5 Days to Go: Going North: Part 1

Today's post will be part one of a two part series on travels outside of England. 

Once upon a time, I bought my plane tickets six months in advance to get a good deal. I'll admit, it was probably a little early to do so, but I wanted to buy myself plane tickets for Christmas, so I did. What ended up happening was that I accidentally bought my ticket back for the 17th instead of the 14th, when the program really ends. Don't ask me why. I don't even know how I did it. I do remember it was late at night... When I told my friend about it, she said she did the same thing! (Maybe the tentative dates were different.) I was relieved because I bought my ticket through a booking company and couldn't change my travel dates without a huge fee. We decided to use the extra three days to travel. After considering Paris for quite a while, we finally decided that it would be best to stay in a county that   spoke English.

14/18: Edinburgh, Scotland

We chose Edinburgh, the capital city of Scotland, for a number of reasons. True, they don't have a Disney Park, but they also don't resent American tourists. I am super excited to visit Scotland, even though it will be the end of our trip, it will be the cherry on top!

I've been Pining pictures of Edinburgh since we decided and I can hardly stop. It's SO beautiful.

While I don't know much of what we're going to do there, I NEED to have a picnic on this grassy lawn next to Edinburgh Castle and the Sir Walter Scott Monument. I'm getting giddy just looking at these pictures. You know what makes it even better? We're taking the train from London to Edinburgh. Like, classic train across the green country with food and stuff. I can't think straight I'm so excited.

~Jamie

6 Days to Go: ...What Was I Doing?

It's days like today that make me so happy to be gone in less than a week. Again, I know I'm not going for vacation, but I know it's going to be therapeutic to not have to go to work and instead just focus on plays in London. I've already read my first four reading assignments and started my fifth. All that's left now that finals and work are over is Graduation and packing. If you can't tell, I worked a long, exhausting double shift today and I'm miserably tired so I apologize for the short scatterbrained post.

13/18: Little Venice, Trafalgar Square, and The National Gallery

I had planned for today's countdown to be about Little Venice and the boat rides you can take down the canal. It came to my attention, however, that I hadn't put Trafalgar Square and the National Gallery in my Countdown and Little Venice would basically take a sentence and a picture. So here it is, Little Venice.

I'm not claiming I'll take much more time on Trafalgar Square and the National Gallery. I'll admit I know nothing about paintings. I never took art history, I don't know what the colors mean or the shapes. But I do like to look at paintings. Especially Monet, because, remember, I'm obsessed with flowers. I also REALLY love Vincent van Gogh's work. Both have artwork hanging in the National Gallery at the heart of Trafalgar Square.

And get this, the fountain has LED lights in it, so at night it looks like this-

If there's anything I love more than flowers, it's lights. (Or maybe sleep.)

~Jamie

7 Days to Go: Gardens

I am obsessed with flowers. Really, I should've been a florist. Flowers and gardens and all sorts of greenery. Did you know that 1/3 of London is garden? I wanted to do a post about Hyde Park since we'll be living so close to it as well as Kensington Gardens, but then I did research on most of the gardens and now I want to see them all! Instead, I'll highlight some that are particularly famous and or beautiful. (Mostly with pictures, since describing them would be almost pointless.)

12/18: Hyde, Kensington, St. James, Primrose Hill, and Hampstead Heath

Hyde Park is one of the largest parks in London being 350 acres. It's even larger when you group it together with Kensington, totaling 625 acres.

Both parks have a handful of memorials and statues to see, including; The Princess Diana Fountain and Playground, memorials to the victims of 7/7 and the Holocaust, Marble Arch, the Peter Pan Statue, The Albert Memorial, and more. Not to mention the carousel in Kensington Gardens.

St. James, another Royal Park, is famous for being a good place to watch the changing of the guard at Buckingham palace. It also holds the Queen Victoria Memorial.

Primrose Hill is located inside The Royal Regent's Park which also houses the Open Air Theatre and the Zoo (and tons of roses in Queen Mary's Gardens!). Your walk to the top of Primrose hill will earn you a magnificent view of the city.

Although not a "Royal Park", Hampstead Heath is a giant 790 acres.You can go swimming, bird watching, kite flying, see a concert, boating, look at statues, walk through woods and unusual fauna, fishing, and picnic near a small zoo or ornamental gardens.

And it's all free, my favorite word.

~Jamie

8 Days to Go: Comic Con

11/18: MCM London Comic Con

I'll take that crown now.

Yup, London Comic Con. I've never been to a convention before, despite Utah just starting theirs, so why not go in London? The event goes three days and my friend and I are for sure going to at least one of them. And the cherry on top, we're cosplaying as well. For those of you who don't speak geek, cosplaying is where people dress up as characters from comic books, Disney movies, T.V. shows, other movies, anime, and all that jazz.

