Tag: Wow

Beautiful Bruges (Day 1)

Beautiful Bruges (Day 1)

by ericmistry ♥ 0 Leave a Comment

We arrived in Bruges, Belgium today after a wonderfully smooth train voyage from London. It was so incredible going underneath the English Channel and popping up in another country completely. We spent the day touring the city as a class and walking around on our own. Predictably, I managed to get ahold of some very fine chocolate. It was delightful. It's a good thing I do not live here, or I would probably eat the chocolate all day long.

 

Tomorrow involves more touring and looking at various art pieces throughout the city. I am excited to start my day with an early morning run around the city and along the river and then shop at a market nearby. Then I will meet up with the rest of the group for breakfast in our hostel's morning room. Exciting!

 

 

 

 

Even the Bricks are Beautiful

 

 

Belgian Fries

I Marked Grinnell With Scarlet and Black

 

Exploration and Learning at The Museum of London

Exploration and Learning at The Museum of London

by ericmistry ♥ 1 Comment

After my classes today, I ventured over to the area by St. Paul's to explore the Museum of London a little more. One of my class projects is to examine two different artifacts and connect their significance to what we have learned and read about in class. It's an exciting assignment that uses the city as our classroom yet again. I love visiting all the various museums, and I keep finding that the more I learn in classes, the more I pick up on as I roam the city.

 

Also today, we received our train tickets for this weekend's trip to Bruges, Belgium and saw a fantastic play, Love and Information. It involved about fifty short scenes meant to capture a moment in time, and I really enjoyed the range that the actors had and the innovative set design that seemed dually evocative of a camera shutter and a television set.

 

Enjoy the pictures from the Museum of London, and look forward to pictures tomorrow when I visit Greenwich for class!

One of the First Fire Insurance Policies

 

Old Clock in the Museum's Collection

 

Visually-Impressive Printing Press Display

Beautiful Buddha Donated to Museum

 

Stratford-Upon-Avon (Day 3)

Stratford-Upon-Avon (Day 3)

by ericmistry ♥ 3 Comments

Inspired by the beauty I saw on my morning run yesterday, I decided to go for a photography walk along the same path early this morning before we had to leave on our train. The English countryside is so picturesque. I loved seeing all the beautiful, endless green and the wildlife. The beauty of nature, for me, is in the little details. I tried to capture a little bit of Stratford-Upon-Avon. Enjoy!

 

 

 

 

Stratford-Upon-Avon (Day 1)

Stratford-Upon-Avon (Day 1)

by ericmistry ♥ 0 Leave a Comment

Today, we made the voyage via train to Stratford-Upon-Avon for a weekend of theatre, history, and fun. It was a wonderful day. We saw Shakespeare’s grave and birthplace while exploring Stratford-Upon-Avon and then went to see a production of the Tempest. It was quite magnificent and so impressive to see the play come to life right here in Shakespeare’s hometown. The town is gorgeous, with an idyllic countryside setting a gorgeous backdrop.  It seems almost a city lost in time.  Tomorrow we see two plays and get more time to explore the city!

Stratford-Upon-Avon

Shakespeare’s Burial Church

Shakespeare’s Grave

Michael and Grace

Shakespeare’s Bust in his Birth Home

Fish and Chips

The Tempest Set

First Visit to the Victoria and Albert Museum

First Visit to the Victoria and Albert Museum

by ericmistry ♥ 1 Comment

Today, we visited the Victoria and Albert Museum for my art history class. It was the first of (I hope) many visits for me. The V&A, as it is commonly called, houses pieces from around the world and through various times. The focus is on good design and craftwork. We went to examine some Donatello pieces. (The museum hosts the largest collection of Donatello pieces outside of Italy.) They were amazing to look at, and seeing the pieces inches from us, rather than in a book, made the pieces so much more accessible from an intellectual standpoint and yet more intricate at the same time. It's amazing being in a city where so much art is. I am constantly astounded by the quantity and quality of the museums. Today's moment of “Wow!” came when I walked by a little nook where none other than one of Da Vinci's journals. What an amazing city.

