Andy in The Netherlands: Day 48 - 53 - Cheers, Mate: London Calling

Long overdue recap of the past week, including a wonderful trip to London. Let's get right to it. Pictures at the end.

Day 48 - The Night Bus

James and I boarded a bus bound for London from Den Haag around 8:30, and ended up each getting our own row, which was nice. We were sitting next to an American couple from Arizona in Europe for two months visiting their Parisian son, and the husband was a bit unprepared for what a 10-hour overnight international bus ride entails. It's impossible to sleep on those buses, with some annoying stops in various cities along the way, and the lack of a comfortable position for someone who's 6 foot 4. We stopped at Calais, France to board a ferry to Dover, England, and had to go through UK border control (I got a new passport stamp!). We then waited two hours for the ferry to show up, and the trip took another hour and a half. The boat had restaurants and video games and whatnot, but I mostly tried to fall asleep (unsuccessfully). Once we landed in Dover I got a neat peak at the cliffs Dover is famous for, and we barreled through the night towards London. I didn't get much sleep, but I did make good progress in Game Change, and I got to listen to more new music (R.E.M., The Pains of Being Pure at Heart, Bright Eyes, The Decemberists, The Joy Formidable). As we arrived in London we got an early morning glimpse at Parliament and Big Ben, which was cool. What was not cool was the insane London police checkpoint we had to go through.

I can't imagine that people traveling on international trains have to go through what we went through, it was rather upsetting to see how profiled some of the bus' riders were. There were perhaps 30 cops set up to process our arrival - not with passports, but videotaping our faces and checking our bags. The police dog tipped on my bag, and I was lead into a small tent, knowing I had nothing in my bag for a dog to react to. The police who searched my bag were nice, if not funny (upon finding my Arsenal shirt - "Uh oh, we've got an Arsenal shirt!" "Rough three weeks, eh mate? If you want to root for a proper North London team, [root for Tottenham].") and I survived the process.

Day 49 - London Town

Upon our 7 AM arrival, James and I walked to Buckingham Palace, which was nearby our coach station. The gate was more impressive than the building, but it was cool to be there when there weren't any other tourists around. We walked alongside Hyde Park on the way to our hostel, which was located in a really nice South Kensington neighborhood. We dropped off our luggage and headed out to a somewhat swanky spot to get a full English breakfast, which was absolutely delicious. Beans and toast, sausage, bacon, eggs, and tomato washed down with grapefruit juice was a delight, and a great way to start the morning.

From there we walked to the Natural History Museum, which was housed in a stunning building. Most of the big museums in London are free, which is tremendous. The collections inside were a bit underwhelming, but maybe it was because I was exhausted. One interesting thing was a new policy they posted in their exhibits of different animals that they no longer collected animal pelts out of conservation concerns. Afterwards we walked to the Victoria and Albert Museum, and though I wasn't much interested in seeing any art, the floor dedicated to architecture was really cool. The Science Museum was right next door, so we popped over there too, checking out neat exhibits on space travel, the atmosphere, and human psychology.

After the museums we popped over to Harrod's, which was fairly ridiculous. Everything was lavish and eye-poppingly expensive, but it was cool to walk around the famed department store. There were even puppies! I considered getting Weezer a rhinestone collar, but mercifully decided against it. After we tired of Harrod's we walked back to the hostel, checked in, and moved into our nice 9-bed dorm (with tons of natural light!) that would house only the two of us for our two nights there. I caught up a bit on the Michigan sports I was following, and we set out on the Tube for Westminster.

Parliament is a stunningly beautiful building. It's so regal, sophisticated, and imposing standing along the Thames. Big Ben, meanwhile, was underwhelming - nice, but surprisingly short. There were really great views from the bridge of the Thames and the sights, including the London Eye, which we decided wasn't worth the price. Instead, after stumbling upon a bizarre photoshoot playing out on the bridge, got some Chinese buffet to fill our hungry stomachs on the cheap. Afterwards we walked along the lively promenade along the river, before crossing back over and heading to Trafalgar Square, which was full with a giant Irish St. Patrick's Day gathering. We walked back down Whitehall Lane, past 10 Downing Street and its 10 armed soldiers guarding the front gate, and back to Westminster Abbey. We were lucky enough to go inside for free for a Sunday service, which was cool to experience in such a famed church.

Afterwards, I had my first reunion in Europe! We met Chris Kudialis, of WCBN fame, at a UM alumni bar at Victoria Station for a pint, which was really great. Chris is in Madrid for the semester, and it was nice to see a familiar face. We caught up for a while, talked about WCBN, and watched some football before going our separate ways. James and I hiked back to our hostel and promptly cratered in our beds (I was so tired I didn't stay up to follow Michigan's NCAA tournament fate!).

