So I slept in Zone 1 (Central London) last night. But I will get to that later.
Weekend is happening. But more than that! Thursday I went to the Courtauld Gallery here in London, which is this small gallery that is part of a university here. They have an extremely impressive collection, which includes (among others) a copy of Manet's "Le Déjeuner sur l'herbe" that he did himself, "A Bar at the Folies-Bergère" (also by Manet), Degas' Dancers, and Van Gogh's "Self-Portrait with Bandaged Ear." Whilst admiring the van Goghs, I happened to bump into this kid Roger from first semester of freshman year of college. I hadn't seen him or spoken to him since then, so I totally freaked out and ran away. I realized I had to say something to him, so I approached him and he acted as if it was no big deal. Which was totally wrong, we were on separate continents. Anyways, After that museum we had our first lecture for Modern Art in London which I did find very interesting.
Friday I had nothing to do, so I attempted to get tickets to see a performance of Anton Chekhov's "The Cherry Orchard," as a Russian theatre company had come to London to perform it for two nights only. I called, and unfortunately both nights were sold out. While on the phone, however, I ran out of minutes and was forced to "top up my mobile," so I called the company and gave them my credit card information to purchase 30 pounds worth of phone usage. However, despite knowing that I was studying in London, my bank considered that suspicious usage and put my card on hold. I tried to contact the company, but they wouldn't accept my information on the website and I couldn't very well call them, so I sent my mother an email and went into London to buy some books for classes and drop my computer off at the Apple Store. I got to London relatively late (3pm) and they said they didn't expect to be able to fix my computer that day, which was expected. I then headed over to the book shop. After gathering up all of my books (spending about half an hour in the process), I went to checkout to have my card declined. I then frantically called my mom to get her to contact Bank of America, but she was unreachable and I was stuck with my useless card and 10pounds in my pocket. So I then went to a pub and got a pie and sat there for a while, watching the crazy protests in Egypt on the television. I then got on the tube and headed back to Harrow. On the last train I had to ride, I got a call from the Apple Store saying that they had fixed my computer and I could pick it up whenever. I could have taken the tube back (it would have taken like fifteen minutes), but my card wasn't working so I wouldn't be able to pay for it, so I didn't have my computer for that night somewhat unnecessarily, which was frustrating.
I decided that when heading to the Apple Store the next day I would see as much of London as possible, so I decided to go to Hyde Park and picked some shops and things out of my travel guide that seemed interesting. So I headed out around 11, making my first stop at Hyde Park. Hyde Park seemed very beautiful, except 20 degree weather in January under a gray sky is probably not the best time to see it. I took some nice pictures there, which will be posted up ASAP. They have a lake there that you are allowed to boat in, for the rather reasonable price of 9pounds per hour, so I will be spending a lot of time there come Spring. I stopped in this cute little café right off of the water and got a mocha and a raspberry muffin, but only after having to battle my way through this huge barrage of pigeons that were flying away from the edge of the lake.
After that I headed to this art book store, Taschen, which I suspect is a chain where I picked up a bunch of reasonably priced art books. I was able to purchase several smaller ones, compared to the huge monolithic volumes usually sold on art, which saved me a considerable amount of money. I then headed to this cute little independent bookstore to grab some other books I needed for class. Afterward, I realized I was right near the Saatchi Gallery so I stopped in there and gave it a quick look away. I didn't stay for too long because we are going there in my Modern Art in London class so I wanted to save most of it for there. I took some pictures of some of the better works though, which, as before, will be online ASAP. I also stopped by the book store from the day before and books I was forced to leave there the day before.
I then found my way to this independent record store with the highly promising name Sister Ray's (after the Velvet Underground song). In there, I found this incredible discovery of their selection of used single's by the Smiths, which in addition to, obviously, sounding great have awesome covers of duotone images of 60s celebrities. I found two to get, one being Shakespeare's Sister (a reference to Virginia Woolf on top of it) which has a 60s British television star on it, and another one which I forget because they didn't have the actual ep in the back. I also found a small poster for the Fall, and managed to get both the Shakespeare's Sister ep and the poster for 4.99 (both featured at the bottom).
I was then totally exhausted after my long day and carrying about thirty pounds of books around (one of the straps for the larger bag broke as well) plus an umbrella, so I decided to start plotting out my evening. I wanted to have a night out, so I was going to start by going to this wine bar, Gordon's, and having some wine and dinner there. I would then make my way to this apparently incredibly friendly pub, the Golden Eagle, where there is a piano and lots of boozy group singing, which seemed incredibly appealing. Apparently "Consider Yourself" from Oliver! makes its way into the playlist occasionally, which would make me feel very welcomed. So I stopped at the Apple Store and picked up my computer beforehand, adding to the weight I had to carry. However, they fixed the disc drive and replaced the casing of my computer (it was a little cracked and dirty as hell and is now crisp and clean) for free! Apparently my computer is still under warranty, whereas it would have cost 84pounds before, roughly $140.
