Off to Wales!

February is going to be a month full of adventures and travel! Starting this afternoon, I’ll be heading to Swansea, Wales to visit Allen for about a week because I have this week off of class. I just have a few last things to pack then I’ll head down to the train station to catch my train at 2pm! I plan to spend Saturday with Allen in Cardiff, the capital of Wales, and then spend the week living the life of a student in Swansea – and make a couple short day trips to check out the local landscape and culture. Allen and I area also planning on travelling to Bath, Stonehenge and Avebury and possibly other cities in the UK the following weekend before I come back to Lille on Sunday afternoon. Even before coming to France, I had planned to travel to Dublin for St. Paddy’s Day with Allen, Liz and a couple of Liz’s friends who are studying in Scotland but we decided to move our trip up to the end of February. We’ll be in Ireland from February 25th to March 1st and plan on doing a tour of the southern part of Ireland then spending a day and a half in Dublin. I’ll get to visit my close friend Cathy who is studying in Dublin this semester too! That means that I’ll be travelling every weekend in February! This coming month is going to be packed and I’m sure it will fly by but I think the experiences I will have are going to be amazing. After travelling to Arras and London a couple weekends ago, I’m so excited to see more of Europe and February will be the month to do it! I will try my best to blog a couple times when I’m in Wales and put up some photos as well so that I can keep everyone updated on all the awesome things I see and discover in the UK!

London!

I can’t believe I’ve been in France for a whole month already! It seems like so much longer than that, and so much shorter as well.  I’m finally starting to feel more comfortable with my new home and want to explore Europe even more.  So, Saturday I went on a planned trip to London with the Ulysses Association and got to see a large part of the city.  The best part was that Allen and our friend Joe came to London for the weekend so I was able to see them too!  I started off the day in Lille at 5:20am and was on campus to meet the bus that would take us to London at 6:25am. 

Eleni and David waiting for the metro at 6:15am

We left Lille shortly after and the bus ride was fairly uneventful though very long.  We spent 3 hours crossing the border from Calais, France to England… I hadn’t expected it to take this long but with bathroom stops, unloading everyone from the bus at customs, waiting for the train that would take us under the English Channel and then actually taking the train, the border crossing was quite an experience.  We got into London around noon and then went on a short tour of the city on our charter bus before we were dropped off at Piccadilly Circus for a free afternoon in the city!  It was a wonderful feeling to step off the bus and breath in the air in London on a perfectly sunny Saturday afternoon!  I don’t think we could have asked for a better day to visit London because the sun stayed out all day long and the temperature was right above freezing which seems pretty warm for January.  

Eleni, Myrto and Kerstin in Piccadilly Circus, the first sight we saw in London!

I called Allen right away and he and Joe came from the Science Museum to meet me so that we could explore London together.  Our first stop was Trafalgar Square where we ate a delicious lunch that Joe and Allen had packed while we sat on the steps of the square and people watched.  The square was teeming with people who were out and about on the weekend enjoying the nice weather.  We found the world’s smallest police station which is just big enough for one person and is located inside a lamppost on the edge of the square.   

 

Joe showing off his yummy sandwich with 4 slices of cheese!

We also planned out our afternoon and decided on what sites we wanted to see.  As Allen and Joe had been in London on Friday too, they had already seen a lot of the main monuments on the west side of the city so we decided to head east to St. Paul’s Cathedral, the Tate Modern Art Gallery and Shakespeare’s Globe Theatre.  Though both guys had tube passes, we decided to walk across the city so we could see as much as possible!  On the way to St. Paul’s, we walked through Covent Garden and watched a street perform and also took a quick lap through the market.  Of course, we also found phone booths and took the traditional London tourist photos inside of them!  The photos of me turned out a bit blurry but there is a great one of Joe and Allen posing in phone booths! 

 

 

What better way could you think of to travel in London then a Tiffany & Co. taxi!

