Wow it is easy to get behind on this. I'm forcing myself to get these posts done now or I never will. Before I can even get to the post from this weekend, I need to write about last weekend and last week. I'll try to hit just the highlights.
So last weekend we knew we wanted to stay in London for most of the weekend, but thought it might be a good opportunity for a day trip within the UK. I consulted my book that I got for Christmas, entitled "Best Day Trips From London" (or something to that effect) and we determined that the only two trips that were viable financially and timewise were Dover and Rye, both coastal cities along the Channel. The description of Rye in the book sounded particularly enticing, so we decided Friday night that we'd go on Saturday (yay spontaneity!). After issues with the train site (somehow mine and Niko's visa cards just didn't work??) we booked and headed to the small Medieval town Saturday morning.
My first thoughts were that we might have made a bad call and wasted our £33, as it was a relatively marshy area and the day was cold and grey (like 99% of days here in the UK). But the town proved to be quite charming, especially once the sun came out for a bit. Here I get to recount my own personal experience from the trip. Within the main church in town, St. Mary's, is a bell tower advertised to have the best view of Rye. Like everything else in town worth seeing, it cost an extra few pounds, but having seen enough brilliant views from towers and domes in my life before to know it'd be worth my time and money. Now there are two phobias that I have that are only activated under certain circumstances - fear of heights and tight spaces. For example, I'm not afraid of heights on roller coasters or on top of tall buildings or in a plane because I know I'm under controlled circumstances. It's only if it's up to me to get back down that I get worried. That said, I started climbing the tightest corridors you can imagine (if it's a tight squeeze for me, it's too small!!) and eventually got to the main dome with all the bells. At this point it got significantly damper (bats? I didn't look) and more cavernous, and there was nobody up there with me. The stairs became ladder-stairs (you can see what I mean in the pictures). About midway up the very last one, right in the middle of the huge cavernous space, I suddenly became very dizzyingly aware of how high I was, and how bad one missed step or weak bit of wood would be. I stood for a minute frozen to the spot and then decided I needed to go on or the whole climb and my money would be wasted. So I forced myself to the top, to a narrow walkway, which I didn't have the presence of mind to photograph, which did NOT seem stable. As I tentatively creaked my way toward the window and noticed that you really couldn't get much of a view like I thought you could, I decided it was time to turn back. In retrospect, I'm quite sure the wood would have held me, but this was not my most rational moment. Looking back down the ladder and realizing that I'd have to go down forward or backward, I panicked and realized I didn't think I could make myself do either. I had to sit up there and take deep breaths for a full minute before I could slowly make my way down one step at a time. Easily most terrifying experience of the day.
We found a relatively small castle which was nevertheless cool to explore, until we were told we needed to actually pay for entry and we had already entered. The tea room was great, and any combination of smoked salmon and cheese is awesome. The rest of the afternoon involved a lot of walking around the quaint cobbled streets of the town and taking in the very anti-London experience. We were ready to leave around 3:30 but the first bus out wasn't until 5:30. Therefore, we did what any self-respecting British person does in such a situation. HIT THE PUB! (as if we needed any excuse). The pub Niko found when he disappeared without telling us where he was going with a dead cell phone turned out to have a pretty spacious room with two big screen TVs and a pool table. After a while of sipping our Guinesses and me pretending to care about football/soccer/whocares, we ended up engaging with some locals who were playing pool or sitting next to us. One guy offered us pickled onions, which I tried to refuse but he already had it on a toothpick for me. I retract my earlier statement; that might have been the most terrifying experience of the day. I may have just found a new least favorite food.
Saturday night I went clubbing with Sarah, Ruchi, and Kate. Sarah's friend Eli was supposed to meet us at a club in Camden but was going to be a little late, so advised that we hang around a bar for a bit first. Camden=sketchy (or is it fake sketchy? I can't tell yet). After a few overpriced and crowded bars, we hit the jackpot - The World's End, which bills itself as "Probably the biggest bar in the world". It just might be. My impression of the place would have been far more favorable had the guy not charged me for the *individual ingredients* of a white russian without telling me until he already made it. This was only mildly offset by the fact that the club we went to was free admission and was pretty awesome.
Still, the most eventful moment of that night was on the walk back. Guys kept creeping on the girls I was with, which meant I had to threaten them off. Except that the one drunk guy didn't really want to be threatened away so much and tried to get me to engage with him, but I kept walking until he spun me around and wound up to knock me out before storming away. Not sure if he was just talking tough or if his friend stopped him, but we weren't hanging around to find out. Time to take Niko's advice and roll deep. 2 drunk guys vs. me isn't odds I like.
Our first walking tour on Monday was great. Our professor is both interesting and very funny, in that British way. She took us to the Temple Church, which was built by the Templars in the late 1100s, early 1200s. It was the only building in the area to remain mostly unscathed during the Blitz. The ceiling of the Round was bombed in, but easily rebuilt. The area around it still felt older and more Dickens-y than anywhere else we've been so far, so it's surprising that so much was rebuilt or partially rebuilt since 1945. They used mostly the same bricks and such and adhered to existing building structuers when possible, but yeah, not quite the same. After the tour, Brendan and I bumped into Jessie and our professor in Ye Olde Cheshire Cheese, which is the single coolest pub I've been to so far. The place feels like it hasn't changed in 200 years, with 3 levels of low lighting and stone. Both the beer and the food is reasonably priced and delicious. I've complained about how expensive food here is, but for 5.50 you can get a cottage pie that is crazy good.
That night we saw "The Woman in Black," but I won't give too much away since this is a play that you need to see if you haven't seen it. It perfectly balances the two kinds of scary that exist in a horror story: the more immediate jump-out-at-you scary, which is very present tense and no longer seems frightening hours later, as well as the more sinister and lasting creepy which comes from a twist, particularly at the end which is just so inherently spine-tingling that you can't get it out of your mind for days. Very entertaining and expertly done with very few materials and only 2 cast members.
Tuesday and Wednesday stuff probably happened.
Thursday night we ate in Chinatown for Chinese New Year. American Chinese food is very inauthentic. I've learned this from Alex, who has introduced us to many legit Chinese foods (dim sum ftw) and attempted to teach me how to use chopsticks. I think I should honestly give up on this one.
So that's it till tomorrow, I'll post about my Munich experiences.
Random thoughts and observations:
-Rye was built for hobbits. Every door is about 2 feet too small for me.
-Pub with a professor?? Awesome!
-75% of girls in London wear the exact same thing - some variety of very short skirt (often covered by their coat) with tights (not even the opaque leggings Colgate ladies prefer). May I remind you the temperature has been hovering near freezing. Classy ladies.
-Niko will talk to anyone about anything. 30 seconds in line at Sainsbury's (grocery store) and he's chatting up the lady about American driver's licenses. Incredible!
-Best London pubs so far: 1) Ye Olde Chesire Cheese, 2) Lamb and Flag, 3) Jerusalem Tavern
-Still not sure how I feel about British beer, particular the traditional "bitters" that are everywhere
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