We flew out of Rome Wednesday night, we got to Stansted around 10 and Ray (Ritta's husband) picked us up and drove us to their house in Windsor, about an hour away from the airport. When we got there she was about ready to make mac and cheese, like real Kraft Macaroni and Cheese, it brought me right back to my childhood. We had a chance to talk to Ritta and Ray about their travels and their time living abroad; they have lived in Italy and Spain before moving to Windsor. They have all these funny stories about language difficulties and culture difference, and they accept it just like the world travelers that they are.
We headed to bed soon after and we allowed ourselves to sleep in until 11:30 before getting up and meeting Ryan at the train station and we headed to Windsor Castle! Unfortunately the Queen was in Abu Dhabi, and not at Windsor, but Ritta was telling us that she sees her driving to Church on Sundays, with only one body guard. And when Prince Harry was at the Barracks nearby training for the military, she would see him running with the other soldiers, I guess he is really tall and it is really easy to see that shock of red hair running down the street. If only he was still there training.....
Anyways! We then headed to Windsor Castle! It was beautiful, kind of crazy the number of royals have lived there; they had a free audio guide to go with the price of admission (16 pounds...I know pretty expensive) but we got to see the State Rooms and St. George's Chapel (I lit a candle for my dad) where Henry VIII is buried. There was also a portrait of Queen Elizabeth I when she was young about 13. I remember using it for my History Day project sophomore year and thinking she looks so beautiful. I stared at it for a long time, ignoring the audio guide telling me about all of her accomplishments, I knew them all. I thought about when the portrait was taken and how she had no idea the life that was ahead of her, she was already declared illegitamite and when her sister ruled, she was sent to the Tower of London. But she became known as the one Tudor who created the England we know today; the Elizabethan age is one of the greatest ages in English history, from the Spanish Armada to Shakespeare QEI did it all. She was one bad ass Queen. |
| The city of Windsor from Windsor Castle |
We wandered around Windsor, which is a beautiful city with a lot of shops and cute little stores. It was bigger than I expected, but when you think of a quaint English town, that is what Windsor is. It is beautiful and much less hectic than London. But I love the craziness of London, I love the pulse of the city and how everyone seems to be going somewhere at all times. I love being a tube stop away from Piccadilly or Oxford Circus. I feel like I could live there, after going a second time I knew the underground well and we could really get anywhere we wanted to with a day pass. But I'll get to London soon enough.
After the Castle, we spent the evening preparing for Thanksgiving dinner! Ritta was amazing to us and had been cooking all week to prepare for our Thanksgiving dinner. Although neither Riley nor Reid have lived in America they still celebrate the holiday, but they don't get off of school obviously so we had a late Thanksgiving, which was just fine. We had turkey, stuffing, squash and apples in cinnamon and the most amazing potatoes au gratin ever. Ritta is an amazing cook. It was so nice to have home cooked food too. To just sit at a kitchen table and talk with friends, even just sitting on a couch (do you know how long it has been since I have sat on a coach and watched a movie?? too long). Needless to say, I felt completely at home at Ritta and Ray's, And Riley and Reid were the most adorable little kids, they have British accents and we played candyland, wii, and monopoly. I felt like a little kid again.
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| L to R: Ryan, Chana, Me, Christina, Sarah, Mallory |
After we helped clean up dinner and sat around chatting with Ritta we watched both Elf and The Matrix, an odd combination I know. But Ray and I were talking about movies and I was the only one out of the group that had seen all 3. We watched the first one and I forgot how cool those movies are. My friends thought it was kind of corny because it is over 10 years old, but you have to admit it is still pretty cutting edge. But enough about The Matrix- we headed to bed after a wonderfully long shower, I haven't had that nice of a shower since August.
We woke up relatively early to head to Oxford to meet up with Ryan who had a meeting. We hopped on the train to Slough from Windsor and we had planned to transfer there straight to Oxford. But as we are looking at the departure board in a split second all the way down the board was delayed and cancelled trains. There was an announcement saying "potential fatality" but we didn't hear anything on the news, but it did delay our journey about 45 minutes, we didn't get into Oxford until about 1 in the afternoon. But everything worked out and we headed to lunch at a local pub called The Grapes. I got a hamburger and chips. After so much pasta it was nice to get some pub food. Ryan then took us on a tour of Oxford, to Christ's Church, The Bridge of Sighs, and the New College. We stopped at Blackwells and looked at some books, there was a new translation of Simone de Beauvoir The Second Sex, but it would have been too heavy to bring back in my backpack. That book will have to be bought back in the States. We shopped around Oxford and Mallory bought some cute boots before we got back on the train and headed back to Windsor. Ryan stayed over at Ritta and Ray's that night. We had some great soup and salad for dinner. Ray then offered to drive us to the next town to go see Harry Potter! It was weird, the movie theaters assign you a seat when you get a ticket. I don't think people would like that in the US. But the movie was really good and I can't wait for the next one to come out!
We were supposed to be heading into London the next morning by 9, of course some of us (me) didn't wake up, so we decided to have a long breakfast and we didn't get into London until about 11:30. But we had a lot on our list to go see! We started off at Notting Hill Gate, we got off the train at Paddington so we were only a few stops away. The Portobello Market was going on and we made our way down the street and walk around the market. It's the market from the movie Notting Hill in case you were wondering. It was really busy though and we just browsed for a bit before we had to get going, it was also pretty cold out. Thankfully, Ritta let me borrow a bigger coat so I wasn't that cold, but I did invest in some gloves from Marks and Spencer. Turns out they were a pretty good investment because I was going to need them! I think spending so much time in Rome has weakened my Minnesota blood, because I was COLD this weekend! It wasn't cool! I have been spoiled being able to wear flip flops well into November.