Our next stop was St. Paul’s Cathedral and of course we saw some famous sites on the way there!  We walked down Fleet Street (you may recall the demon barber of Fleet Street from Sweeney Todd!) and was also walked by King’s College and the Royal Courts of Justice.  Joe even chased some pigeons that we found in a park near Temple Church!   

 

I kept forgetting to the right way before crossing the street, luckily the British were one step ahead of me

The sun was shining beautifully when we got to St. Paul’s and the dome (and engineering marvel) looked beautiful against the bright blue sky.  We each took a few photos then walked in the lobby to see as much of the cathedral as we could.  Unfortunately, we didn’t see too much of the inside but were able to admire the dome from the outside and get some good photos.  

 

St. Paul's through the branches

 

Looking back across the river towards the St. Paul's

Joe, Allen and I on Millennium Bridge

Next we headed south across the river to the Tate Modern and Shakespeare’s Globe!  The walk across Millennium Bridge which crosses the river was a chilly one but we could see all the way down to Tower Bridge and back up to where the river turns close to the London Eye.  We took a quick lap around the reconstructed Globe Theater and then spent about an hour getting lost in the amazing collection of the Tate Modern.  I was in heaven!  I have never seen such a collection of Modern art, and I was stunned at the number of pieces they had and the artists.  My favorite room by far was the one dedicated completely to Andy Warhol!  The walls were covered with wallpaper that he had designed that featured the head of a cow on a pink background and there were several large prints he had done hanging on the walls.  I’ve been a fan of Warhol’s pop art for a while and it was incredible to see him work up close!  I even got to see some of him Marilyn prints which are my favorite!  

Reconstruction of Shakespeare's Globe Theater

After leaving the Tate, our feet were getting pretty chilly because the sun was just starting to go down so we decided to walk back over to the other side of town to see the London Eye, Parliament Buildings, Big Ben and Westminster Abbey before I had to meet our tour bus and head back to Lille.  We ended up walking back to the west side of tour after the tube station we tried to take was closed but we got to Westminster Bridge right as the sun was dropping beneath the few clouds in the sky and the view of the Parliament Buildings and Big Ben was incredible!  This was definitely my favorite part of the day because I was so overwhelmed by the experience of being in London and watching the sun go down surrounded by all these places I had only read about until now.  It was quite the feeling :-) Below are a couple of the photos that I took on and around the bridge.

 

Allen with the London Eye in the background

  

Big Ben and the London Eye as the sun was setting - picture perfect!

On Westminster Bridge with Parliament and Big Ben in the background

We had about an hour left until I had to meet my bus at this point so Allen and I decided to walk down along the other side of the Parliament Buildings and see Westminster Abbey from the outside while Joe went to a small concert/service in the Abbey. 

Westminster Abbey in the evening 

We then headed back to the Piccadilly Circus area so that we could get some food before I had to meet my bus.  Allen and I walked past the Prime Minister’s house at 10 Downing Street and up though an arch back to Trafalgar Square where we snapped a couple pictures with the National Gallery all light up in the background.  The guys had gone on a three hour walking tour of the city the day before so Allen had lots of great facts about the city and fun things to point out as we walked back to Piccadilly Circus.   We had planned to have dinner at one of the restaurants in the Piccadilly Circus area but after checking my phone and seeing that I had several missed calls from Kerstin, I realized that I had got the time for our meeting wrong and I was already late!  I had to say good bye to Allen a few minutes earlier than expected but he was able to get some dinner after we parted and make it back to Victoria Station for his bus back to Swansea just in time.  I hoped on the bus and was back to Lille in a few hours as well.

My Saturday afternoon in London was wonderful and I think I’ve really got the travel bug now because I’m really excited to travel more on the weekends!  There was still so much that we didn’t get to see in London so I know I’ll have to go back again before returning home!  I think I’m going to need more than an afternoon though, because the National Gallery, Buckingham Palace and Harrods are still on my list and I would really like to spend some time exploring the parks and having a hot chocolate in a café to soak up the local culture!