Sorry I haven't posted sooner but I have been very busy since returning to Perugia on Sunday afternoon. I have a lot of papers to write and many presentations to prepare for. And my professors keep reminding me that my time in Perugia is almost up which makes me very sad to say the least.
But this past weekend was perhaps my favorite weekend that I have had abroad so far. As I said in my last blog entry I went to London from last Thursday afternoon until Sunday morning with 4 of my friends. We left Thursday afternoon on a train to the Rome FCO airport. We got to the airport 3 hours early so we had plenty of time to wait. Our flight took off at 9 pm without a hitch and we landed in London at 10:30 pm local time. When the plane was landing the pilot came over the loud speaker and said quite an interesting statement. As we landed just before the Harry Potter movie was released at midnight and our airline was London based the pilot said "flight attendants prepare for landing, witches on your broomsticks". My friend Kaitlin and I looked at each other with puzzled looks bu the British man sitting next to us said he heard the same thing. At that point Kaitlin and I got so excited and at that point it hit us that we were in London, the home of Harry Potter!
We arrived at our hostel in Victoria around 1 am and we went right to bed because we had a long day ahead of us. But before going to bed we had to get "in" our beds. I say it this way because our room had triple decker beds! I was on the very very top of the bunk with Kaitlin in the middle and Matt on the bottom. Breanne and Jessica both got the bottoms of other bunks. It was an experience to say the least and I am very glad the beds were bolted to the floor because it was a haul to get into my bed. We had to take pictures for people to believe these triple decker beds....
We got up the next morning and got on the tube (London subway system) and went to the O2, a large arena just outside London. The O2 is the home of many concerts and sporting events and will most likely host some Olympic events when the 2012 Summer games are held in London. Our reason for going to the O2 was not a sporting event or concert but the Titanic exhibition which was currently being held there. There were no photos allowed so I am sorry for the lack of photos but the exhibition was amazing! It is the same exhibit that travels around the United States so if you ever have a chance please go and see it. We got to see many items that have been recovered from the ocean floor including money, White Star Line tickets, and plates that were in whole pieces. It was amazing to see these items up close and personal and as I am a fan of the story of Titanic it was really interesting to me. We also got to "touch the iceberg", not the original one of course, but the exhibit has a large slab of ice that is the same temperature (-2 degrees Celsius) as the iceberg was when the Titanic hit.
After visiting the exhibit we grabbed lunch and headed to see some famous bridges in downtown London. We saw the Tower Bridge, London Bridge, and Millennium Bridge. The Tower Bridge is the most famous in London as it is seen in many famous photographs.
The London Bridge is the less picturesque bridge but is famous from the children song of course. And no, it is not falling down :)
The final bridge of interest to us has a Harry Potter connection but more on that in a minute. The Millennium Bridge was built for the Millennium and has the infamous nickname of the wobbly bridge. It is called this because the government was way over budget for the bridge and it is very unsteady. In fact we saw an article in a newspaper about the bridge needing more repairs to prepare for the 2012 Olympic games. But the Harry Potter movie also shows this bridge in the 6th movie in the opening scene. In the movie the bridge is destroyed (kind of playing on the wobbly thing). We crossed over the bridge and took many photos of us wobbling on the bridge. Here is a picture of the Millennium Bridge with St. Paul's cathedral in the backround.
It was getting pretty dark at this point on Friday so we decided to head over to King's Cross Station and look for the famous platform 9 and 3/4 from the Harry Potter books. This platform exists in the books and is used by the students to go to and from school. A few years ago the platform was built in the actual train station to attract Harry Potter fans from all over the world. Unfortunately, the train station is currently under construction and we could not find the platform. I guess I will have to go back and find it someday. We did take a picture in the train station between platforms 9 and 10 though....
On Saturday morning we woke up early because we were seeing "Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 1" in Chelsea at 9:45 am. We took the tube to the theater and we were right on time for the movie. The movie was 5 minutes short of 3 hours and it was amazing! To see the movie in London was something I will never forget as part of the movie was filmed in central London. At one point in the movie the actors were in a part of London we were the night before and we all got so excited at this! And the movie was so amazing, as I am sure any Harry Potter fan will agree with me.
