The MikeCam

A little bit of exciting news, a short way into my long holiday around Europe — we’re in Paris for an extra day due to widespread strikes and protests regarding new labor legislation. Our flight to Spain was scheduled for tomorrow morning, but in addition to the entire Parisian metro being shut down, Ryanair e-mailed today to say our flight was cancelled thanks to the protests/strikes. Luckily, we were able to reschedule for Wednesday morning and we’re staying at the flat of a friend of Brian’s (which, by the way, is ridiculously nice, in an incredible location about two blocks from the Louvre, and costs a whopping 1900 Euros a month — approx. $2277). The upshot, too, is that we’ll have the chance to see a little history in action – these protests are very large, universities have been shut down for weeks, and French students have a reputation for protests in the last half century — not to mention France’s notorious history of revolution.

While I was travelling in Spain and France the past couple weeks, I wrote home the first day and then just sort of made a habit of e-mailing home to describe what I did each day. Rather than try to describe my travels all over again, I figure I’ll just post the notes I wrote. They are, as is typical of me, wordy, so for those of you who prefer the Cliff Notes version, I saw a lot of things and had a great time. ;)

Day 1 – Barcelona
I am having a great time here, it really is a beautiful city. It´s not as
decorated for Christmas as I might have thought, but they do have lights up and
a fairly big Christmas market near the cathedral. Yesterday, I just sort of
wandered about from the hostel (which is in a very good spot at Carrer Arragó y
Passeig de Gracía) down to the shore and then up the ramblas. For lunch, I had
sort of small sandwich of perchutto (spelling?) and brie at a cafe. After that,
I met an Australian girl staying in the hostel and we visited the Parc de Güell
together, which was quite beautiful, especially the view. We went to dinner
together last night as well, since we both wanted some paella, and had it at a
small restaurant down a side alley somewhere in the Barri Gotic. After that, I
went out for a bit with a couple Americans from the hostel who are
telecommuting from Barcelona for three months. We went to a bar in another
hostel, which was alright, and then visited a club we´d been handed a flyer
for, but it was small and kind of empty.

Today I travelled with the Australian again, this time to Montjuïc. First,
though, we visited one of the markets (the one near the cathedral, can´t
remember the name) and got some food for lunch. I got a baguette, olives, brie,
and fuet (a thin stick of sausage, like sopressata). We took the cable car up to
Montjuïc and from there wandered around, admired the view, and ended up in the
Jardí Botaníc, where we stopped at one of the benches for lunch. The botanical
gardens are quite an enjoyable stroll and there´s a nice view from the top,
just as there are at many other places around Montjuic. I saw a lot of stadiums
left over from the olympics, the Palau Nacional, and the Fundación Joan Miró. It
was quite a full day today, about nine hours of walking around. For dinner, I
ate in at the hostel with what I had leftover from lunch and some almendras I
bought at a supermercat. I forgot to get lemon, though, so it didn´t taste as
good. Is there anything else you use on them? There´s a single small dinner
table, so everyone in the hostel tends to eat together. It kinds of reminds of
Tia Rosa´s in terms of the general layout. Oh, and I think I did have something
with nata for breakfast this morning, it was one of those sort of small sweet
rolls split down the middle, with cream in it.

I´m not sure exactly what I´ll do tomorrow, but I do want to go to the top of la
Família Sagrada, I´m thinking of possibly trying to visit Tibidabo, and Sunday I
might try to go see an Espanyol v. Zaragoza match (because I´m leaving the day
before the next Barcelona match!). The Australian girl is leaving tomorrow, so
I´ll be travelling alone again, which is ok, because even though it was nice to
travel with someone else for a bit it´s nice to travel alone for a while too.

