Last week Tuesday, Callum and I went to the zoo for his birthday. We had decent weather--sunny and pretty warm--which was wonderful! Originally we were supposed to go Monday, but the weather was rainy and cold...not good for walking around seeing animals. I had a coupon for buy one get one free tickets the catch was to use the National Rail service to get to London. Technically we live in London, but we had tickets left over from traveling back from Norwich, so we used those to validate the coupon and it worked! As Callum's favorite animal is the penguin, we mainly went to see the new penguin exhibit. It was pretty amazing! It was set up like a mini beach, with some breezy trees and a pile of sandy-based land towards the back and a huge tank that had clear sides so you could see the penguins swim underwater. They even had a little cubby-hole option to view them underwater for kids (you had to be short to use it, unfortunately!). We watched them swim for quite a while and also caught their presentation/feeding time later that afternoon. The London Zoo is a bit unique because it is also a very active conservation-based facility too. So the presentation included the ways that the zoo is helping penguins in their natural habitats, which was interesting.
Some of the other exhibits were really cool too. We went to the monkey area and saw this family of monkeys (I don't remember exactly what kind, I should have taken a picture of the sign) but it was the cutest thing. There was a momma and a daddy monkey sitting on a platform with some other grown-up monkeys and a baby monkey. The baby was really active and literally leaping all around their area on the ropes and things they had but the momma and daddy wanted the baby to stay by them. So they'd go off and cart the baby back every time he left them. But he always managed to escape and leap back in the ropes--it looked like a family, you should almst hear the parent monkeys saying "You come back here this minute! It is dangerous to jump that high and so far, you are too little!" And in another area, we saw another kind of monkey that had a bit of attitude. I have a picture of this one up on facebook--this monkey standing on his back legs, holding onto the fence with his body and head cocked looking like "hey, yea, what's up, you talking to me?" haha. :)
We also saw Galapagos tortoises--SO enormous! One was out quite close to the fence and we could watch him eat--he's pretty cute for being so big. And the ones they had (there were about 3) were relatively young. The oldest was only 45 years old or so, considering they live for about 150. Can you imagine if people lived that long? That's just crazy. Close to this exhibit was the reptile house, which was really cool and I didn't realize until Callum pointed out the sign--it was there where that snake scene in the first Harry Potter movie was filmed. I thought that was kinda neat, considering we basically stumbled upon it.
Later that week we went to Oxford. I much prefer Oxford to Cambridge I think. The city just felt a bit more alive with it's history, if that makes any sense. It was more in-tun e with all the people and events that are tied to the area. We walked around the uni campuses, saw Alice's Shop (the former sweets shop that inspired the Sheep Shop in Alice in Wonderland), enjoyed all the art that is just built into the city, and had a really great, cheap meal at a unique pizza place. One of my favorite parts of the day though was visiting the castle grounds. We didn't go into the castle itself (you had to take a tour, and it cost about 7 pounds and was a bit long) but we did explore the man-made, former look-out point, hill. It was made from the earth dug up for the moat that used to encircle the castle (now it is replaced with concrete roads). You got to climb rather high up and get a great view of the city. We also visited the oldest building in Oxford, which is a chapel that has a bell tower you could climb up. It was beautiful up there as well because it was more central to the city and you could see the spires of all the other churches and historic buildings--Oxford is known for its spires. It was a really relaxed day, mostly wondering about between the handful of places we both wanted to make sure to see. Towards the end of the day, it got really cold though, so we were glad to catch the train back home. :)
Two nights ago, we had our "last" flatmates dinner. It was the only night everyone was free in the evening, so even though we'll still see each other this week, our official "last" dinner was then. But it was actually better this way because it wasn't sad at all since we knew we'd still see each other as we pack up. Anyways, Jess has a card that gets 50% off meals at certain restaurants around Marylebone Road. So we went to an Italian restaurant not too far away. The food was quite good and not too expensive with the coupon. We were the only ones there though for the second half of the meal, so that was a little strange. But we were able to talk and hang out, which was nice. Afterwards we went to a flat party with the handful of people still left in halls--sad that the group has dwindled so low! I'm the last American to leave. But the night was still fun.
Yesterday, Callum read about the Hard Rock Cafe in the newspaper. They were having their 40th "Birthday" and to celebrate, they set their menu back to their original prices from 1971. Though drinks were not included, you could get a whole meal (hamburger, ribs, club sandwich, etc.) for 60p! Aside from spending about £4 each for drinks, our whole bill for both of our dinners totaled £1.80. Anyways, so we decided to check it out. First we went to Oxford Street--I needed to pick up a birthday gift for Reena. Then we headed to Piccadilly Circus for a bit of food to keep us going for a bit. And after that we headed straight for the Hard Rock Cafe. The queue went around one corner of the block, but we thought we'd wait about an hour and a half. Well, after about an hour, we finally reached the corner. (Though we did come at a decent time, at the hour mark the line was even longer than when we originally came). At this point we thought that we were half-way there and would only be another hour. Yea well...no. It took about another hour and a half to get to the door and once there, we were given one of those buzzer things that lets you know when a table is ready with an estimated hour and half wait while inside! (Luckily, we only waited half and hour, but still, before we knew that, it was a bit daunting!) Anyways, once we had the buzzer, we were allowed to at least be inside at the bar. So we got a drink and talked in the basement area for a while. Then once we were buzzed, we were told that due to the crowd, they've been putting people together at tables to save space. So we sat with another couple--I'd say about they were about a decade and a half, maybe two decades older than my parents. When we got to the table, they were sitting across from each other, so we had to do the same. But because it is so loud in there, we ended up talking to them a bit more initially since they were sitting next to us. I was sitting next to the gentleman. Come to find out, he was born in Michigan, lived in Detroit for the first 4 years of his life, his father worked for Ford, and he knew all about Dearborn (where my mom's from). What are the chances of that happening? After a while, we switched seats so we sat next to our respective partners so we could hear each other better. But we still would talk with them every once and a while. They had been going to the Hard Rock Cafe for years--it is where they met and they used to meet there every Friday night. He used to know the manager and still has his VIP pass to get him in without waiting. Both looked like the stereotypical, high-class Englishman/woman. But I think that was only because they live in Mayfair (very expensive part of London where the Cafe is located...a bit of rebellion in the middle of the rich, haha) and come to find out, both bobbed their heads to most of the songs they played and loved the loudness of it all. They even shared that "All Night Long" was "their" song. It was just the cutest thing ever. :) We stayed to have dessert and they left, so we got the table to ourselves for a bit and have a look around. The place is chalk full of authentic guitars, costumes, albums, etc. collected over the years. The big front room is exactly how it was in 1971. And I even recognized most of the names--I knew more about rock 'n roll than I thought! haha. It was a great place and I never would have checked it out if Callum hadn't see that advert.
I've got a few days left now--leaving Saturday. Today I am hoping to get to Greenwich and spend some time with my flatmates. Then I need to pack in the next couple days. It's almost over, but I'm going to enjoy it until the very last minute! :)
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