Holiday Weekend

Holiday weekend:
Our first weekend in England is a holiday weekend - a bank holiday for May day. Yeah, makes about as much sense to us as it does to you. But we’re not complaining as this means we have Monday off. We decided to make use of our time and travel a bit, but stay close enough so as to make them day trips.

Our first excursion was to Brighton. This is a coastal town with England’s only nude beach. Don’t worry; it was too cold for anyone to be out taking advantage of it. The town itself is quite nice and is centered around the Royal Pavilion, which is “one of the most extraordinary palaces in Europe”. It was built for George IV. The palace is quite extravagant and makes you feel like you are in the Orient. Some find it vulgar, while others call it brilliant. The exterior looks like some sort of Indian palace while the inside is decorated with a Chinese influence – think crazy dragons and snakes everywhere. This “flamboyant seaside town” is comprised of many lanes and alleyways called “catcreeps and twittens”. On these small streets you might find some trinket or treasure or maybe a cornish pasty to eat. That’s right, we said pasty…not to be confused with the pasty we know of in the states; it’s what they call a pastry. The beach is made of pebbles and shells. Suze was captivated by the small tiny white ones which may have been either shell or pebble. We’re not sure. Also in Brighton, Suze found a Dr. Pepper Zero, which she had been searching for the entire trip. When we arrived in the town, there was a huge parade. We are not sure why they were marching, but it was a children’s parade with an animal theme. It was confusing, but colorful with characters made out of paper machet. And most of the children were wearing whistles about their necks. Which got very annoying as the day progressed. We were able to navigate the overground train system from London to Brighton for this trip with no problems.

On Sunday, we went to Greenwich. We were able to access it through a series of navigations on the tube, which took forever…probably about 2 hours total commute from our home. And oh, the stairs. They aren’t kidding when they say underground; we just kept going down forever. Once in Greenwich, we were forced to climb another hill…up to the Royal Observatory. Suze estimates a 70º incline. The observatory is where the Prime Meridian is located, from whence all time is measured. Here, you can put one foot in the eastern hemisphere whilst the other is in the western. In London, we are on Greenwich Mean Time (GMT). In Baton Rouge and Nashville, you are on GMT-6. You do the math. We took our photo in front of the sculpture that denotes the line. It is an oddly shaped piece of metal with a hole in it. There was a small boy; we’re estimating 7 or 8 years old playing on the sculpture (?) and ending up in the pictures of all these people having their photos taken. This was annoying enough. BUT when Suze and Bekah stood in front of it to have their photo taken, Bekah felt a small hand squeezing her bum. This was NOT appreciated and when she tried to gently rebuke him by grasping his wrist firmly, the child began to cry. However, Bekah did not feel remorse and is still wondering where his parent was during all this. Seriously!

Still Sunday….After hanging out at a nearby pub, nearby being relative, Suze and Bekah headed home for the evening. It was about 10:30 PM. When they arrived home, they realized they did not have the key card to let them into the building (side note: a key card is required to enter the building. Each guest has an individual key to their room as well). They were knocking gently on the door and calling softly for someone to let them in, as people have their windows open and they just might be heard. After just a few minutes of this, security arrived…a man in a bright neon reflective yellow jacket. Initially, they felt relief. But then, a lecture ensued. The man, in an Islander’s accent, informed them that they had not followed protocol for this situation. He told us that we were to have used our mobile to call the hospital, who would then have bleeped him...that’s right…bleep (beep, or page as we would say), and he would come to our aid willingly. He proceeded to ask us what our plan of action was before he arrived. We told him what we had done and that we did not have the number to the hospital. He proceeded to point out the flaws in our plan - as if we didn’t already know them. He stated that no one would probably hear us, and if they did wouldn’t let us in. After this lecture, he punched in his code and let us in (which we were a little unsure if he would do or not). Because that was our destination no matter how we went about it. And in the end, he again put in his 2p about why we should have the hospital’s number. So they could have bleeped him, instead of him just finding us. Which is ridiculous. Since he had the capabilities all along. And we knew that it was not good that we did not have the key card and did not need him to tell us that. We just needed to get in. Geez.

On Monday, we went into the city to do some exploring. This was our first venture into London proper. We began our day at the British Museum, which is free to the public. That place is huge! It would have taken us all day to get through all its parts. They have a display for every continent, ancient culture, etc. We had to prioritize in order to maximize our time. We went through the Greek and Roman segment. We saw the Rosetta Stone. We breezed through the Egyptian exhibit which was really crowded. We then went to Westminster Abbey. As we got off the tube, we saw Parliament including Big Ben, which is across the street from the Abbey. Westminster Abbey is almost overwhelming with the amount of memorials and tombs it contains. The main part of the church is very beautiful. We were able to have an audio guide complimentary with the purchase of our tickets. After viewing the church, we walked on to Buckingham Palace, which is relatively nearby. It is very impressively large on the outside, though kinda ugly. We opted not to go in as it is very expensive and the guide books did not make it seem particularly appealing. We decided that we would go see a movie that night instead. We got our tickets to Wolverine and were pleased to note that they offered a student price, which was still more than we would have paid for a movie in America as expensive as that is. We also got to pick our seats at the ticket counter. We were able to see a layout of the theatre and were told to pick our seats from there. This was such a foreign concept to us, we didn’t even know what to pick and so just went with her suggestions. While seemingly a good idea, this actually played out rather oddly. We were seated in the middle, and the theater was not full. However Suze and Bekah both had people sit directly beside them. This was a bit strange to us, as in the States, people would naturally leave a seat between unless the place was completely packed.

check out the pictures:http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2072736&id=34104915&saved#/album.php?aid=2072736&id=34104915

Words of the Entry: Pom or Pommie – a slang term for an Englishman. Shandy—a refreshing beverage made by combining lager with lemonade…don’t knock it til you try it. In a sentence: The Poms sure do like their shandy; you can even get it at the canteen at the hospital.