Hello again, peeps. This is Tom from the expensive internet in our hostel in London. Sorry about the crappy little post last night; Joel and I were in a terrifying 3rd world internet cafe, and were a little more concerned with not getting knifed than blogging. There was a sign out front that said 'no foods or drinks are to in the premises.' That about sums it up...
It's our last night! We have to get up ridiculously early tomorrow morning and get on a train from Charing Cross Station to Dover (cue Eric Johnson), and then we're taking a Ferry across the Channel to Calais. Then we'll be taking a Eurail train from Calais to Chartres, were we will of course be seeing one of the oldest and most beautiful Gothic Cathedrals in the world, and then going back to Paris around 7pm and sleeping there.
On a little aside, Joel and I had our first non-bread/baguette-based meal for the first time in quite a while today. We went to a little hole-in-the-wall called 'The Stockpot,' and had pasta. It was delicious.
So we went back to Westminster Abbey today, and manned up and paid the 12 quid we didn't have to pay when we went the first time and took Communion. It was incredibly worth it. They have the chair every king/queen gets crowned in (the coronation chair, surprisingly). We saw the tombs of Queen Elizabeth I, Mary Queen of Scots, Oliver Cromwell (who was posthumously dug up, hanged, and decapitated before being put in his final resting place (don't piss off a Brit...)), Henry VII, Edward the Longshanks (who was 6'2"! also the bad guy in Braveheart), Edward the confessor, and many more famous monarchs. (On a separate note, our audio tour was narrated by Jeremy Irons, which was incredible. Kept thinking Scar, or the bad guy from Die Hard III, was vividly describing the 'large gilded bronze furnace' in front of me.)
What was way cooler (to me, at least) than the monarchs and royalty buried there was around in the corner, in the aptly named Poet's Corner. Geoffrey Chaucer has a large monument (I was mentally reciting the first lines of The Canterbury Tales in my head, cuz i'm a huge nerd), Charles Dickens, Gerard Manley Hopkins, Rudyard Kipling, Laurence Olivier, Handel, Charlotte/Emily Bronte, and many, many more. Shakespeare has a huge monument, though is body is in his hometown, Stratford (still awesome). It's almost over the top how much Westminster Abbey has. They also have Charles Lyell, Isaac Newton, Charles Darwin, and Michael Faraday all buried within 10 feet of each other. I'm sure I won't have to go into further detail about that, as Joel will probably be talking about Darwin for his whole post :).
Joel and I walked down the southern bank of the Thames for a while on a cool little path they had, and walked halfway down London Bridge (not to be confused with Tower Bridge, which is surprisingly way cooler). We went to Shakespeare's Globe Theatre, which was semi-disappointing. It's been extremely modernized and capitalized, which annoyed me. They also didn't have any shows, which was extremely disappointing. Next month Jude Law is playing Hamlet :(.
We also went back to Trafalgar again today (our like 3rd time there, still sweet), and went to the National Gallery. They have a surprisingly extensive and, at times, quite elite collection. Van Gogh's 'Sunflowers' is there, Monet's 'Water Lilies' and 'Bathers at La Grenouillère,' a bunch of Manet, Renoir, and Cezanne, Rembrandt's most famous self portrait, Botticelli's famous 'Venus and Mars' (SUPER awesome), and da Vinci's 'Virgin and Child.' Of course, we hadn't heard of 90% of the paintings (not out of their lack of notoriety, but out of our philistinism), but were still extremely pleasantly surprised. An english painter named John Constable especially caught our eye. It actually kind of blew Joel and I away, despite how little we may know about art. Hopefully the Louvre will continue this trend...!
Well, mesdames et messieurs, the old internet's about to explode again. Stupid timed, not-free, un-American internet. Miss you all, and my country, a lot. Hope the weather is pleasant for you guys (it's been surprisingly sunny here, all three days!), and glad the Brewers finally won one today.
-TOm
Monday, May 25, 2009
Sunday, May 24, 2009
quick post from Joel
I have 14 minutes left at the internet cafe after planning one of the more confusing portions of our trip. Getting to Dover, then taking the Ferry, and then reserving Eurail trains is an intricate and frustratingly convoluted process that is almost complete.
London has been very fun, albeit a little crazy at times. The hostel we are staying in is quite putrid, and the triple stack bunkbeds make for a hot and smelly sleeping experience. So the nights are troublesome, but the days are lovely. The weather is suprisingly non-Londonesque, with little fog and a lot of sunshine. Tom and I spent a couple hours this afternoon in Hyde Park eating lunch and enjoying the gorgeous scenery. We saw St. Pauls Cathedral, The Old Bailey, the Tower Bridge and Tower of London, and Westminster Abbey today.
I think Tom wrote about some other elements of our visit, so I'll focus on Westminster for five minutes. We attended a Sunday service there on accident almost, because we were unable to take the scheduled tours (which we are attending tomorrow). The service was religious and somewhat secular at the same time. The various rites of a standard Anglican service were practiced, but the sermon from the Canon of Westminster was particularly useful for a wider audience. His assertion that recognizing our enemies as fellow objects of God's love was his way of suggesting tolerance on a much larger scale. An athiest, agnostic, hindu, muslim, or perhaps scientologist could have related to the Canon's message.
