A Return With Much To Say

We're back to the blog again after a completely justifiable absence. I call it "I was having way too many feels about London after posting so many before and needed a long break." But we're back!

So, first things first. Tea went on a Jack the Ripper Walk at one point near the beginning of the trip (but still after all the other pics I've put up.) I was really into the book I was reading at the time and not terribly interested in spending my money on a walk that was during the day, so I sat in a very nice park and read. Until I made friends with this here pigeon. Then I took an apple out of my bag, ate it, and started tearing bits off to drop for him. And then I went to meet up with Tea. (I may have bought some Smarties on the way to meet up with her. Okay. It's not may, I did buy some Smarties.)(Also, not those crap American "Smarties" you guys use to trick us poor Europeans, the real, chocolate ones that are yummy and like smaller, sweeter M&Ms.)

Then we had ourselves a nice day over at Hampton Court.

Which is huge, let me tell you. Also, my camera is perfectly fine, that haziness in the England air on an April morning. I took a few hundred pictures here, but I'm not going to toss a bunch up like before. We'll keep each visit short and sweet from here on out, and toss up a few from lots of different things so we can get you all through this blog and safely out the other side.

This was so pretty I had to toss it on here for you all to marvel at.

After class was over, a few of us stayed to walk through an exhibit that we wanted to (why pay later if we're already there?). And then there was a mad dash back to London (North Gower Street, to be exact) to watch the filming of Sherlock. Because no way in hell were we going to miss that. My camera, however, was dead by this point from the several hundred pictures I took at Hampton Court, so I got very few good pics, and those that I managed to get of the filming I'm not tossing up. But here, you guys can have this.

And this. Tea actually took this one (my camera was no longer even trying to be alive at this point.) It was actually pretty great, I was to the side and in front of her when she took this, and when he paused in front of us to talk, all I would have needed to do was lift my arm and reach less than a handful of inches to touch him. However, I'm not a creeper like that, so I kept my hands to myself. Annoying fans are annoying, after all.

Then the weekend finally came and Tea and I headed out to Covent Garden for a day of small-scale shopping and tourist-y type things. Actually, this was Sunday of that weekend. I have no idea what we did Saturday. Sat in our room doing homework/reading/watching Sherlock or some such thing, probably. Anyway, there was a guy dressed as Captain Jack Sparrow. We couldn't really resist. (These next several are all Tea's.)

Then there were some "floating, living statues" that Tea nabbed some pictures of.

And then we discovered the amazingness that is street performers. We stood for, oof, I dunno, 45 minutes or so watching this guy's performance. And we decided to tip him, because damn, if you can keep us entertained for that long, you deserve a few Pounds. Of course we needed photographic evidence that we'd watched street performers, so we got some. He let me wear one of his hats...

 ...and since Tea was already wearing her own hat, he piled all of his on her head for the picture. Ah, these guys.

Some time later we found ourselves outside of our normal space and time, lost somewhere in history but near Stonehenge. Naw, I kid, it was still this day and age. ...probably. (Also, back to my pictures.)

Then the class bundled back into the bus to go to Stourhead, which was awesome and beautiful. And already had a Norman church conveniently there when they started building.

I like pools. I really do. I can not begin to explain how badly I wanted to wade around in this, which was in a 200+ year old grotto.

And then I wanted to climb out of here and go swimming. There were, of course, rocks under the water on the other side, so that would have been dangerous, but still. Wanted to do it.

Lots of people decided to start posing in these openings, and we couldn't resist the temptation to do so also. Here's one of our more favourite classmates (I kid, we love you all. Well, some of you, anyway. Again, I kid. Maybe.)

And then me.

And then Tea. (This is also her picture - I was the one taking it, so I didn't take it with my own camera, just hers.)

After Stourhead we found ourselves at Avebury. This photo is here to help explain the fact that there is a deep ditch, and then a tall hill. Kids were running up and down it, and of course Tea and I wanted to also.

So we got permission from our instructor to do just that on a different part. It was incredibly windy, so at the top I snapped a picture of Tea's coat trying to escape. (Actually, it was much more dramatic than shown. The wind died down for just long enough to not make her look like she was about to be spirited away.)

Then it was eight days later and we were visiting Middle Temple, one of the Inns of Court. The land used to belong to the Knights Templar, and this is the original church of the Knights Templar. The round bit, that is.

Oh yeah. That one time there was the Iron Man 3 premiere that we didn't get to early enough to get in front and get autographs but Tea snapped a picture of one of the huge televisions to show you all we were there. Okay, she snapped several, but I think this one is wonderful and that's why it gets to be here.

