Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday

Monday, 7/30
Leanne and I got back to Furnival in the morning around 10 am. Sunday night's travels added up to twelve hours of journeying since we left Dublin at 715 pm! I don't know how I wasn't more tired than I was because I probably only slept a few hours at a time between each transfer & I have always needed 8 solid hours a night. Whatev. After I had a shower I went out to school, grabbed some buddies, and headed to Traflagar Square. From there we went ot the NPG to view the Diana exhibit, then over to Neal's Yard and Covent Garden. We ate paninis at the infamous Bar Italia, which is across the street from Ronnie Scott's in SOHO.
That night we tried to go to a punk rock place called The End which we thought would be a good club but we were denied because the guys dressed too frat. Seriously. We ended up going to a great place that a local called 'posh'. Maybe because the Swarovski crystal chandelier was the size of a highway billboard? In all it was a good night. Great company.

Tuesday, 7/31

Tourguide Tara came up with a great plan for Tuesday. Danielle and I perused the Camden Markets and met up with LA so we could eat gourmet burgers together at Hache (Camden Town; Inverness Street). The market here was somewhat of a bust since all the clothes looked cheap and smelled like curry, but I did leave with a fun mint green and gold Juicy wallet.

We hopped on the tube and scooted over to the Portobello Road Markets. The boutiques and people were all so upbeat and warm! We stopped at the Hummingbird Bakery for cupcakes -->(http://www.hummingbirdbakery.com/flash.html. Found a really cute print of London at a tea shop, some earrings from Appletree Boutique, and a silk dress from a street vendor.

Wednesday, 8/1

Leanne, Colin, Evan and I went to Hyde Park today after I cruised around the Westminster area and looked into taking one of those cheesey bus tours. The bus tour thing was a no-go since we've already seen all the places the bus tours. Instead, we walked down the mall from Buckingham Palace through the Wellington Arch to get to the corner of Hyde Park. Luckily the weather was perfect today! The roses were in full bloom throughout the gardens. The four of us decided to rent a row boat and paddle along the Serpentine amongst the swans and weeping willow trees. This is probably the most peaceful and relaxing activity one can do in the city!

From there we walked down Picadilly Street over to Jubilee Gardens to meet up with our ISA facilitator and our group. We hopped on the London Eye- the largest ferris wheel in the world/ operated by British Airlines and came home early to do schoolwork.

Hampton Court Palace

Hampton Court Palace

Thomas Wolsey, then Archbishop of York and Chief Minister to the King, took over the lease in 1514 and rebuilt the 14th-century manor house over the next seven years (1515–1521) to form the nucleus of the present palace. Wolsey spent lavishly to build the finest palace in England at Hampton Court, which he was later forced to give to Henry as he began to fall from favour.
Tudor sections of Hampton Court, which were later overhauled and rebuilt by Henry VIII, suggest that Wolsey intended it as an ideal Renaissance cardinal's palace in the style of Italian architects such as il Filarete and Leonardo da Vinci: rectilinear symmetrical planning, grand apartments on a raised piano nobile, classical detailing. Jonathan Foyle has suggested (see link) that it is likely that Wolsey had been inspired by Paolo Cortese's De Cardinalatu, a manual for cardinals that included advice on palatial architecture, published in 1510. Planning elements of long-lost structures at Hampton Court appear to have been based on Renaissance geometrical programs, an Italian influence more subtle than the famous terracotta busts of Roman emperors by Giovanni da Maiano that survive in the great courtyard (illustration, right above). Hampton Court remains the only one of 50 palaces built by Henry VIII financed from The Reformation.

Christopher Wren's south front
The palace was appropriated by Wolsey's master, Henry VIII, in about 1525, although the Cardinal continued to live there until 1529. Henry added the Great Hall — which was the last medieval Great Hall built for the English monarchy — and the Royal Tennis Court, which was built and is still in use for the game of real tennis, not the present-day version of the game. This court is now the oldest Real Tennis Court in the world that is still in use.
In 1604, the Palace was the site of King James I of England's meeting with representatives of the English Puritans, known as the Hampton Court Conference; while agreement with the Puritans was not reached, the meeting led to James's commissioning of the King James Version of the Bible.

