London and Stonehenge

I just got back from a weekend trip to London to see my dad, who was spending the week at the London office. I took an early train down Friday morning and got to spend Friday afternoon, Saturday, Sunday and part of Monday morning with him. It was a lot of fun! We stayed with his friend Barry (who he knows from high school and I've known forever) so it was a really nice weekend. Barry is spending the semester at the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine. He's got these amazing books around his flat that have quite graphic pictures of what happens when you get a tropical disease. Very, very, very smart dude.

The train took 6 hours each way, which was long but not too bad. I got to sleep a bunch and the train had free wifi. On the way back some guy had his dog on the train. It was very different than trains I have taken in the states.

Friday night we went to a pub for a couple of beers and then Barry took us on a walking tour of the areas near his flat. We got to see Leicester Square, which is where a lot of movies have their world premiers. The theaters were huge! Since it was a Friday night, there were a lot of people going out. Barry said people take trains into the city to go out Friday and Saturday nights. The outfits people were wearing were quite interesting. There were a lot of jeggins (to borrow a word from Sammi) and a lot of visible asses. It was, um, lovely.

Saturday we went to a bunch of the markets that are around London. First we went to Covent Gardens to see the market there. It was like a huge version of the Vermont farmer's market. There was some neat stuff, but there were a ton of people there and it was hard to move around. Dad bought a tweed hat (don't worry mom, it isn't pastel colors) and insisted on wearing it around for the rest of the day. Then we visited the zoo. Um, I mean, Camden Market. It was one of the craziest places I've been. There were a lot of strange stands selling shirts with slogans like, "I don't need sex, the government f&*%s me every day" and "I love porn." So I very much enjoyed people watching. When we got to the main part of the market, there were literally hundreds of little food stands. I ended up getting a thing of Chinese food for £4 and it was wonderful. I never would have gone to Camden market with a school group or by myself, so I was glad we went. That night we went to one of the huge theaters to see the Green Zone. When you buy your ticket they assign you a seat and are very strict about it. The screen was monstrous and the movie was actually really good. It was neat to see a movie in Leicester square.

Sunday Dad and I took a train to Salisbury so we could visit Stonehenge. Even though we couldn't walk inside the stones, it was very neat to walk around. Dad and I both wore Colgate sweatshirts (on purpose, and with jackets over them) so that we could take a Colgate picture at Stonehenge! I'll post them soon. It was extremely windy, but the sun was out so I think I got some pretty good pictures. We didn't spend too much time at Stonehenge, but it was still pretty neat and I wouldn't have visited it unless my dad had been there with me.

All in all, it was a great weekend. We didn't do a lot of touristy stuff, but it was relaxing to just hang out with my dad and Barry. Dad is coming up to St. Andrews on Friday, so I will get to show him around here. There's not quite as much to do here as there is in London, but it will still be a lot of fun!