The Thames Festival and The Letter!

Hey familial unit!!!

First of all, let me tell you something rather fun. For those of you I correct in grammar all the time - feel free to laugh and know that karma always has her way. (Yes - I am a feminist therefore Karma is a she!) :P I cannot pronounce anything here correctly. The street names, the tea names, the everything. So I learned in the best way possible that the river "Thames" is not pronounced 'Th-Ames'. Nope. Not at all. It's definitely pronounced "Timms." And actually, I think I knew that but my brain can't help but set my mouth up to pronounce 'Th-Ames' every time...Uh. Right.

There's this thing in London called the Thames Festival. The mayor actually puts it on - at least that's what all the little brochures say. They have different stages with different genres of music. Kemper and I accidentally walked into it on Sunday. We were productive a bit earlier in the day at our favourite city hide-away of St. George's gardens. We spent the morning there and then we decided to walk around. We just left the flat and started walking in a vague direction.

Well. I like this whole let's wing it mentality. The only problem is - we both realized a little late - that neither of us had our maps. Of course. Well, I had a small panic attack because I hadn't been paying attention to where we were going. However, we both burst out in laughter because there is the tube. Oh yes, the tube can save you if you get lost. Just jump in grab a line that'll take you to where you live, and you're safe. (But, in the future, I'll take my map with me everywhere I go. I pinky promise. :) )

Anyway - so we were just walking and we found some really beautiful Cathedrals. There is this one church, St. Sepulchre-without-Newgate, which we stumbled upon. It is absolutely beautiful, and we read this informative sign on the door. Apparently this church is popularly known as The Musician's Church. They have beautiful choral presentations every Monday. Kemper and I plan to come listen to the choir later on in September. (I don't have beautiful pictures of the church or most of my wanderings on Sunday because I left my camera at the flat - HUGE mistake - I won't do it again. So, sorry for the lack of photos.)

We kept on walking and found a beautiful courtyard in the middle of the city. It was in commiseration of an old church and there were beautiful roses in every colour everywhere. Kemper and I took pictures of each other stopping to smell the roses in the city that is always in a hurry. Seriously. Everyone here is always either jogging, running, or power walking to their destination.

They're not doing these things for recreation, they just seem to be in a dire hurry. Maybe there's a time warp and they are just used to the fast pace of London. Either way, I find it annoying because I think that most Londoners probably don't know about that garden. It's a peaceful place - I actually layed down on the ground and stared up at the blue sky with yellow and pink roses dangling about. It was BEAUTiful!

Let's see. We found St. Paul's cathedral after we enjoyed our time in that quaint garden. St. Paul's is absolutely astounding. We entered the court-yard and I literally had to stop for fifteen minutes and stare in awe at the building. It's crisply white with gold saints and huge columns. Oh my. I felt so small and yet like I was somehow a part of the grandeur of the building, the feeling is pretty much indescribable.

We walked through the courtyard and out onto the cobblestoned paths surrounding the great doors that are housed beneath huge stained glass. I want to go to church there. There's actually a free lecture that Kemper and I will go check out in a couple of weeks, but I'm pretty sure I want to come for a Sunday. Maybe I'm having nostalgia for my Catholic high school - but the building was amazing.

Around St. Paul's the streets were skinnier and they were also really windy, as if they were still in their original layout from the past. Who knows? Kemper and I found a neat cafe called "Grace" because it's a stone's throw away from the Cathedral. We promised we'd come back because it's so quaint.

We continued walking to the river - and we happened upon the Thames festival. I remember Julia writing about how pretty the fireworks are over the river so I got excited. We walked up and down the festival, listening to a strange jazz band and an even stranger dj. There were a bunch of booths with strange trinkets and I almost bought some yarn and some needles so I could knit. How silly is that? We didn't buy anything but we were getting pretty hungry.

