Joining in the strike: London round 2

So after Maggie received a well formulated view of Manchester, we decided to go to the more historically rich London for the weekend. Leaving Friday morning, we had a lovely 5 1/2 hour bus ride to the south of England before arriving.

Since most of our day was almost gone after checking into our hostel (we stayed in the same one I did last time, but thank god the beds in this room were only stacked 2 high), we decided to buy tickets for a show that night and just keep classy for the rest of the day. Scoring tickets to see Billy Elliot, getting dressed up, and having a nice wine and dine meal, we made it to the threatre to realise not only did we have seats on the main floor, but 8 rows back from the stage, front and center. I think I could've loved any production that I viewed from this close up.

Palmers Lodge Swiss Cottage (hostel where we stayed):

Billy Elliot theatre:

And maybe you can't tell, but this is how close we were to the stage:

Billy Elliot is a true story based in northern England during Margaret Thatcher's time as prime minister. There's a rising discrepancy between the upper and working classes. Most of Billy's town is full of miners, and as his family is low income, his only hope is to end up in the coal mining industry as well. However, the mines are unprofitable and the government is voting to close many pits, leaving thousands without jobs. Because of this, Billy's brother, dad, and the rest of their community is on strike.

Whilst everyone's daily concern seems to focus around the strike, Billy is a 12 year old boy who just wants to dance. He accidently finds himself in a dance class of all girls and ends up being the best of the bunch. However, he has to face the outside pressures of being a boy who wants to dance, his family's disapproval, and not having enough money to compete at a national level.

The songs and especially the dancing proved amazing, and I'd highly recommend this play to anyone. It was especially neat to see it in England, where all the characters have authentic English accidents, and to learn more of the history of the U.K. since I'm living here.

The next day, we started our morning in the midst of Camden Markets. A lively strip of temporary set-up shops that sell light-up t-shirts to delicious foods to London inscribed everything.

Camden Markets:

We moved on to take a look at the big London attractions, only to get off the tube and realise we were in the middle of a 500,000 person strike. It seems that not only are the teachers striking because of pension cuts, but EVERYONE is striking because of the significant amount of budget cuts going on throughout the nation. While everyone marching was very adamant about their cause, it was a peaceful protest from what we saw. We marched along for over an hour, because once in it, you literally could not get away. The strike had infected all of London that day.

Coming out of the tube and witnessing the strike:

Marching with the strike along the river:

From above:

And if you can see, it goes on forever:

Only later did we learn the strike actual had a pretty violent nature at some parts. I know Top Shop was a direct target because the owner of Top Shop gets out of paying high taxes in England because of land his family owns elsewhere. All of Top Shop's windows had rocks thrown through them and the employees were instructed to close the store and go home because it was too dangerous. Other banks, shops, and companies were targeted in a similar way. Over 200 arrests were made because of the violent outbreaks. This website has a slideshow of some of the more violent pictures.

After moving away from the strikes, we ventured to the British Museum and saw a neat room based on life and death. One of the exhibits was these two long strips of pills an average female and an average male takes during their lifetime. It was set up in the order of how the person ages and what pills they take at specific points in their life. It's amazing to learn that around half of the pills a person takes are typically taken in the last 10 years of a person's life.

Outside the British Museum:

That night, spur of the moment, we decided to see another show because we got a great deal to The Lion King. Of course, we were up in the top section, far away from the stage, but you could still the see the elaborate costumes from up there. And that's definitely what The Lion King is known for, the costumes. Since I haven't seen the movie in so long, I didn't remember the exact details of the story and so everything was a nice surprise as I saw it acted out. And let me tell you, the little kids in Broadway productions are AMAZING.

The Lion Kind theatre:

Our last day in London we spent walking around. We started off at Buckingham Palace and when we got there, there seemed to be a huge mob of people the police men were trying to organise. At first, we thought we had come across another strike, and were all prepared to join in, only to realise that it was actually the crowd to watch the Changing of the Guards. The last time I was there in the pouring rain there was definitely not this big of a crowd.

Awaiting the Changing of the Guards:

The beginning march:

Then we walked to Westminster Abbey, Parliament, Big Ben, Trafalgar's Square, took the tube one block, walked to the Millennium Bridge, along the River Thames, and all the way to our ultimate destination: The Tower Bridge. For some reason it became my obsession whilst I was there.

Westminster Abbey:

Big Ben:

Parliament:

Nelson's Column in Trafalgar's Square:

The National Gallery in Trafalgar's Square:

The Millennium Bridge:

The Tower Bridge:

All in all, great week, great weekend, and so glad Mags came to visit my life. Can't wait to see her hometown of Firenze in just 3 weeks!

Maggie comes to visit!

My roommate Maggie has been studying in Florence for the semester. For her spring break, she decided to come visit me in cold and wet Manchester. Luckily she visited on the perfect week and experienced only sunshine; she probably doesn't believe my complaints about how cold it is and how often it rains here anymore.

While she was here, I tried to give her a full tour of Manchester, only to realise I didn't know that much about Manchester besides what goes on at the uni and what stores and bars to go to. I definitely think it's true that you never play the role of a tourist in your own city, so I had some firsts last week along with her.

We toured the Manchester United stadium. Manchester United is the professional football club in England I've pretended to become a fan of this semester. But hey, at least after the tour I finally know some players' names! What's especially interesting is that Man U is the highest valued football club in the world and is thought to be the most widely supported football club in the world. So at least I'm not a bandwagon fan, I have legitimate reasons for routing for the Red Devils.

