You Want Bridges, I'll Give You Bridges

My lovely, lovely, wonderful friend Joia sent me a very sheepish and polite comment on facebook last night. She said, "If you get a chance, could you photograph the Charles Bridge? I've loved stories and descriptions of it, but I only have one photo of it."

Could I take photos of the Charles Bridge? Could I?

Oh Joia...this one's for you ;)

Czech Me Out!

So after leaving Stratford-Upon-Avon, I spent the weekend in London, mostly just hanging out with friends. I won't go into a lot of detail here, but I promise that there was none of this going on:



Or this:



And I definitely, definitely wasn't doing any of this:



However, what I did definitely do was get on a plane and go here:





Czech me out!



Yesterday my brother and I got up and wandered Prague. And by wandering Prague, what I really mean is walked a million miles and saw about as much of the touristy parts of town as humanly possible. I think we covered in one day ALMOST as much as I saw in three days on my last trip here. With the castle being the exception. We did not go to the castle yet.

However, we did go through Malostranska to the Charles Bridge, and across through Old Town, to Namesti Miru, and finally to Wenceslaus Square. We saw the Clock in Old Town Square go off, which is of course, a "thing" to do in Prague.





It really wasn't much more walking than I've already been doing on this trip...but it is HOT here, and we both were pretty worn out after all of that, so we headed back to my brother's flat for a break for a few hours, and then went out for dinner and a night walk back through Old Town.

At dinner, my brother celebrated my arrival with a pork knee. Also known as a really huge slab of meat.



It was apparently like meat overload. Afterwards, he had what I choose to describe as a meat hangover.



I, on the other hand, had a rich, but wonderful meal of roast beef in a cream gravy sauce with a cranberry garnish and bohemian dumplings. Mmmm it was good.

The city at night was ridiculously gorgeous. How did I miss this on my last trip? City lights are love!

Week-long Catch-up Megapost

So...I'm sitting in a Starbucks in Stratford-Upon-Avon updating my travelblog. Because I am lame and sad and was craving a caramel frappuccino after about 6 weeks without one. And because, as sad as it is to admit it, Stratford is a lot less interesting when you're on your own. I've walked the entire length of the town about 3 times already, and I have 4 hours until my train to London. So I decided to play internet catch-up for a few hours, then grab lunch, do some last shopping, and to London I go!

The oddest thing about this though...for some reason, God only knows why...my computer currently thinks I'm in GERMANY. Yup. I had to log into blogspot by guesswork, since I apparently don't know the German word for "log in". And gmail gave me a bit of trouble too. "If you are traveling in Germany you need to log in to google mail, not gmail." Um. Okay. I'm NOT traveling in Germany, but whatever!

So yes, obviously, I've been scarce the past week. That is because my program ended, and I relocated to my buddy Tas's flat in Southampton for this past week. I would love to claim that my lack of update was due to an intensely busy schedule...but...nope. Southampton is still a quiet enough city that the entire place shuts down about 6pm. After 6pm the options are to go drinking at the pub, or to go to the movies. Neither of us particularly wanted to waste money towards either of those avenues, so I've spent most nights in for the past week. But Tas's internet connection has upload/download limitations. So I needed to save my pictures until I relocated, and so, I waited to update my blog for want of pictures.

So...shall I rewind a bit?

When we last tuned in, I had gone on a lovely Thames river cruise, and also to see Catherine Tate's play, "Under the Blue Sky". That takes us up to Thursday night, and Friday was my last full day in London. So in honor of my departure from London, I decided I needed to do something quintessentially London that day - so I went to the Changing of the Guards at Buckingham Palace. Yup...you got that right. One month in London, and I waited until my LAST DAY to do the Changing of the Guards. Actually, I'll admit, I felt a little ridiculous about that. lol.

