A Photographer's London (with Nasim)

Over the course of the last eight weeks, i've been involved in one event, essay writing. My first 8,000 word essay took over my life, sent my body into minor pangs of panic, and left me a bit numb and empty. Nasim was my light at the end of the tunnel, and two days after I turned in the beast of an involved analysis of Juliana Ewing's works, I made my way down to London via the lovely National Express bus system.

Towards the end of my bus ride, I rececived a phone call from an anonymous mobile phone and picked it up to hear my lost bff on the other end. She got lost in Heathrow and made friends with a ex-cop-now-chauffer in terminal four who let her use his mobile. Upon our eventual reunion, we made our way properly into London via one underground line or another and celebrated metropolis.

All of the photos from London are Nasim's, as I forgot to pack my camera battery for the trip. She is a brilliant photographer, and in total, I think she took 542 photos between London and Leamington. These are some of my favourites, mostly taken in the punky borough of Camden (does London have boroughs?). We packed in as much of London as was physically possible including: Camden, Covent Garden, the major bridges, Tower of London, Buckingham Palace, St. Paul's, the London Eye, Trafalgar Square, Leicester Square, you get the picture. Granted, we didn't really go INTO any of these places, but we walked around, perused, and scanned perimeters as best we could.

The end of our two days in L-town took us back to Leamington for two days before heading to Amsterdam for three days. Photos are forthcoming.

Edinburgh

Despite the fact that I lived there for three months, Edinburgh never ceases to inspire or awe me. And after a lot of stress about life, essays, and the postgraduate experience, I needed a weekend away from little Leamington. I journeyed the three transfers and six hours on the train one warm Thursday evening and arrived to be greeted by familiar faces--old flatmate and old friend. we chatted and drank tea like no time had passed, and i was caught up in the daily lives of my good friends once again. Most of my edinburgh world convened that weekend, and I met up again with Elizabeth, stayed with David and waxed philosophy/read books, and had various day trips with Ines.

the ensuing days left me to wandering around in search of the world's best falafel, the mosque kitchen, edinburgh uni, calton hill, cockburn street, the scarf shop in grass market, and my favourite pub ever--Brass Monkey. Camp friends Claire and Natalie arrived from Carlisle for the weekend, and I got to play tour guide. We also found the pub of my grand finale, last night in edinburgh pub crawl, and listened to copious amounts of music. I'm sure none of this sounds incredibly enthralling, but it was the best weekend i've had since being back in england.

i miss metropolitan city life, indie coffee shops, authentic pubs, and good friends.
but nasim's here in three weeks, and then i get to have all of that in a whirlwind of london/amsterdam and everything in between:0)

Oxford

After suffering from some mid-term I can't read any more books angst, a trip was in order. Along with cricket friends Annie and Marie, we voyaged from lovely Leamington Spa and down the 40-minute train ride to Oxford. Pretty city. Wouldn't it be nice if my university were old and pretty and had things to do in its town?

nah.

We wandered through the botanical gardens, drank caffeine in the oldest coffee house in Oxford, and then wandered around various university properties including Christ Church College, namely the dining hall where Harry Potter was filmed. Good day overall!

Warwick and a journey down the Canal

Since I attend the University of Warwick, one would assume that I live in Warwick. One would also assume that since there's a "w" in the middle of Warwick, one would pronounce it. Neither happens to be the case. Regardless, I live about twenty minutes, via bus, from the town/village of Warwick, home to one of England's most beautiful castles. I still haven't been inside--I manage to arrive at the castle about thirty minutes before closing time every time. Instead, I went for a mini jaunt around the high street areas in search of a book for one of my courses.

A few days later, while headed out for an angst filled run, I came across the canal in Leamington that leads to Warwick, Stratford, and if i were to run far enough, up to Liverpool. I found a pub, houses lining the canal, and most importantly, houseboats. I think i might be able to get used to the houseboat life.