Queen Mary's State Bedchamber is one of the rooms in the section of the palace designed by Sir Christopher Wren
During the reign of William and Mary, parts of Henry's additions were demolished, a new wing was added (partly under the supervision of Sir Christopher Wren), and the state apartments came into regular use. Half the Tudor palace was replaced in a project that lasted from 1689–1694. After the Queen died, William lost interest in the renovations, but it was in Hampton Court Park in 1702 that he fell from his horse, later dying from his injuries at Kensington Palace. In later reigns, the state rooms were neglected, but under George II and his queen, Caroline, further refurbishment took place, with architects such as William Kent employed to design new furnishings. The Queen's Private Apartments are open to the public and include her bathroom and bedroom.
From the reign of George III in 1760, monarchs tended to favour other London homes, and Hampton Court ceased to be a royal residence. Originally it housed 70 grace and favour residences — one of them was once home to Olave Baden-Powell, wife of the founder of the Scouting movement — but few now remain occupied. One of the warders at the palace in the mid-nineteenth century was Samuel Parkes who won the Victoria Cross in the Charge of the Light Brigade in 1854.
In 1796, restoration work began in the Great Hall. In 1838, Queen Victoria completed the restoration and opened the palace to the public. A major fire in the King's Apartments in 1986 led to a new programme of restoration work that was completed in 1995. Here's most of our group last Friday at the Hampton Court Palace. This is the south end of the property in the formal gardens.

This is the London Tower Bridge! Jeane, Leanne, Carolyn and I went there during the first week of our stay in London.

Ireland, in sum

Well, we missed our Thursday night train & it's all because of military time and a nazi Virgin Trains worker named Lindel. He made us so mad I odn't even want to get into it, but everything worked out in the end. Instead of getting on the train that night, we bought a bottle of chiraz from a nice man at the Euston station and consumed it on the way to meet up with Leanne's two buddies at O'Neills pub near Chinatown. I actaully saw Liz's friend Lizzie with her boyfriend as well as a whole group of FSU Pi Phi's! We had a great time at this place, partly because the band played 'Sweet Home Alabama'.
Friday morning we were off to Holyhead, Wales to catch the ferry to get to Dublin. I ran into Kevin Meyer, Pike/Pi Phi houseboy, and a bunch of other UGA guys who are on the Terry @ Oxford program. We all hopped on the ferry/cruise liner and spent the ride in the luxe Club Lounge. Leanne and I finally got to our awesome 2 BR / 2 Ba apartment around 8 and ordered in so we could crash early and get up early.
Saturday was our long touring day. We toured Trinity College (Georgia's campus is almost as pretty); saw the book of Kells; went to St. Patrick's Park and Cathedral; saw a box containing St. Valentine's remains & left a prayer for him; visited the Guinness Storehouse & its Gravity Bar; passed through St. Steven's Green; saw each end of a gorgeous rainbow; ate crepes for lunch; heard a lot of annoying angry Irish accents; saw their house of parliament & the mayor's mansion (Mary Kay's house in Dallas is bigger); viewed a Picasso [Mandolin], a Monet, and a Sisley at the Irish National Gallery; shopped on Grafton Street; passed by Christchurch; took a picture of a chair used by King William III when he went to St. Pat's to give thanks to God for his victory over King James at the Battle of the Boyne in 1690; ate dinner at Citi Bar & Venue, located on Dame St; had ice cream in Temple Bar; met up with the UGA guys at O'Brian's; and finally Luas took us home to the Abberley apartment at around 11 pm.
Sunday was spent touring our final site: the Kilgenhaim Gaol prison, which has been featured in movies (the Italian Job) and music videos (U2's 'Celebration'). The rest of our time was spent wandering around boutiques and vintage-wear markets in lofts throughout Dublin. We concluded our Irish vacation with another French treat, a dessert crepe, since we were unable to find Irish soda bread (and we still don't know what that is). Our taxi picked us up at 7:15 from the apartment and we were on the ferry by 9! Our club admission allowed us to eat delicious cheeses and fine wines before we fell asleep on the comfortable leather benches. We took advantage of the club because we knew that the majority of our journey would be spent sitting stiff & upright on the train, wrapping ourselves in the bathtowels Furnival House supplied us for warmth. Despite a two-hour delay in Birmingham, we finally arrived at London Euston station at 9am!
The trip was quick & full of excitement and interesting encounters with Irish folks (some good; some not so good). Planning a trip to a foreign country while you're living in a foreign country can be stressful but we made it work and had a great time exploring Dublin, Ireland!

