F.I.D. Artist Bio: Noel

Feb. 18, 2007
It is 4:30 a.m. and Jonathan just drove away in a taxi. That marks the end of a good weekend.
Jonathan and Dan, two high school friends (and Dan goes to MU) arrived Thursday night and really, got quite a bit done in their two plus days here.

I left work a bit early on Thursday and got on the packed underground trains to Waterloo Station. Jonathan, who is studying in Madrid, arrived at Victoria Station via Gatwick Airport about a half hour before. Dan, who is studying in Paris, took the Chunnel. Kristen and Emily, two more high school friends studying in London, picked up Jon. I picked up Dan.

The immediate plans were not set in stone, so I took Dan back to my flat to get rid of his luggage. I also went home partly because I thought the unshaven for three days look was stylish in the morning, but suddenly I needed it gone. I took Dan to a kebab shop about a block away while Jon ate with the ladies near Covent Garden, and then we decided to meet up.

Kristen, who goes to Notre Dame, has her pub of choice already staked out near Piccadilly Circus. The place is called O’Neill’s and is three stories high with a dance floor up top. The top was closed, but we got a table on the first floor so we were fine for the next couple hours.

It was a fun night. Despite me having to work the next morning and Kristen leaving for a weeklong trip to Eastern Europe the next day, we stayed out until just before the tube closed at midnight. Although Kristen, Emily and I live in the same city, we hadn’t seen each other yet. Add in a friend from Paris and one from Madrid and we had a pretty unique situation: five suburban Minneapolis friends in London. Go figure.

The next morning was a bit rough but things went as planned. Jon had slept at Emily’s house so he could have a bed rather than a couch, but he arrived at Earls Court tube station on time Friday morning. I brought him back to the flat where Dan was waiting and then left for work.

Those two got a big portion of the London tourism down that morning. They saw Big Ben, House of Parliament, Westminster Abbey, walked Westminster Bridge, Trafalgar Square and St. Paul’s Cathedral.

Around 1 p.m. we met outside Chancery Lane station near my office and got some lunch. I had clearance to take some extra time, but we ended up taking quite a while. I showed them High Holborn Road a bit, which is a big business area, and then we walked past my office and two blocks down to Fleet Street.

We weren’t too picky as the options weren’t too plentiful, but there was a good place called Ye Olde Cock Tavern, which was about 10 minutes from my office. All three of us ate fish and chips and spent the next hour trying to figure out how we were all eating lunch together in London right now. The meal turned out to be very good, but I had spent an hour and a half on lunch so I needed to go.

Jon and Dan spent a couple minutes filling out visitor passes for a very brief tour of my office, but it was fun to show people what I do all day and introduce them to the few of my co-workers who were there. Three are on holiday, including my boss, and one had the day off, so there were only three people in. Then they were off and I got back to writing some soccer capsules.

Those two spent the rest of the day at the Tower of London, which seemed to be worth the money for them, and it sounded as if that might have been the favorite thing Jon saw on his trip. I got off work around 5:30, which is early for a Friday, and we met back at my flat.

For dinner we went on a walking tour where I learned a bit more about my area. I took them near where my school is so they could admire the cars on the walk up, and then we cut up Gloucester Road towards Hyde Park. We walked around a bit until we found The Giraffe. I don’t know what kind of restaurant it was, but it was pretty trendy (and expensive). When we asked for our bill, it said we owed £75. Thankfully it was the wrong bill and ours was only £50, but still.

After dinner we spent some time back at my flat so Jon could look up the Star Tribune and various building Web sites on my computer. We listened to the Beatles and hung out in the flat for an hour or so and the night concluded with a local pub. About three blocks away is another O’Neill’s, but it is much more low key than the one in Piccadilly Circus. We ended up staying for about an hour until it closed at midnight. We considered going somewhere else, but we didn’t feel like paying a cover so we went back to my flat.

Saturday did not disappoint either. The plan was for Jon and Dan to get the major tourists things done on Friday so we could do some cooler things on Saturday. We didn’t decide where to start until the last minute, but it turned out to be pretty perfect.

We took the tube to Hyde Park Corner and walked through Green Park to Buckingham Palace for some obligatory pictures. Buckingham Palace isn’t very exciting, but who comes to London and doesn’t at least see it? Then we walked through St. James Park over to the Westminster area. The plan was to tour Winston Churchill’s Cabinet War Rooms, the bunker where he called the shots during World War II, but we scratched that after finding out it cost £9.

From here, we didn’t really have a plan. We walked to 2 Downing Street, but Tony Blair wasn’t anywhere to be found. We had been out for about an hour at this point and it was probably around noon, so we decided to find lunch.

First we walked to the area near Parliament and Big Ben, but it was as crowded as I have ever seen the area. We decided there might be somewhere to stop by the river. The closest bridge is Westminster Bridge, but it was packed with tourists and those two walked across it on Friday. We walked along the river for about a half-mile and crossed at the next bridge.