I got to Gordon's expecting to have a relatively quiet time with my wine and dinner, but the place was totally packed. I was forced to leave my bags outside with a friendly looking group of people - probably not the best idea but I ran inside really quickly and they seemed trustworthy. After getting to the bar and placing my order I realized I had no cash and there was a 10pound minimum for credit cards, so I had to run out to an ATM down the street. I then came back and got my Chilean Cabernet Sauvignon and ordered a steak sandwich, both of which were great. This is where my night got vastly different from expectations. I was sitting at this table outside (under heatlamps) next to these two girls who looked to be about 25-27. While sitting there eating and drinking, I noticed that they seemed to be talking about me (they were very close so it wasn't hard for me to figure that out). So I just like, kept sitting there, at which point they said excuse me and asked if I would like to join them. So I moved about a foot over and sat at their table, at which time we all introduced ourselves, their names being Kitty and Alex. So we sat talking, mostly about American television and what it is like being an American in London, and ended up having a pretty pleasant time actually. It turned out that Alex had just turned 25, and I am assuming Kitty is around the same age as they were friends from school. I don't think they expected me to be five years younger than them, as I look pretty old, so I tried to keep the conversation away from revealing that embarrassing fact. They had a cask of Amontillado inside (as in the Edgar Allan Poe story), so I also got a glass of that. It was alright. I think it is a type of Sherry. I wouldn't let myself be entombed in a madman's wine cellar over it though.
Kitty and Alex were going to this Belgian restaurant and invited me along with them, so I accepted and we set off, me still carrying my massive bag collection, which was incredibly unwieldy. We got to the restaurant and there was about a forty minute wait, so we went to a very old bar down the street where I got some sort of IPA. Kitty refused to allow me to pay for myself, which was kind-of embarrassing. On the other side, they were like adults with careers so, whatever. After discussing college life in America and frat parties, we headed over to the restaurant. We went down into this basement, which actually did have the feeling of a Belgian monastery, helped by the fact that the waiters had robe like uniforms on. They specialized in mussels (one of my favorite foods), so we each ordered a pot of mussels and got a bottle of wine for the table. We ate and drank, enjoying the company and the atmosphere. The food and the wine was incredibly good, and afterward I ordered myself a Belgian beer brewed in typical monastery style, apparently. The beer was really good. We then discussed sharks, shark week, and Steven Spielberg movies (perhaps you can see the line of thought there).
So we finished up the meal and they asked me for my plan for the rest of the evening, having no real plan, I told them that and they asked if I would like to go to a club or something with them. I accepted and we set off to find a club. We didn't find anything for a while, so we stopped in this one bar that Kitty knew. Apparently, the wizened old bartender, Tom (BOOM great reference), told Kitty that he thought girls from Wingham (some random coal mining town in England) are beautiful, or something, and it turns out that Alex was from Wingham, so they told Tom that, and he freaked out, and gave Alex her drink for free and invited her back behind the bar to take a picture with them. So I got myself a Manhattan and we talked over different things, including fears of flying, the socioeconomic state of New York, and a bunch of other topics. I then told them I had to be getting back on the tube, as it was 11:30 and I was probably already going to miss the Metropolitan line back to Harrow, because the tubes stop running at the most ridiculously early time they could think of (it is around 12:05 usually). However, they told me they would stay out till 7 with me (when the tubes resume running) or I could sleep on the couch at Kitty's flat. So I accepted the offer and we went out to find a club. We passed many up because they didn't want to listen to house music, and finally found our way to this club where the bouncer said they were playing 60s and 70s-esque music inside, so we went inside. It turned out it seemed as though the club was for rich trophy wives and their husbands to go to, so we ended up inside with a bunch of 50 year old woman fighting desperately against their aging. We danced in their for about two hours (the club required I check my bags which was an incredibly welcome relief) and we all had a few drinks and had a very good time. Around three the bar was closing down so we had to leave, so we stumbled out and make a long trip to a bus station to take the bus back to Kitty's flat. We waited at the stop and discussed Prince William and Kate Middleton's upcoming wedding, which I personally can't wait for. I saw a shirt that said William <3 (real heart) Kate, which I might get. Because I'm stupid. Even if I don't get the shirt, I'm definitely going to go to Westminster Abbey (well, stand far away from Westminster Abbey) and watch the procession and see the wedding. Maybe I'll even get to catch a glimpse of Elizabeth!!! !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
So we got back to Kitty's flat and I was tired as hell after my extremely long day and really wanted to go to sleep, but the couch was in Kitty's kitchen and the two of them were talking. So I just sat there fighting off sleep, not really contributing much to the conversation. After a while the two of them went off to bed, me telling them I probably wouldn't see them again as I was going to get up at 7 and catch the tube. Kitty said she would get up then to let me out. So I passed out for like 2 hours and woke up from my cell phone alarm, around when Kitty actually came in to see me out. So I headed for the tube, carrying my huge haul, and got back around 8. I then took a nap and woke up and wrote this. I'm really hungry, but I don't have any groceries, so I might go into London to go see Regent's Park and get some food while I am there. Hope this was informative and entertaining! Here are the pictures of the Smiths ep and the Fall poster.
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