Oh, there´s something I wanted to ask about because it was just brought to my
attention by pure chance, by one of the women working at the hostel. It turns
out that anyone born of a Spanish mother or father is Spanish by means of
origin, which means that I might be eligible for citizenship if I wanted it. It
would be terrific if I could manage to get a dual citizenship, because that way
I could have an EU passport and could visit whenever and for however long I
wanted, as well as work here and such. There are several things I´m not sure
of, though, and dual citizenship is potentially problematic. In particular, I´m
not sure whether the parent has to still be a citizen of Spain at the time the
child is born (were you?), and Spain does not recognize dual citizenship and
its citizenship oath includes renouncing any other citizenships. In the past,
the U.S. was very antagonistic towards dual citizenship as well, but apparently
now it is not really a problem. It seems that countries generally ignore each
other´s citizenship laws, which means that if I were to become a Spanish
citizen, Spain would regard me as being only Spanish, while the U.S. would
regard me as being only American. Problems would arise, however, if some legal
matter regarding citizenship should crop up, and my U.S. citizenship could
become endangered if I was shown to have any intent to renounce my citizenship,
I think. This is all based off some quick Internet research though, so I guess
it would all be a matter for a lawyer to look at if I really wanted to be a
dual citizen. I´m also wondering about problems like paying taxes for two
countries and such. All the same, though, it´s something I would like to look
into, because the idea of having an EU passport sounds like a really nice one!

Anyway, I´m pretty tired, so I´m going to head to sleep. Hope everyone is well,
love you all! Let me know if there´s anything you or anyone would like me to
get for them while I´m here.

Love,
Michael

Day 2 – Barcelona
A daily report, eh? Well, I wound up staying out a little late last night rather
than going to bed. I went out with the Americans again, this time in search of
any good bars, and we wound up at a bar near the universitat, the Bar
Estudiantil. It had a really great atmosphere because it was filled with people
our age, had cheap drinks, and a live three-piece jazz band that was quite good.

The result of staying out late, though, was that I woke up late, so I didn´t get
out until about noon. I still had a pretty full day, however; I did a lot of
walking. I went to la Familia Sagrada, climbed the 300+ steps to the top,
enjoyed the view along the way, went back down, viewed the museum, strolled
through the parks nearby, watched the old men play bocce, and found an F.C.
Barcelona shop nearby and got myself a shirt. After that, I took the metro to
the Arc de Triomf and walked through the big park nearby. What is that
classical-looking structure with the fountains and pools with ducks that says
“acquarium” at the top? I climbed the stairs of it, but it was closed at the
top. I saw the Mammoth in the park, as well. Finally, I wandered past the
parliament, the zoology museum, the modern art museum, and the zoo, through the
streets nearby, and finally walked back up Passeig de Grácia to my hostel.

The woman that works at the hostel during the day, Aleesya, cooked dinner for us
because it´s the last night the two American guys are staying, since they´re
moving into an apartment. After that, we hung around for a bit and had some
drinks with both on-duty and off-duty hostel personnel, met some new arrivals,
and then headed out to find a club. We finally did go into one after wandering
around for a while, and it was alright, but clubbing isn´t really my thing. We
just got back a little while ago, at 5am, so now I´m going to close my note and
get to sleep.

Tomorrow I intend to just relax, look at some of the shops around and see if
there´s anything interesting, and maybe go to the zoo if it is open. Sunday I´m
going to go to the Liceu opera house in the morning to go on a guided tour, then
maybe go to the monastery that´s at the end of line 6 on the metro (can´t
remember it´s name right now), and then go see the Espanyol v. Zaragoza match
at the Olympic stadium with a Canadian girl that just came in today.
Unfortunately the next Barca match isn´t until Tuesday, so I´ll just miss it,
but I´d like to see a game before I go. Monday I´m going to go to Girona in the
morning and walk around until my flight to Paris in the evening.

Is there anything else you´d suggest that I see while I´m here? Also, is any of
Tio Paco´s art on display in the city, that you know of?
Okay, I´m off to sleep now!

Love,
Michael

Day 3 & 4 – Barcelona
In addition to what I talk about in Friday´s e-mail, Saturday I woke up late and
wandered around the Barri Gotic. The sheer number of people on the streets that
day was stunning; they were quite packed. In the barri, there are shops
everywhere, but I ran across a couple old churches as well. In the evening I
got a bit lost in the winding streets and happened upon a band of about twenty
men wearing red santa hats and playing Christmas songs on brass instruments
(trumpets, trombones, etc.) and drums. They were marching along and stopped in
front of a place labelled Coro social humoristico (or something similar). At
one of the churches I ran across, they had a stage set up and were bringing
kids up to sing the tio song and get presents. Later I went to the cathedral
and went inside while they were performing a mass — it´s quite an impressive
place. For dinner, Aleesya (Italian woman working the desk at the hostel)
cooked again, this time a bigger meal with the help of Bruno (Argentinian
working at the hostel) and Hazel (Scottish woman working here). Bruno brought a
few guests from another hostel and quite a few people staying at this one came
to dinner, so it was a full table. After that, most of us went out to a really
funky bar at the contemporary art museum and relaxed for a little while until
some of us left to go to bed.