What a weird, weird thing that was. When I was in London six years ago, I went to the Changing of the Guards twice. Once with Mel and Joyce, up against the fence, for the full experience. On that occasion, the first time, they played the Star Wars Theme and I laughed like a loon. The second time was more of a wander past during the event, I believe with an old camp friend. That time, they were playing Abba. So what did they play six years later, on my last day of my study abroad program in London? The Star Wars Theme. And I laughed like a loon. In some ways it kind of felt fitting - like something, somehow had come around full circle.

My brother has mocked me for my ability to take an obscene number of pictures of dudes in red shirts and furry hats. But what can I say? It's very flashy. Don't worry, I won't subject you to all 100+ pictures. Just a handful.







Sadly, I had to spend most of the rest of Friday packing and preparing for my journey to Southampton on Saturday. I did have one last night out with my classmates on Friday night, and my friend Roxanne and I went roaming around London at like, 11pm to try to see some last night sights before we left: we went to Piccadilly, and Trafalgar Square, and the Tower Bridge, and attempted to go to Westminster, but discovered that they shut the lights off on the Houses of the Parliament at midnight. Lame!

Oh, and I went to see the TARDIS again ;)



And Saturday began my week in Southampton!

I didn't really know what to expect, going into Southampton. I didn't research or anything. I figured Tas lives there, she knows what to do. And that was true, although there actually wasn't much. Southampton is a very quiet little city. Its claim to fame is that the Titanic sailed from Southampton. And it has a series of Roman walls that still remain from over 400 years ago. I also found one detail about Southampton very strange. It's the only port city I've ever been to, that doesn't have a recreational waterfront area. Like, you know, Fisherman's Wharf in San Francisco, Old Town in Sacramento, Pike's Place in Seattle. Nothing like that in Southampton. The waterfront is 100% industrial. Which takes a little away from the pretty, honestly. Because it WOULD be very pretty. The city is on a peninsula right at the confluence of three rivers. So there is a LOT of water. It kinda reminded me a little of Seattle in that sense - except that Seattle is much prettier with the trees and the green.

The major "thing" in Southampton is the Bargate, the old city gate that still stands in the city centre. It's the city logo, and also kind of right at the center of town.



The old Roman walls kind of stretch out through the city from the Bargate.



In some places, such as in the above picture, they've been a little modernized. In this case, it's because the wall leads to the mall. Southampton also sports the largest mall in the south of England, West Quay.

Once you get away from the city a bit, it does have a pretty skyline. Here is the belltower of Saint Mary's Church popping up from the trees.



We ventured out of Southampton for a day trip to Winchester on Monday. Again, neither of us quite knew what to expect. Tas suggested it because she heard about the Winchester Great Hall, where they have "the Round Table", which I insist on putting in quotes because I'm not convinced that Arthur was anything besides a legend. However, it is a VERY old table, probably constructed by one of the Kings of England in the 1300's, so honestly, it is a very cool thing to go to see.



They also had a very lovely garden at the Great Hall, that I rather enjoyed taking pictures in.





And out the other end of the Great Hall, this very cool sculpture was constructed in honor of the Queen's Jubilee.



Walking around through the rest of Winchester, we discovered something that we did NOT know prior to our arrival there: Winchester Cathedral, a lovely huge church in town, is the location of Jane Austen's grave. I feel like a teensy bit of a literary failure for NOT knowing that in advance of our visit.





And one of the coolest bits of Winchester, was the high street. Yes, it was all shops and restaurants and cafes, but dammit, it was pretty and cool. I wouldn't have minded a little more shopping time while we were there!



All in all, Winchester was a very pleasant surprise and well worth the visit. I highly recommend it to future travelers!

And that brings us back up to the past 24 hours! I took the train back to Stratford-upon-Avon yesterday. Last night I went to see David Tennant in Hamlet, and it was fucking amazing.



So amazing, in fact, that it deserves a post of it's own. Which will take me some time to compose. In a few hours I'm heading to London for the weekend. And then Sunday evening I'm off to Prague for the week!

Old Man River

So, I have to backtrack a bit, because I broke my own chronology-of-events rule to post about Under the Blue Sky. Which, by the way, I tried to see on Tuesday night, but Catherine's accident forced the opening preview to be canceled. So I had to return my ticket and go again on Thursday night.