From Outside

Class in the Gallery

By Donatello

 

Da Vinci's Journal

St. Francis

 

St. Sebastian

 

The Kayak Adventure!

The Kayak Adventure!

by ericmistry ♥ 3 Comments

I used the website meetup.org (thanks to Caitlin Beckwith-Ferguson for the tip!) to find a fun opportunity to meet other Londoners. This particular meetup was a kayaking group that was beginner-friendly. I had so much fun.

 

This was my first experience kayaking. Though it was tougher than expected, I started to understand it better by the end of the trip down and up the River Thames. We went under bridges, around small isles, and down and up with the current. Near the end of the session, with about 500 meters to go, a massive rainstorm was unleashed upon us. I fought the torrential rain and harsh winds in an exhilarating effort to make it upstream and disembark. I had a great time, met some incredibly nice people, and learned a new skill today!

Post-Kayak

The River Thames Festival: A Night of Good Food, Good Fun, & Good Fireworks

The River Thames Festival: A Night of Good Food, Good Fun, & Good Fireworks

by ericmistry ♥ 1 Comment

Last night, a large group of we Grinnell-In-Londoners adventured down to the banks of the River Thames for the Lord Mayor's River Thames Festival. It was a wonderful atmosphere, taking place from sunset until late at night. We enjoyed some great food, saw an incredible parade, walked around, and watched one of the most impressive fireworks displays I have ever seen.

 

 

 

 

Of the various options available, the fish and chips called out the most strongly to our group, as both Teddy and I are on quests to find London's greatest fish and chips. The fish and chips we had at the festival were freshly fried and hot, slathered in delicious vinegar, and just the perfect food to eat while watching the sun descend over the River Thames. While delicious, the fish and chips did not stand out in any particular way to win the honor of best fish and chips. We did enjoy our feast, and as the pictures below may indicate, we are already major fans of the iconic British dish.

Teddy, Joe, & Greg Enjoying Food & Fun

Next, we headed back to the streets to watch the parade. The crowds were enormous, but we managed to get a great spot streetside to watch the elaborate floats, incredible dancers, and outrageous costumes go by. Check out the crowd and some choice parade pictures below!

 

 

 

 

Post-parade, we persisted in plodding around until we procured some paella. (Awesome alliteration, eh?) In any case, we found a great Spanish stand selling paella, which Teddy and I split. It was intensely flavorful, the result of cooking in that massive pan for so long, and the chicken practically fell off the bone, infused with flavor and so delicious. Claire opted to get an incredible chorizo and chicken wrap from the same stand, an excellent choice which she so graciously let me try. The chorizo was so powerful and scrumptious, its inherent smokiness leaching into the chicken and giving it a spicy touch as well.

 

Teddy Displays Our Choice

 

Quality Assured

My Half Serving of Paella

Chorizo & Chicken

Happiness and Silliness

After our second snack of the night, we had to kill a little time before the fireworks. A few of us decided to go down a slide attached to the outside of a temporary lighthouse. It was presumably intended for little kids, but the majority of slide-riders were our age or older. We felt incredibly mature and dignified… Kind of.

 

Finally, the forays of fireworks flew into the skies, an incredible sight to behold. Some boats in the river were loaded up with fireworks, and they lit the sky beautifully. They made the riverbank, packed with thousands, glow as if it were day, and left our ears ringing and hearts pounding. It was an amazing sight to behold, and seemed a perfect cap to the atmosphere of happiness and celebration. I managed to get some pretty nice shots of the fireworks, so enjoy them below!