Today, Sunday, I went back to the Arc de Triomf and walked down to the zoo. On
the way, there was a stage set up with a band and a large group of people
dancing in a circle; traditional Catalan dancing, right? I spent a couple hours
in the zoo, which is fairly big and had some interesting animals. I even ran
across a macaw (parrot) that said “hola!” After the zoo, I met up with a
Canadian girl from the hostel in front of the Palau Nacional and went to the
estadi olímpic to see the Espanyol v Zaragoza game. It was nice to finally be
able to see a match, even if it wasn’t the best teams, but it was also actually
quite exciting in the second half. Espanyol made the first goal of the match a
little ways into the second half, to which Zaragoza immediately responded and
equalized. Shortly after that, Zaragoza went on to score a second goal on a
breakaway (they had some fast strikers!) and this disheartened the Espanyol
crowd for a while. Towards the end, though, Espanyol came back to score a goal
by a terrific header off of a free kick just outside the box. This really made
the crowd go wild (almost all Espanyol fans, I didn´t see any Zaragoza colors)
and both teams played quite strongly for the rest of the match. After that I
had dinner at a pub/restaurant and had a “Catalan salad,” which was lettuce,
tomato, red peppers, onions, and several types of sausage (like fuet). Tonight
I finished writing out a few postcards, worked out some last details of my
travels tomorrow, finally got my phone working here (it wasn’t working due to a
Virgin error, but they resolved it fairly quickly and credit me 10 pounds), and
got phone numbers from a few people who either live in England or will be in
Paris this week.

Tomorrow, I’m taking the train to Girona to spend the day there, then getting my
flight to Paris. I don’t know what sort of internet access they have there, so I
may or may not e-mail again before I get back to England on Friday. Hope
everyone’s well and tell everyone I love them!

Michael

Day 5 & 6 – Girona and Paris
Hi Dad, just wanted to let you know that I arrived in Paris last night without a
problem. Yesterday I checked out of the Barcelona hostel first thing in the
morning, bought some food to take back with me to England, and hopped a train
to Girona. Girona was quite pretty, but it was also quite empty and most of the
museums were closed because it was a Monday. It was still very nice to walk
around, but behind the cathedral and outside the wall, near the dried-up river
it seemed a little seedy; some kids offered me marijuana, some people were just
hanging out looking suspicious, and a dirty-looking couple were making out (it
means heavy kissing, remember!) in a corner. Add to that the fact that I felt
like a walking bullseye with my big backpack, and you can imagine I felt a
little nervous. After that, I caught the bus to the airport, the flight to
Paris-Beauvais, the bus downtown to Porte Maillot, and the Metro to my hostel
in Monmartre. The hostel is alright, but it’s not nearly as friendly as the
last one, unfortunately.

Today, I went downtown to the Louvre, but found that it’s closed on Tuesdays.
It’s quite cold (around freezing) and foggy, so it was a bit of a dismal day. I
walked from the Louvre to the Eiffel tower and back, and then called it an early
day because of the cold and the fact that my knee is hurting. I don’t know what
I did to it, but on my first day in Barcelona I hurt my right knee and
experienced some sharp pain when walking. The right one is pretty much all
better now, but this morning when I got up the left one started hurting in the
same way. I feel as if I’ve pulled a tendon or something, but I don’t know how
it could have happened or why it’s happened in each knee almost a week apart.

Anyway, I’ve been hogging the computer long enough, so I had best go. The
internet is free here too, fortunately, but the computer is in a kiosk-like
mode and they have a timer that cuts it off after 15 minutes, so if you want to
stay on longer you have to start over again. I’ll write again tomorrow if I have
time, bye!

