Wednesday April 9 - London

As with Tuesday's blog, this one is late because I was busy, tired, or I just got distracted - so here it is!

Well, it's Wednesday - my last day in London and who knows when I'll make it back. But as Anika had to be at her audition at 9 am, I figured I'd get up around 8:30 and be ready to get going around 9 am... well like usual that didn't happen! I did get up around 9:00 am though and by about 9:30 I was finishing up the corn flake breakfast Hassan had made. I had a whole lot of things that I wanted to do before I left, but I had to pick and chose and finally settled what I was going to do. I planned to go to Westminster Abbey and then around 11 am, I'd head over to catch the changing of the guards at Buckingham Palace as for now it's only done every other day. Then I figured I'd have time to walk through Hyde Park and retrace my steps from the first trip to London and get the pictures I lost. Since Hassan had the day off I had asked if he wanted to go along as well, but he just said to stop by on my way to the Changing of the Guard and see. So I was off!

As Hassan lived right up the street from Westminster Abbey, I walked there and after taking some pictures outside, I paid the admission and went inside. Wow, was all I could say! It was packed full of statues and monuments it would take a month to read and know about them all! Of course, I just hit the main tourist ones and a few others that I either knew about or recognized while I glanced at each as I passed. Some of the monuments were amazing too! Unlike other churches and cathedrals, there was no photography allowed - so I don't have many pictures of it but images can be seen on the Abbey's website, just click on each section of the plan and there are some pictures.
http://www.westminster-abbey.org/visitor/plan-of-the-abbey/

Of course the church itself was incredible as well and full of nooks and crannies. Of course, there are the major burial monuments that most people come to see such as St. Edward the Confessor, Henry III, "Longshanks" Edward I , Edward III, Richard II with his queen Anne of Bohemia, Eleanor of Castile, Henry V, Elizabeth I and her half sister Mary I (buried in the same memorical), Henry VII and his queen Elizabeth of York, Mary Queen of Scots, Sir Isaac Newton, Charles Darwin, and of course the famous Poet's corner which includes so many well known poets that I couldn't even begin to list them! What's interesting is that there is so little room left, only ashes or sometimes only names are now commemorated in the Abbey. Still, it was amazing to see. Although I was a bit disappointed in how that the website said the Chapter House opened at 10:30 which is while I was there - I had gotten to it about 10:35 and it still was closed and didn't look like it would open soon. But I kept going on and saw the rest of it and after a quick stop at the gift shop I started on my way back to Hassan's.

When I got there, Hassan was still hanging out and was keen on going to see the Changing of the Guard, so we headed on over to Buckingham palace through St. James Park which was amazingly gorgeous. In fact, the weather the entire day was perfect for a stroll in the park - bright and sunny and only a slight breeze. I was actually hot in my heavy coat! We must've gotten to Buckingham Palace late or there was just a ton of people there so we were only able to see the guards entering the gates of Buckingham Palace from across the street. It looked cool and it would've been neat to see through the gates but we couldn't, so after a bit we headed on to other things.

As I had wanted to go through Hyde Park again, Hassan was game for that, so off we were towards Hyde Park via the road to the Wellington Arch and other war memorials in a small roundabout. Then it was Hyde Park itself which was gorgeous because the flowers were now in full bloom and people were just lounging about. We walked through part of the park along the huge pond just taking in the sights. We eventually got to the Princess Diana Memorial Fountain which was running and was gorgeous as well! From there, we consulted a map of the park as I had wanted to see Royal Albert Hall which was just a block of so up. So we headed that way towards the Albert Memorial and Royal Albert Hall which were both impressive and spectacular.
From there, there was still time before I had planned to leave Hassan's to catch my train so we headed up through Kensington Gardens to glimpse Kensington Palace before exiting the park on the other end. From there, I was figuring on taking the underground but Hassan said the buss would be cheaper and would take us right next to his place - so we took the bus. Wrong idea! Not only did we end up waiting about 10 min for the right bus, once we were on the bus it kept making a ton of stops and looping over itself - even stopped at one point by the transport security to check our tickets. Then, we finally got over towards Victoria station and there was not only a large traffic issue, but construction as well! By this time it would've been much faster if we had walked back! So I wasn't the happiest with Hassan because of this but we got back to his place and I was thankful I was mostly packed from before I left that morning. So I quickly gathered my things up and headed out to catch the underground to St. Pancras station which is the International Station for the Eurostar.

By Eurostar guidelines you're supposed to be there a half hour before you depart because you have to go through security, plus they check bags, and verify passports too - let alone finding your car and seat! But thankfully I was there with almost 20 min to spare before departure and aside from the French girl in front of me losing her passport card thingy, I was able to get checked in an on the train about 10 min before we left the station. Though there was a slight confusion of seats on the train as the guy who's seat was the aisle one next to me was in mine, and the guy across the aisle was in his seat! But we got that all settled and soon enough we were on our way and I was saying Ciao to London till who knows when. I got a few pictures on the ride back, and while I have not looked at it yet, I believe I got a video of when we entered the Euro Tunnel. Then, a little over an hour later I was back in Lille France and leaving the train. From there, I hoped on the metro here and came home and just crashed with all my stuff.

I couldn't completely crash though as about an hour after I got back was when I was scheduled to schedule my fall classes - so I did as much of that as I could. I have to email two professors to be allowed in the classes because they are art classes and closed for online general registration - but it should work out fine in the end.

And that ends the first leg of my 2 week break. Now I am back here for a week with a bunch of school work to either do or study for exams... yuck! Though I am greatly looking forward to when I go to Paris next Wednesday till Sunday - that will be a great trip!

My foot is still hurting as of today, Friday.... though I have looked up online to see what could be the cause. It's not swollen or black and blue, and it's on the outside of my right foot - almost on the arch. Apparently from what I found online, there is a tendon there that goes from the ankle, around the edge of the arch and attaches to the underside of the foot and that this can often get irritated and sometimes torn or pulled just by too much walking or something like that. So I have been taking it easy and trying not to be on it as much as I can help so it can heal quickly. But other than that I have just been catching up on sleep, and attempting to do some school work. Today, I spent the day between finishing these blogs, going to start next on uploading my pictures, and I have been doing all my laundry too so I should have clean clothes for the next few weeks!

But I should get going as I've got stuff to get done and really not that much time! Till the next update - Laterz!