Also, it turns out that it was the coldest Thanksgiving Minnesota has seen in 25 years. Now I know what I have to look forward to when I fly home in a short 22 days. Now that is a depressing thought. After Notting Hill, we hopped back on the tube and headed towards Buckingham Palace and St. James' Park. We walked down the Mall from Buckingham Palace to Trafalgar Square. Mallory wanted to go into the National Gallery there and thankfully it was free to get into it. But it was already almost 3 in the afternoon by the time we got there and a lot of us were quite hungry. Mallory looked around for a bit, but soon we hopped back on the tube to Tottenham Court Road to search out the famous Chipotle again. It had to be done and Mallory and Chana were looking forward to having something so American. And I wasn't feeling well in the morning so I skipped breakfast, God knows that I was hungry- and when I'm hungry I get pissy. My mom will attest to this, if I haven't been fed, the bitchy pants come out. So I was so happy to finally stop for a late lunch, and a delicious one at that!
We left Chipotle and headed down to the river to see the Houses of Parliament and Big Ben. It was even colder down by the river because of the wind. But we walked around and saw Westminster Abbey again. And of course we were too late to go in. One of these days I'll make it actually inside that building. But, I still thought of Queen Elizabeth I immortalized there, but what it made me feel was just a longing for my friends, my friends from home. I missed Kayla because she and I did that project together with another girl. I knew that Liz, Andie, and Jess were all meeting up over Thanksgiving and part of me wanted to be there, in Liz's hot tub chatting- not in London. Of course I am grateful for everything I have been able to do, but God do I miss my friends from home; both in Minnesota and at Loyola. At least I had a chance to call my parents on Thanksgiving, Ritta has a phone with an L.A. number and it was free to call her. Did I mention that their family is amazing??
After Big Ben, we headed over to the Tower Bridge and London Bridge. It was already dark by then, but it was still beautiful. I love that bridge (the tower bridge I mean) it is my favorite place in London (so far) we were on the other side of the Thames this time around, but I wandered off by myself and just stood looking out at this magnificant bridge all lit up filled will all this history. It is gorgeous, you can see the Tower of London right across the river. If it wasn't so cold I could have stood out there for so much longer. Hell, if it was still light out I would have busted out my book and sat on a bench and read for hours. It's one of the things that I love to do in Chicago, even if it is sitting on the edge of the lake at Madonna della Strada, I could sit and read forever if I could. Of course usually it gets much too cold around November for me to do it- but when April rolls around as soon as that sun is out I'll be out there sitting doing homework or reading with my ipod on. I love those little moments.
Ryan needed to go buy a ticket for his late train to Stansted at King's Cross so we took that opportunity before we left to stop at Plateform 9 and 3/4 so Mallory, Chana, and Christina could get a picture, it was turning into a Harry Potter weekend!
We had wonderful beef enchiladas that Ritta made for dinner and Ryan soon had to leave to get to the train station. That's when the fun started, all 5 of us girls sat at the dinner table with Ritta talking about everything; about people who hurt our feelings and people we just don't understand. She is a keen observer of human behavior, let me tell you because she can see through your little white lies. She told us stories about when she went to Hong Kong, when she was living in a little village by Naples, and Saville. We talked about relationships and how much they can hurt, but also how amazing some of them can be. I am just so lucky to spend this semester with some amazing role models, from Ritta to Dr. Cavallo. I have an amazingly strong mother to begin with, I know that women can be strong and independent (I am a feminist! haha!) but I have spent this semester working on myself, to better understand myself and my feelings about the world from men to politics, it is just so nice to spend some time this semester will so role models who have led amazing lives. I can't wait to finish out the experience with my mom. I know I have so much more to learn from her too.
The next day we actually woke up at a decent hour and we were in London at about 10am. We headed straight to Abbey Road where I attempted to take a picture of Mallory, Sarah, Chana, and Christina crossing the street. But it just so happened that when we got there, there were a lot of tourists around trying to do the same thing, and because it was so early there was also a lot of traffic, but we got a half way decent one. Just a friendly reminder, however, if you go to Abbey road and want to take a picture, please- DON'T STOP IN THE MIDDLE OF THE ROAD, it looks fake and disrupts traffic, just keep walking and start all on the same foot. You'll get a pretty good picture that way.
After Abbey Road, we got on the tube and headed to Piccadilly Circus, (it was in Harry Potter 7) we snapped some photos of the famous big TV screens and went in search of a starbucks. And we even found one with a broken espresso machine..I know devastating, so we waited and headed to Knightsbridge, where Harrod's is, in search of some lunch. We found another pub because Chana and Mallory wanted fish and chips- so we found a pub and chatted for almost 2 hours. We got some Irish Cider and just talked, it was cold outside and we wanted to spend some time relaxing and most of us were pretty exhausted from the late night chat the night before anyways. 
All I want to do these last few weeks here is just spend time in Rome, thankfully I have time with my mom after my finals are done and I don't have to worry so much about wasting my precious time in the library, but it's annoying nevertheless.
I should be working on a paper, but I had to finish this post. London was amazing and I know that I will have to go back.
So I just want to say Thank you so much Ritta, Ray, Riley, and Reid for allowing 5 girls to descend upon your house for a long weekend and spoil us rotten. You are amazing people, and I am so glad to have met you. Thank you Again!
Ciao Bella
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