Michael

Day 7 – Paris
For my day today in Paris, I made it a light one and just went to the
Louvre. I got lucky in that there was only one other person in my
(six-person) room last night and he was gone by the time I woke up in
the morning, so I got up about 9:30, had the complimentary breakfast
(pretty decent actually, croissants, toast, little baguettes, orange
juice, and cereals), took a leisurely shower, relaxed and wrote for a
little while, and then headed downtown around lunch time. I got a map
from the tourist office, had an awfully nice sandwich at a cafe-type
place (but it cost €4.10) and then went to the Louvre. I spent about
three and a half hours there and saw most of the big sights, but the
amount of art in one place is just staggering and totally
overwhelming; it tires you out very fast. I saw the Mona Lisa, Venus
de Milo, Gladiator, and Winged Victory of Samothrace, among others. I
really wanted to see Hammurabi’s code, but for some reason that
section of the museum closes early on certain days and of course it
doesn’t say so anywhere obvious except on the doors to that area when
they are closed, so I missed it by about 15 minutes. I was also
disappointed that the information placards are entirely in French, so
I couldn’t read anything about the artwork really. Anyway, it was an
interesting experience, but I don’t generally feel powerfully affected
by art so the main thing that made an impression was the sheer
quantity of artwork.

My knee is feeling a bit better today and hopefully tomorrow it will
be much better, so I’m planning to do a bunch of walking and see some
big things that I haven’t seen, like Notre Dame, the Jewish deportee
monument, the Latin Quarter, Saint Chappelle, the Arc de Triomph, and
Napoleon’s Tomb. That should take up a while in walking and bring me
from the Latin Quarter in the east to the Arc de Triomph in the west.
I’ll be near the Musee de L’homme then, so I’ll probably go there for
a couple hours to take a break from the cold. After that, I’ll head
back to Monmartre, walk around a bit, see Sacre Couer, and then make
myself some dinner at the hostel and rest for a little while. Finally,
I’ll head back downtown one more time, to see Paris lit up for the
night. Today was a clearer day than yesterday, so I did see the Eiffel
tower lit up from a distance, but I’ll take a look again tomorrow and
see some others as well. Actually, I think I forgot to mention to you
in my first Paris e-mail that when I got off the bus from the airport
at Porte Maillot, I was quite impressed by the lights on the Palais de
Congress and the street next to it, so I’m eager to see some more of
Paris at night, since it’s supposed to be the “city of light” and all.
I’m debating whether to spend the money to go up the Eiffel tower, as
the weather’s still rather gloomy, but it still might be a good view
of the city by day and of the lights by night. It’s annoying that
everything here costs money to see, from the museums to the churches
and monuments.

Anyway, that’s my plan for tomorrow. On Friday, I get up early, catch
my flight to London, my bus to Leeds, and I’m back to my
home-away-from-home. Talk to you then!

Michael

Day 8 – Paris
Well, I doubt I’ll forget Paris either, it’s definitely unique. This
morning I went to Notre Dame first thing and was thorougly impressed.
Firstly, I thought it was neat that they had a nice Christmas tree out
front, decorated with red balls and those sort of fluffy/tinsely
ropes. As for the cathedral itself, from the outside the size is quite
something and there is plenty of detail in the decoration, but the
inside was the best part. They have, like both the cathedral in
Barcelona and the one in Girona, alcoves (called chappelles) running
down each side of the building dedicated to various saints. In the
center, the ceiling over the pews and altar area is incredibly high,
because it is open all the way to the top of the building. There was
actually a mass or some sort of service going on while I was there,
like when I visited the Barcelona cathedral, so it was nice to see the
church alive and in use in that way. I also got to see one of their
big chandeliers up close because they had brought it down for
refurbishment, and they had a “Christmas crib” as well, which was a
sort of extended nativity scene. The bit that I liked the best,
though, was the stunning stained glass; the detail, color, and
fragility of stained glass is always something that impresses me with
its beauty, and there was quite a lot of it there.

Anyway, I’ve sort of written in excruciating detail about Notre Dame,
but the point is that it impressed me a lot. After that, I had lunch
in this little park directly behind the Notre Dame, which I thought
was a better view than the front because I could see the flying
buttresses and lots of gargoyles. After that, I took a walk down the
streets of the small island across the Pont St. Louis, then briefly
down some streets in the Latin Quarter, and returned to the rear of
Notre Dame to see the Deportation Memorial. Next, I walked through the
Place Saint Michel, went into the Palais de Justice to see the Sante
Chappelle church, across Pont Neuf (the oldest bridge), and took the
metro to the Arc de Triomph.

After seeing that, I headed over to the Musee de l’Homme, but it was
45 minutes to close, so I decided there wasn’t enough time. You were
right about the view from between the Musee de l’Homme and the Theatre
National de Chaillot, it’s the best view of the Eiffel Tower that I’ve
seen. It’s sort of a medium distance, not too far away, but far enough
to see the whole thing, and you’re at an elevated angle. It’s probably
the quintessential view, because you can see the fountains below you
leading up to the park around the Tower and then the Tower directly in
front of you.