We had to run around and walk all the way back. We finally just jumped in the tube to come back to eat. However, I was all sad because I thought we were done for the day and were going to miss the fireworks. Actually - Mandi texted Kemper and asked if we wanted to watch the fireworks. Even though Kemper and I were exhausted we went back out and I took my camera along this time. (However, I couldn't figure out how to put it on my fireworks mode - haha - so don't judge the pictures too harshly!)

We got on a bus (yes one of the weird red ones - the drivers are literally crazy!) and ended up right next to the river. We got out and joined the que lining the walls against the river. We were somewhere close to the eye and I took a picture. It's kind of hard to make out, but Big Ben is all lit up in the background. :) I will go back sometime and take a picture of Big Ben and Parliament all lit up at night. (Did I mention that we get to tour Parliament soon? I'm pretty pumped.)

Anywho - the fireworks went off!! It was splendid. They were so beautiful over the river. However, one thing that was a bit saddening (I guess because I miss watching the fireworks with my Dad and Jess on the grass at the country club golf course) it was so loud! The sound waves bounced off the surrounding buildings and amplified the sound of the roaring a million fold! (Ok, I'm exaggerating, but it was loud).

I still enjoyed them. And it was a great way to end another day in London.

Now - today - Monday was eventful as well. I GOT MY LETTER!!!! I posted a picture of my letter that you guys sent me. First of all, I bet it's kind of weird for you guys to think that I've ended up with this lovely letter that traveled all the way overseas to me! You have no idea. I saw it on the floor (because they slip the mail through the slot - how cliche) and I screamed. I was on the way to cafe Nero with Claire and Erin and I was literally all, "AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!"

I think I scared the two of them to death. Well, I picked my letter up and ripped it open and I've read it at least ten times since I've first laid my eyes on the "We miss you" written in Momma's handwriting on the envelope! I went to cafe Nero with Claire and Erin and read the letter on the way over. I got a really neat coffee thing that was delicious. I can't remember exactly what it was called - but I took a picture of the immense amount of whipped cream they put on it. Gramner it makes me think of all the times we used to go to Starbucks after school! (Except that this coffee puts Starbucks to shame, even though Cafe Nero is a chain as well...)

Let's see...Then we went to a new grocery store today. It's a good thing because I was completely out of food. I ate a lot today. I made quesadillas for dinner with fresh veggies and hummus and cheese. Oh man. It made me think of the time Jess and I first made them with hummus. So good. :)

Hold on now, I got ahead of myself. Kemper and I decided that we wanted to plan our weekend trips today. We have Northern Ireland, Scotland, and maybe Paris on the list. The only thing that's set in stone at the moment is Northern Ireland. I'm excited. We got all that sorted out - but we sure took a long time battling numbers and dates. We also want to take a day trip to Oxford sometime in there...

We left this morning in the search of a cafe with free wi-fi. The plan was to get some nice hot tea (it was rainy in London today and colder than it has been up until today) and plan things out. Well, we got to Foyles - which is really neat. It's a cafe and a bookstore together and you have to go up these really spindly stairs to get to the cafe. However, they were really really busy and there weren't any chairs to sit on. SO...Kemper and I went walking in some random direction.

We were in soho - haha. We kept walking past interesting looking lingerie shops and such, but we finally found a pub (of all things) with free wi-fi. So we went in and at the time it wasn't really busy and we found a nice corner to sit in and we ordered a snack. I got some strange potato wedge things that were pretty good. Later after the potatoes I ordered a fosters. We were getting frustrated battling the hostel websites and it was becoming late.

Well...late and a pub usually means business. We started to feel out of place - we had picked an upper scale pub where posh looking middle-aged Londoner's were glaring at us for taking up a whole table with our computer and college looking expressions and clothes. We ditched soho and headed back to Foyles. We found it way less busy and so we finished our deal and are due to go to Northern Ireland soon! I'm so excited!

Anywho - I'll do my best to keep you guys updated and posted and content with pictures. Thanks so much for the letter! I miss you all. I must now go and read Shakespeare as I've been procrastinating.

Enjoy my scare pictures. I'll take more next time. :)