train tickets from Liverpool to London, with only one stop in between and a three hour journey total. It left ten minutes after we got the tickets, and we arrived in London around 11:30. Navigating the buses and underground metro (which they call the Tube) we arrived at Roehampton University and snuggled into our cozy living room resting place of a very wonderful host (a million thanks to Whitney and her roommates).

Wednesday: Scott and I headed out in the morning to catch another tour. This one was held by the same company that I do my tours for, New Europe. And it was a great tour, I won't go through it in detail but we saw pretty much everything in the center of the city like Buckingham Palace, the National Gallery, Westminster Abbey, Parliament and Big Ben. Each place was accompanied with one or several anecdotes/stories, in true New Europe style. A great tour, kudos to Pip. We then met up with Whitney again and she took us to see the Tower of London and Tower Bridge, just more of the regular skyline scene in London. Afterwards we retired back to the cozy apartment after a long day of walking.

Thursday: Scott left the next morning, and Whitney, her roommate, and I went to see some movies at a nearby movie theater. Yes Man is hilarious and you should all go see it. Classic Jim Carrey. But between our double feature, we stopped into a pub (which I guess was run by an umbrella company that owned a bunch of pubs), and I got some fish and chips and a cup of coffee. The meal was great, but what made it taste even better was the fact that it only cost 3.20 pounds, a deal unheard of in Paris. After our movies, we went back to the apartment and laid around, watching more movies, and preparing for the next long day.

Friday: Whitney and I had decided, after spotting one on Tuesday, that we would go out hunting for space invaders on Friday afternoon. By space invaders, I mean tile grafiti art that a guerilla artist puts in cities all over the world. They are in Paris, London, Amsterdam, LA, New York, etc. And to go hunting for space invaders is a great way to get out an explore the city. Which we did. Going through place like Covenant Gardens, SoHo, Chinatown, and other little nooks and crannies, we were able to stumble upon 3 space invaders that day, which brought our London total spotted to 4. After our wandering, we went to a sushi bar. Strange I know, but I had never been to one, and it was one of the bars that had the conveyor belts with plates of sushi and you can pick which one you want off of the belt. The ones I picked were absolutely delicious and have made me excited for the next time I get to eat sushi. Delish.

Saturday: I left. I took the London Luton Airport back to Charles de Gaulle in Paris. All my flights went very smoothly, the only pain was Paris Beauvais, where I had to pay 13 euros to get out to the airport and then another 10 to pay with a credit card. But the travel was relatively easy and comfortable, which makes me excited for the EuroTrip coming up. At least the travel will be nice, as for the hostels... well you will hear about that soon enough.

All in all, London was awesome. The people were friendly, the prices were great, the city itself was extremely clean (compared to Paris), and I got to speak English which was a nice break from having to always formulate my sentences before I talked.

Highly recommended. And I would definitely go back.

A bientot!
Justin