So rewinding back to Wednesday. Wednesday was our recitation day in class, which means all of us preformed a Shakespeare scene in front of the class. I did Titania's speech about the little Indian boy's mother in in A Midsummer Night's Dream:

Set your heart at rest,
The fairy land buys not the child of me
His mother was a votress of my order
And in the spiced Indian air by night
Full often hath she gossiped by my side
And sat with me on Neptune's yellow sands
Marking the embarked traders on the flood
When we have laughed to see the sails concieve
And grow big bellied in the wanton wind
Which she, with pretty and with swimming gait
Following (her womb then rich with my young squire)
Would imitate and sail upon the land
To fetch me trifles and return again
As from a voyage rich with merchandise.
But she, being mortal, of that boy did die
And for her sake do I rear up the boy
And for her sake I will not part with him.

Yup. That was from memory. Me and my awesome Shakespeare memorizing, recitation skills. And those are skills to have.

After the recitation, I went to Dim Sum for lunch with some classmates - good, cheap Dim Sum in Chinatown. Really, really good. We stuffed ourselves silly. I wouldn't mind going back there.

From Dim Sum, I split off from my classmates, who were going to the National Gallery, and instead walked down to Westminster, and jumped on a 3-hour boat cruise of the Thames. Because why not? It took me from Westminster to the Tower Bridge, and then on to Greenwich, and the Thames Flood Barrier, before heading back to Westminster.

Obviously it was ridiculously and awesomely scenic, and I took a ton of pictures. For the full experience, check out my flickr account as always. But here are a few of the highlights:


Attempting creativity with myself while the boat stopped at the Tower Bridge.


Greenwich. They're attempting to compete with the Eye with their own new Ferris Wheel. I believe it just opened right around the time I got to London. It looks really similar to the Eye only much, much smaller, and about half the price.


The Thames Flood Barrier is pretty freaking impressive looking. Complete with flood walls and all sorts of stuff. The dorky flood control office employee in me found it fascinating.


The Millennium Dome is a pretty wacky structure. And apparently useless. They built it for an exhibition at the millennium and now that the millennium celebration is over, they're having trouble finding a use for it. Apparently they're trying to make it some sort of entertainment center, but there's drama. Wednesday night when I got home from my cruise I saw all sorts of news reports on it. Hmm.


The Thames really is one hell of a river. Seriously. I've spent God only knows how much time in the past two years learning about the Sacramento River thanks to my job, but the Sacramento River through downtown Sac is like a baby compared to the Thames through London. It's a monster. I think it'd be fascinating to learn about the Thames like I know about the Sacramento. For instance, the river rises and falls more drastically each day than most rivers in the world. I believe, and I could have this wrong, I heard somewhere on this trip that it rises and falls about 7 feet, 3 times a day. That's insane. And it's a VISIBLE, noticeable change in river elevation. Go into a play at the Globe, it'll be at one level. Come out, and it'll be a tremendous difference. It's all kind of fascinating. At least to me. But then again, I'm becoming a river-dork!

Dorky Doctor Who Interlude

I toyed with whether or not to post this one here, because I try to reserve my dorkiness for my LJ. But I thought it was a decent writeup on the play I saw last night, and the pictures were already formatted in, so I decided to just copy this post over here from my LJ.

So, I went to see Catherine Tate in Under the Blue Sky, at the Duke of York's Theater on the London West End last night.

I was quite excited about it. I think it's my first time actually seeing an actor/actress I like on stage before. And I had quite a good seat. Row F right smack at Center Stage. So I had a decent view, and quite a nice setup.

I knew almost nothing about this play going in. I'd heard it described as a dark comedy. I'd also heard it described as a drama. I'd heard that it was about schoolteachers private lives and possibly affairs. I'd also heard that it dealt with current events from the late 90's. So yeah, I went in not really knowing WHAT to expect.

