Gooooood Morning, London!
Alright, that's a lie, it is neither morning, nor am I physically in the city of London, but whatever, it's all good. I at least was there.
This past weekend I had the extreme pleasure of heading out to see Brooke, one of my best friends from back home (I was in dire need of a sister, and thank goodness there was one out here! The past week or so had been really rough, I needed someone who really got me to talk to, and Brooke was a life-saver). Plus, it was my first time to London ever! So really, I was just about jumping out of my skin I was so excited.
I cut class on Friday afternoon to take oodles of trains out to the Pisa Airport. Now, normally, at home one arrives at the air port with a good 2 + hours to spare, so, naturally, that is what I did. Planes don't wait, after all. So I arrived at 230, with my flight taking off at 5, and the flight hadn't even been assigned a check-in point yet. It was so strange. An hour later, the show the place I'm supposed to put my bags and get my ticket. Even stranger was I had to pay to check my bag, and the seating was just "random." Easyjet, you crazy, crazy people. Anyway, I went to go and find my gate, but the door that lead to it was closed and no one could get in. So I waited another half hour, scarfed down some pizza, which I was severely overcharged for but the man serving it was very nice, and finally went to go double check on the gate. The doors had magically opened on their own, so I headed upstairs where they barely looked at my passport, stamped it, and shuffled me through to a room full of Italians and Brits. I settled myself in on a bench and anxiously awaited for boarding. A line had started forming, and I felt compelled to go stand in it (a little bit of sheep syndrome, I know). About 5 minutes before we were supposed to take off, they started boarding, and it was a mad dash to who could get where fastest. I ended up with a window seat, which was lovely becuase I love looking out. Otherwise I get really bored extremely fast. We touched down in London around 6 pm, which wasn't too bad at all. I hopped on the Gatwick Express into Victoria Station and had a really cool conversation with a Dane about all kinds of things. I finally found Brooke after searching desperately for about 4 minutes on the phone. We hopped on a subway and dropped my things off at my hostel (I was sharing a room with 2 Japanese girls, 2 Brazilians, and a German. It was crazy). We then went to this cute little place and ate chicken pitas, crashed at the hostel for a bit then went to bed.
The next morning we headed out to do the touristy bit, and I actually had sunshine!! It was glorious! We first headed to Westminster Abbey and saw the outside of Parliament and Big Ben, and we also walked by the London Eye (Eye of London, I don't actually know what it is called, it's the big Ferris-wheely bit in the middle of town) and ate Vanilla Flakes (vanilla soft-serve with a "flake" of Cadbury chocolate). I also got to eat a pasty, aka a meat pie, which was tasty but gross looking and a little disturbing because I had seen Sweeney Todd. Mmm... lawyer. We also went to Kennsington Gardens, and finally found the statue of Peter Pan. I'm obsessed, she's obsessed, and I have no problem saying that I am, in fact, 7 years old at heart. Deal. Anywho, we popped on the internet for a little bit and made some plans to head off to Rome in a few weeks, and by the time we headed out to go get tea (yaaaay tea time) it was pouring. So I got to experience true London weather, too! We went first to the Museum of Natural History, which, in my opinion, even as an art con major, are significantly more interesting than regular art museums, where they had the most disturbing display about how we recycle energy. It started with a bunny, and the voice, in a cute little British accent, popped up saying "Allo, rabbit! Lookit you eatin' your grass!" then it progressed to the next one, where it said "Ewwww whatzit doin'?" where the bunny (taxadermy at it's best) was pooing. And then it went to "Awww, rabbit's dyyyying." To "I can't look I can't look!" where the bunny was decomposing. To "Where's rabbit?" the bunny had completely gone away into the soil. And at the end of it, they said "OOOOOH, Let's recycle another rabbit." DISTURBING. SO DISTURBING.
After that we went to tea, and then to see a movie. We signed up for Lars and the Real Girl, but ended up seeing Love in the Time of Cholera, which, while good, was not what we bought. Ohhhh well. After, we went and got some Indian food for dinner, which was delicious.
The next morning I woke up at the crack of dawn (6 am, which was really 5 am because they did daylight savings that weekend. Bastards), checked out, and proceeded to wait for my cab at 615. 615 came and went, as did 620, and 625. I was a little nervous at this point. I went up to the desk and asked if they could call and make sure everything is alright. They said they had no reservation for me (although I had made it the night before). They finally sent one over, and I arrived at 645 to catch the Gatwick Express back to the airport. Unfortunately, the trains run every half hour in the wee hours of the morning, not every 10 minutes like they do during peak hours. So if my cab had been there, I could have caught the 630 GE, gotten to the airport at 7 and had enough time to get to my gate. Unfortunately for me, I got there at 730, and the people told me "sorry, tough cookies." Now that I knew my flight was doomed, I asked if I could get on the next one coming out. Easyjet, being so kind and helpful, said, "There are no other flights out of Gatwick to Pisa today. That was the only one." Slackjawed and amazed, I thanked them and wandered away. I asked another desk, "Do you have any flights to Pisa today?" and it turns out that the only people who fly there are Easyjet, in all their glory, and British Airways. Swallowing my pride (fully knowing that the next question was going to have a very painful response) I went up to the desk and asked for a ticket on the next flight to Pisa. "Surely, for 150 GBP." I smiled, fished out my credit card, and paid the pleasant man. At the very least, I would be home that day. I ended up waiting around for another 2 hours at the airport before the flight started boarding. By noon, I was off, sitting in a window seat next to two less than friendly Brits, I think they just had no desire to talk to me. Oh well. But how can you be mad when you land in Pisa to 78 degrees and sunny?
A few trains later, I was home. It was 7 pm, the sun was still out, it was still wonderfully warm, and I was in a fantastic mood. My host mom was cooking dinner, and the world was a fantabulous place. And thus ended my weekend holiday.
As for the Christmas Gypsy bit, if any of you either read the title or remember it by now, while walking toward the Campo after class one day, Mike and I saw a gypsy dressed in lime green and fire-engine red. She was, in fact, a Christmas Gypsy.
A presto, tutti!
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