Amanda Goes to England

This was kind of the day my whole holiday in England was planned around. The Wolverhampton Camera Fair.

Wolverhampton, whilst eating my first-ever pasty.

Jon picked me up, we got our train tickets (+more Ribena), and we were on our way. Once we arrived in Wolverhampton, we took a black cab up to the camera fair. Okay, it was a purple black cab, but still. I’d never been in a cab before. Neat-o.

The camera fair was very cool. So much to choose from, so little money to spend. I picked up a few bits and bobbles and only made a camera purchase at the eleventh hour (lucky me, the price of the camera came down £5 so the dealer could unload it.) The fair was a nice way to spend a couple of hours anyway and it was interesting to see a lot of cameras in the flesh that I’d only ever seen online.

Jon had to be off not long after we got back to Birmingham. I “made” him let me take his picture before he left so I could show the folks back home. What a good sport!

St. Martin’s in the Bullring

Brum Christmas Lights

Since I had the evening to myself, I went back to the Christmas market to browse around. Didn’t buy much, but I liked it. I was going to finish On the Road when I got back to the hostel, but it had disappeared. I guess some cheeky poacher had swiped it!

Me, at Tavistock Square

I checked out of the hostel, got my £10 key deposit back (I’d been waiting for that all week!), and headed towards Euston station to catch my train to Birmingham. I did stop at Tavistock Square for a bit of reflection. That’s me, being reflective in the photo above.

Have I mentioned how much I love train journeys? If not, let me just reiterate. I love trains! My train journey from London’s Euston to Birmingham’s New Street station was so lovely. I had a reserved seat, so I didn’t have to go from car to car, looking for a free seat. I could just sit back and relax. There was a guy doing his math(s) homework across from me and a couple of foreign (Spanish? Italian?) girls who ended up next to me at some point.

I had detailed instructions from my friend Jon as to how to get out of the train station, into the mall (the Bullring) and down to my hostel. Of course, I messed them up a bit and had to carry around that stupid travel bag longer than necessary. But, I did make it to the hostel in one piece. Jon had popped in there a day or two earlier to make sure I should stay there and to book my bed for me. So glad he did! It was in a weird neighbourhood but I loved the hostel itself so much more than the one in London. Ian, the man who Jon had spoken to about my room, was very nice and helpful. The hostel used to be a pub, with the rooms around the corner and upstairs and the common area being where the pub itself was. It was so cozy (cosy) and I was so tired from London, that I didn’t really venture from the hostel and wanted to curl up and sleep in the arm chair at around 6:00! I picked up a copy of On the Road by Jack Kerouac and read A LOT of it before heading up to bed. My roomies, by the way, were a bunch of Irish girls who were there for a student conference. Future physicists, I believe.

Happy Thanksgiving! But not for me, since I wasn’t with anyone in London who was celebrating that particular American holiday.

No, Thanksgiving was just another sight-seeing day for me. It was my last full day in London town, after all.

Westminster Abbey

The Abbey is another one of those “photography is only allowed in certain areas” places, which really dampens my spirits. In fact, while I was waiting in the queue to clear security, one of the guards felt the need to remind me of the no photography rules. Then, he commented on how unusual my camera looked (guess he’s not used to seeing people with manual, film SLRs. I even got sick of all the digital Canon and Nikon SLRs I saw people weilding!) Since I couldn’t take many photos, I just got one of the audio tours and tried to take in as much mentally as I possibly could.

This is really an amazing place. It’s hard to wrap your mind around all the history inside. All the coronations that have taken place there. The amount of influential people buried there (they’re crammed everywhere!) There’s just so, so much.

And I have a confession to make: Besides visiting Westminster Abbey, I didn’t accomplish much else. I bought my train tickets to Birmingham (!) at Euston station and got myself ready to leave the hostel.

This was probably the most typical, rainy day that I encountered in England. Unfortunately, the chintzy little umbrella which I’d packed didn’t really survive the winds of that first rainy night in London.

Yetunde

When I visited Fountain of Life church on Sunday, a kind lady there named Yetunde gave me her contact details and offered to have lunch with me during the week. She works at Leicester Square, so she told me to meet her at Trafalgar (since I was familiar with that area.) Yetunde came and picked me up at Trafalgar Square and we walked over to a posh location of Pizza Express. It was the nicest meal that I ate the whole time I was in England – hey, I couldn’t afford to treat myself that way! And, of course, I enjoyed the company and having a long chat with Yetunde.

The National Gallery (again)

Since I was in the area anyway, I visited the National Gallery again (I figured, how many times am I going to get the opportunity to look at works by Da Vinci and Michelangelo? Why not look at them twice while I’m in the neighbourhood?) I also visited the National Portrait Gallery for the first time. At this point, though, I was beginning to feel “all museumed out.”