Here's the answer: It is more of a drama than a comedy, although it certainly does have its funny moments. It's a very short play - only about an hour and a half. And it is three distinctly separate, but loosely connected stories, each about a different pair of schoolteachers. This is more of a play about people than about teachers or politics, but both of the other themes definitely are present within the stories.

The first story, starring Chris O'Dowd and Lisa Dillion, was a sort of unrequited love story where one of the teachers was obviously in love with the other, and the other was "confused". It was set entirely in a kitchen, and for some reason, I found it really entertaining that it was a working kitchen and he was cooking onstage (I could smell it!). It's also set right at the time of the Docklands IRA Bombing in 1996.

The second story, starring our lovely Catherine Tate and Dominic Rowan, was a post break-up, one-night stand story. Catherine's character found out that day that her significant other was cheating on her, and gets drunk and tries to have sex with someone else to make him jealous. There is a LOT of discussion of her sexual escapades (I wasn't exaggerating last night when I called her a drunken whore). The politics in this story comes in with sexual role playing. (Injured Soldier and his nurse).

Both of these first two stories take VERY dark twists and leave the audience in a bit of an uncomfortable place as they are definitely not happy stories. I won't reveal the twists though, just in case anyone's reading this who plans to try to see Under the Blue Sky on their Hamlet trips.

The third and final story, starring Nigel Lindsay and Francesca Annis, is the love story. Two people, of different generations, who fall in love. And this is certainly the happy story. This story just FELT different than the other two. It still has its dark bits - in particular, the politics in this one, which is a story that Francesca Annis tells of her Aunt, who was a war nurse, and the soldier she loved who died in war.

Back to Catherine...like I mentioned, she played a drunken whore. Most of her scenes took place in the bedroom. Staggering around like a drunk. And now she's on crutches after hurting her wrist and her ankle. And frankly, I found that impressive. It's hard enough to stagger around the way she was when you're healthy, let alone with a crutch trying not to reinjure herself. And I have to admit...she did some improv with her crutch and worked it into her performance, which was pretty entertaining.

In actual acting...she was very Donna-ish. A lot of the same loud-mouthed, bolshy attitude that you see in Donna. Once or twice I actually found myself thinking that this could be Donna reverted back to her pre-Doctor self, which made me a little sad, actually. But it was definitely fun to get to see Catherine doing it live.

Another interesting thing...I read a lot of articles talking about how she was supposed to bare it all in her scenes - not surprising considering that it all took place in the bedroom. A part of me is kind of curious to know how much of that changed because of the injury. She did NOT bare it all in my show. There was a bit of bodice ripping, and she was wearing quite the lovely bra under her dress. Saw a lot of chest, but no full frontal or anything like that. I suppose it's probably hard enough to work the crutch in, so they probably had her tone down her scenes a bit. A part of me would almost be curious to see it again next month, just to see if anything changes ;) Not that I'm dying to see Catherine naked or anything. Just would be curious to see how her performance morphs over time.

Anyway, I did very much enjoy it, and I'm really glad I got to see it. It made for a very cool night.

Here are a few pictures. A little blurry, but it's the best I could do limited to curtain call, I'm afraid!







On a side note, I might have mentioned that I saw the TARDIS last night as well ;) That would be a rather amusing interlude in my night. It's outside the Earl's Court Tube Station, on the Earl's Court Road side (the opposite side from the Exhibition Center). Oh, and it's not a "TARDIS" persay. It's an ACTUAL police box. Seriously.



The truly hilarious part? I walked right past it without noticing it. And then walking back past it the second time, I saw it and did a double-take. And then came back later that night with my classmates to take pictures. Bad pictures. I'll have to drag Tas or someone back there to take some more. But still pictures.




The two girls with me in the picture are Natalie and Melissa - they were the other two Doctor Who/Tennant fans prior to this trip. We thought it was fitting to get in there together.

Today, by the way, dear friends, is my last day in London. Tomorrow morning I jump a train to Southampton for the next week leading up to Hamlet. My program is over. I'm a teensy bit sad. But really, kind of ready to move on into my travels. Still, it's been a good month, and I'm SO glad I came and did this!