Last Days in London

I know that this is late... but I figured I should get it down before it goes completely out of my head all together. My last few days in London, once all the papers were over, were very fun and involved very little sleep.

Thursday was the last days of classes. The morning was of course spent frantically typing at my computer finishing the last sentences of my essay. Which I finished with a whole hour to spare. There was a nice man cleaning the windows with a crane which scared the bejesus out of me, Then went to class, saw people for the last time, and walked out almost a free woman.

Friday was one of my last days in London, so I decided that I would go out and about and get things done, aka Christmas shopping. Looking back now I can't actually remember what I did this day. I know I went to Harrod's at some point. That night I was supposed to meet up with friends and go to Draper's Bar (the on-campus bar). But Katy (a friend from class) and I didn't realize that we needed tickets to get in. It was also absolutely freezing outside, so we decided that going back to my apartment with some wine would be a far better idea. Looking up at the clock, we realized that it was 4:30 in the morning and that it was probably time to go to bed. It was a fun night even though we didn't get to party it up.

Saturday morning I woke up disgustingly early for no apparent reason. It ended up being a fortuitous circumstance though because I decided to see if there were any tickets to the sold out show War Horse... and there were! I was so excited to get matinee tickets. Then Katy called me, because she was up ridiculously early as well, and we headed over to London Bridge to go to Borough Market. The Market itself is located under the train tracks right next to an old Cathedral. The atmosphere was awesome.

I was so excited that on my last day in London I was going to visit and see some more new places. Borough Market is the premier food market in London. There are lots of organic growers, cheesemongers, wine sellers, meat- everything from ostrich to buffalo, olives, mulled wine and hot ciders, tapas... basically if you can imagine all this fantastic food every where you look... that is Borough Market.

The air was filled with brass bands playing Christmas music and fragrant smells hitting you from all sides. I was a bit disappointed that I hadn't come and visited sooner. I wanted to bring home so many yummy things, but I knew that they wouldn't clear customs and that I couldn't finish it all before getting on the plane the next morning, so I sniffed and sampled instead. I did buy a chorizo sandwich for lunch that was super yummy.

Once we had had our fill of samples and yumminess we decided to walk towards our respective theatres. Katy was going to see a show at the National, and I was headed to Covent Garden,  but as we had plenty of time to kill, we decided to walk along the Thames. We walked over London Bridge (which looks in no danger of falling down, thank goodness) and then along the North Bank, back and forth over various bridges, until we reached the National Theatre. We saw some spectactular views on the way there. The London Eye and Parliament and then the East End with all those cranes.

Once we got to the theatre we said our goodbyes and I headed towards Covent Garden to see War Horse. I am so thankful that I got tickets. This was one of the greatest shows I have seen in a long time. And the puppetry was absolutely fantastic.

The show is based on the novel War Horse by Michael Morpurgo. Basically the story is of a boy who due to family rivalry gets this horse. He then trains this horse, wins a miraculous bet, and then World War I breaks out. The horse is sold into the army and sent into trench warfare in France. The boy decides to go and find the horse and the rest of the play details their journey through the ravages of war. It was a great, great show.

Afterwards I met up with Keelia, Cristin, and Drew for dinner at Carluccio's in Covent Garden. It was a great dinner with some great people and a perfect way to end my last day in London.

Now something that most of you will not be surprised at is that up to this point, I had not packed a thing. So after I got home from dinner I started packing up all of my stuff into two suitcases. It too a lot of shoving, rearranging, and sitting but I eventually got it all in there. As I had an early flight, I just decided to stay up until my car came to get me at 5am.

I fell asleep several times on the way and inside of the airport. Thankfully I had to foresight not to book my flight through New York or Chicago, because there were so many flight delays and cancellations.I got on my flight safe and sound and immediately fell asleep. I landed in Dallas, went through an extremely long customs process, and then had a long layover. This also ended up being fortuitous because I got to fulfill my Mexican food craving. Then I got on my next flight to Reno. My sisters picked me up and drove me home. It felt fantastic to sleep in my own bed.

In a bit of reminiscing, here are a few things that I will and won't miss about London.

I won't miss...
fire alarms
fire doors
sloppy flat mates
water spouts that only have hot or cold water
lumpy beds
bland food
crowded night buses
people who smoke everywhere
playing ultimate in icy rain
MegaVideo
broken elevators
kebabs

I will miss...
hearing accents every day
drunkenly mimicking them
cider
year-round chocolate oranges
proper tea
kettles
knocking on my floor to talk to Drew
easy public transportation
being close to Europe
taxi drivers who don't have to use GPS ever, and can speak English
markets like Portobello Road
the history
playing ultimate in the mud
always having new places to explore
no guns

Cheers! That's all on London for now.