Ireland

Tonight Leanne and I will be heading off to Dublin, Ireland for the weekend! Our night train leaves London at 10pm, which we will ride up through the northwest of England. From there we will take a ferry at approximately 3am into Dublin's city centre & will arrive at our hotel around 6 in the morning. We're staying there until Sunday night; our return will be a similar process. We will be doing a hop on- hop off tour like the one Wads and Johnny did in NYC on the first full day and will hopefully be able to visit Tara Palace & the prison (its name has escaped me) by the second day. We're so excited & have a lot to do before tonight so I'm off!

Tiger Tiger & Tonight

Yesterday was definitely the most productive sight seeing day I've had yet. Tommy and I saw everything around the Westminster area. As soon as we walked up the steps from the tube, Big Ben was at our feet. Parliament was amazing, as was the Ministry of Defence (James Bond's office), Buckingham Palace, the London Eye, and Westminster Abbey. There are so many more buildings that were built before America was even in the picture. The architecture in this particular part of town is just breathtaking. Even the bricks are decorated with the tiniest details. What's really cool is that King Charles built an entire palace spanning from the Thames all the way inland about 1,000 yards. Most of his compound has burned to the ground over the years, but a few of the buildings still stand and are let to very wealthy citizens & lords. One particular lord, a descendant of the current queen, pays about 30 shillings (a few dollars) a month to live in the most prime apartment with his wife and two small dogs. This property was a gift from her highness. The wife and dogs actually walked right in front of us just as the Ministry of Defence’s guard was telling us about the family and their fortune. From the MOD, we continued up the lane away from the Thames, past two guards on horses, through King Charles’ palace’s archway, out his backyard, past a few statues of infamous English military dudes, up a whole bunch of steps, and came upon a very historical building that is now used for the HQ of the ‘Royal Society’ (which, much to my dismay, is not currently accepting applications). This particular building was the site of the French/President Charles deGualle when the country was being invaded during WW2. It’s quite possible that the events of D-Day were planned inside the very building that we were gazing at. Amazing!!
Last night my ISA group and I met up with Stu & Liz at TigerTiger & had an awesome time dancing around. There were about 16 of us in total, so we were safe (that’s for you dad).
We’re going to Wicked tonight and I’ll probably meet up with Ailsa later on today if she’s over the flu.
Ciao!

to see my pictures:

http://uk.msnusers.com/london1/

select 'pictures' on the left hand side. let me know if you can't view all the pages!

London is great!

Hey yall! I'm so sorry it's been so long. London is still rockin, we're alive despite the 'flash flooding' that's going on in the UK. It's really not that where we are; I've hardly been able to wear my new green rainboots. The River Thames is supposedly going to flood and shut down the tubes, which would be absolutely disasterous since we rely so heavily on them to get everywhere!
The weekend was great. We spent a long day at the Hampton Court Palace on Friday. This was Henry VIII's crib- where he lived with all six of his wives. He kept beheading them when they gave birth to daughters instead of sons. The property is beautiful. There are impeccably manicured gardens as far as the eye can see. There is a maze of 10-foot tall bushes that is annoying after having consumed even a half-pint of Carling.
In other news, I am going to wander the streets of Westminster this afternoon with Tommy and some others. We haven't been by Big Ben (which is actually the bell inside the clock), the Abbey, or Parliament yet. Becky Gableman just called me and gave me an earful for not having seen these joints yet. Rightfully so, but I have been doing other things! I went to the Tower of London and the Tower Bridge last week. Climbing to the top of St. Paul's Cathedral was a highlight fo sho. You can look at my photographs for all the other place I've been to when I figure out how to upload them. I just don't like to do the really touristy things that require fanny packs and floral print shirts.
Leanne, whose ancestry is Irish, and I are traveling to Dublin for the weekend. She wants to go skydiving. I'll be waiting for her on the ground.
I am in the midst of putting finishing touches on my travel plans after my ISA programme is complete. Definitely going to Amsterdam to see the Van Gogh museum and the Anne Frank House of course. Perhaps to Interlaken, Switzerland as well to go canyoning. We will see!!