Up the Escalator - 90 feet

A friend and I stopped at Angel Station today. Apparently Angel has the longest escalator in Western Europe. It was the longest escalator ride of my life. It has a vertical rise of 90 feet and a length of 197 feet. It was pretty crazy.

Yes, we rode up it, down it, up it, and down it again before getting back on the tube having never actually exited the station. The security guards probably thought we were insane when we took the escalator for a second time.

Just Some Photos

I went to the Houses of Parliament one night and got some really great shots.

A Series of Stressful Events

So our start to France was not exactly ideal. We ordered tickets online for the Stansted Express train from Liverpool Street station to the airport, and we were taking the tube to Liverpool Street. We left plenty of time - or so we thought.

Only one line of the underground was open (since it was Easter), and it had major delays because a train up the line had problems, so we sat at the station for 10 minutes. It finally went to the next station, but there was still going to be delays for who knows how long. We just walked the half hour to Liverpool. So the 10 minute underground trip took about an hour.

We figured we still had time because the train only takes a half hour, but the tracks were closed for maintenance. We got on a bus. All of us were freaking out that we'd miss our flight but thought security and stuff wouldn't be bad, so we were going to be fine.

Turns out our bag was over the weight limit (as much as I love RyanAir, I hated it twice as much in this moment), so we had to repack it. Twice. And in the confusion, a corkscrew ended up in Mona's hand luggage. So her bag had to be searched and repacked after security.

But no worries; we made it to Tours.

I absolutely love France. Even though every thing was shut down for Easter, the city we stayed in was beautiful. Tours is in central France, so not on a coast, but a river splits the city. We mainly wandered around the main plaza for a while on our first day.

Three weeks in . . .

So, after three weeks in London, I decided to start a blog about my time here. It's much easier than writing a thousand different e-mails and having to e-mail photos and stuff.

Anyway, so far, it has been fantastic to live here. Campus is in the East End of London, so it's a fun, eclectic neighborhood - kinda arty, and no, not like Urbana. There's this cool art gallery about 5 minutes down the road that has shown artists like Jackson Pollock, Mark Rothko, and Picasso - you don't know me very well if you don't understand my love of almost all Pollock works. When I went, there was an exhibition about individual and group identity that was pretty interesting. The cool thing is, they get a lot of up-and-coming artists and local London artists. Another cool thing is almost all of the museums are free, so I've already been to the Tate Modern, Tate Britain, National Galleries, British Museum, and there are a whole lot more on my list to see.

Another place that I have been frequenting is St. Paul's Cathedral.

We had free passes to go in and walk around and decided to climb to the top - 530 steps later, I was out of breath, but the view was amazing.




I also went down into the crypt, where I decided that it would be weird to be buried in the crypt of a cathedral. While I'm not religious, a friend and I did attend a couple Evensongs at St. Paul's, which was . . . interesting, to say the least. The singing was cool, but the readings were kind of intense. Also the first night, the organ solo at the ended sounded like something right out of a Tim Burton movie or a slasher movie.

Classes so far have been cool. For my architecture class, we go on little outings every other week. Last week we went to the Houses of Parliament, Westminster Abbey, and the Foreign Office.

It's been nice on the weekends to go visit the markets. There are a
few big name markets near us that every Londoner knows to frequent - Brick Lane, Petticoat Lane, and Spitalfield. I think in the coming weeks we are going to go to West London and try out Nottinghill and also search for a good secondhand bookshop.

Luckily we found a bookstore that was closing and had mega sales - 3 books for 4.99 pounds. I ended up getting some good classics - Crime and Punishment, Nicholas Nickleby, and Madame Bovary. I know, pretty deep stuff. But I had to get at least one Dickens novel because I am visiting the Dickens' house in London for one of my classes, and I feel the need to read something of his while I'm there, so Nicholas Nickleby it is.

I've already got a couple trips planned with one of my flatmates - Belfast in Northern Ireland, and then Dover and Canterbury.

Just yesterday, we watched To Kill a Mockingbird, the pastor does a Monday night free movie screening. Anyway, that was the second time I've seen it, and while I've decided that Gregory Peck definitely only belongs in black and white, I absolutely love that movie. Don't get me wrong the book is better, but I think I'll have to purchase that movie when I get home, and reread the book, again, for the fourth or fifth time.

Much more is on the agenda for the coming days and weeks, so stay tuned.