The other side of the river wasn’t any less hectic. The plan now was to keep walking west, find something to eat and eventually cross back over on the pedestrian only Millennium Bridge. We walked for a while, sat on a bench for a while, and then reached Millennium Bridge.

Before starting back, we looked behind us and saw a giant brick building with a 100-foot brick tower coming out
the top. It was the Tate Modern Art Museum. This is one of the bigger art museums in England and is a place that a lot of tourists don’t skip.

It was going to be a quick viewing. The plan was to walk through, see if anything caught our eye, and then go. Well, something caught out eye. There are three metal slides from the top of the building. We took an annoyingly long escalator setup to the top only to find out that you needed to get a free ticket on the ground level. We went back to the ground level, saw the queue, and left.

The Millennium Bridge is about what we expected. It’s a thin white bridge with modern-looking spires on the sides. We took a 10-minute break admiring the city from the middle of the river. We also admired the dirty river and speculated how many dead Vikings, Normans and Englishmen were resting at the bottom.

The bridge ends at St. Paul’s Cathedral, a dominating dome that is one of the oldest buildings in London. It is said to be the second largest cathedral only to St. Peters in Vatican City. We had seen it before, so we didn’t stop.

It was around 3:30 p.m. at this point, and with no real plans for that night, we decided to look into a musical. We took the tube to Leicester Square, where they sell cheap tickets, and gave it a shot.

There was a long line into the “Half Price Tickets” booth, and being a Saturday night we tried not to get our hopes up too much. We were up for just about anything as long as it was under £30. When it was our turn, we listed every musical on the board. It was either 50 plus quid or else sold out. There was another hale-price station in the Leicester Square tube station, but it was the same thing.

Bummed out, we decided to go get a milk shake since Jon couldn’t find one in Spain. There was a theater across the street from McDonalds, so we figured we might as well give it a shot. We went in and the woman started reading off the prices.

“This one is £55 with an extreme limited view (third balcony in the corner), this one is £50, standing room only for £18.”

Well, we were getting somewhere. At least there were tickets. Then I decided to ask one more question.

“Student tickets?”

“Oh well of course,” she said.

We ended up getting £20 seats in the center of the first balcony for Avenue Q. Perfect.

The musical started at 5 p.m. so we got dinner at Pizza Express and then headed over.
This was one of the musicals that we had on our short list. Basically, it is a mix of live action and puppets performing a dirty Sesame Street type show. It was probably the best option three 21-year-old men could have asked for.

The musical was great; we all liked it a lot. The songs were funny and related to our friends and us so we laughed a lot. It was a good way to spend the early part of the night. We hadn’t even thought of it before that day.

The tube was crowded on the way home, but we got off a few stops early anyway so we could visit Harrods department store. It’s not Target though. Jonathan wanted to look at all of the expensive stuff and Dan wanted an umbrella, but it was pretty clear he wasn’t going to get anything before we went in.

The outside is lit up with small white lights all over and the inside is equally as elegant. There are tons of rooms with all kinds of different things. Among the various price tags we had time to look at were scarves for £1000 plus and an umbrella for £150. The store closed before we got too far though. We made the longest possible exit we could, walking through the food court and some other rooms.

I live three tube stops from Knightsbridge Station, but we decided to walk home. It is a pretty straight show and no more than a half hour. There are also some interesting sights on the way home, like the Victoria and Albert Museum and the Natural History Museum. Both are giant buildings with great architecture. The Natural History Museum often plays host to major celebrity parties as well.

We let Jon check on the progress of some buildings for a bit and then went out to a local pub. The Prince of Teck is about two blocks from me, but it is a nice and authentic English pub. Most of the people in there are fulltime residents rather than American students, which is what O’Neill’s tends to be.

The rest of the night was spent hanging out there talking and it was the perfect way to end the weekend.
Jon, who had to wake up at 4 a.m., ended up going to bed around 1 a.m., but Dan and I, who had to wake up around 10 a.m., decided to stay up. I called a cab for Jon at 4:30 and with that he drove away down the empty Hogarth Road. Dan and I then went to bed, and at 10:30 I took him to Waterloo Train Station for his ride home.
The weekend probably could have been better, we maybe could have done more, but when it was all said and done I was very satisfied. I did everything I wanted to and for the most part I think they got to see as much of London as you can in two full days. At night, we got to hang out and talk to familiar people, which was always welcoming.

Overall, it was a great weekend.

Suicide of the “Cuvivies”

In the “Ozogoche” lake, 4.000 meters (12.800 feet) over sea level, a unique natural phenomenon occurs, dozens of birds dive in the water to die. This is celebrated with dances, art shows, music, and typical food. It unites folklore groups from Peru, Bolivia and Ecuador.Indigenous from “Totoras”, “Ozogoche”, “Zula” and “Liglia” exhibit their craftwork. For some [...]