(photos: tower bridge overpass, it was raining, you see; me on the pedestrian overpass of the tower bridge (jenna took it from the other one); the river thames; the gherkin, the tower, and other buildings from the overpass; jenna drowning her sorrows in sugar cubes and tea; me with tea…I refused to use the flash in any tea photos; the super delicious tray of greatness; cheers to cucumber sandwiches! ; jenna and i in the pub, her in my specs and me in my roommates ridiculous sunglasses)
Jenna’s flight got into Stanstead airport at 23:40, where she got on a bus to Liverpool station with her friend. There they took a cab, apparently one they thought their friend had ordered, but in fact it was an unregistered man in a VW. Right. So they got pulled over by the cops, who asked questions about said driver, who was making all sorts of illegal turns and such. Then the cops told the girls not to worry…and promptly drove away. Leaving Jenna and her friend with the fake cabbie. Well done, constable, well done. So Jenna calls me from the corner of the street and we manage to find one other with a very dramatic reunion. Since I live literally in a park, apparently the gates close at a certain hour and I do not know if there is anyway for vehicles to get in. This is what caused the mass confusion. But if it’s the price to pay for living in a park, I’m ok with it.
We finally get back and into the building at approximately 3 AM. We talk for a bit before crashing around 4:30ish, only to get up around 10 and head off into the rain. Yes that’s right, rain. London finally couldn’t hold the rain any longer despite the fact that it usually listens to my wishes, and so it poured the entire afternoon. This was slightly inconvenient since we decided to go to the Tower Bridge exhibition, which required a bit of outdoor walking.
The exhibition was very interesting, and slightly mind boggling since I have never quite understood how one builds and works bridges. I still don’t know, but it makes a bit more sense now that I have watched videos on it and seen the engines, water heaters and hydrolic pumps. Part of the tour was also to take a look at some other possible designs for tower bridge, and let me tell you, some people had some pretty terrible ideas. I’d say this man wins hands down, despite the fact that the people wouldn’t accept it at first. The two tower secitions do not actually bear weight, and are there mainly for aesthetics –to blend in with the tower of London. The parts of the bridge that open are weighted so that the however many tonnes of stone move about a bit more easily. Also, the bridge has a pedestrian overpass so when the bridge is raised for a prolonged amount of time, pedestrians can still cross the river. Years ago, this was closed off to the general public due to lack of use and but it remains part of the tour. You can get a lovely view of the River Thames from up there, so of course, jenna and I took many photos.
On the way out , the man at the till asked us if we wanted to look at the picture they had taken of us on the way in ( much like the way they take your photo on a ride at an amusement park, and once you get to the end , you can look at it and decide whether or not to buy it) . However, unlike an amusement park ride, we took 2 hours, not 20 seconds, to get to the end of the attraction, and they must have just deleted our photo to put someone elses there. So when this European man asked us for the piece of paper that says our file number, he looks it up on the computer and goes “ oh sorry, 13 s not working”. No matter that jenna saw the picture of two elderly people who stole our spot in 13. He definitely didn’t think that lie through…but no worries..we weren’t going to buy it anyway. So we just laughed. Then he asked where we were from. We said the states, then more specifically, new jersey…and he proceeded to ask us if that was near Kentucky. We said no. He then mentioned how he was reading something about Kentucky and it mentioned that they had bluegrass there. He seemed very interested in this bluegrass. I didn’t understand him half the time because I think I have a hearing problem. We got a bit confused and eventually left, only to figure out what he was talking about in the gift shop. Jenna suggested we perhaps go back and explain to him that bluegrass is a type of music, and that all of the grass in Kentucky is not, in fact, blue; but once we left we couldn’t get back in. Oh well…he’ll find out about it when he asks the next tourists about this colorful foliage. Nice guy though.
The rain had stopped the entire time we were inside, but the moment we stepped out, it began to pour. And it does not usually pour in London; rather it is a pleasant little shower here and there. I was already quite soaked, despite the macintosh and brolly (raincoat and umbrella), but of course, this is not enough; for we had decided to go get afternoon tea at the orangery, and what good is tea if you don’t look fully bedraggled. So a bus promptly sped by and splashed some gutter water directly onto me, thus remedying the situation. Smells like flowers. I did some sort of strange “ew ew this is unpleasant” dance, as only a Stacey molski can - and would - do, and all was better.
We sloshed onto the tubes , looking forward to our clotted cream, scones, and hot cuppa at the orangery in Kensington gardens only to arrive and find it was closed for some sort of fancy fashion week event. Bugger.
At this point we were starving, so we remembered a five star hotel we had passed on the way into the park and decided to try that. The doormen gladly let us in ( it must have been my sweet street water perfume) and we sat down in one of the more intimidating rooms into which I have been admitted. We perched on some floral couches and looked around at the people in the room, all of whom seemed to be French. Quoi? A waiter came up right away to ask if he could start us off with tea before we even looked at the tea menu. So we said we hadn’t decided yet, and he decided to leave and not return for a good 45 minutes. Right. Perhaps we insulted him? We did eventually order our tea ( I got Lemon Peel and Jenna got Chocolate Heart) and we tried to get across the fact that we required the afternoon tea complete with finger sandwiches, scones, and pastries. The waiter left, and we were unsure if we’d ever see him again, so we did what anyone would do in this sort of situation: eat many, many sugarcubes. Jenna was most definitely adversely affected by this and she almost did something drastic like take a scone off of a tray that was put in the center of the room merely to taunt hungry visitors. I said “No jenna! No! you mustn’t! it isn’t proper!” So she didn’t. I then decided that if I were to leave and go to the loo, I mean “cloakroom”- explain that one to me- that the food would promptly arrive. And so it did.
We dug into the scones, slathering on clotted cream and assorted jams. Never had food been so delicious. At the end I hear jenna say “ Would it be improper to lick my knife? Because I just did.” We are not upper class folk. But surprisingly, we did not attract much attention from the frenchies in the room. This is because one can be as strange as one wants as long as one does so in a quiet, seemingly reserved manner. Trust me, for this is the only way I have been able to be accepted in social situations.
After the scones, we moved onto the finger sandwiches: cucumber and cream cheese, tomato and cheese, ham and mayo, salmon, and egg salad (the last two I did not eat due to my aversion to fish, eggs, and mayonaise). I started to feel a bit full at this point, which could only mean one thing: time to gorge mysef on pastries. The strawberry tart,to start, was my favorite part. Then we moved onto the cheesecake, fancy cupcake, and éclair. Wow.
I am fairly certain I had my first heart attack around the time of the fancy cupcake, and the second when I tried to stand up when we were done.
We paid our absurd fee of 25 pounds each when we had finished…probably three hours after we had arrived due to the super slow service, and the doormen let us out, just as gladly as he had let us in.
After this we decided to take it easy and just stop in at pub near my school, called the Globe, to which I had never been. It is always quite busy, with a bunch of people hanging out in the street…but they must be rich. I paid 6.50 pounds for a drink. That’s about 12 dollars to you americans. At least it was a double. This is why I refuse to imbibe here anymore, I have many other things I would rather do with my money. It was still a good time though, laughs were had by all.We called it a fairly early night, and went to sleep so that we could wake up in time for the school sponsored trip to warwick castle and Stratford upon avon on Saturday.
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