On Friday night we tried to go to a comedy show at a pub called the Bath House. The comedians pretty much sucked, and not just because of the "British" jokes that went over my head (like making fun of the way Welsh people speak). We ended up leaving half-way through, so we just walked around Soho and Piccadilly Circus for a while. At one point, a group of motorcycles drove by, and I checked out the back of their jackets: they said "England's Hell's Angels." Hahaha.
There were a lot of people out, except on Carnaby Street, a good shopping street, because obviously everything was closed there. I hadn't been there before, and there's a really cool mural on the side of a building with a woman whose dress says "Soho" at the top and spills out into a map on her skirt. You can't see it that well in the pictures because of the night lighting:
On Saturday morning I took a train to Aylesbury, where I got a cab to take me to Waddesdon.
It's about an hour outside of London, so I rode past a lot of the countryside and saw more sheep, cows, and horses. It's still really strange to see them out in the open. Also saw a little place called the Sugar Loaf Inn, which I thought was a cute name, and The John Kennedy, which was a restaurant or something with JFK's picture on the outside. Kind of funny, and it reminded me of something Alice said after going to Berlin. Apparently they, like, love JFK there. There's a whole museum or something dedicated to him. I'm also pretty sure there was a JFK Street in Paris.
Anyway, the cabbie dropped me off outside the grounds, and I unknowingly took the really long route to get up to the manor. I didn't go inside, but I walked around the grounds for a bit. It was really sunny out (even though the forecast said it was going to rain -- I got lucky) and there were a bunch of families enjoying the weather, playing, and picnicing. There weren't as many flowers and I thought there would be from the pictures on Waddesdon's website, maybe because it's too early in the year, but they had lilacs that smelled really nice.
There was also a plaque on some steps near the back of the house dedicated by the Cedar Boys.
When I bought my ticket when I got there, I asked the guy if he could tell me how to get to The Cedars, and I explained that my grandpa lived there and I knew I couldn't get in but just wanted to see it. When I came back later to ask them to call a taxi for me (They told me to come back and they'd would call, but seemed confused when I called it a "cab."), one of the guys in the information center asked if I was the girl whose grandfather had lived there and showed me a book with a picture of some Cedar Boys and asked if any of them was Poppa. They were all too old, but it was nice that he looked it up.
I had the cab make a little detour to find The Cedars, which was just outside the exit to the manor. I hopped out and took some pictures.
I got back to my dorm at around four and it was still really sunny out, so I walked to this bakery called Love Bakery about 20 minutes away in South Kensington (my neighborhood). There's another bakery nearby called Hummingbird that everyone raves about, but I think it's completly overrated. The cupcakes (what they're known for) are very cute, but taste-wise I'd prefer something from Betty Crocker that I could make on my own. I decided to check out Love Bakery and was very happy because the cupcakes were cute and delish, and they had red velvet ones (which Magnolia in the Village doesn't have).
That night, we were on the no-pay guest list at a club called Mayfair in Soho because my friend's boss knows a club promoter. We ended up sitting at the promoter's table (with a girl celebrating her 18th birthday) and got free Belvedere vodka all night, which was awesome. Except I did end up paying for it on Sunday. Which is why the story of my weekend ends here. Bye.
No comments:
Post a Comment