Autumn in London '06

Another Weekend (plus one boring Monday)

Hey All,

Well another weekend has passed (which is Friday thru Monday for me, by the way), and I think that I’m starting to feel both more at home here in London and more longing for home in the States. It’s a strange feeling living in another country, even one in which English is the spoken language. But London is so much more than that. London is perhaps the busiest city in the Western world, certainly one of the biggest too. Moreover, New Cross, where I’m staying in London, is a bit of a low-income area, so to speak, which presents its own difficulties in regards to feeling at home. I’m definitely making a lot of friends, and I feel comfortable navigating my new surroundings, but at the same time, I don’t have that safety net to run to if I need it. Not that I anticipate needing to run away, but it’s a feeling a bit like not having health insurance for a few months while your company switches providers. You don’t expect to need it in the near future, but it invades the back of your mind anyway and sets up shop, keeping you always on your toes.

So how bout them Sox? (Did I really just hear that Manny wants to be traded again, and this time to an NL team?????)

Anyway, back to this weekend. This go around, Kevin and I took it easy. Friday night we saw “The Depahted,” the new Scorsese film starring Jack Nicholson, Matt Damon, Mark Wahlberg, and (of course, it’s a Scorsese film) Leo DiCaprio. V6 pery well done, I’d recommend it to you all (but be warned, it is about the Irish mob in Boston, and very violent, but it’s worth it to hear Jack Nicholson speak in a Boston accent ;)). Saturday, we decided to hit some of the more touristy things, visiting Westminster Abbey first. Unfortunately, no cameras were allowed inside (and they charged 6 pounds), but what an experience! The structure itself is nearly 1000 years old, and has been home to coronations, funerals, and other historic events in British history. The architecture defies belief, with arcane spires and clerical imagery and art galore. It made me wonder, looking upward at the high ceiling and geometric perfection just how they did it all without modern building technology. Amazing.

Next, we took a peek at Downing Street (the British equivalent to the White House), ate at a local pub, and then relaxed a bit before heading out again after dark to see some sites by moonlight. We first went to the London Bridge area, only to realize that the famous bridge that we had in our heads was in fact Tower Bridge (London Bridge is nothing special, it’s just in a nursery rhyme). So we went to Tower Hill, the home of the Tower of London and Tower Bridge, and walked from there along the River Thames, just taking in the sights. The weather here makes for wonderful night walking, and sticking to the lit areas it even feels safe! We left the Thames path at St. Paul’s Cathedral, a towering edifice fit to be a royal palace! Seriously, the thing is enormous, with more beautiful architecture and an aura of importance emanating from it. It’s really just too bad that the most ornate and beautiful buildings in the world are houses of religion. Why can’t mankind create such beautiful things in dedication to realistic world peace?

Anyway, we ended up finishing the evening with coffee and bread at a lovely little French café near St. Paul’s. It was a bit pricey (then again, everything here is), but lovely none-the-less, with a very charming décor and friendly staff, even late at night.

Sunday was a bit more relaxed. We took a trip to the legendary department mega-store Harrods located at Knightsbridge, only to find that we were about 37 tax brackets away from being able to buy anything there. We moved on to an area called Notting Hill, just north of Kev’s place in South Kensington. There we found a nice (but expensive, again) little pizza place for lunch, and a few more reasonably priced shops.

That pretty much concluded Sunday, and Monday was unremarkable for the most part. The only real action was a failed attempt to watch the controversial “Death of a President” program. Unfortunately, it aired on a pay channel, so we’ll have to wait until it breaks onto the free networks in a week or so. OH, and Kev found out which Member of Parliament he’ll be working for. I forget his name at the moment (apologies), but he’s a front-bencher in the Liberal Democratic party and the chair of many important committees, with a strong record for civil rights for all citizens and ecological issues. Kevin’s dream MP, basically. I’m so happy for him! He starts his internship today, so I’ll let you all know how it goes when I hear from him. Till then, thanks again for your eyes!

~Zack

P.S. I can’t figure out how to get the pictures to post to this blog, so I’ll find another way and include a link when I do! Thanks for your patience!

posted by Zachary Nicholson @ 10:34 AM