Long Walk

Well! Today was a loooooong day. I went to the gym, had six hours of class, and went out tonight, only having just returned from a two-hour hike back to campus from the Tower Bridge. Very exciting.

My friend Hannah came to visit me this weekend. I think she only came because she wanted to be in my blog, which is apparently very posh in Italy right now. It’s the least I can do to help out a friend in her budding blog-celebrity career. We, meaning myself and my friends Dave and Lewis, met Hannah and her friend Julie at the Tower of London (which, contrary to its name, is actually a big castle) and proceeded to wander aimlessly. Eventually we ended up in a pub called the Peacock. And this is where the fun began. As soon as I walked in the door, the barman began making fun of me. I was wearing a very peculiar hat, knitted for me by a dear friend, and the barman thought it quite a queer thing to wear out and about, so he let me have it in front of the rest of the pub. Then the jokes moved to being American, and being from Oregon, and just being me in general. It was pretty entertaining actually, he had a lot of material.

We each had a couple of expensive drinks at the Peacock. We talked, shared some laughs, became good friends, had a few tearful confessions, some love pentagons began forming; it was a good time all around, until we realized we had stayed out past the golden hour of 12:30 am, when the tube stops running, meaning it would be difficult for the girls to get back to their hostel. We went to look at a bus map, and found out the only night bus which came near us wouldn’t be helpful at all. Unfortunately, they ended up taking an expensive cab home, but at least they got back safe and sound.

We three men, on the other hand, decided to take the long walk home rather than try to decipher the bus schedule. We began our walk from the south end of the Tower Bridge and soon met a very drunk, very interesting and very French fellow. He introduced himself as John Wayne. If I remember correctly, he said to Dave, “You are as drunk as one thousand men, which is very impressive for a man of your stature,” which was frankly not true, and he did some very good impressions. We made him prove he was French by speaking in French, and he passed. Pretty crazy guy. Anyways, we continued on our sacred quest to return the one ring to Mordor, and returned home at about three in the morning after a vigorous walk along the Regent’s Canal. There were some beautiful swans floating in the partially frozen water.

Here are a couple pictures, one of Hannah and one of Dave doing a handstand.