There we go, just needed to set the mood for myself before recounting all my British adventures. So where did we leave off since last time? Let's see, so I guess I left off Wednesday afternoon, so I'll give a quick recap of Wednesday night before talking about London. Wednesday evening we had a group of classmates over for dinner, and as Borat would say: Great success! We brewed up some bruschetta, two different types of pasta, and salad. Our Japanese classmate Massa is a chef in a restaurant here, so we anxiously awaited his learned opinion as he munched on our pasta. He very kindly proclaimed, "Buona!" But seeing as our pasta had far too many red peppers in it, I think he was only trying to be kind. We're having another dinner this week, but this time Massa's cooking.
After dinner we trouped down the street to Sam's 70s party, where they had a DJ spinning some 70s tunes. My German friend Leonie and my Swedish friend Martina and I got the night started by boogy-ing (spelling??) to Abba's "Dancing Queen," and from there on out the dancing didn't stop. A bunch of my classmates met up with us at the bar later, and I couldn't believe that the lyrics to classics such as "Disco Inferno" and "Stayin' Alive" were so world-renowned. (Hearing such classics sung in accents from places such as Brazil and Norway is not something to be missed, let me tell you.) Everyone had a good time, especially Leonie. Leonie is usually pretty quiet in class, but after a few glasses of wine at our apartment she definitely wasn't quiet. She turned into a dancing machine, and I'm pretty sure every time I saw her at Sam's she had a different drink in hand. When I saw her in class Thursday morning she said, "Yeah, the party was great! I thought it was so cool that they were handing out free drinks!"
Whoops. "Uh, Leonie," I replied, "I don't think they were handing out free drinks. You just didn't pay for any of them."
We'll have to pay Sam and Alessandro back later.
Thursday morning we had class and straight after that we hopped (not literally of course) on a train to the Pisa airport. By now, I think I've made it pretty clear that I absolutely love Italy. But there is one town that is an exception to this ardent love of mine, and that town is Pisa. I think Pisa is absolutely pointless and overrated. But the leaning tower! people say, the leaning tower of Pisa! I mean, I guess the tower is okay, but honestly, it looks exactly the same as the pictures--you could save yourself a lot of time and money by Googling pictures online. And I mean really, should we really be celebrating the fact that some architect couldn't draw a straight line on his blueprints? I think it's time we acknowledged the fact that yes, the tower is not in fact straight, and moved on to more exciting places. And really, the tourist pictures are just getting old, people. You were NOT the first to come up with the "oh-look-I'm-holding-up-the-tower-with-my-hand" pose. We had four hours in Pisa from when our train arrived to when our flight departed, and if you ask me, it was 3 hours and 55 minutes too many. (The 5 minutes I enjoyed in Pisa were spent taking pictures of the tourists doing the hokey poses.) OK, enough griping. We actually did enjoy a pretty delicious lunch at an outdoor cafe, and the sun was out so we got a bit of warmth before heading off to London, so that was nice.
As we waited in the airport, I thought I was hallucinating because I heard someone call out my name. You don't hear the name "Caity" pronounced too often in these parts, and when someone does try to pronounce it, the variations are hilarious. But I heard the proper pronunciation of my name and turned around to see Jim, a friend of mine from high school! I couldn't believe it. We hadn't seen each other since senior year, and not only were we in the EXACT same country on the EXACT same flight going to the EXACT same other country, he's also studying abroad in Florence this semester! After a good 5 minutes of incredulous exclamations of "Wow!", "I can't believe this!", or "This is crazy!", we agreed to try to meet up in London and were able to hang out together one night. I tell ya, sometimes it feels that the farther away I go, the smaller this world becomes.
We flew with a European company called Ryan Air, which is known for being cheap and on-time. But we couldn't help feeling a little nervous about any plane that could get you to another country for only 30 euro. We quickly found out that Ryan Air planes are definitely the lemons of the 747s, and the bright yellow interior of the plane and matching yellow seats go well with this theme. Ryan Air calls itself "The on-time airline," and I noticed that on both flights we arrived 20 minutes ahead of schedule. I couldn't help wondering though, if all the flight times hadn't been slightly overestimated so as to ensure that all the flights land "on time." It's actually a brilliant business strategy. Going from Sacramento to L.A.? Yes, it's going to be an 8 hour flight....oh look, we've arrived 6 and a half hours early, imagine that! It's why we call ourselves "the on-time airline!"
We got to London without a hitch, and let me tell you, London is COLD. Don't ever let me complain about the cold here in Florence again, because London is freezing! (Literally. 0 degrees celsius upon arrival.) At first it was a bit of a shock to have everything in English, but it was nice to actually be able to ask someone for directions without having to pantomime like an idiot. However, just because someone speaks English does NOT guarantee that you will be able to understand them. Brit-speak might as well be a foreign language at times. For example: "Cheerio mate, did ya come by your jack? Crikey, take a dekko at this gobsmacked grub! We should gen up on this place, I'd fancy another visit, it's ace!" I'm sorry...what?