After the movie we took the tube to Central London and visited Regent's Park. The park is a nice quiet place outside the city. It's a nice place for a walk or to just sit on a bench and enjoy the day. It's a nice getaway from the business of London. We saw many pretty flowers that were amazingly still in bloom and many fountains as well.
Here is my roommate Jessica and I in Regent's Park....
After visiting Regent's Park we headed back into the city to see the famous sights of London. We saw Big Ben, Westminster Abbey, the London Eye, and Buckingham Palace. When we got to Buckingham Palace the flag was flying indicating that the Queen was home. Unfortunately, she didn't come out to see us so I have not photos of the Queen. We also hoped to see the newly engaged Prince William but he didn't come out to greet us either. Speaking of the royal engagement, during our time in London we saw many magazine and newspaper covers about the the prince and his fiancee. We even saw a billboard on a truck that read "Congratulations Kate and William on your engagement". Unfortunately I couldn't get a picture as the truck was moving too quickly. But it was still really neat to be in the city after such a big announcement was made only 2 days before we arrived. And yes, I did buy a magazine about the royal engagement in case you were wondering. It's going to be safely packed in my suitcase back to the US. And my friends and I have been thinking we should return to London for the royal wedding in April of next year! Here are some pictures of the sights of London....
Katlin, Breanne, and I with the London Eye....
Buckingham Palace with the British flag telling us the Queen is home....
Even though it looks so dark in the picture I need to tell you that this picture was taken around 4:15 in the afternoon, thank you daylight savings time in London. After visiting the palace we decided we should get some traditional British cuisine for our final night in London. So we headed to a British pub located near our hostel. I had traditional fish n chips and it was amazing! It was the best meal I have had in a long time.
When we left the restaurant we stopped to get some caramel hot chocolate at Starbucks to get warm before going to Piccadilly Circus and Regent's Street. We took the tube to Regent's Street to look at some Christmas lights and it was an impressive display. Each street seemed to have a different theme and it really got us all into the Christmas spirit. Here is Regent's Street with the "Narnia" theme lights....
Here is Carnaby Street with its space themed Christmas lights....
We made it the whole way down and Regent's Street and made it to Piccadilly Circus. I had never been there but it is a place I had wanted to visit on this trip to London. It is essentially the Times Square of Europe with lots of billboards, lights, street performers, and theaters. Here is the main billboard in Piccadilly Circus....
By this point on Saturday night we were frozen to the core. We decided to head back to our hostel and get warm and also get a few hours of sleep since we had to be up at 2:30 the next morning to get to Gatwick airport in time for our 7 am flight back to Rome. We made it to the airport without any problems and we landed in Rome at 10:30 am. We made it back to Perugia around 4:30 pm on Sunday afternoon.
I am so happy I achieved this goal of going to London for the Harry Potter movie release! I feel so accomplished that I have achieved yet another of my many goals I had before coming to Italy. Now that I am back in Perugia I feel this is the beginning of the end. I am in the process of writing all of my final papers and preparing for my final exams which are only 2 weeks away!
But I am also preparing for the big American holiday tomorrow..Thanksgiving!! Since Thanksgiving is not celebrated in Italy we have classes here at Umbra tomorrow. After classes I am going over to my fellow LVCers Kaitlin and Matt's apartment for Thanksgiving dinner. I am not sure if we are having turkey but it's going to be nice to be with my Perugia family tomorrow since I cannot be with my US family. I will miss you all tomorrow and I will miss the turkey, stuffing, pumpkin pie, Macy's parade and everything else Thanksgiving has to offer.
I hope everyone has a wonderful Thanksgiving holiday tomorrow and know that I am thankful for all of you and I will be thinking of you as I eat my dinner here in Perugia!
Italian word of the post:
la festa del Ringraziamento - Thanksgiving
Here us a link to my Facebook page with all of my pictures from London....
Morgan :)
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