Toronto

Toronto and I go way back to the days of high school band, the clarinet, and crushes on impractical boys with bowl haircuts. I had my first foray with the big city life at the age of sixteen on an elusive symphonic winds trip and fell in love. with it all: the travelling and transport, the people, the bustle and movement. You could say I caught the travel bug in Toronto.

So heading back there on the four hour car ride for New Year's Eve festivities was quite welcome. Nasim, Sahar and I trekked to visit their family before heading into the city, where, to our surprise, everything had closed early. and it was raining. regardless, a trip to pizza pizza (the canadian little caesar's), and then subsequent pub hops made the evening lovely. We ended up in a basement bar cum microbrewery with fifteen different flavours on tap, then headed to several other fine establishments along Yonge Street before heading to watch the baby ball drop in Nathan Phillips Square. it was raining, we'd been drinking, it was great.

and on the way back to our hostel, i ran into miss erin suvada. small world aint it?

The rest was pretty uneventful, and unfortunately we couldn't stay to take in the rest of the city's splendor. My flight back to London via New York was leaving the next day so we made our way back to detroit rock city. From the car, leaving on some Queensway expressway or another--perhaps the 401, I took photos of the city itself. well, photos of the CN Tower to be exact.

but no trip to canada is complete without coffee and donuts at Tim Horton's and cranky yet yielding American Customs officials at the Sarnia-Port Huron border. good trip, good trip.

End of Iceland, onto London

After our adventures with the Toyota, Natalie and I were more than happy to return our little car to its rightful owner. We also needed recovery time and spent our last three ish days wandering around Reykjavik, highlighted by a tour of the northern lights, some serious coffee shop thinking, and the great Icelandic pub crawl, called the Runtur, on our last night. We journeyed out over the ice in our heels around 11pm, left the bar around 6am and found a group of people still queuing to get in. It rounds out the list of top nights out, but unfortunately we had to catch the flybus to the airport at 8:30 the next morning.

Arriving at Gatwick around 3, I made my way into central London for one more day in England before heading back to Michigan for Christmas. The trip manifested itself with Indian food, walks along the Thames, a trip to Camden, the Tate Modern, and the various large and not so large Christmas trees of London.

so the first two pictures are of the northern lights (much more spectacular in person but nevertheless present), and the rest are from various locations in London including Parliment, Camden market, chinatown, millenium bridge, and St. Pauls.




weird modern art scuplture in the downtown area


6am in Reykjavik

Thingveller, Geysir, Gulfoss (The Grand Circle in Iceland)

So on day three of our Icelandic journey, Natalie and I hired a car. Our lovely little Toyota Micra, equipped with a manual transmission and an american sided steering wheel, proved interesting, and we only nearly crashed the car three times. We started early though and managed to make it to Thingveller National Park (where the viking congress was held back in the day), Geysir (geothermal water shooting up like old faithful), and Gulfoss (Iceland's second largest waterfall).

Iceland is a literally a hotbed of geothermal and volcanic activity, which was exciting for the earth science teacher in me. At Thingveller, we walked along the most visible plate rift in the world--where north america and eurasia are diverging away from one another. At Geysir, we watched Strokkur geyser blow, drank very hot hot chocolate and made our way to Gulfoss. Nearly there, it started power snowing, we missed the sign and skidded the car into a two-foot drift. Icelandic people are quite friendly and hospitable, and the electrician at the lodge helped us push the car out so we finally made it to the quasi frozen waterfall. From there, we found an English family to follow and made our way slowly back to the motorway.

From there we notably navigated our vehicle around inactive volcanoes, various tiny towns, and made it to the Blue Lagoon--a nearly undescribable outdoor bath of sulfrous, silicate water that ranged from 88-104 degrees F in different spots. Wooden boardwalks dotted the lagoon, geothermal steam filled the air, and between bouts of white steam, the MOST AMAZING stars gave us their love. I have no pictures; it is difficult to find a place to conceal a digital camera within a swimsuit or towel in -5 degree celsius weather. But it was the essential end to a very long, adventure filled, near death experience filled day.