Finally, after going back to the hostel to rest for a couple hours, I
came back at night to see some of Paris lit up. I came back to that
view of the Eiffel Tower first, and it was terrific. The day had been
pretty clear and at night only the tip was veiled by a bit of fog.
Next, I walked down the avenue to the Arc de Triumph, which doesn’t
look very special lit up, but as soon as I turned the corner to the
Champs-Elysées, I was struck by the light of the avenue. The entire
length of it, from the Arc to the carrousel wheel in front of the
Jardins Toullieres is flanked by trees which are lit up, bathing the
whole avenue in bright light. That, to me, made Paris seem like the
city of light.

So, that was my day, in a bit more detail than usual for some reason
– I’m not sure why. I’m going to get off to bed now, because I need
to get up around 6:30 to give myself enough time to get my flight.
Unfortunately there are people in my room again (had completely it to
myself last night!), but this is my last night and I’ll be the one
getting up and making noise, so I don’t mind, heh. Talk to you all
tomorrow!

Michael

The Louvre is completely, utterly, overwhelmingly, mind-numbingly massive. It’s like the Virgin Megastore of art museums, the Walmart one-stop shop for all your art-viewing needs. I mean, I expected it to be quite large, but the sheer density of art within each hall is, I think, enough to tire anyone out quite quickly. Plus none of the bloody placards are in English. Certainly it’s a French museum, but I would hazard a guess that the number of full or partial English speakers visiting the museum each year vastly outnumbers those visitors who understand French. I know they’re touchy about the decline of their language, but please, bilingual descriptions would be a favor to the rest of the world.

Anyway, it’s great to have so much art readily accessible in one place (if you live in Paris and are a student or fanatic of art), but I much preferred the Joan Miró museum in Barcelona for viewing experience. It didn’t plaster every available square inch with art and it gave me a much better sense of that individual artist’s work and development. The Louvre is organized by culture and time period, but hasn’t really enhanced my perception of any of them in particular at all. I feel like I’ve been assaulted by art. Perhaps if I had a year (or years) to keep coming back and slowly assimilating, I would gain a better appreciation, but for now the sum of it all is that now I can say I’ve seen the Mona Lisa.

I’ve been sitting on this for a while and adding to it slowly, but I figure it’s about time to post it: a list of British phrases translated to American terms, heh. Enjoy:

pants = underwear (underpants)
trousers = pants
trainers = sneakers
boots = cleats (usually soccer)
wellingtons/wellies = mud boots
boot = trunk of a car
football = soccer
engaged = busy (as in a telephone line) or occupied (as in a restroom)
to ring someone = to call someone
loo/W.C./toilet = restroom/bathroom
tube/underground = subway
chips = french fries
crisps = chips
cheers = mostly used for “thanks,” they just say it a lot in general
ta = thanks
it’s alright = you’re welcome
you alright? = how are you?
plaster = band-aid
dodgy = sketchy
torch = flashlight
bacon = canadian bacon? sort of? dunno…
streaky bacon = real bacon
petrol = gasoline
match = game (i.e. soccer game)
well + adjective = very + adjective
lie in = sleep in
fit = cute
bird = chick
bloke = guy
mobile (phone) = cell (phone)
rubbish = garbage/trash
bollocks = crap
thick = dense/stupid
hoover = vacuum
zed = z (i.e. how they pronounce the letter)
trolley = shopping cart
lorrey = truck/tractor trailer
car park = parking lot
poof = a gay guy
camp = effeminate
knackered = tired
to take the piss/mick (out of someone or something) = to mock/make fun (of someone or something)
wicked = awesome/cool/etc
mint = sweet/cool/etc
post = mail
to skive = to skip/cut (i.e. class, work)
everything’s gone pear-shaped = everything’s gone downhill/gone to pot
dinner = lunch
tea = dinner
to blag = to BS
parcel = package
to nick something = to swipe/steal something
to whinge = to whine/complain
to get/be pissed = to get/be drunk
take-away = delivery (food)
a brew = a cup of tea
queue = line (of people)

Some things, like the pants = underwear and dinner/tea = lunch/dinner, aren’t true for everyone, but they are for a lot of people — it depends where they come from and what they call those things at home. The pants thing still throws me off — I keep forgetting to say trousers for pants and keep having people think I mean underwear. Just imagine someone constantly saying “underwear” when they really mean pants. The results are amusing.

