I got to spend the last week with my best friend and I am
literally the luckiest girl in the world right now! In the words of Janice from
Friends, “Joey and Janice’s Day of Fun!” This was most definitely “Maja and
Vanya’s Week of Fun!” I was waiting for Evan/my dear Vanya at the airport when
he arrived from a long journey from St. Petersburg. He met my flatmates and we
went to one of my favorite bars, Coco Tang, but we were all exceedingly
disappointed that there was no free shisha like last time.
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| Reunited and it feels so good! |
Tuesday was pretty chill, I had class, we cooked dinner, and
then we had Bob’s class and did our final presentations. Everyone had really
cool projects, I was super impressed. I did a slideshow of my big steps in my
transformation this year, and the moments so far where all my dreams have come
true. I started crying when I got to the Katherine of Aragon Festival, it
really is amazing the opportunities I’ve had this year.
Vanya and I set out early Wednesday morning to head to
London. Step one: National Portrait Gallery so he can meet my people!!! I am
quite proud to say that he aced his quiz with bonus points.
I took him to a few
of my favorite spots in London before we headed to the Russian visa place so I
could pick up my passport. I am so happy to finally announce that I have my
travel visa and I will officially be traveling to Russia for two weeks come
June 7!!! Russia has been my dream since I was a little kid, and I can’t
believe that I will finally be experiencing all of it firsthand. It’s unbelievably
surreal.
Anyway, Vanya and I checked into our hostel, napped
hardcore, then got kebabs and a pint at one of my favorite places, the Cider
Tap, before calling it a night. The next morning we were up and ready with our
sandwich bags to steal food for lunch from our hostel! I have taught Vanya well
the way of traveling cheap: taking advantage of as much free food as possible
and walking to the ends of the earth for free bathrooms.
Thursday I headed to Hever Castle while Vanya went to free
museums (5½ hours at the British Museum) in London. Hever Castle is the
childhood home of Anne Boleyn, which of course puts it towards the top of my
list of places to go. The village Hever is about 50 minutes by train from
London, and the castle was about a mile walk through the middle of bum fuck
nowhere English countryside. First I went through one public footpath with some
aggressive and threatening sheep, and then I went through another one that I
thought would be okay. I was gravely mistaken. It was super muddy, and all I
had was my running shoes, and I finally got to the point where there was no way
to avoid it. So I stomped through the mud, soaked my shoes and socks and jeans,
and finally got to the castle. The things I do to get to my people…
I’m embarrassed that I almost didn’t go to Hever Castle during my time here. It is
amazing. The grounds are so beautiful, they have a really nice lake that I
walked around, all the flowers were in bloom, there were lots of fountains and
they had a maze. In the early 1900s the Astor family bought the castle and
added a lot of Italian-style gardens, which are beautiful. Finally getting into
the castle itself was something else: the historian David Starkey said that
Hever Castle had one of the best collections of Tudor portraits outside of the
National Portrait Gallery, and he is absolutely correct. I was stunned and in
awe of every room I walked into. Portraits of all my people, portraits I’ve
been dreaming of seeing live for years, and even a few portraits that I had
never even seen before. And I’ve
seen a lot of Tudor portraits, so if there’s ever one I haven’t seen, it’s kind
of a big deal. Not only did I stand in Anne Boleyn’s Bedroom, touch part of her
bed from 1520, see the room where Henry VIII stayed, but I also saw two of her
famous Book of Hours: one of which she probably had with her at her execution,
the other she famously inscribed “le tiemps viendra,”—French for “the time will
come.” Simply amazing.
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| Hever Castle |
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| Anne Boleyn's Bedroom, with her beautiful wooden bedstand on the left |
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| The lake at Hever Castle |
I stumbled out of the castle, absolutely astounded by what I
had seen, and wandered around the grounds some more before hitting up the gift
shop. Before I headed back to the train station, I stopped at St. Peter’s
Church in Hever, where Thomas Boleyn (Anne’s father) is buried. There was a
schoolchildren service taking place, and I was officially that girl who walked
through a schoolchildren service to go take pictures of a dead person’s grave.
Fuck da police.
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| St. Peter's Church, Hever |
Then I opted for the non-mud-soaked route back to the train
station, and eventually meeting back up with Vanya at St. Pancras. We had time
to kill, so we headed to Platform 9¾ at King’s Cross to take some pictures!
Friday was another chill day, I had class and we didn’t do
too much. Saturday was officially deemed Maja and Vanya’s Day of Fun! First we
went to Wollaton Hall, which I still hadn’t been to yet, even though it’s in
Nottingham. It is a magnificent house (Dark Knight Rises used Wollaton Hall as
Batman’s House!), and Wollaton Park is also beautiful. Next stop was University
of Nottingham campus, so Vanya could see where I go to school. Then we went
into the city centre, where we saw the Robin Hood statue, Nottingham Castle (we
didn’t pay to go in because ain’t nobody got money fo dat), and had a pint at
Ye Olde Trip to Jerusalem, the oldest pub in England. Next was a walk through
Old Market Square and a brief stop at Poundland to complete Vanya’s Notts tour.
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| Wollaton Hall |
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Robin Hood statue in Notts
Saturday night we had a
Polish party, so Vanya got to meet my Polish friends! All us Slavs like to
stick together. Today I had to say
do svidanya to my dear sweet Vanya as
I dropped him off at the bus station to get the bus to the airport. Today I
also went to the Workhouse, in Southwell, which was a place for poor 18th-century
people to go when they had nowhere else. I also made Bob stop at Southwell Cathedral,
which is truly a hidden gem!
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| Southwell Cathedral |
The next couple of days are going to fly by. Friday is the
start of spring break, so I’ll be traveling for another month! I have a ton of
stuff to do to get ready (see: laundry) but hopefully everything will go
smoothly and I’ll set off without any problems! Lots to do!
