London, You Really Gotta Hold on Me

I have to say when we first started out on our journey I had no clue what to expect and I had no expectations. This I must say is a plus on any great exploration. If you have no expectations your disappointments are limited. This might explain why every moment… even the lazy ones are great.
We purposely added an extra day to our trip in London for two main reasons.

One: Well I don’t know if you have looked at a map lately, but London is fucking HUGE!!!!! I think there is as much to do in London as there was in Cork, Limerick and Dublin combined.

Two: Well… we had the Dave Show and you really do need proper recovery time from an experience like that.

London was nice we saw the Tower Bridge, National Gallery, London eye, Big Ben and all that other jazz that I am sure you guys already know.
Since I have inadvertently started this trend of listing off my memorable moments of the most recent city visited here goes this one:

1 – DAVE MATTHEWS BAND CONCERT/ MEETING!!!!
There is truly no way in words to really express how I feel about this. It was def. an experience I will never forget.

2- Listening to the Buckingham Palace Guard Band Play Thriller along with a few more songs of Michael Jackson. This again was a memorable moment I will never forget. If you want to catch a little action on how the whole changing of the guards went down you can catch it on our video page for London on the website. You have to keep in mind that we aren’t professional camera men…. Well… actually Kup is, but it doesn’t count cause really his main target was to keep Cher on his shoulders. Cher shot most of the film. So if you get sick and can’t watch it cause there is too much random movement and the camera isn’t still, you can take it up with her. If you get a chance listen to the commentary between Cher and Kup. I have to say they had everyone around us cracking up. Our classiest moment was when cher was on Kups shoulders and after the band was finished playing yells, “ Kup hurry flash them your boobs!!!”. There as a quick silence as if everyone was getting a mental picture, then about a second later everyone around us started to burst out laughing. That’s just one instance of the humor that went on between them that morning.

3- PIZZA!!!
Pizza is one of my most favorite foods. There are few places in the world where you can’t find a pizza, whether it be thin, thick, deep dish, microwavable or Di Giorno. It really does seem hard to go wrong with pizza. Well… that’s what we thought too!!!
In most of the Hostels that we are staying at, they have fully equipped kitchens. This would include a STOVE!!! Now when we walked into the Hostel I swore I thought I saw a Stove. Well on the way home from a “cultural” experience in London Cher and I decided to stop by a grocery store to get a drink. When we were in there we found these 1 pound pizzas (that’s how much they cost, not how much they weighed). We bought one for the both of us and met the boys and went to a park to sit. Well.. the boys liked our way of thinking so on the way back to the hostel we stopped by the grocery store and got two more for them.
When we got back to the Hostel Kup realized there was NO stove. What I thought was a stove was a refrigerator, but I didn’t find that out till our last night there. It really looked like a dishwasher…. or it could have been a stove. We decided to test out the microwave and nook it. At this point it was just Josh Cher and I. Kup was not really happy about it… so he went on his own adventure for food. Well when Josh Cher and I bit into our soggy moist hot dough topped with fake cheese and sauce that may have been ketchup we all were grossed out. We lasted four bites and then tossed it. It was gross. Kup on the other hand found a person with a frying pan and oil. He fried his and apparently it was edible.
I know there is more… but I don’t want this to get wordy!!!
Now if you are into hearing about the cultural stuff we see continue down… if not…. Skip the next few paragraphs.

4. Josh's Cel Phone Alarm:
I don't know if anyone has ever heard Josh's alarm on his cell phone. Well if you haven't it sounds like an Fire Alarm. You know like the ones you would hear when you had a fire drill at school. Well, our hotel in london was room filled with 24 people... all of whom have never heard Josh's alarm. So the first morning we were there his alarm went off and he must be so used to it because he didn't hear it and everyone got out of bed to exit the building in a somewhat orderly fashion. I myself stayed in bed... it takes more then a fire for me to wake up before 10 am.

On our last day in London we went to the National Gallery. We were taken on a tour, which told us so many interesting facts about a few pieces of art work.

Hons Holbine the Younger.
This was a really cool piece.

A Few Quick Facts we Learned:
- The skull is a mark to represent the artists name. It is distorted when looked at directly, but stood at an angle you can see it clearly.
- The figure in the upper left corner (very Small and hard to notice) this is Christ.
- The two men in the picture were sent to London from Paris to stop the King from Divorcing his wife and marrying another woman. The look sad in the painting, because they failed. Little did they know that king knocked up the other woman.
- The age of eachone of this men are actually painted in the piece. One on the scroll the man is holding and the other on a book.
There are a lot more facts, but again I don’t want this to get wordy.

Monet:
We got to see a number of Monet’s paintings one right next to another. This allowed us to see the progression of his work. You can see how his early work is more distinct and you and make out the Water Lily Pond. When you look at a later work such as the Japanese Bridge (1918) you can see that is becomes more abstract. This is defined as an atmospheric affect. Some people believe that Monet started painting this way because his catarcs had advanced so much that his vision was distorted and it became harder for him to paint as he once did. Other people believe that Monet was not a painter for the money and wanted to explore the use of color interpretation to other lengths.
- Quick Fact – Monet never used black paint in any of his work. He did however try to incorporate every other color.

Michelangelo
The Entombment
This is a cool piece because it isn’t finished!!! Michelangelo stopped painting this piece in the middle to leave and sculpture the statue of David. There is more, but again I don’t want to get wordy.

Vincent Van Gogh
Sunflowers

We were very surprised to see this piece hanging at the museum. This was because we could swore Cher saw it at the Museum in Philadelphia. She was so sure that we looked it up on her phone and saw that it was. This made us much more confused, but then some random guy told us van Gogh painted for Sunflower paintings. I was very happy to see this painting because it is my stepfather Gary’s favorite painting.

There were far more paintings at this museum then the one in Dublin, but both places were cool.

Ok… guys… I think I made this wordy enough!!! We are now in Paris and I will tell you about that soon.
Sorry London… but I really gotta Letch ya go!!!

~Christina