3/1/2015
So, I had this great plan of writing this amazing daily
travel journal throughout my tremendous return to London. It has been almost
exactly nine years since my first trip here in 2006. Back then, I was a fresh faced 21 year old
who had only flown once before. I was
quite a bit heavier than I am now, with a girlfriend in Hong Kong. Now, I am a 30 year old man who has traveled
quite a bit of the world. I have a much more athletic build (sweet bod) and a
pregnant wife that I have to literally push up stairs. She has had a bit of a rough go at it, but
that is for later. The point is, I was
going to be so inspired by my surroundings, that I would want to write ever
detail down and share it with the five or so people who read my ramblings. My plan didn’t quite turn out the way I
wanted. After a short seven hour flight,
we (my wife and her parents) grabbed a shuttle to the airport. I was totally feeling fine, but tired since I
hadn’t slept at all on the plane. Over the holidays, I had suffered a bit of a
bad head cold, but I was handling that just fine, or at least I thought
so. We got to our hotel, which is
directly across from Big Ben and Parliament. No matter how many times I walk
past that building, I will never get over how stunning the clock tower is. Its
huge face overlooks the water and sounds its chimes for miles in all
directions. The thing is pretty ominous to hear, especially during the later
hours. While our room is on the inside and has no direct sun light, the hotel
itself has quite an amazing view of the Thames and we are less than a block
from Westminster Bridge. While I did manage to walk from the hotel to near
Buckingham Palace on the first day, my strength didn’t last long. I ended up not eating anything and going to
bed very early, around 5 pm. After
violently shaking for some hours and alternating between freezing and boiling,
I spent part of the night emptying my stomach in the hotel toilet. I do not
like to throw up, it is the last thing I want to do, so I was REALLY sick. During that night, I passed out around the
toilet and then crawled to the floor near the bathroom door. I wanted to be on a more comfortable surface,
but I also had it in my head that I didn’t want to get the “baby” sick, so I
fell asleep with a towel as my pillow on the rug which has a John Keats poem
written in dark yellow cursive letters.
The poem:
Asleep! O sleep a
little while, white pearl!
|
Contrary to the tone of the situation, I was quite happy to
pass out on an English’s poet’s words.
It is quite a literary and British thing to do. So, instead of writing,
I spent the first few days trying not to be violently ill. I didn’t eat for two days, although I think I
have made up for it now with all the greasy English food.
We have been in London for five days and a lot has happened. However, I will just do the highlights for now. We have visited both Westminster Abbey and St Paul’s Cathedral, both spectacular in their own way. I particularly enjoyed the walk up to the top of St Paul with the 360 degree view of London. I have found out that I am not claustrophobic, but I could probably will myself into it if I wasn’t careful. Old London was not built for giants like me. I believe that it is around 500 step (280 feet) to the very top of the Cathedral (Golden Gallery). There is a tiny porthole that you can peer down before you go outside that gives you a terrifying view of the church below you. It can’t be more than six inches wide, but it gives you enough of a scene to make you realize that you are really f-ing high up! It was a perfect day to make the trip because the sun was shinning, as much as it can in London, and it was relatively warm. There was quite a breeze up there, but it was well worth it to be able to see as far east to Tower Bridge. Unfortunately, Deborah couldn’t join us up the stairs because pregnant women are advised not to climb 500 steps. While I missed her company, I was glad that I didn’t have to carry her down. There were parts of the many spiral staircases that only one person could fit. I was a bit wobbly going down myself, so we were better off.
The night that was really magical for Deborah and myself was New Years Eve. I had enough energy to make it downstairs to the cafe to sit while the others ate breakfast, but I was in no shape to go out to their fancy Italian dinner. I spent that time feeling gross in the hotel room. Some of you know that we spent New Years in Hong Kong last year and slept through the amazing fireworks show. I initially was really excited to go, but when I saw the hundreds of thousands of people and the barricades and the lack of bathrooms, I made a game time decision and we headed back to our hotel. We had a nice dinner and went to bed early like the proper elderly couple that we are. So, this year I had zero expectations and the running gag is that we are going to travel to all of the iconic firework displays throughout the world just so that we can sleep through them. When Deborah was out to dinner with her parents, an American couple approached them and asked if they wanted to buy their extra tickets for the fireworks that evening at their face value (only 10 pounds a ticket). I received a text about it and ignored it because there was no way that I was going to drag my sick self anywhere - Let alone to a cold bridge to watch some boring fireworks. So of course Deborah came bounding back with 2 tickets. After a nap, I built up some energy and we headed out to the street at around 10 pm. Only in London would there be such an orderly line to a New Years Eve celebration. We went through the line, which was less than a block from the front doors of our hotel and walked around Westminster Bridge for two hours. So, when we faced where the fireworks would be, we looked at the London Eye and had Big Ben to the left and slightly behind us. It really was the best place you could be in London on New Year’s Eve. Also, it was very different from an American celebration because everyone seemed pretty in control of their faculties, people were for sure drinking, but they weren’t being belligerent about it. We occasionally would smell the skunky skunk, but it wasn’t too overpowering. Both Big Ben and the London eye were brightly lit up with multiple colors. The Eye was constantly changing colors throughout the night, greens, reds, yellows, oranges, etc. It was really easy to get caught up in the moment and I didn’t feel like I was going to throw up or nothin. On of my favorite memories is when the announcer screamed, “You all are gonna go crazy for this next track! Wait for it…here it comes!” and Bon Jovi’s Living on a Prayer kicked on. I didn’t realize that Bon Jovi was so big in England… So, Big Ben plays that iconic Westminster chime ten seconds before the bells toll the time. It was an amazing feeling to be that close to the clock and to year it strike 12 times while fireworks shot up in the air all around us. The fireworks came from the Thames and off of the London Eye. At times, the fireworks would spiral off of the eye in the pattern of a circle with different colors and different types of explosions. The energy from the crowd was intoxicating and we kept looking at each other in amazement that we actually stayed up late enough to enjoy it. After the fireworks ended, we made our way back to our hotel room in about 10 minutes. It is amazing to be so close to all of the things!
Other things we have done: walked to Russell Square where I went to school in 2006, spent a day at the British Museum, went to a comic book store (Forbidden Planet) and I picked up Mircleman because British Alan Moore wrote it, had fish and chips and beer at The Anchor Pub on the Thames, walked along the Thames at night to the Millennium bridge and back, walked about 8-10 miles a day on average, saw Yoda floating at Leister Square, eat lots of great food at the fancy restaurants in cathedrals and museums, stared longingly at the Prince Charles Theater, went to Portobello Market, and have been soaking up the culture. I love love LOVE London and feel at home here. I am pretty good at navigating around and remember a lot of my old haunts. I would give anything if I could somehow visit more often. I remember London as a place full of excitement and newness. When I was 21, I was seeing the world for the first time through London’s old eyes. I feel a connection with this place that I don’t think I will ever have with anywhere else. It is kind of like one’s first real love, you will always have some sort of connection. Walking the streets here is like stepping back in time and now I am stepping back into my younger self as well. I like that feeling. I like remembering things that I had long forgotten; memories that were really important back then and are rekindled through the same steps on the same streets on the same bricks. London helped shape me into the person that I am today and it is difficult to express the feelings I have here everyday. I am so happy to be able to share that with Deborah and our soon to be child. Most of the time, they both aren’t really listening to anything I am saying, but they both mean well.
This is a good time to be alive friends.
I am very excited for our trip to
Dover tomorrow, our plays (Prince Charles the third and Book of Mormon) and the
many many walks we have in front of us. THE
BEST!
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