slowly but surely

Last Friday was the Cambridge day of fun!

We started off our morning meeting up with Curt for some toast and corn flakes, yum. (Free food, can't beat it). Since Ellen wasn't going to get out of class until 1, we decided to explore the British Library for a while. Oh my goodness, if that was my library I would be there all of the time!

We didn't even get to see much of it with our 1 and a half hour visit. Actually, we only got to check out the Sir John Ritblat Gallery: Treasures of the British Library, and it was phenomenal, I'm getting chills just thinking about it. This gallery took us through time, literature, music, religion, science, geography and politics! I saw the original copies of Handel's Messiah, Mozart's notes and an original book of compositions, Beatles' song lyrics (even with cartoon sketching on one of them), Jane Austen's handwriting in her original copy of Persuasions, Original Daoist, Hindi, and Buddhist sacred texts, one of the earliest copies of the Bible (A fourth century Codex!!!), early Qu'ran copies, the Magna Carta, Leonardo DaVinci's notes next to Sir Isaac Newton's diary entries... so much history, culture and tradition in there! I was sad to see the clock speed by so fast in a room that seemed to stand still in defiance of the sands of time.

Nonetheless, our sad departure from the library brought us to the happy adventuring in King's Cross Station. We first wanted to buy our tickets and make sure we knew where our train was leaving from. After that was settles, I started to ask our big security guard friend if it'd be ok to leave that area even if we'd already swiped our ticket through. Immediately he said, "You're looking for Harry Potter?" How'd he know?! ; ) He told us how to get to "Platform 9 3/4" Which was actually between platforms 8 and 9. Either way we took tons of pictures and had loads of fun before buying lunch and hopping onto the train towards Ellen!

In the Cambridge Station we waited ever so shortly for Miss Ellen to arrive. She came along with Carly, a truly fun girl, and the two showed us to Homerton College where they are living for the year. After settling down, we embarked upon our tour of Cambridge, led by the lovely Ellen. Wow, I had no idea how huge and sprawled out Cambridge was. I don't remember the exact number of colleges that make up the university, somewhere around forty or more?, but it was amazing. In each college I kept having to be reminded that students actually live there. Students actually live in King's College, near that giant of a "chapel" that still blows my mind! Students actually live where Sir Isaac Newton studied. Ellen showed us around loads of colleges, took us by a pub where Watson and Crick would chill over a pint while discussing the structure of DNA, introduced us to punting along the river, and made me jealous of their every day of the week open market. It was a lovely walk and the company was only better!

We weren't the only guests at Homerton and as such there was quite the feast to enjoy that night! I helped ever so slightly, mostly just hung out, while Ellen cooked a scrumptious meal for 20 or so (a pasta with a cheesy pesto sauce with tomatoes, sans the chicken for me... I still have yet to eat meat, it almost feels weird to think of it...). After the meal in the hallway (at least I think after it) we went back to town to pick up two other girls who had come to visit. Basically, after a visit to the co-op, the night became one of hanging out in the hallway, good stories, laughter, friends and fun. I thoroughly enjoyed myself and wish I hadn't gone to bed but had only stayed up. Thanks again Ellen, you were a fantastic host and it was so good to see you!

Sadly the next morning we had to leave in order to meet up with Curt at Platform 9 3/4 at 10. I mean, how cool is that, to say that you're meeting up at Platform 9 and 3/4? Anyways, we met up without a problem. We actually split up again, he to view the changing of the guards (in which the band played Lion King, I was jealous!) and we went to Hyde Park. Again, time escaped us and we didn't get to see but a fraction of the park, but that fraction was gorgeous. The day was lovely, the people happy and the park beautiful. Only had it been after everything had bloomed could things have been more perfect. I kind of wish my Hyde Park was like that, it's ok, I love my neighborhood all the same. We met back up with Curt and a new friend, Renata, who he'd met the previous day. Renata was a treat! A Brazilian girl studying in Portugal who was traveling solo for a month. She said that the beautiful thing about traveling alone is that you're never alone! She gave me some ideas...

Anyways, we wound up with a whirlwind of a day. We went to St. Paul's Cathedral, the Millenium Bridge, and then walked along the river towards the Tower of London and the Tower Bridge. Beautiful, absolutely beautiful. We then split ways again.

Little did we know we chose the perfect day for using the underground... not. The lines out to where we were were out. We wound up walking all over, from closed stop to closed stop until we finally found a break! We raced around, in hopes of getting to the Museum quickly so that I could see the Rosetta Stone and the Parthenon, so that Ellen and others wouldn't disown me, and then to Westminster Abbey for Mass at 5. Well, I did indeed see the stone and greek monuments. "No wonder Greece is pissed" escaped my mouth upon seeing such impressive structures within the British Museum. And the Rosetta Stone, having unlocked the Egyptian culture for us, gave me chills! Sadly that's all that I got to see in this last visit to the museum (good thing I'd caught it thursday!) before racing over to the Abbey. Unfortunately the race was in vain: the service was held at 3 on Sat, not at 5. So we were 2 hours 20 mins late, not just 20 mins late.

All I could do was laugh and look for a bench to sit at. All was well though: Big Ben at sunset was beautiful. From there we went back to Tottenham Court Road to get Mandy HP 1 and 7 british versions, catch a bite to eat (falafel for me!) before heading back to the Tower Bridge to catch it at night ( a wise tip from Renata). It was beautiful all lit up, and this time we knew how to best get back to a working underground! Then we returned to Big Ben and Parliament to see him all lit up. Again, terribly Impressive.

Favorite memory: Mandy reading aloud the first chapter to Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone as we sat in a bench facing Big Ben and Parliament. It was truly magical, had goosebumps the whole time. A motorcycle even drove by shortly after Hagrid arrived on Sirius' bike! It was the perfect ending to a wonderful adventure. From there we hopped on the underground for the last time to connect with the Stansted Express Train to take us to the airport.

Staying over at the airport Saturday night to Sunday morning, not so much fun. Didn't really sleep at all. Bright side, we did find Curt again and even ran into a friend we'd met here in Galway on her return back to the lovely Emerald Isle.

London was a fantastic adventure!