Birthday Weekend Extravaganza: London

From Bath Time!

On February 15^th, I turned 21. I’m old. 21 is a big deal, or so I’m told. When I woke up, I went to the bathroom and looked at my tired, unshaven face in the mirror. I wondered “is that what a 21-year-old looks like?” I don’t feel 21.

Thankfully, although I’m an entire ocean away from most of my friends, I managed to have a wonderful birthday. My housemates purchased all sorts of fancy beverages for me, including huge jugs of Thatcher, my favorite cider in the UK (or should I say “favourite?”)

From Bath Time!

Then we went to the nearby pub, The Ram, which is a block or so from our place. That was just with the housemates, and we had a jolly good time. From there, we went to a pub called The Pig and Fiddle, which is probably the best pub name I’ve encountered. Via the magic of Facebook, we invited the whole program to The Pig and Fiddle, and lots of them attended. So I had a great time with all my new acquaintances, especially those who felt it necessary to buy me a birthday drink. Photos of the evening abound, and can be seen here.

From Bath Time!

Then we went to a club, which was a pretty crazy experience. The place was called “Cube,” but everything inside was rounded-off and space-aged. It was like waiting in line for Space Mountain, only with dancing, and laser shows on the bar. Everything was lit with fluorescent green or blue, very sparingly, to really sell the whole mod-space station look. To make things stranger, they don’t play typical dance music. They play really good, solid classic rock. But people dance to it, the way you’d imagine people would dance in a club. So, being the rock enthusiast that I am, I was pleased.

The next day, I took a train to London, to visit the Matts. Matt Schwartz is studying at Westminster, which apparently is equivalent to a community college. It’s on Baker Street, so of course there’s a huge stature of Sherlock on his block. He says his classes aren’t challenging in the least, but this just gives him more time for soaking up everything the city has to offer. He also travels a lot; he went to Barcelona the previous weekend.

So on my first day in London we checked out their Natural History Museum. It’s like the one in New York, only British. Then we purchased a cheap liter of cider and went to a club. Once again, not dance music, just awesome classic rock, sprinkled with some new indie favorites. Unfortunately, I forgot my camera, but a good time was had by all.

The next day we saw St. Pauls, and took a bridge (with a spectacular view of monuments like The Globe,) going over the Thames to the Tate Modern. The Tate is really incredible. So much great stuff, including this amazing film on four screens next to each other in a large room. On each screen is a different musical moment or snippet of a song from a classic film. The sound from the clips all play at the same time, and the segments were carefully selected to work well together when their sounds combine, (mostly even in the same pitch!) and often make completely different songs. The Tate also has tube slides that you can take from level to level.

We also went to the National Gallery, and saw a great Impressionism exhibit, entitled “From Manet to Picasso.” As the title implies, there were lots of famous paintings by the likes of Renoir and Van Gogh, which are even prettier up close. The National Gallery is so big that we only really spent time on one floor, and were too overwhelmed to continue to any others.

It also happened to be the Chinese New Year, and the National Gallery is very close to Chinatown, so we checked that out for a bit. It was packed, everyone holding inflatable pigs (since it’s the year of the pig,) and lots of street performers dressed as dragons. I’ve never seen so many Caucasians and so few Chinese people in Chinatown. We ate at a buffet-style Chinese restaurant called Mr. Wu. That’s right, Deadwood fans, Mr. Wu. Our waitress was pretty rude to us, but the food was great.

It was interesting to be in London after spending so much time in a small provincial place like Bath. London is a legit city, brimming with superb public transportation, ancient buildings, and generally rude people. Seriously, I thought the Brits were supposed to be incredibly polite and agreeable, hiding their scathing condemnation behind witty, flowery language. Not the case. Regardless, London’s a pretty cool place, with so many amazing cultural happenings I still have yet to experience. And with round trip tickets for thirty pounds, I don’t think this was my last visit. Especially since we failed to see any theater!