I made the best travel sandwich ever, with a four day Iceland trip between two London weekends. So, basically, an ice cream sandwich because I ate an insane number of Ben's Cookies during both London trips and the ice middle comparison is obvious.
For the record, I realize that I run a high risk of sounding like a brat when writing about my good fortune with travel opportunities. Let the disclaimers show that I am merely taking advantage of my geographical proximity to cultures that I will not have the chance to view again for an indefinitely long amount of time. Traveling in this particular way (as a student with limited obligations, visiting other studying friends, etc.) is the reward that goes along with the social and personal challenges of being immersed in another culture and language.
And if it subtracts any Brat Points in your mind, know that I had to fly through London to get to and from Iceland, therefore stopping to salivate in Harrod's was only logical? Plus it's Christmas, so what's a Love Actually fanatic to do but revel in the glory of the season and the preciousness of those babies' clothes.
Londra* Round 1 was from late on a Friday evening to iNs@n3Ly early on a Sunday morning. My friend Emma, who also goes to school in Claremont and is in Parma for the semester, met me there to see a production of Twelfth Night at the Apollo with Stephen Fry as Malvolio. Due to some booking confusion, we actually had tickets to Richard III with the same cast/crew. It ended up being a happy accident because we were able to see both plays and both were wonderful. I won't break into a full play review, but the acting was superb. At the top levels, theatre actors really know what they're doing and I'm very jealous of their lives. (The worst theatre people, however, are the worst people people.)
Kat spent that Saturday night in London as well because we had to wake up at, no exaggeration, 3:00a.m. to get to the airport. When booking, I tend to forget that afternoon flight means waking up early and early flight means replacing a night of sleep with a power nap riddled with airport anxiety dreams.
But all of the stressful modes of transport were completely worth it for Iceland. Prior to going, I realized that I was setting myself up for disappointment by expecting to discover literally the most breathtakingly spectacular place of my life. However, it managed to meet those expectations because Iceland appears how one might imagine a fairy realm on Mars. I've never been to New Zealand, but I would say that Iceland is unparalleled in nature. Everyone there told us that spending time in nature is a huge part of Icelanders' lives and that a certain (large %) of space must be left open. According to Kat's friend who lived in Iceland for a summer, there are also places where cars cannot drive, as they would disrupt the elves in those regions. This comes as no surprise because our Golden Circle tour guide was more knowledgeable about trolls than any of the sites he showed us... due to knowing a ton about trolls and not so much about the Golden Circle.
I totally buy that there are elves in Iceland. Their wildlife is completely unique, as the country has never been in contact with another. The ducks look sort of like dinosaurs and the horses (which we didn't ride, but I'd love to in the future) ride much smoother, i.e. apparently they can crouch down and move smoothly over the rocky terrain. Driving anywhere, one continuously passes open pastures of cows and horses roaming in front of an arctic backdrop of mountains, glaciers, pools of vibrant blue water, and the occasional quaint wood-sided home. So that was all right.
The Icelanders don't realize it, but they are the original hipsters. Hipsters don't realize it, but they're all trying to be Icelanders. It's not even their way of dressing or randomly cool decorative taste (though it's these, too), as much as their taste in really good music that no one else has heard of. While countries like Italy are
Agh this is getting unreadably long. I'll try to selectively bullet point my way to the end of this.
- Because it's winter, sunlight there was highly limited. The good news was that we got to watch the pastel streaks of sunrise even when we slept in and we felt like we were cool/staying out late because 'out past dark' meant being out until after 6:00p.m.. Therefore, we got a ton of sleep even though we were up before and after the sun.
- Iceland is the best kept secret travel destination. Maybe it's because there aren't famous landmarks like Paris and other big European cities have? Especially now in the cold, there were no Americans. We did meet a lot of nice British people on tours, in restaurants, and in our hostel (more on the hostel when I post pictures). Kat and I had all six beds to ourselves for the first two nights before some very nice English people moved in.
- The answer to the above point may be that the exchange rate sucks a lot.
- When Kat and I left the hostel on Thursday morning, we were supposed to catch a bus bright and early, because that's how these cheapy flights tend to go. Unfortunately, the sun thing was a bit of a hinderance in that case. It was early, but definitely not bright, so sleeping through the bus felt normal when my alarm didn't go off. We still made it to the gate with time to spare, which was a pleasant surprise when we already thought we'd have to rush with the bus an hour earlier. And THAT'S why you always leave
During Londra** Round 2, Kat, Nikki (Scripps), and I stayed with Nikki's friend/former soccer coach in a real adult human apartment. We did a lot of the classics, such as the Changing of the Guard and the major museums. One thing I notice/admire about the English, at least in London, is that they collectively present as elegant and bright. They strike me as a generally more educated population than those I encounter in American public spaces. That could just be the Anglophilia speaking, and I'm not necessarily saying they are more intelligent, but their accents, vocabulary, and mannerisms come off that way to me. For example, the children in the museums all seemed more inquisitive than I've encountered in the States. Also, reading. Everywhere, people are reading. Print journalism doesn't appear to be dying at all in London, where more than half of every train and bus contains people of all sorts studying newspapers.
I'd like to live in London for some extended period of time in my life, partially just to see if I'd ever stop being embarrassingly enchanted by every little thing the British do. Preferably in that situation I would be making my money in GBP because, again, that exchange rate is rough man. I'm pretty sure Europe is just paying the value of the paper itself at this point.
Really in its entirety, the trip was grand (Kat tells me this is how they describe everything in Ireland). London is probably my favo(u)rite city in the world and there's nothing like it at Christmastime. Attaching that to Iceland, the world's #1 Worst Place to Be Blind, made for one of the best weeks ever. Hopefully that magic will push me through the final exam stress that's looming as I type.
*Am I the only one confused about why we don't universally refer to cities by the names they have in their own countries?
**Further, is the inconsistency of the changes not confusing? Roma's too hard to say, but Reykjavik's good to go? I just want to understand.****
***On the way to London, I got through security before 7:30a.m. and my flight boarded past 10... I was seriously the only passenger in the entire airport for awhile. It was bizarre, but good for snoozing. The weirdest part of that check in was when the passport review lady made me wind through an incredibly long maze of those line separator things by myself. We made awkward eye contact (I thought it was awk; she didn't seem to) the entire time. Here. To give you an idea:
[ ▲ ] <- This is the airport lady at her little fake mahogany desk
============== / / and her face is like, ◕‿◕
\ \===========================
============================/ /
\ \===========================
============================/ /
\ \==================△======== <- Meanwhile, there I am ~1 min into the labyrinth
============================/ / and my face is something like, (-___-)
\ \================
\ \
\ \
That was a lot more detail than I was planning to give for the story and a lot more Asian than I was planning to be with the emotional descriptions. Anyway. Work time. Ehhhhhhh
Merry almost Christmas,
Lauren
****Apologies if the asterisk keys are hard to follow
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