Firstly: Finally, London photos! Sorry it took so long, I had a lot and needed to make time to sit down and weed through them. I tried to only upload the best ones, but I still wound up uploading about 150 photos out of roughly 500 photos and video clips that I took while there.

Secondly, if you don’t know already, my camera got stolen last week. I went to Blackpool the weekend of the fifth, and we spent all day Saturday at the Blackpool Pleasure Beach, an amusement park, and stayed through the evening to see the Guy Fawkes Day/Bonfire Night fireworks. That evening, before the fireworks, after walking from one ride (where I know I got off with my camera still in my possession) to another, I realized I no longer had my camera, which had been in its bag in my front jacket pocket. We passed through a crowd on our way to the second ride, so I’m pretty sure someone took it out of my pocket. Which really sucks, because I just got the camera a year and a half ago, just got the camera bag last year, and just got the spare battery and high-speed 1gb memory card (both of which were in the bag) for my birthday this year. I’m still really angry about it, but there’s nothing I can do. I wish I’d been more careful and aware, but I guess shit happens, as they say.

So, now I’m in the market for a new camera, because I really would like to take photos of the places I’m going! Luckily, several people took photos while we were in Blackpool, so that wasn’t a complete loss. Manchester last week was too brief a visit to take any good photos anyway, and a friend of mine from there (Jess Simpson — seriously, that’s her name!) says we were in the scummy part as well, so it wasn’t very interesting. I’m going to Edinburgh next weekend for Thanksgiving and probably won’t have a camera in time for that, but hopefully I’ll be able to get photos off one of the other Americans going. I guess the upshot of not taking a camera is that I can just enjoy without feeling the need to take photos of everything. I’m really looking forward to Edinburgh, everyone says it’s terrific, and it should be cool to meet up with a bunch of Americans to celebrate Thanksgiving and to explore the city and hang out. I actually only just finalized plans for it at sort of the last minute yesterday/today. Yesterday because it was the deadline to say I would be going (it’s organized by the University of California exchange programs for UC students and their guests), and today because I almost couldn’t find a hostel with availability on Saturday night — all the good ones seem to have been all full on that night for weeks in advance, I have no idea why.

Speaking of Edinburgh, I’ll now be heading there for New Year’s as well! One of my neighbors here in Litherop, Catherine Stewart (how Scottish is that name!), is from Scotland and her brother has a flat in Edinburgh, as he’s attending the University of Edinburgh (damn ASU for not giving me a slot there…). Apparently the New Year’s celebrations in Edinburgh are called Hogmanay and are absolutely massive, so she’s getting together whoever wants to go stay in her brother’s flat and check out the festivities there. Even better is the fact that this year the festival is featuring a big Catalan theme, which means lots of performers and food and art and so forth from Catalonia, the region in Spain that my dad is from! It’s quite a lucky coincidence that they’re doing that this year (in the past they have had India and France as their international centerpieces), and I’m looking forward to it. I still don’t know where I’m going to go for winter break leading up to that, though. Need to figure it out soon, it’s only three weeks away!

Anyway, it’s late now and I have classes again this week, so I need to head off to sleep. Oh yes, two weeks ago we put on group performances to end the first part of our acting module for the term, and last week we had off from classes in order to write a 2,000 word supporting file. Actually, to make another Edinburgh connection, my group is considering revisiting our piece, expanding and polishing it, and potentially taking it to the Edinburgh Fringe Festival in the summer. If you don’t know, the Edinburgh Fringe is one of the largest theatre festivals in the world and is in fact the original fringe festival (there are other big annual fringes now, in New York, Seattle, etc.), so it would be terrific exposure as well as an amazing experience. I really hope we can do it, it would be really incredible just to be there during the festival, let alone perform for it!

So, yeah, except for my camera getting stolen, things are good: I’m performing (got cast in a production of Les Liaisons Dangereuses — Dangerous Liaisons — and I’m auditioning for Bat Boy the Musical next week), I’m travelling, I’m experiencing, and I’m having a good time.