Manchester United Stadium:

The stadium, or Old Trafford as it's known, seats almost 76,000 spectators below a cantilever roof, which is a roof that has no support coming from below. Because of this, there're no poles blocking the view of the fans.

Cantilever roof:

On the tour, we saw the players' changing room, walked out of the pitch as the crowd roared (from a music cd), and sat in the sidelined players' seats. After the tour, we had a free-for-all in the Megastore, which is basically a Wal-Mart full of only Man U gear.

Changing room:

Megastore:

Maggie and I also tried curry for the first time together on The Curry Mile, a mile strip of Indian restaurants and shops leading from my dorm to uni. Watching us order food that we had no idea how to pronounce, let alone what it was, was pretty laughable. But thankfully, it all turned out to be amazing. We tried appetizers of bread and 5 different types of sauces, lamb curry, nam, and rice.

The beginning of The Curry Mile:

Some restaurants along it:

I also made Maggie try Kebab King, all of our favorite late-night place. It's open from 3pm to 4am and only good when you've had a few drinks in you. There's a scrolling screen of pictures in the corner and it's basically everyone's life goal to be on the screen. I've had my picture taken once with a large group, but sadly never saw it materialize on the screen.

Kebab King:

The rest of the week, we spent going out to some of my favorite clubs, wondering around city centre, and going to class. Or not going to class, depending on how you look at it. The teachers at Manchester were striking on Tuesday and Thursday to protest pension cuts. Most teachers cancelled class either based on the principle of it or because they didn't want us to walk through picket lines trying to get in the doors. All I can say, it couldn't of happened on a better week.

Read about the strike here.

St. Patrick's Day in DUBLIN!

St. Patrick's Day in Dublin is something that I'll probably never forget. Instead of just arbitrarily going to a city on a weekend, this trip seemed to have a greater cultural purpose - full of parades, beer, and lot and lots of green and orange.

The St. Patrick's Day parade was based on a short story commissioned by Roddy Doyle. It's a story entitled 'Brilliant' for 'brilliant' is Dublin's favorite word.  The story is about Dublin's people being under the black dog of depression and how they fight it off. I think it's a metaphor for Ireland's current economic situation and an assurance to the people that one day they too will succeed at fighting it off.

Streets lined for the parade:

Sample of parade floats:

The costumes in the parade were amazing. They were all intricately designed and very colorful, even the make-up was impressive. We were standing right in front of main stage 1 and 2, so we were front and center for all the performing acts. My favorite dance was this group that had great facial expressions, my favorite singer was singing rock n' roll on top of one of the big black dogs, and my favorite marching band was Charlotte Catholic - all the way from North Carolina!!

Sample of parade costumes:

Favorite dancers (especially the blonde in the front):

Favorite singer (she's leaning over the backside of the dog):

Charlotte Catholic band!! : 

After the parade was over, the party moved to the Temple Bar region, which is basically a long strip of Irish pubs. We went into one that said "traditional Irish music 2:30pm - 2:30am". Too bad they were playing songs like "Sweet Caroline" and "Take Me Home, Country Roads."  Yep, definitely American. Oh and of course everywhere you went Guinness was cheaper than any other beer. 

Temple Bar region, all decked out in green:

The "Irish" music bar we went to (but hey, at least we knew all the songs):

The next day we ventured down to the Guinness Storehouse. The line was of course around the block the day after St. Patrick's Day, but we decided to wait it out. Once in the storehouse, we learned about how Guinness was made, all the different advertising campaigns of Guinness, and even how to pour the perfect Guinness. It was all topped off at the Sky Bar with our free pint! The Sky Bar has an incredible view of the rest of Dublin and even the mountains outside the city. And I ended up running into my friends from Manchester here (everyone's phone money was out or phone was dead by this point - made scheduling beyond hard).

The Guinness Storehouse:

The Sky Bar:

Harris and I with are perfectly brewed Guinnesses:

The view from Sky Bar:

Since there's not much else to do in Dublin, unless we wanted to venture to the Jameson Irish Whiskey Factory, we decided to take a bus tour to the West coast of Ireland for the day. It was a little unnerving when our bus driver assured us he had his magic mushrooms that morning and then drank a pint during lunch (he was a little wacky), but I think the driver made our tour that much better.

Along the tour, we drove through the Burren Mountains, basically a mountain range covered in rocks and with even more rocks to form wall separations between properties. Our ultimate destination was the Cliffs of Moher, a stunning drop-off into the Atlantic Ocean. Our bus driver had told us there'd be signs warning us of danger and not to go past them and that some of us "wouldn't know what that meant." We obviously fell into that category. Once we saw others past the Extreme Danger signs, you betcha we were going. It's concerning when you're about 2 feet away from a death drop-off along a slippery dirt path in the rain, and you care more about falling and getting your jeans muddy. But don't worry, we made it out alive. The rest of the tour consisted of castles, rock formations, a "hike" (aka walking in a circle), and breathtaking views of the ocean.

The Burren Mountains:

The Cliffs of Moher:

Venturing into the danger zone:

Poulnabrone Dolmen:

Dunguaire Castle:

Landscape of Ireland:

Our last day in Dublin we spent walking around in the sun and venturing to the Trinity College grounds and along the main shopping road, which was busy with street artists. 

Beautiful day in downtown Dublin:

Trinity College:

And after a four day experience in Dublin, I can officially say I'm now a fan of Guinness and shall be celebrating St. Patty's Day accordingly from now on.