vists and visits

monday was such a lovely day...not only was it +30 degrees, i worked from home and saw two visitors from home. well, to call larissa a visitor from home is pushing it a bit since she's been in london for the past 6 years, but she came over for lunch with her little guy avery (10 weeks old) and i made a new friend. such a smiley happy babe. after he left, i smelt like baby for the rest of the night. i do love that smell. monday night i met up with my friend kendra. i hadn't seen her since i left so it was fantastic to see here, and as always, weird to see my friends over a curry and a pint. real trippy.


it was a quiet week and i was gearing up for a quiet weekend since most of my people were away for the long weekend. friday, i watched the thing called love. remember that movie? oh how i adored river phoenix. everytime i happen to see a movie with him in it (which is rare since he died 17 years ago now) the film fanatic in me wonders what film would have been like. far outstripping his peers (ethan hawke, keanu reeves, matt damon and ben affleck), i wonder if our film landscape would have been significantly different. but i digress.

saturday i met up with bim, another friend who had decided to stay in london to save up some money (she for a wedding, me for a ridiculous travel schedule in july). we head out to covent garden to check out the london transport museum. i know it sound dorky but it was actually quite cool. the elevator up to the top floor pretended it was a time machine taking you from 2010 to 1800, where we were greeted by some of the first busses in london. the first buggy sat 22 people, if i recall correctly, including women with their big skirts. crazily enough, the drivers, after so many years of driving the busses, would end up severly sick and have major internal organ damage because of the jostling around on the cobblestone. crazy.


i really enjoyed when we hit the part about the modern day tube, as i had often wondered how they built the tunnels when they didn't have the technology we had today. and wow, it was amazing. they would dig up the street, build a chunck of tunnel and then cover, move down and repeat the process. can you imagine how long that took?

bim and i then wandered around the area and i took her to neal's yard. i love showing a londoner a bit of their city that they didn't know existed. especially when they love it so much.


sunday i ventured out on my own to canterbury. when i first moved here the only way i could conceive of visiting it would be via a bus tour but having lived here long enough now, off i head with backpack in tow. the train ride through kent was actually quite lovely, once we got out of greater london. and when you pull into canterbury east station, you may think...now what, but just follow the people. always follow the people. i got onto the defensive wall almost immediately and began the wall walk where i stumbled upon the dane john burial mound. there are some stunning views when you climb to the top...climb...sorry, its not that high and there's a path and some stairs.


my original plan was, get off the train, check out the normal castle, walk to the cathedral (it was only open for 2 hours on sunday), have lunch, do the boat ride, the canterbury tales, walk around the town and catch the 5 pm so i can be home having dinner around 7:30. i promptly chanced my mind when i got there, as is the case with me.

i went to the cathedral first and like harry on some felix felicis, i just knew what to do. on my way to the entrance gate i passed the clock tower in the middle of their shopping strip. the clock tower used to be part of a church where christopher marlowe was baptised. dramatists will know he wrote faustus, movie goers will know that rupert everett played him in shakespeare in love. :)


i found the cathedral and was ready to pay whatever price to get in and i made friends with the security guard. i asked about a mass, he said it started in 15 mins, and i can go in for free. sweet. the cathedral, like many of its peers, was huge. but unlike the notre dames and the st. peter's, it was long versus being wide. when you stand at one entrance, you feel like it keeps going on and on. but, i found a seat near the back by the choir, and ended up sitting next to the mayor of canterbury's seat. he didn't come (tsk tsk) but at least i knew i had a good seat. it was my first church of england service and the prayers were said a bit differently but i got on fine. it was cool to be at the archbishop of canterbury's church...the st' peters, if you will, of the church of england. the choir was amazing, and the organ was moving. literally, my feet shook and the candle holders with each seat were vibrating. post mass, i became a photo geek and went a little bit crazy but the architecture is quite brilliant. the crypts were cool as well, and within you can see some of the original cathedral pillars.


i made my way through the grounds and the cloisters and then made my way into town where i had lunch. ha ha...see what i mean, my schedule was way thrown off, but really a schedule for me is to highlight what i'd like to see. so i head over to the canterbury tales where you go from room to room and hear very shortened versions of chaucer's very famous text. incidentally, i found it difficult to find a decent copy of the book to purchase. they were all too modern looking. not a hard cover version of the text at all. i thought it would be cool to buy chaucer's book while in canterbury but thought i could probably find a better version online. although i did find a book store on a very back street called chaucer's bookstore but it was closed. i bet i could have found a great copy there. anyhoo, the tour was interesting. not worth the £7 but hey, you only live once.


i wandered through the old town for a while and took some pics, and made my way to the river tour. it reeked of tacky cheese, so i passed. instead, i did some more wandering, picture taking, and made my way to the norman castle ruins. i think i expected something larger than one building, but i wasn't let down. it's always so interesting to see these structures that existed long before you and will exist long after as well. its a little humbling.


its monday today, so not quite sure what i want to do yet. i am considering the imperial war museum, but all i know is my evening ends with sex and the city 2. :) i don't care how bad it is. i adore those characters.

xoxo