London, again

It seems like my sojourn in Europe is coming close to an end. I am going home on Monday, unless the airport strikes go into effect or it snows… but all things considered I should be home just after dinner on Monday night. These past few weeks have been both ends of the spectrum; from crazy and hectic to doing nothing all day. The pre Christmas hustle and bustle of Oxford Street was a mix of magic and madness. Lights lined the streets and the shops were all decorated to appease the hungry hoards. We braved the city once or twice before Christmas but instead found ourselves enjoying the quiet haven of the little house in Barking.

Putting up the Christmas tree was a comedy as well. It somehow seemed to be custom to raise the tree, in its white plastic netting, before cutting the netting free as well as trimming the bit off the top. Oh well. By the time the tree was up and the ornaments in place it was Christmas Eve. We had a quiet evening with a nice meal. Come Christmas day we went to church then went round to family friends for a while. After visiting we came back home and had a lovely dinner. A few things were different than an American Christmas, but other than that it was pretty much the same. They have these nifty things called Christmas crackers that we definitely have to start getting back in the US of A. its like pulling a wishbone, but it’s a little cardboard tube and you pull it and the person with the bigger end gets the prize that’s inside. There is also a paper crown that you have to wear while telling the terrible joke that is written on a slip of paper inside the cracker. They are probably about the quality of Laffy Taffy jokes and quite terrible at that. We got around to opening presents at about 9pm, which is about 12 hours longer than I usually wait to open presents. When in Rome…

James got a Spain jersey from his brother Nick. James’ favorite soccer player from his favorite team (Arsenal) is Cesc Fabregas, a Spanish player, so naturally Nick had his name put on the back of the jersey. I got a lovely leather jewelry box from James’ parents and I gave them a plaque with their name on it from Granada.

The day after Christmas, which is a holiday in England known as Boxing Day. We basically sat around all day and then went to Uncle Peters for an Indian curry. There’s nothing more English than a curry…We braved the streets on Dec 27 and it was less than an intelligent idea. Talk about crowds. I insisted to James that he had never taken me to Harrods, so after a few quick exchanges on Oxford Street we headed to Knightsbridge and headed to the department store where they claim they can get your anything. Even an elephant. If you can pay for it, they can get it for you. We walked in, past of the line of people waiting to get in to the Gucci shop to get their bags half price and made our way to the Room of Luxury I. It was the biggest department store I had ever been to in my entire life. There was a room devoted to maps. Ancient maps. Average ticket price of a framed ancient map was about 9,000 pounds. Also saw some nice vintage original movie posters that were going for about 3-4grand, framed. But, unfortunately the obnoxious bargain hunters, their babies in strollers and their prehistoric grandmothers were just too much for me to handle. We made a quick exit into the pouring rain and decided to get a coffee and wait out the rush hour rush.

For New Years we decided that we would go up to London and watch the fireworks. We then got a phone call from one of our mutual friends from SC who is from a town just north of London and he said he was going to be in London and asked if we wanted to meet up. We decided it was a good idea and agreed to meet up with him on New Years Eve. We went up to London at about 5 or 6pm to get Italian at a nice little place we discovered when I was here in September. After that we headed to meet Ed at his friends place on Baker Street. I learned that Baker Street is one of the oldest streets in London, the home of the legendary Sherlock Homes, as well as the street where the London fire started. Lots of history packed into one little tube stop eh?

We spent a while at Ed’s then at my urging we finally left to get on the tube to get to where they were going to be shooting off the fireworks. It was fairly crowded on the train but we all managed to get on. 10 minutes and 100 degrees later we arrived at the station. Us and the rest of the people on vacation in London. We were forced out of the cars, funneled to the exit and when we reached an area we were surrounded by hundreds of other people trying to get above ground, just like us. the problem was that there were only 3 escalators, one on the left that wasn’t working that people we walking up, one in the middle that no one was allowed to walk up, and a third on the right that was working and about 2-3 people were coming down.

It was absolute chaos. People were pushing and screaming and there was the casual idiot here and there that decided to bring their infant in its baby stroller or their 93 year old mother who needs a crutch to walk. Finally they decided to fix the malfunction and allow all 3 escalators to go up. Ours wasn’t working, but we hiked up the endless flight of stairs, which is essentially what an out-of-order escalator becomes: stairs.

We made it to the top, exited the station and tried to make our way to Trafalgar Square then to Embankment to see the fireworks, we had just made it to the square when people started cheering and we could hear explosions. We tried to get closer but found that all the roads had been cut off and it was not possible to get to the fireworks. Oh well. We tried to walk around and get to the embankment, but the crowds were horrible and there was already a line around the corner to get into the station. We walked to Covent Garden and had a drink on a rooftop bar. After our drink we realized we had to get home because the trains were only running until 430 and it was going to take a long time to even get to a station. We walked for at least an hour and a half before finding a station that was possibly to enter. We squeezed on a train and made our way home. It was a bit of an anticlimactical night, if that’s even a word, but it was alright. I think James was the only Londoner that was in town as well. We rarely heard English being spoken, and if we did, it wasn’t spoken with a London accent. What a lovely vacation; crowds, overpriced transportation and rain.

Its now Jan 2 and we just got around to opening the last of the Christmas presents tonight. I got some Bailey’s and a matching glass, a box of chocolates, some Christmas socks from Kevin as well as a lovely pair of earrings from James’ Uncle Peter. James scored a cheeky little check and another book or two. Heaven. He also scored a soccer ball pump and some extra needles from his lovely girlfriend. Classy. Tonight means unwinding with a mug of hot chocolate and a movie. I cant believe I’m going home Monday…