 

 

 

 

Exploring Bricklane Again (Plus Gözleme for lunch)

Exploring Bricklane Again (Plus Gözleme for lunch)

by ericmistry ♥ 1 Comment

Today, Tracey and I ventured back to Bricklane market and its surrounding streets stuffed full of stands and of shoppers. It was another exhilarating, interesting experience. We explored countless stands, browsed designer sample racks, and ducked into little food halls to check out the best meal. We saw hundreds of stands, and looked over thousands of items. Prize find of the day? Russian Cold War Era medals for extremely cheap prices. I picked up some Olympic themed pins from the '73 Olympics in Moscow, while Tracey opted for some more military oriented pins. We also got a few presents for people back home, but I won't be naming what they are, because I know they read my writing here. We also saw some phenomenal graffiti and antiques, featured after the food descriptions below.

 

For lunch, I had a dish known as Gözleme at a stand inside of one of the markets. It is a Turkish dish that consists of spinach and feta cheese being cooked inside a dough crust and topped with various vegetables and sauces. My Gözleme was accompanied today by cabbage, lettuce, tomato, and hummus, all with a creamy garlic dressing drizzled on top. The hummus was particularly outstanding, with a strong tahini taste that accented the feta cheese in the Gözleme quite well. The Gözleme itself was also incredible. Fresh off of the griddle, it was incredibly hot and filled with tons of fresh spinach and reasonable amount of feta. I feasted in total delight upon the hot Turkish food. It was familiar to me, as it was like the Turkish version of a Salvadoran pupusa, yet totally unique in its combination of flavors by including the incredible hummus and garlic sauce. I love being able to travel the world, eating all its wonderful food, without ever leaving London. It is truly the world within a city.

Gözleme

 

Graffiti 1

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Julius Caesar, Live in London

Julius Caesar, Live in London

by ericmistry ♥ 4 Comments

Friends, Romans, countrymen, lend me your ears!

This evening, I saw a production of Julius Caesar that was impressive beyond words. The actors, confident in their skills, made the words radiate pure power through the air. The impassioned monologues, the verbal duels, the air of conspiracy, and the dramatic death of Caesar all were brought to life by the talented actors.
I saw the play in the Noel Coward Theatre, a picturesque locale, as the pictures below may indicate. The grandeur of the theatre added to the atmosphere of the play. I was simply blown away by the quality and sheer addictiveness of the performance. I was literally on the edge of my seat the entire time, the electric atmosphere flying off the stage into the audience. I was also surprised at how relevant and relatable this ancient play still is. The themes and characters are timeless, a point the creative director chose to exploit by setting the costuming and set in a modernish Africa. It seemed to allow the actors a little more freedom to push emotion into the performance and showed how the fallen, martyred leader is a character in all societies. The African setting also opened up a discussion of Shakespeare's role in Africa. The articles within the program (which I bought as a great souvenir) explained how Shakespeare connects well with African culture and that he was one of the only non-African authors preserved in the curriculum in some nations.
I found the play, the venue, and the modern twists on the classic themes all incredible. This experience was yet another unforgettable memory. Hearing these immortalized lines sent shivers down my spine, most of all when Cassius proclaimed, “How many ages hence/ Shall this our lofty scene be acted o'er,/ In states unborn, and accents yet unknown!”


Dressing Up For the Theatre

 

 

 

 

 

 

The National Gallery, Trafalgar Square, & More!

The National Gallery, Trafalgar Square, & More!

by ericmistry ♥ 0 Leave a Comment

Yesterday we visited the Trafalgar Square area for my Cultures of Empire history class. Though the iconic square was covered in a set-up for celebrating and watching the Paralympics, we could still walk around it and enjoy the sights. It was incredible to see the historical buildings I have read about for years up close and personal. Nelson's Column is an awe-inspiring sight to see, towering overhead and guarded by sculpted lions. The ability to see Whitehall (and Big Ben) directly from the National Gallery's steps is also so impressive to me. It will be a great deal of fun to keep returning to the Trafalgar Square area, as I need to come back to the National Gallery at least weekly for my art history class. It will be interesting to see the square change as the seasons change along with events.