Well, much more later, I have to go. 1 minute left on the internet!
-Joel
London has been very fun, albeit a little crazy at times. The hostel we are staying in is quite putrid, and the triple stack bunkbeds make for a hot and smelly sleeping experience. So the nights are troublesome, but the days are lovely. The weather is suprisingly non-Londonesque, with little fog and a lot of sunshine. Tom and I spent a couple hours this afternoon in Hyde Park eating lunch and enjoying the gorgeous scenery. We saw St. Pauls Cathedral, The Old Bailey, the Tower Bridge and Tower of London, and Westminster Abbey today.
I think Tom wrote about some other elements of our visit, so I'll focus on Westminster for five minutes. We attended a Sunday service there on accident almost, because we were unable to take the scheduled tours (which we are attending tomorrow). The service was religious and somewhat secular at the same time. The various rites of a standard Anglican service were practiced, but the sermon from the Canon of Westminster was particularly useful for a wider audience. His assertion that recognizing our enemies as fellow objects of God's love was his way of suggesting tolerance on a much larger scale. An athiest, agnostic, hindu, muslim, or perhaps scientologist could have related to the Canon's message.
Well, much more later, I have to go. 1 minute left on the internet!
-Joel
a short little post...
This is gonna be a little shorter guys, sorry. We just spent most of our hour in the internet cafe reserving hostels in Paris, where we'll be in two short days.
This post comes at the tail end of our second full day in London; one last day tomorrow, and then we leave early Tuesday morning for the Dover-Calais ferry, and France. Should be incredible.
We're sharing a room in a hostel with 13 other people - the bunks are literally triple-stacked. Needless to say, we don't have the most room in the world... luckily, as in Dublin, we spend most of our day out n' aboot.
We've been to the British Museum (saw the Rosetta stone and the head to a 30 foot tall Egyptian statue from 2000BC (made out of pure granite...unbelievable)), the Tower of London (less impressive than it sounds actually (there was an advertisement on it...), Westminster Abbey (we got to go to an entire Sunday service this morning, with the Canon of Westminster presiding), Parliament/Big Ben (of course), Buckingham Palace, Hyde Park, and many more.
It seems like every corner has something epic on it. We turned a corner from St. Paul's and ran into the Old Bailey, the old courthouse that V blows up in the beginning of V for Vendetta. It was just down an alley we randomly turned into, quite innocuous and unassuming, yet breathtaking.
Well folks, i've got a minute left, so I'll leave you with this. Hope to post again soon... maybe tomorrow, or maybe in Paris!
This post comes at the tail end of our second full day in London; one last day tomorrow, and then we leave early Tuesday morning for the Dover-Calais ferry, and France. Should be incredible.
We're sharing a room in a hostel with 13 other people - the bunks are literally triple-stacked. Needless to say, we don't have the most room in the world... luckily, as in Dublin, we spend most of our day out n' aboot.
We've been to the British Museum (saw the Rosetta stone and the head to a 30 foot tall Egyptian statue from 2000BC (made out of pure granite...unbelievable)), the Tower of London (less impressive than it sounds actually (there was an advertisement on it...), Westminster Abbey (we got to go to an entire Sunday service this morning, with the Canon of Westminster presiding), Parliament/Big Ben (of course), Buckingham Palace, Hyde Park, and many more.
It seems like every corner has something epic on it. We turned a corner from St. Paul's and ran into the Old Bailey, the old courthouse that V blows up in the beginning of V for Vendetta. It was just down an alley we randomly turned into, quite innocuous and unassuming, yet breathtaking.
Well folks, i've got a minute left, so I'll leave you with this. Hope to post again soon... maybe tomorrow, or maybe in Paris!
Friday, May 22, 2009
Flying to Ireland and First Day in Dublin
Several things we have learned:
The in-flight entertainment was Bride Wars, a fantastically abysmal movie. While two Brides-to-be fighting about the same marriage location is certainly a brilliant plot for a film, it fell short of my Bridge over the River Kwai expectations. Feuding best friends begin on a journey of self discovery, with laughter and tears along the way, and find that true happiness lies not in their insane pursuit of the Plaza hotel but in their friendship instead.
Everyone in Dublin is remarkably friendly, especially when they immediately peg Tom and I as lost American boys.
We have four roommates from Belgium who smell quite terrible. Showering may not be a priority for them.
The Belgians were impressive with their quadrilingual abilities, rapidly and seamlessly shifting between dialects. They were not happy with America in general, and a fair amount of their feelings were justified because of the last eight years. That being said, the Belgians think that Belgium can solve international crises without the presence of the global powers as arbiters. I assure you that Jong-Il and Ahmadinejad shudder at the thought of negotiating with Bruge. On that note, I can't tell you how happy I am to have Barack in charge, because the respect is coming back. I sense that discussing America over here will be a theme, and I am curious to dialogue with many more Europeans about global politics.