Where do I even begin? Okay, first of all, if you hadn’t realized, I’m in London. If you’d like to skip ahead to the exciting stuff, like me being detained and searched outside Buckingham Palace on suspicion of terrorist activities, that’s day two. I should probably cut down on the excruciating detail anyway, since it’s costing me £1.50 to use the internet at the hostel for an hour. Anyway, to begin, I got in yesterday and checked in to the incredibly small, four-bed, dorm-style room (i.e. smaller than my single-person dorm room at Bretton) at the Ace Hotel in Kensington. It’s actually a pretty clean place, not to mention dirt cheap (about $42 for two nights), but sharing a tiny, tiny room with other people really blows; more on that later. After I checked in, I headed straight out, got myself a combination padlock for my locker at the hostel and a sandwich from a Tesco supermarket. Backpack secured and hunger satiated, I went downtown on the Picadilly line, got off at Leicester Square, and started walking. I spent an hour or two in the National Portait Gallery, which was interesting, but it’s pretty big, and looking at portraits and historical summaries of various lords and ladies can get old. I enjoyed one portrait in particular, though, of Sarah Siddon, who was — I believe — a 17th century actress and the top dramatic actress of her time. It’s just a very striking painting, of her apparently in a midnight glade with a drama mask in one hand and a dagger in the other. After leaving the Gallery, I discovered I was in Trafalgar Square, so I went ahead and took a load of photos. Walking up another street, I found myself at Picadilly Circus, which really doesn’t seem to have anything do with circuses at all, unless you’re talking about the loads of stores and people. It really reminds me a great deal of Times Square in New York; it’s incredibly similar. Like Times Square, it has a bunch of big, floodlight bright, multistory, animated ads. Also like Times Square, it has a big Virgin Megastore, a bunch of important theatres nearby, and a branch of a big fast food chain overlooking the whole thing (except it’s Burger King instead of McDonald’s).

After I’d gotten my fill of Picadilly Circus and paid through the nose (seriously, it was ridiculous) for a Pizza Hut individual pizza, I headed back to the hostel because I was pretty pooped from travelling and walking around all day. Getting around is seriously tiring, mainly on my feet and lower back, and I actually think I must have spent at least half of the past two days moving from place to place just because of the distance I’ve covered and because of Underground station closures. The two other people in my room happen to also be Americans, who are on the last leg of an around-the-world trip, mainly by cruise ship. They seem nice enough, but are also a little strange, and trying to sleep last night was hell. First of all, the one guy, David, a radiology doctor in his residency in Manhattan, kept saying he was “still on Hong Kong time,” and so went to bed really early. I tried to be quiet and keep the lights down so as not to disturb him, but he had a sleeping mask and earplugs anyway, which (note to self!) are a really damn good idea for making staying at a hostel more bearable. I went to bed early myself, since I was flat-out exhausted, but was woken up an hour or two later when his “travelling companion,” Cassandra, a woman from (I think) Philadelphia who just passed her bar exam, came in. After that, I was woken up a few hours later again, dripping with sweat, because the room felt like a damn sauna, even though I had turned down the heat before I went to bed because it was already warm. Next, I was woken up about 4:30am by David fumbling about and then asking me if I thought the room was hot, and saying that I must have turned up the heat by accident. Cassandra spoke up from her bunk and said that, no, it had been her who turned up the heat and that he should apologize for accusing me, which he did. Finally, I was woken up about 8am by the two of them getting up and going to breakfast, which I did as well. I also felt like complete crap because of course I had barely had two continuous hours of sleep the night before (and only slept about four hours Thursday night). Thankfully, after breakfast I was able to go back and crash for about three hours uninterrupted.

That brings me to today, which was a very full and rather exciting day, to say the least. I headed out with the intention of going to Camden Market, as quite a few people have said it’s worth visiting. Getting there proved to be quite something, though, as the two Underground stations nearest the hostel were both closed for maintenance for the entire day. The first one directed me to walk to the next one, which then directed me to walk to another one, which I finally found. I took the tube as close as I could get to Camden, but couldn’t go all the way because the entire Northern line is closed. Finally, after some more walking and a bus ride, I made it to Camden and Camden Market. Which is a complete zoo. Truly a circus of humanity, there hordes and hordes of people and stalls and shops crammed up against each other. I’ll post photos when I get back to Bretton, but I’m sure they won’t do it justice. At any rate, it is completely overwhelming, and the multitudes of people don’t really make it easy to window shop. If it’s drugs you’re looking for, though, that’s a piece of cake — walking along the main road, I was approached literally continuously, about every two minutes, by people quietly asking if I wanted to score or wanted marijuana or skunk or whatever. I’m not entirely sure how they can get away with it, but with the masses of people and the fact that I didn’t see any police around, I guess they’re not too worried.

