The countdown is well and truly on - I leave London in just five days. My last day at work is next Wednesday. It's hard to believe, and hard to imagine not being here at the end of next week. This year has been so wonderful for so many reasons, and although I am looking forward to being home, I will also miss my job, my new friends here, and the city in general.
A few stats to sum up about the past year:
Guided walking tours in London: 6
And, of course, innumerable memories. We had my leaving drinks last night, with the whole work group, including 3 of the people who have left since I've been working there, plus Karen and Gill. It was really lovely, and made me even more sad about saying goodbye to all of them.
Before I head home though, I still have one major trip to go! I leave on Thursday for my 4-week trek through north-eastern Europe, which is both exciting and a bit scary all at once. I still don't feel quite as prepared as I'd like, though I'm getting there. I do finally have all my accommodation booked, which helps! Most of the transportation I'll need to book as I go, as you can't get online train tickets in a lot of the places I'm going. The general outline is:
Feb. 28 - March 1 - Poland
I don't know how much Internet access I will have along the way, but I will do my best to update as I can!
And I must mention the most recent trip I took, which was last weekend to Switzerland and Liechtenstein. I stayed in Basel, which is a really lovely city with a gorgeous old town, and the best thing I've come across from a tourist info centre - they're called iGuides, and they're basically like an audio guide for the whole city! There are different walks you can follow, and you just key in the number to get more info along the way. It's like a walking tour, but at your own pace. I thought they were fantastic!
While there, I did a day trip to Liechtenstein, which is a tiny country nestled between Switzerland and Austria, and is just beautiful. The weather was lovely (no snow, sadly!), so I spent most of the day walking along the "Wanderweg" trails up the side of a mountain. Just gorgeous!
Pictures are below!
Theatre nights: 27
Trips outside of London: 30
Flights: 33
Airports: 23
Countries visited: 16
Pictures: 3318
March 2-3 - Ukraine
March 4-5 - Belarus
March 6-7 - Lithuania
March 8-9 - Latvia
March 10-11 - Estonia
March 12-13 - Russia
March 14-15 - Finland
March 16-24 - Sweden (including the World Figure Skating Championships!)
The tower on the beautiful medieval town hall
Amazingly well-preserved Romanesque carvings on the Cathedral
The view across Liechtenstein into Switzerland
The Alps in Liechtenstein
I'm officially on my last two weeks of work here in London, and I'm really quite sad about it. It's quite different from how I felt when I had two weeks left in Toronto. :-) And I'm torn between being sad about leaving, excited about my trip, and just wanting to go home.
So last week we had the Joseph theatre outing, which was a lot of fun. Lee Mead wasn't in the best voice overall, but had some good moments. We had planned to visit the Canadian pub in Covent Garden before the show, but it was closed for some reason, so we just went to Wagamama's instead.
This past weekend was my trip to Belfast, which went really well until the end... but let me start from the beginning. I flew in on Saturday morning, and after checking in at my hostel, walked around a bit downtown and then did a walking tour through the tourist office which was really excellent. The guide was very interesting. After that, I had time to get in a bus tour as well, which went to some places out of the city centre. We drove by the shipyard where the Titanic was built, and also into some of the areas most affected by the Troubles. It was really good as well. That night I decided to take advantage of the fact that movies are so much cheaper than in London and went to see "Juno", which was really good!
Sunday is when my problems started. I decided to do a day trip with a bus tour up to the Giant's Causeway on the north coast, and it was scheduled to get back to the city at 4:00. I needed to catch the bus to the airport at 4:15. So I asked the guy selling tickets if they would for sure be back by 4. He assured me they would, give or take 5 minutes. So I decided to go. Well, we didn't get back until 4:20, so I ended up missing the bus to the airport, and therefore missing my flight. Really annoying. I had to pay for another flight with a different airline to get back.
Despite all that, the trip to the coast was really good - there are paths both down by the water and up along the top of the cliffs. It was just beautiful - pictures are below.
This weekend I am off again, but will make sure to arrive at the airport in plenty of time!!
One of the political murals around the city
The unique rocks at the Giant's Causeway
Me on the path on the Northern Irish coast
Looking down at the lower path from the top of the cliffs
I've been having trouble sleeping lately. I'm not sure what it is, but I can't seem to shut my mind off for the night. I can't fall asleep until midnight, and then I wake up several times in the night from really vivid dreams, and am usually up for good by about 5:30. It's not good, I'm starting to feel really tired during the day!
It's not going to help that I really don't have any days to sleep in for....oh, about two months. I've booked trips away for this weekend and next weekend, and then my last weekend in London will be busy with preparations for leaving. It is coming up so quickly now!
This past weekend I took a day trip to Stratford-upon-Avon. My mom and I had wanted to go this summer, but with the flooding up there, it wasn't the best time for sightseeing. I went to the church where Shakespeare is buried, the house where he was born, and Anne Hathaway's cottage, where his wife grew up. I also then went to see a show by the Royal Shakespeare Company - they were doing the history plays, so I caught Henry IV, Part 2. It was really good! The theatre is fantastic - the space is just amazing. And the actors were really good.
Last week I had dinner with Amanda one evening, and then with Karen and Gill the next. We went to see the Sweeney Todd movie, and it was pretty good. We were sad they left out The Ballad of Sweeney Todd, but overall it was not bad, even if Gill did fall asleep. :-)
This week I'm going to see Joseph with some of the girls from work. I only have 3 weeks of work left - I'm starting to get quite sad about it now. I will really miss the people there, and the job itself! It's been so nice to do something that I enjoy, and not dread getting up to go to work each day. I have been keeping an eye on jobs I'd like to apply for back home, and will try to apply for one or two before leaving London. Although I'm still not looking forward to the prospect of doing more job interviews, I'm certainly nowhere near as nervous about it as I was this time last year!
Anyway, maybe I will try to actually get a decent night's sleep tonight - a few pictures to share for now!
Anne Hathaway's cottage
William Shakespeare's grave in Trinity Church