"London is Calling to the Faraway Towns"

London is the British equivalent of New York City. (Not really, but that is best way to describe it for you to get a quick idea of it in your mind.) There are lots of similarities between the two. They both have a giant park in the middle, both have super tall buildings, and both are hip and modern! But in actuality, one has lots of tourists, plays, and is a world known city... Oh wait, I guess they are similar.

London is fast, and it seems like there is always somewhere to be. The buildings are not as tall as in New York City, although they did just build a new skyscraper which is now the tallest in Europe. There is a large river, the River Thames, running through the middle of the city, giving it somewhat of a liberated feeling when near it. And the tallest ferris wheel in the world is located in London. It is called the London Eye and it lets you see all around the city.

The city has lots of random roads that jut out of other roads at strange angles, and lots of streets that appear to have the exact same buildings on them, or at least the same type of design. This leads to a feeling of being lost almost every time you turn a corner, and makes it difficult to find your way back.

Underneath the city is a large system of underground metros, called the Tube. It is very easy to navigate and the colorful map gives you a very straight forward idea of how to get from one station to the next. In the Tube it is very hot from the engine of the metros and the large crowds of people, but as a new set of cars pull up, a huge gush of cold wind blasts into your face. While aboveground it is cold and windy, and no matter of standing in groups will really change that (at least in the winter time).

London has lots of little shops, pubs, and tourist attractions. Most of the main tourist sites seem to be around Piccadilly Circus and Covent Gardens, where the pricey stores are located. But on some of the outskirts of London you can find yourself at the Harry potter Studio, Chislehurst Caves, and other interesting places.

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My roommates and I have visited London quite a few times already and have done quite a few different activities around the city. Because of this, I am not going to go into too much detail about each place we went, but I will be sure to tell you enough that you will want to visit too. (Also, this gets to be a bit long even though I glazed over some details. Just a warning.)

Our first visit to London we stopped by the Harry Potter Studios, which is located just outside of London. There was a huge dramatic build up to arriving at the studio, because the special bus that you had to take over had a video playing saying how awesome Harry Potter was and how everyone loves it there.

The build-up made me feel like I would explode when our bus finally arrived at the studios. And then we had to wait in line to get out ticket confirmed. And then we had to wait for our time slot to open. And then we had to wait in line to start the magical journey. And then we had to wait for a woman to agree to give us the children's passports. And when we finally got into the beginning of the studios, the guy who scanned our tickets said, "YOLO".

If you cannot tell, I was a bit less than excited by the time we finally sat down to watch a short clip about Harry Potter. Although at the end, the screen rolls up and the doors to Hogwarts were right behind it, so I was pretty pleased about that.

As you walk around the set you can see tons of costumes and props from the films, such as Cedric Diggory's Triwizard Tournament outfit, the Invisibility Cloak, Harry's Common Room, Snape's Classroom, etc. I was mostly excited about Hufflepuff stuff, being a Hufflepuff myself, and was a bit sad at the lack of things for my house. Although, I am not sure what all i thought there would be. There are only about four Hufflepuffs in the entire set of eight movies that have speaking parts.

However, I did get to stand on the Night Bus, and sit in the Weasley's Flying Car, both for pictures. I also got to ride a broom in front of a green screen so it looked like I was actually flying. And the best part about that was that my two roommates and i had to share a cloak and it was a Hufflepuff cloak: Score! (They hated it.)

I think I was just too excited for the Harry Potter Studios to really enjoy it to the full potential, but i still had lots of fun running around and getting my children's activity book stamped at different stations. And I got to see all the different Death Eater masks, so it was definitely worth it. Also, the sound stages are named 'J' and 'K', for obvious reasons. Because they liked to say, "JK we don't film here". No. Actually, it's because of JK Rowling. I just didn't get it until about a week later.

The large park in the middle of London is called Hyde Park. We have visited there twice, and for two very different events.

The first visit we just had some time to kill and wandered around. We ended up walking next to the river that runs through it and seeing lots of swans, geese, and birds with strange feet. We then stumbled upon a small section of the park that was donated to Queen Victoria by her husband Albert. It was very beautiful and had lots of statues of swans and angels. There were also lots of fountains with numerous pools of water. Everything was made of a white stone, and the lush green plants in the fountains stood out very well against the rock. There was also a bird walking around that was red and green. I called it the "Ghost of Christmas Pheasant", and everyone thought I was really funny for that one moment.

