Tuesday, January 22, 2013

A frosty treat

After five weeks of exploring London, I feel like I'm ready to go back 'home'. [I feel so lucky every time I use the word 'home'- I have Philippines and Australia; in this post, I mean Roseworthy, South Australia.  I would love to take a flight from Heathrow to NAIA but some unsettled university issues (mentioned on my previous entry) oblige me to follow my original itinerary to fly straight from London to Adelaide on the thirteenth of next month.]




I still have twenty-three days left in England but I honestly don't know how to spend this remaining days wisely. For me that was it- I have visited and taken photos of myself with Big Ben, the Parliament House (both with and without snowfall) and Westminster Abbey; I have seen the Buckingham Palace, entered St. Paul's Cathedral and the British Museum; crossed River Thames while walking over the Millenium Bridge, discovered Madame Tussauds, Notting Hill, and Harrods; been to the ever mysterious Stonehenge, the unique Roman city of Bath, William Shakespeare's birthplace (Stratford-upon-Avon) and explored the Warner Bros. Studios-UK (and discovered how Harry Potter films were made) as well as the lovely town of Cambridge. For me, that's what England is all about, and I don't want to demand (or honestly, stress myself) for more.

Days were actually getting boring lately; but the weather came to the rescue- it did give a bit of excitement! London wasn't generous enough to let me experience white Christmas (a cool and very wet Christmas, instead) but just recently, those hovering grey clouds eventually decided to turn into flurries!  And last Friday, amidst the risk of railway and bus travel cancellations, I still ventured to meet my friend Phil in Central London and considered to charge it to experience if ever worse would come to worst... so, with more than enough provisions packed in my bag, at the blink of an eye, I found myself outside Bayswater Underground Station in the middle of a heavy snowfall! I was not alone, though, I saw tourists posing inside or beside those red telephone booths along the streets wanting to have their photographs taken during that interesting (well, for me it was interesting) weather event!

Snowfall at the Parliament House, Westminster.

I have seen how this charming city transformed into a huge freezer!  Yesterday afternoon, I was enjoying a piece of buttermilk sponge cake and a cup of green tea by the window- and the view of heavy snowfall with those leafless tree branches, pines and Victorian houses along Elmer's End Rd gradually getting covered in finely crushed ice was like a gigantic movie screen to me- a real 4D experience, all for free!

And to quench my thirst, I stepped out of the flat, took photos of the frozen streets, joined the kids at the frosty park nearby and played like a 3-year old!

I am actually typing this in a bus, we're about to depart for quite a long journey... so it's time to 'park this pen' now.

2 comments:

Reymos said...

It reminds me of my first trip to Glasgow and Edinburgh, not to forget my summer trip to Paris. For urban planners like me, these cities are the always cited as case studies for urban planning theories/models. It seems that you are really enjoying your trip!

RJ said...

REYMOS
Wow, you've travelled and learned a lot! Those cities are beautiful!

Yes, I did enjoy myntrip, but I am back in South Australia now for these university things.