Day 50 - MOAR LONDON

I woke up to Michigan being an 8 seed, which floored me. After a breakfast of cocoa pebbles and toast, we headed to the Imperial War Museum, which was really impressive. Not only do they have lots of WWI and WWII military equipment, but they also have comprehensive exhibits detailing both world wars, all the post-WWII conflict around the globe, British spy history, and genocide. One particularly cool part was a video on Vietnam that was playing with Jimi's Star Spangled Banner in the background - very political of you, England.

After 2.5 hours at the IWM, we headed to the bustling shopping district of Oxford Street, which I thought was more impressive than the Champs d'Elysees. We ended up in trendy Covent Garden, spotting fixies everywhere and checking out the KidRobot store James was excited about. We got another Chinese buffet lunch (this one underwhelming) and headed to St. Paul's Cathedral, which was cool, but ultimately not all that interesting from the outside. We walked from there over Millennium Bridge, which I was fairly sure the Death Eaters had destroyed, and to the very cool Tate Modern. I was floored by the exhibit in the cavernous main hall of 100 million (100 million!) porcelain sunflower seeds, which required an entire Chinese village of 1600 people to make by hand. We breezed through the other collections, which were far too hip for us (it seems half of London is far too hip for us). We briefly checked out the Globe Theatre and then took a long walk along the river to Tower Bridge and the Tower of London. It was nice to sit along the river and relax for a bit - pretty surreal that that was how I'm spending my semester while my friends back home get hit with assignment after assignment.

We rode the Underground back to our neighborhood, and this should be said about the Tube - while expensive, it's impressively clean, and completely free of graffiti and homeless people. Also, there were posters for the new Strokes record and Grammy-winning Arcade Fire record. Only in London...

We ate dinner at a pub in our neighborhood, and I did the traditional combo of Steak and Ale pie and more ale, which was really delicious. When we got home I discovered that the notebook I'd left in my room to mark my bed had been mistakenly thrown away, which was annoying because I had a list of 29 classes to choose from for next semester painstakingly crafted inside. Once again, we basically fell right to sleep.

Day 51 - The Arsenal!

After breakfast, we headed to King's Cross station for suuuuper touristy pictures at Platform 9 3/4, but it was worth it. Also, I saw Editors drummer Ed Lay. That was cool. "Celebrity" sighting count up to three (Michel Gondry, Crispin Glover). Afterwards we headed to Islington and the home of Arsenal Football Club, Emirates Stadium. The place was huge and very impressive, and we bought 2-for-1 tour tickets before I convinced myself that buying an Arsenal keeper shirt on sale was a good idea. The tour itself was very neat, and I got cool views of the stadium from the director's box and pitch level. We got to walk around the locker room and take pictures in the players' lockers, which was cool. Overall I was very impressed, and it would be awesome to make it back there for a game sometime in my life.

After Arsenal, we made it to Abbey Road, crossed the famous crosswalk, and left some inscriptions in front of the famous recording studio. The winner was whoever posted Charlie Sheen stencil graffiti. Abbey Road was neat, but there's not a whole lot to do there, so we headed to Soho. Soho was very trendy, with lots of cool stores, and I had a delicious lunch of Moroccan meatballs, rice, pita, and hummus at a nice restaurant called Leon. We washed down our Leon with warm chocolate cookies and mint chocolate chip ice cream, which might be the greatest thing ever devised. Afterwards we stumbled upon a Johnny Cupcakes store, and I found the cool London sticker I was searching for for my laptop. Tired, we finally made our way back to Victoria coach station, and eventually boarded our bus headed back to the Netherlands.

Day 52 - Busses and Sleep

Once again, no sleeping on the bus, but the ferry ride was significantly smoother this time around, and we made it back to Den Haag without incident. After doing a bit of internet catching up, I fell asleep and didn't wake up until well into the afternoon, at which point I did a bit of grocery shopping before returning home for more general laziness, interneting, and sleep. I spent a ridiculous amount of time Skyping with Joey about Rebecca Black and the Ark Music family, which is too great.

Day 53 - St. Patrick's Day

Woke up in time for class, and after an uninspiring 2.5 hours, went with James back to Hugo for the first time. After moar Youtubing and some Eazie stir fry (which was delicious) I packed my things and headed home to blog. It only took a full hour!

St. Patrick's Day party at Karen and Dani's tonight should be a blast. More later.

For now, here are some pictures from London.