Then me and some of the other girls had a fantastic night of (responsible) drinking and movie watching, before one of them and I met up with Tea and some of the wonderful guys from our class to go visit the Tower of London. I swear I took pictures but there are none on my camera so these are Tea's. As we were leaving, we all stopped to get pictures with one of the guards. 

And yes, you bet your asses we made sure ahead of time to find hats matching Moriarty's from Sherlock, and we absolutely went into the Crown Jewels room with those hats on. Unlike Moriarty, we did not attempt to break into anything and demand people call for Sherlock. That would have been very silly of us to do.

And what do you know, then it was our week long break and I went to visit my family in Germany for a few days and Tea went to Ireland for a few days and our other roommate went to Paris. And then we met up for a nine hour bus ride to Edinburgh. We visited the castle, of course, and this is from our first night there. It was stunning to look at at night, although this picture doesn't do it justice. Actually, I swear it was less blurred when I took it. ...Admittedly, I had had a large alcoholic drink before this, minimal sleep the night before, and it was God knows how late in the night. Oh, speaking of alcoholic drinks, we went to this freaking awesome pub/club that had a cinema in it and we did not leave there for a while. Damn do I wish they had something like it here.

The next day there was another street performer that we stopped and watched. There was a guy behind us who was being very rude, saying that the performer wouldn't be able to do what he was about to try, over and over and talking during the show in a loud, obnoxious manner. I finally got fed up not being able to pay attention to the show, so I turned around and informed him some of us wanted to watch the show and could he please be quiet. He apologized and was mostly quiet after that. I went up for my picture with the performer, which for some reason or other Tea ended up not getting, and as we were walking away the rude guy stops us and says he wants to thank me. Apparently, he was the guy who trained this performer, and he really appreciated me standing up for the performer, as it showed that I wanted to watch the show and enjoyed it. I still don't know why he was being rude, but ah well.

Oh, and before all that performer business, Tea and I decided to go climbing on some of the trails on heading up to the Edinburgh Castle.

Not all the way, mind you, because although we totally could have gotten up, there would have been no safe way back down without breaking our necks or calling in a rescue team. Both of those would have been embarrassing. 

Yes, if you were to zoom in, you would sea Tea looking up at me, probably waiting for me to break my neck coming down from my second climb. I obviously did not.

That night we went on a ghost walk, which all sorts of awesome. There was a gift shop at the end where we bought quite a few things (a book, mug, and an owl pin for me, a whip for Tea. Yes. A whip.)

On the bus back to London, I saw this out the window. Of course the guidebook never mentioned it and it was a ways from where we were, but it would have been nice to visit. Some other time, perhaps.

Then we were back in London, classes started up again, and we went to watch The Tempest at Shakespeare's Globe. It was an amazing venue, a fantastic play, and a marvelous cast.

Oh yeah, I also jumped in front of Roger Allam, who played Prospero, so Tea could get a picture with him, since he is also the voice of the incredible Douglas in the BBC's radio play Cabin Pressure. She was very happy and he was very amused.

The next day our class climbed to the top of St. Paul's Cathedral. It was breathtaking, mixed with a healthy amount of "Holy sh-potatoes we are high up!" (This is a Cathedral, after all, no cussing.)

Have a panorama view.

And me trying to get one of those fun touristy pictures that everyone does that I apparently do not do.

Oh, and a panorama of the other side.

Several of us eventually made our way to an Absinthe bar, because we couldn't very well not try it.

Cheers. Also, we all had more than the absinthe, and Tea even gave her email address to the waiter. A good time was had by all.

Then cam time to watch Peter and Alice!

And we got to get a picture with Ben Whishaw. Poor guy looked exhausted and I felt bad right after I asked for a picture.

Also saw Dame Judi Dench and got her autograph for my boyfriend. He was immensely happy. (Being back in the States and all.)

Funnily enough, we passed this the next day, on our way to class in an art gallery.

This was passed while in class, so not much to give. But there'll be more.

I went with two of the girls to the London Dungeon, and on our way back had this perfect view. It breaks my heart to look at it now.

Eventually the classd ended up in Stratford upon Avon, visiting various places associated with the wonderful William Shakespeare.

 

Including his grave.

The two of us were sharing a room at the B&B together (Tea and I figured it was time we took a break from each other, even if it was only for one night) so we hung out quite a bit.

We saw Titus Andronicus and Hamlet while we were there. Titus Andronicus was terrible and traumatizing and both my roommate and I went straight back to our B&B afterwards to do calming things; I read while she chatted with her family back in the States. The next day the class went to see more Shakespeare related things, then my roommate and I went to find food and drink and ended up having tea and a conversation in a nice tea place. As a class we then saw Hamlet, and then we were back in London! There are more pictures, but it's 11:30 and I've been working on this for four and a half hours so I'm gonna go relax now. Good bye all!