The second time we visited, we went with a purpose to see Hyde Park's "Winter Wonderland". It is something of a Christmas Market/Carnival that they put up. It is free to enter, but any rides you want to go on cost money.

Since it was late November and a weekday, there was almost no one visiting the park. And it was creepy. It was like had stepped into some carnival nightmare that just happened to feature Santa. The area was almost completely deserted, there were strange animatronic Santas everywhere, and it was dark from being overcast. There was also a giant tree at the park that had no leaves and looked like a Halloween tree. It would laugh and talk in a booming voice about how great Hyde Park was. It really just made me feel unsafe. There was also a pirate ride and a fun house that had a creepy Santa at the front who laughed continuously in a evil cackle.

Moral of the story, don't visit Hyde Park's Winter Wonderland, unless when a lot of people will be there and remember the buddy system.

We visited the Victoria and Albert Museum at one point. It was an interesting place, but it was near the end of the day and I think everyone was just tired. There was a Ballgown exhibit that I really wanted to see, but you had to pay to see that part, which made me sad. So, pretty much I just remember walking around wanting to leave. I did find the exhibits interesting, I was just dead tired and hungry.

We then went to the Rainforest Cafe and shared a Volcano. But the servers did not all yell out "VOLCANO!!!" and it more of a sundae than a brownie mountain (like I remembered it being). It had a brownie in it though. And there was strawberry ice cream as well as big banana and marshmallow pieces. So I was pretty happy.

Our last big trip in London was to Chislehurst Caves, which is just outside London in Kent. It is a collection of tunnels underground all of which are man made, although some were built by Druids and Romans thousands of years ago.

I had actually visited Chislehurst Caves during my first trip to England, many years ago, but thought it might be a fun trip fr my roommates to go and see also. It was only 5 pounds to get a tour around the caves, and with that kind of a steal, we had to go.

The guide showed us the parts that were inhabited during the World War II during the bombings in London. There were numbered bunks that you would be assigned to for sleeping, as well as restrooms, a help center, and a hospital. A baby girl was even born in the caves during the war.

We also got to see the section of the caves where the Druids would preform sacrifices to their gods with young virgin girls. And there was a pool of water where supposedly a woman's spirit roams as a ball of light after she was brutally murdered by her husband. There used to be a competition at the caves where if you could stay an entire night alone, next to the pool with just a candle for light then you would win a bunch of money, but no one was ever able to stay that long, supposedly due to the spirit.

Besides all of those large, exciting adventures, we also went on some smaller, but still fun and enthralling ones. They just took up less time.

We had some extra time between trains one day, and hopped over to 221B Baker Street to visit Sherlock Holmes. Sadly, he was not in, but we were allowed to look through his small gift shop where fans of the famous detective and buy geeky merchandise with his face on it. There were pens that were shaped like him, as well as ones that were shaped like syringes. There was also a police constable standing outside during our visit. He was probably waiting for Sherlock to return so he could get his assistance with a case.

At the beginning of out stay in England, we visited the Westminister Abbey Art Gallery. It was interesting to see lots of religious paintings all together, especially since they were all in different styles. We did not get to go into the actual Westminister Abbey, but I still thought it was worth noting.

As tourist, my roommates and I made a visit to Buckingham Palace to see the changing of the guard. It was on the last day of the Paraolympics though, so there was a huge crowd visiting as well. The event was mostly made up of me telling my shorter flat mates what even I could barely see.

"Oh, they are holding their guns up. And now they put them down. I think they are marching? No, wait... Maybe dancing?"
"Why would the guards be dancing?"
"I don't know! Dancing Queen is playing, maybe it's their jam."

The guard band did honestly play Dancing Queen by ABBA though. It was amazing. (You can see a picture of the statue outside Buckingham Palace at the top of this post.)

Last, and probably least, we visited the M&M store in London. It was per my request that we even went inside, but I really just wanted to see if the inside sported more British themed items or USA themed ones. They were British all the way. Their were plush red m&ms wearing guard hats and t-shirts that said "I <3 M&Ms" (with the heart being a Union Jack). It was crazy, and strange. We booked it out of there.

And if you want to hear about the candy shop I love to visit whenever I visit London, check out my other post, Sweet Tooth II: Sugar Rampage.

Until next time...

Embrace the Odd,
Caitlin

P.S.- The title is from the song "London Calling" by Stummer and Jones.

"The ships hung in the sky in much the same way that bricks don't." -Douglas Adams