The Queen's birthday and her subjects' birthday suits

I am safely and soundly back in Madrid, and have returned to...rain. It is currently raining again. It was perfectly lovely and great when I went to class earlier today. Now, when I actually had plans to go out in about half an hour, and stay out for a while, it has started raining a LOT, with thunder and lightning again. What is this?? I only have so many days left in Madrid. Also, I somehow broke my umbrella (my cute little frog umbrella! Must get a Peabody replacement stat!) on my way to London. I can' t tell yet whether it's beyond repair or not, but it might be. Which means I am exposed to the elements in Madrid. Which means that there better not be any more elements (of the rainy variety, at least) from now until I leave.

But let us not speak of that. Instead...London!

From the moment when I met up with Ana (at about 1:30 a.m. after my plane landed in Luton airport on Friday at 11:30 p.m.) to the moment when I left her apartment, about 24 hours went by. During the course of those 24 hours, I slept for five, and the rest of the time, Ana and I were out and about doing something or other. It was the absolute perfect day in London. I could not have asked for a better day to be there, so considering that it was actually the only day I had available to go, things worked out really, really well.

So, first off, the greatest part of going to London was getting to hang out with Ana. She is one of the coolest people I know, super down to earth and so much fun to be around. I don't get to see her nearly enough at school (especially at the end of this semester, we were totally playing cat and mouse). So I was really excited to spend the whole day with her. We decided to be very good and get up early, so we could go see the Trooping of the Colours, which is this whole big parade/procession thing that they do for the Queen's birthday. I'm not entirely sure if it was her actual birthday, or just the official monarchy birthday, but either way, the ceremony was really cool! We stood on one side of this big street that leads to Buckingham Palace and watched many groups of red-suited, furry-hatted guards (aka soldaditos de ploma) strut down the street, coming from Buckingham Palace towards us. There were groups of guards playing instruments followed by groups holding knifey weapons. After watching them set up along the side of street, stomping and shifting their knifey weapons around, we watched more guards, in suits and on horses, walk by, followed by musician guards, ALSO on horses. The guys with the big drums hanging from either side of the horse were my favorites.

After some more guards on horses came by, we saw Prince William in his carriage, shortly followed by the Queen herself, in her own carriage, wearing a little hat and looking exactly the way I always picture the Queen to look. Everyone was super excited, cheering and clapping and waving to her; she's basically everyone's sweet little grandmother. But also, you know...Queen. (Though J.K. Rowling does technically have more money...)

We went off to grab some coffee (for warmth...it was nice out when the sun wasn't being blocked by the clouds, but otherwise, it was surprisingly cold! I was happy to have my North Face jacket with me) and food for our picnic in front of Buckingham. We stopped by this crazy gourmet food store, which was basically like a luxurious department store, but for food. It was ridiculously expensive, of course, but it was so much fun to wander around looking at the decor and all the cool displays. They had very small candy jars that cost 6 pounds. I was like, do they refill themselves automatically or what? 6 pounds is like 10 bucks! Anyway, it was fun. Especially the signs that said "Fishmonger" and "Cheesemonger." I also got a kick of asking for the "toilets" rather than restrooms.

When we went back to Buckingham, we sat in front of the palace on the grassy lawn thing and had our picnic while watching the royal family on the balcony. A little while later, about 10 or so groups of planes, of 2 to 3 planes each, flew overhead in quick succession, ending with a line of 9 planes leaving trails of blue, white, and red smoke behind. It was pretty cool. The sun had come out at this point, too, so it was a lovely day, and everyone was in a really good mood, cheering and whatnot.

After Buckingham, Ana and I left the group to go to the National Gallery, because I desperately wanted to see some paintings in there. Ana made for great company, since she was really enthusiastic about looking at the art with me. She didn't mind spending an hour and a half there with me, which I greatly appreciated. We saw a lot of really amazing things, among them: Holbein's Three Ambassadors (so we got to move around to try to see the anamorphic skull as a 3D object, at the right angle), Velazquez's Kitchen Scene with Christ in the House of Mary and Martha, and van Eyck's Arnolfini Portrait (which is one of the most important paintings EVER, and I've seen it SO many times in books and online, so seeing it in person was a really, really big deal). It was an awesome visit to the museum, I feel like we saw a lot of excellent artwork in the course of an hour and a half.

From there, we took a stroll around London, going over to a bridge over the Thames to see Big Ben and the Eye. Like I said, it was actually a really pretty day (by London standards, it was gorgeous), so being on the bridge overlooking the river was lovely. I remember so much about London so well, since I was there 10 days when we visited, so it was great to have these places that still seem so vivid so close again. It made me miss the Karbelnigs and Natalie especially, so much! We had such a great time 4 1/2 years ago when I went with them, my mom, and Andy. That's probably why I remember it all so well. Maybe something similar will happen when I go to Paris again! Anyway. On our way to Big Ben, we ran into the crowd of people on bikes, most of them totally naked, that traditionally parade around London on the same day as the Trooping of the Colours. There were SO many naked people, mostly naked men (I swear, men are secretly exhibitionists). It was a RIOT; there was music, some people were dancing, one guy (who was thankfully wearing little shorts) came over and asked Ana if she wanted to get on his bike. It was pretty hilarious. There was a group of girls scouts on our corner who were shielding their eyes while their chaperones just looked uncomfortable. Like I said, the perfect day to be in London.

Ana and I went into Westminster Abbey for a little while, though we couldn't go very far inside unless we stayed for mass (we didn't). Then we went back to her apartment and had a good time cooking dinner (spaghetti and meatballs) before heading out to the pub down the street to watch the England vs. USA game. We had a really good time, with a big group of Yalies all interning in various parts of London. I thought I'd be rooting for England, since I was in London and all, but I very quickly decided I was for the US, probably because I just assumed that England would win, so I thought it might be nice to root for our teem instead. It was a GREAT game, so much fun to watch. There weren't that many rowdy British people around us, except for a couple of guys who got steadily more drunk, and kept shouting, "Come on, England!" and, more simply, "ENG-LAAAAND!" Hilarity.

After the game, we basically hung out in Ana's apartment and went out briefly on a walk to the canal nearby at around 11 p.m., theoretically in search of a pub before deciding we wanted to just hang out back at home (I was with Ana and three of her friends, again all Yalies). It was cool, I met lots of new Yalies that maybe I'll actually run into or spend some time with back at school, because they were all really nice and easy to talk to. And I'm sure Ana will get to know them well, since they'll be spending the next 2 and a half months together in London. Anyway, my bus taking me back to the airport left at 2 a.m., so at around 1:45 I said my goodbyes and walked over to the bus stop. On the way, I realized how quickly I've gotten used to Madrileños being out and about until the wee hours of the night/morning--I found it strange to see restaurants and pubs closing at midnight, or already long closed by the time I walked past them at 2 a.m. In Madrid, people are just starting their nights at that point!

My trip home was not quite as awesome as the rest of the trip, since I got to the airport at 3 a.m. for a 7:30 flight that actually got delayed, so I ended up not leaving until 9 a.m. I kept looking at the screen hoping that I was misreading "Estimated at 9:00" somehow, but I wasn't, so I just had to wait, and knocked out on the plane ride. And even after getting back to Madrid, I ran back to the apartment and then ran off to El Rastro, the flea market, because it was my last chance to go (my last Sunday in Madrid, because the next 3 weekends, I'll be traveling) and shop a bit, so off I went for the last like 45 minutes of the flea market. And only after I got back from that did I fall over and sleep for four hours like I'd taken elephant tranquillizers.

Less than three weeks until the end of my trip...can't believe it!