We visited St. Patricks Cathedral yesterday, and that was a remarkable experience. The largest cathedral in Ireland, it houses the body of Jonathan Swift, one of our favorite authors. Satire is without question my favorite form of literature, and Swift is perhaps the greatest. An old Irish Priest came over to Tom and I and talked for about fifteen minutes about America, Swift, and religion. He was quite fond of our country, and our long tradition of satire and dissent is certainly something Swift would respect as well. The history and aura of the building, at the risk of sounding melodramatic, could actually be felt down to the very marrow.
Tom and I will continue to keep you updated, and the best is yet to come. I hope you are all doing well and enjoying American (non Irish) weather.
-Joel
I'm off to London, Eng-e-land
Hey a'body, this is Tom from an internet cafe in Dublin. Joel and I got into Dublin at 8:30am (dublin time) on Thursday morning, after leaving Chicago O'Hare airport at 6:50pm CST. Needless to say, we were a mite jet lagged.
The flight was pretty cool - they had classical Irish folk music playing when we boarded and 'deplaned,' and of course the stewardesses' thick Irish brogues were quite endearing. Of course, we were unable to sleep more than several seconds at a time, and probably got less than 20 min cumulative.
On the positive side, our in-flight movie was 'Bride Wars,' which was a real treat. Joel's review incoming.
We are rooming with 4 Belgians, who sadly have more of a flair for multilinguality than for personal hygiene... our room's must is indescribably evil. They're actually pretty cool though, and, luckily, we spent most of our day out of the room.
We went to St. Patrick's Cathedral, which was beautiful (and the largest Cathedral in Ireland), and whet our appetites for the likes of Notre Dame and Chartres, among notable others. We got to touch Jonathan Swift's pulpit, who was Dean of the Cathedral for a period in the 18th century. He is also buried there, and first editions of 'A modest proposal' and other works were amazing to see. Europeans let you touch seemingly everything in their museums/displays, which is really fun for nerds like Joel and I.
The Guinness Brewery tour was pretty awesome too - they have a 'Gravity Bar' on the top floor which is glass-walled on all sides, and offers a breathtaking panoramic view of the city. We got a lot of great pictures of Dublin Castle, Christ Church, Trinity College, and St. Patty's from there. They also instructed us on pouring the perfect pint, which involves several steps and angles, and apparently is full of important gas exchange and other science-y things. The last step was creating a clover in the foam at the top with the tap - mine was a magnificent blob. It was quite delicious though.
Well, the internet pop-up in the corner just told me I'm running low on time (it's a Euro for an hour, which is reasonable I guess...), so I'm going to have to leave you. Next posting will be from London most likely!
Miss everybody a lot, and, of course, the US. Hope everyone's enjoying the weather in sunny Wisconsin, or wherever this message reaches you. Sadly we can't post any pictures - there'll be a great posting when we return. Miss you guys a lot, and see you in a little less than 3 weeks!
The flight was pretty cool - they had classical Irish folk music playing when we boarded and 'deplaned,' and of course the stewardesses' thick Irish brogues were quite endearing. Of course, we were unable to sleep more than several seconds at a time, and probably got less than 20 min cumulative.
On the positive side, our in-flight movie was 'Bride Wars,' which was a real treat. Joel's review incoming.
We are rooming with 4 Belgians, who sadly have more of a flair for multilinguality than for personal hygiene... our room's must is indescribably evil. They're actually pretty cool though, and, luckily, we spent most of our day out of the room.
We went to St. Patrick's Cathedral, which was beautiful (and the largest Cathedral in Ireland), and whet our appetites for the likes of Notre Dame and Chartres, among notable others. We got to touch Jonathan Swift's pulpit, who was Dean of the Cathedral for a period in the 18th century. He is also buried there, and first editions of 'A modest proposal' and other works were amazing to see. Europeans let you touch seemingly everything in their museums/displays, which is really fun for nerds like Joel and I.
The Guinness Brewery tour was pretty awesome too - they have a 'Gravity Bar' on the top floor which is glass-walled on all sides, and offers a breathtaking panoramic view of the city. We got a lot of great pictures of Dublin Castle, Christ Church, Trinity College, and St. Patty's from there. They also instructed us on pouring the perfect pint, which involves several steps and angles, and apparently is full of important gas exchange and other science-y things. The last step was creating a clover in the foam at the top with the tap - mine was a magnificent blob. It was quite delicious though.
Well, the internet pop-up in the corner just told me I'm running low on time (it's a Euro for an hour, which is reasonable I guess...), so I'm going to have to leave you. Next posting will be from London most likely!
Miss everybody a lot, and, of course, the US. Hope everyone's enjoying the weather in sunny Wisconsin, or wherever this message reaches you. Sadly we can't post any pictures - there'll be a great posting when we return. Miss you guys a lot, and see you in a little less than 3 weeks!
Wednesday, May 20, 2009
We're Off
I actually can't type for very long because we are leaving imminently. Tom and I will update everyone when we are in Ireland!
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