Rainy Big Ben

I even walked over to Big Ben, Parliament, and Westminster Abbey again while I was there. Unfortunately, I arrived about two minutes after the Abbey closed, so I had to be content with seeing it from the outside for the time being.

Somerset House

Since I’d had my nuff of museums, I’m happy to report I had non-museum plans for the evening. I had been invited to go ice skating with Alicia, an American ex-pat living in London. I should mention that I had only been ice skating once or twice before, about eight years ago at the Mall of Memphis (RIP) indoor rink. The place where I met Alicia is called Somerset House and it was brilliant! Oh I was so, so bad at the ice skating part but I so enjoyed my time attempting to skate and hanging out with Alicia and her friend Anna for a bit. I was even bad at navigating the “practice rink” (read: kiddie rink.) When I was taking pictures, such as the one above, I had to awkwardly lean over the railing so I could somewhat look through the viewfinder. Once, one of the ice rink employees got concerned and said “Madam, what’s wrong?!” He thought I was “getting sick.” I had to admit to Alicia and Anna after the skating was over that there was just one song that played during our skating time that pumped me up so much that I actually got about two feet away from the railing (to which I’d been clinging for dear life during most of the evening.) That song: Lose Yourself by Eminem. Why can I say? We can’t always choose the things which inspire us.

Cue the creepy music.

Tower of London

I went to Tower of London this day. After having learned my lesson about audio tours at St. Paul’s, I splurged on the audio tour at Tower of London. It made all the difference in the world. I got more out of what I was seeing and the tour made everything extra creepy, especially when doing things such as reading quotes attributed to Anne Boleyn when it was time for her beheading. Not to mention the torturing that went on at that place. There was also something unnerving about all the weapons stored in the white tower.

Tower Bridge

Conveniently enough, just outside the Tower of London is Tower Bridge. I decided to take a walk across it, just for the heck of it. I thought it was a pretty cool structure, personally.

Coloured Windows (while looking for London Bridge)

After Tower Bridge, I thought I should try to locate London Bridge. I didn’t have much success with that. Despite being on a street called London Bridge Street, I just couldn’t find it. Good thing I was impressed with bridge I’d already walked across that day.

Piccadilly Circus

Neeeeeext, I got off the Tube at Tottenham Court Road (as I often did) and decided to go to Oxford Street (popular shopping district), which led me to Regent Street (another popular shopping district), which in turn led me to Piccadilly Circus. I didn’t do any shopping, just a lot of walking.

And that’s about it for Tuesday the 21st.

Memphis Airport

I left Memphis International Airport on 16 November. My first substantial flight, my first international flight. I nearly missed my connection in Detroit. They were looking for me at the gate there when I finally made it, said “Are you Amanda?” and informed someone on the plane that “Amanda’s here.” It made me feel strange but I was just glad I hadn’t missed my flight into Gatwick.

There’s not much to say about the flight itself, except that I didn’t sleep for the seven and a half hour flight.

Me on a Train

I arrived at London Gatwick on 17 November, a little worse for wear after the flight. The queue for foreigners coming through passport control was maddening to stand in when you haven’t slept in twenty-four hours.

The photo above is of me on my first ever train journey, from Gatwick to Victoria Station. Everything felt a bit surreal, because of the sleep deprivation and the disbelief that I was actually in England. I just kept looking out the windows at the overcast England day as the train made its way to Victoria, thinking “I’m in England, huh?” The rolling green hills and school children playing outside in their uniforms were my first real glimpses of the country.

Green Pea Soup @ Forum Cafe’

I arrived at the hostel, Astor Museum Inn, two hours before check-in. I felt half-dead at that point and was glad to be able to drop my things in the luggage room downstairs at the hostel. I asked the hostel manager, Liz, where I could grab a quick bite. So, my first meal in England was soup and bread at the Forum Cafe’, over on Great Russell Street. I was famished at that point and, so, I felt like a street urchin when I devoured the soup and bread they brought me. I didn’t even take the time to ask if it was vegetarian friendly!

To be honest with you, the first night I was in London was not fun-filled. I was exhausted and just wanted to stay in! So, I walked to a local Sainsbury’s, bought myself some bread, peanut butter, bananas, and Sainsbury’s own brand Jaffa Cakes, walked back in the rain, made a peanut butter and banana sandwich, was laughed at by one of the long-term Australians at the hostel, had to explain that I’m from Memphis and we eat those sandwiches here and chilled out for the evening.

So ended my arrival day in London.