My European Invasion: Time is of the Essence- Happy New Year!!!

December 31^st

Today, Michael, his parents, their dogs, and I all packed into the car to spend the last day of 2011 visiting Greenwich which fittingly is another landmark known for its time. Walking the dogs in some lovely open park space, Michael’s mum, Niko, and I went on a little detour where we explored the Royal Observatory. We met back up with Michael and his dad and went to the invisible GMT line- well they do have a portion of the line actually drawn on but it cost 7 pounds to go stand on it, I felt that there were better ways to spend 7 pounds.

From Greenwich you can see a lot of London and other landmarks. It was such a great view!

We then had lunch in the Greenwich farmers market and Niko went and got her palm read by a fortune teller. I found an eastern shop that had nice wooden chopsticks for my hair. After visiting the market, Michael, his dad, and I went in the Greenwich foot tunnel which takes us under the River Thames! On the way back Michael and I went into the National Maritime Museum which was absolutely fabulous. There were just so many things to see but unfortunately we only had ten minutes to see them. Then we got ready for the night where we were going to bring in the New Year with style.

Michael and his Mum

Royal Observatory

National Maritime Museum!!

Greenwich Market

One of the events I have most been looking forward to since planning on spending this year in the UK has been spending New Years in London. For the past ten years or so I have seen the fireworks displayed on TV which always highlights London, New York, and Tokyo. Finally I can experience those same fireworks in person bringing in the year that many say will be our last (well according to the Mayan calendar at least).

Michael and I met up at the train station with a group of Michael’s buddies. We went and squeezed our way through the masses till we had a nice spot across from the London Eye. After waiting around four hours just standing around, my feet practically gave up on me 30 minutes before midnight, but the anticipation that the fireworks were going to be really good kept me going.

Finally Big Ben struck twelve and fireworks started shooting off of the London Eye as well as Big Ben. We had roughly 30 minutes of absolutely gab smacking spectacular fireworks display. The whole sky seemed to be consumed in a fire-y blaze tinted by metals and other elements. By the end of the show, despite being just across the river from it, you couldn’t see the London Eye as smoke smothered the visibility. Our next task was to rush and hopefully catch the one of the last trains to Dartford. The crowds were so intense; police were lined up outside a McDonalds and sectioned off the crowds as not to overwhelm the train and tube stations. Luckily we ran and raced into one of the cars of the second to last train. Despite all the waiting, hustling, and crowd maneuvering- it was all worth it. To be in the masses, to be part of such a big event, the whole experience was what I hoped for. According to Michael, they were the best he has ever seen coming out to the city for New Year’s.

This has been a New Year’s that I will never forget.