We really had a great time in London though. There is so much to see there, and I felt like there wasn't time to do everything! I definitely want to go back again for another visit someday where I could go for at least a week. I got a good taste of London after two days, a nibble perhaps, but I want to return again someday to take a really big bite out of it. We did pretty well in two days though, considering we got off to a bit of a late start both days. (Late night pub-crawl's are not exactly conducive to early-morning sight-seeing. Now having experienced one, I understand why they're called "crawls," for that's about all you can to do after visiting 5 different London pubs in which they serve discounted drinks. Pub-"stagger"s would also be a fitting term.)
We went to the Tower of London, where we went into the torture chamber where they had all these different instruments of torture. Absolutely disgusting, some of the methods, but cool in a sick kind of way. We saw where Anne Boelyn and a bunch of other people were beheaded, but my favorite room was the room filled with the Crown Jewels. All the different crowns and swords and gold of various monarchs were on display, and I felt like Rain Man staring at all the glittering jewels. "Very sparkly. Very--very sparkly, def-definitely, very sparkly." They have guards like the ones at Buckingham palace standing in front of the building, and we got to see a changing of the guards ceremony there. I always wonder what those guys are thinking about staring straight ahead like that. Are they really concentrating on protecting the honor of their country, patriotically and vigilantly serving their Majesty, or are they making their grocery lists? "Let's see, eggs, bread, toilet paper...am I out of milk? I think I'm out of milk."
We went to a very authentic English pub for lunch, which was nice and warm inside. I ordered fish and chips and a pint, feeling incredibly British. So that was an absolutely delicious meal. We also had a great dinner of Indian food, which is fantastic in London. We also went to see Big Ben, West Minster Abbey, Buckingham Palace, and Hyde Park. I think the coolest thing I did though was ride the London Eye. The London Eye is the biggest ferris wheel in the world, and from the top you can see the entire city spread out below. Now, ferris wheels normally scare the living daylights out of me and I usually refuse to ride them. I found it interesting that my first ferris wheel flight in years would be on the largest in the world, but go big or go home, right? It was a magnificent view, and as long as I didn't get too close to the windows I wasn't completely white-knuckled the entire ride. We also went to Harrod's, which is a massive department store in which they sell anything you could ever possibly want. Clothes, books, furniture, fine jewelry, designer gowns, antiques, baby clothes, pet clothes, televisions, chandeliers, perfume, makeup, and any type of food you could possibly imagine. Lesley, if Charley needs a new Armani suit, I could pick one up for you at Harrod's. I know the one he has right now is getting a little worn. And if any of you have 20,000 pounds to burn, you could always buy a mink coat of a diamond necklace there. I definitely did more wishful thinking than shopping there, but it was a pretty cool store to explore. Overall, I had a positively splendid weekend. I know Kelly is thinking about studying abroad in London when she's in college, so I think I'm going to encourage her highly in that development. She's going to need visitors, right?
We got home from London Sunday afternoon, and it was a really nice feeling coming back to Florence. Whenever I leave Florence for a few days, upon my return it truly feels like I'm coming home, which is nice. It's nice when you're so far away from your real home to be able to feel truly comfortable where you are. Like Thoreau said, you need to be able to make your home anywhere. Sunday afternoon was relaxing, and my roommates and I siesta-ed in anticipation for the Superbowl, which didn't start here until midnight. We went to one of the American bars here to watch it, so it was really fun. While we were watching the game, everyone wanted to know who everyone else was rooting for. I remained neutral, for the only one I was really rooting for was Springsteen, who was the man I came to see. After two seemingly endless quarters, I was stoked when it was finally time for the halftime show. He made a FANTASTIC performance, as always. The twelve-minute set couldn't really compare to his marathon 3-hour concerts, but I thought he put together a great setlist for the limited time he had. I was definitely the most enthusiastic dancer and fan in that bar, which proved to be slightly embarrassing for my roommates.
So that's about all there is to tell for now! It was a bit of a challenge getting up for class this morning considering we didn't wind down from the Superbowl activities til about 5 a.m. this morning, but I made it through. Now I'm just enjoying a rainy afternoon and I'm about to go watch an Italian movie. Every Monday one of my friends from Syracuse has a film class in which they show Italian movies, so I like to go with her and get a taste of the cinema italiana. Last week was the very moving and very depressing movie The Bicycle Thieves, so this week we're watching the comedy Villa Rossa, which will hopefully be a bit more uplifting. So thus I really must dash, but don't worry sports fans, new updates will be coming soon to a computer near you!
Auguri e cent'anni,
Caity
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