People from all over go to comic conventions to see new game and movie ideas, meet celebrities (take pictures with them and get their autograph), show off their cosplay, go to panels, and meet other geeks. ((I hope no one thinks "geek" is a demeaning term. Rather, it's an endearing term to me.))

San Diego Comic Con is by far the largest, but London looks quaint and fun for a first timer. The only thing I've been worrying about is finishing my cosplay. Some people go full out, spending lots of money and time to make their cosplay 100% accurate. I'm just trying to get mine done and passable. I'll be going as Oswin Oswald from Doctor Who.

Looks easy. That belt tho. Luckily I made some serious progress yesterday.

Well, there you have it. Awesome Comic Con, not historical London, but don't I need a good mix? With seven more locations to name, I promise you won't be disappointed.

~Jamie

9 Days to Go: Westminster Abbey

10/18: Westminster Abbey and Poets Corner

Ah, yes. Beautiful, historical, royal Westminster Abbey. Who would dream of missing it? I mean, just look at this thing -

is it not perfect? And it only gets better on the inside.

I could look at Pinterest pictures of the Abbey for HOURS. I keep getting distracted by which angle of the same part I should post. If each picture is worth a thousand words, then this blog is already too long. But basically, that's the reason I want to go. To just stand there and stare, mouth open and everything.

The initial reason I wanted to visit the Abbey before I looked at all these pictures was (is) Poets Corner.

There are tons of famous British people buried in Westminster Abbey, most of them are Poets and Playwrights (hence the name Poets Corner). So they built most of them a memorial. A bust or a plaque or a full on statue.

See Shakespeare lounging in the middle? He's not buried there, but they have memorials for him anyway. Famous people buried there include; Geoffrey Chaucer, Charles Dickens, and Alfred Tennyson, while Jane Austen, Lewis Carroll, T.S. Eliot, C.S. Lewis, Christopher Marlowe, and Oscar Wilde like Shakespeare have memorials. Wow. Yeah.

Basically, I'm obsessed and can't wait to see it all with my own eyes!

~Jamie

10 Days to Go: Little Landmarks

London is a very famous place for all sorts of media. Thousands of books, movies, TV shows and songs portray the city. That's why there are a handful of little places I want to visit. I grouped a couple together (i.e. Baker Street) last week because they both were Sherlock Holmes related. Here are the others.

9/18: Abbey Road, Blackfriars Bridge, Fleet Street, and Platform 9 3/4

If you haven't seen this picture, I'm going to assume you live under a rock of ignorance and self loathing. Most everyone will recognize it as the cover to the Beatles album Abbey Road. (If you think One Direction invented it, then I KNOW you live under a rock of ignorance.) Whether you like the Beatles or not is completely irrelevant, because such a picture must be taken in London. My friend Leigh would kill me if I didn't walk across the road for her! (She's on her LDS Mission in Texas right now!)

As for Blackfriars Bridge, this one comes from a book series. The Infernal Devices series. One of my favorite book characters of all time has a special connection to the bridge... I can't get specific here because of spoilers... Suffice it to say that it's been my dream to stand on this bridge for years because reasons. 

The Demon Barber of Fleet... Street...

Yup, the notorious street of Sweeney Todd is on my list. Why? Because I was in the musical Sweeney Todd at my college. This one will take no time at all, but will make me quite happy.

And for my final trick, I will attempt to run through a wall at full speed so that I can go to Hogwarts. But really. Kings Cross Station in London, where Harry Potter and all of his classmates went to catch their train to school, has a Platform 9 3/4. But don't really attempt to run through the wall... that would hurt. Instead, take a picture with your cart half way into the wizarding world.

~Jamie

11 Days to Go: Shakespeare's Stratford

A heads up before I start this post, I can't guarantee my post tomorrow will happen before midnight... Between my first final and a long shift at work, I might not be home tomorrow. I'll so my best though!

8/18: Stratford-Upon-Avon 

Stratford's claim to fame is being the birth place of William Shakespeare. And it's a good one. Stratford draws almost 5 million visitors a year. We'll be some of those visitors this year! We are going to stay at Stratford for three days, seeing three shows, the Holy Trinity Church, and other Stratford sites such as Anne Hathaway Cottage.

No, I'm not talking about the cat woman actress, but rather (for those of you who need brushing up on your Shakespeare history) William's wife. This is another post where I just want to make a slideshow of all the beautiful places and views. 

The two theaters we will visit are the Royal Shakespeare Theatre and the Swan Theatre, both homes to the Royal Shakespeare Company. 

One of my goals for this trip is to become more familiar with Shakespeare's life and works. I don't think that's going to be hard at all considering we are attending six of Shakespeare's plays for our Shakespeare in Performance class.

3 days in Stratford! It'll be like a vacation in a vacation. Vacatinception!

~Jamie