After a couple hours and some decent fish and chips, I’d had my fill of Camden Market for the day, and headed downtown (Camden is to the north of downtown London). I got off at the corner of Green Park, which contains or is adjacent to Buckingham Palace. I walked through it and arrived at Buckingham Palace, which is really wholely unimpressive. It’s like a bunch of big rectangular blocks of granite, not really that exciting. I took a bunch of pictures anyway, and then wandered around to try and see if there was a view of the other side. There wasn’t, but I took a few pictures of the incredible large spikes and hoops of barbed wire topping the walls around the palace, and that’s where the day gets even more interesting. On my back from the walled-up side of the palace, three police officers walked towards me on the sidewalk, told me I’d been observed on security cameras taking suspicious photos and that they’d like to ask me some questions, see the photos, and search me. Wow. Being stopped, questioned, and searched on suspicion of terrorist activities by police outside of Buckingham Palace while on your own in the middle of a foreign city is pretty damn freaky, let me tell you. They were really quite nice, which is something I have to say that I’ve noticed about police here in Britain, but they were armed, which is unusual based on the ones I’ve seen around Yorkshire, and they took down all my information, searched my bag, and asked about the photos.

Well damn, so much for brevity — I have two minutes left, so I need to wrap up now. I did a few more things today, but those were the most exciting. I’ll finish up when I get home tomorrow, which I’m really looking forward to. Travelling on your own and on the cheap is exhausting.

Hello there, friends… family… random visitors… from England! As I type this, I am travelling north on a GNER train from London to Leeds at 11:20am local time, or 6:20am US Eastern, on Monday the 19th of September. In a nice touch, they provide power outlets for laptops and mobile phones and – being the prepared traveller that I am – I have the proper converter plug handy, so I thought I would get started in writing about my travels thus far. Apparently they also generally provide wireless internet access – but I only know this because they announced their apologies that it would not be available on this trip. :( Considering the exorbitant fee I paid for this ticket and the horrendous exchange rate I got for my US cash at the airport, though, I am happy for any small luxuries.

Returning to being a prepared traveller for a moment, however: First of all, we left rather late for the airport. Entirely my fault for not packing early. On the way to the airport, I realized first that I had forgotten the blanket that I was going to take with me and then that I had forgotten my electric razor. The razor irks me the most, I think, because it’s a little thing that will drive me crazy. Hopefully my parents will be able to send it over, or I’ll be able to pick up a hand razor for a reasonable price. Besides those couple things I forgot (hopefully those are the only things..), what I did wrong was pack too much. I knew I had, but I didn’t have time to weed things out a bit; I had to leave for the airport or I’d miss my flight. I seem to do that rather frequently with packing, I pack too much stuff. The thing is that the suitcases don’t seem that heavy when you just lift them by themselves briefly, but carrying or pulling them around the airport gets to be a royal pain in the arse (hehe, arse).

Ah, I have to interject here to say that we just passed a herd of cattle out to pasture. Which, I don’t know, I guess I find of note because I plan to stay away from beef in England on account of mad cow disease. And there go some lambs.. There is a surprising amount of farmland out here. I would have thought cities and towns would be closer together, but we have been passing farmland for about fifteen minutes now. I would take pictures to show you, but I’ve tried and discovered that a speeding blur isn’t very interesting. We must be travelling fairly fast.

In general, coming from New England as I have, the land and towns really don’t seem that much different. The architecture is of a different style, to be sure, and things look different – like their subway, the underground – and of course there are the accents, but all in all the differences are rather like going from one city to another, going from, say, New York to Boston. From what I’m seeing on the train, the land is also very similar – similar vegetation and plots, except that there isn’t the sheer space that there is in the US; plots are right next to each other, without any wild space in-between. No, I think the biggest differences I will see will be in the customs and people’s cultural attitudes. I’ve felt uncomfortable the whole trip so far, because it is strange. The money is different, the accents are different and not always understandable, and people behave a bit differently. Mainly, I think, I’m worried about doing the right things and not sticking out like a sore thumb.