Second day of rain...and that's o.k. I looked on weather.com this morning though and it is apparently going to rain the rest of our visit here-at least the temperature is expected to rise from the 50's into the low 70's after today--I truly only brought one pair of long pants! The rain will make it extremely difficult to do laundry since it would need to dry outside if I did a real load. I think I'm going to wash out Eleanor's underwear and hang it to dry and she may have to just re-wear some of her other clothing. Honestly, she isn't wearing her other clothing much since she is in a leotard and tights all day long. Thank goodness, the flat in London advertises a washer and dryer. That will probably be the first order of business when we arrive on Saturday!
I woke up with Eleanor this morning and started myself on the path to a more normal sleep-wake schedule today, but I haven't done much today. I have straightened up a little and will do a little more to make this room a little more comfortable for the three days I have left. I'll also take a picture of the room--it's an interestingly decorated room. Just wait until you see what they did to this beautiful 8 foot door!
I spent some internet time this morning and researched prices and hours of operation for the attractions we want to see in London this year and came up with a little tours/entertainment/ground transportation budget, so I'd know where we stand at this point. I need to run it by Eleanor first and see if she wants to tweak any of the plans though. So far, we are planning to see The Tower of London, Leadenhall Market (where Diagon Alley was filmed for Harry Potter), the Victoria & Albert Museum, Parliament, the Churchill Cabinet War Rooms, the Harry Potter walk, and perhaps try to attend an evensong service in Westminster and St. Paul's rather than "tour" them. Eleanor wants to see Spamalot. I found that the discount booth in Leicester Square sells tickets to that show, so rather than order online, I think we may just do that. I did some research on getting tickets to Swan Lake with the visiting Chinese National Ballet. The only really good seats are terrifically expensive though. We have to decide if cheaper nosebleed seats are worth attending in--they probably are. I'll let Eleanor make that call and then I can order online and pick up at the box office on the day of the performance. That is all I really have planned. I want to see more of London, but I don't want to plan a schedule so packed that we kill ourselves trying to do it. There is value to making a sandwich and sitting in one of their lovely parks with a good book for an hour or two also!
My plans today include laundry, television and a little knitting. I'll have to see if I can find anything in English on this TV. Lynda says there is a movie channel that shows English-language movies with Serbian subtitles. I think I'll have to check that out!.......Oh my goodness, there is more than one channel that shows US shows with Serbian subtitles, including the Hallmark channel! I have it on as background while I update this a little more.
I took a shower and the nozzle broke off from the tubing...uh oh. I managed to finish my shower, but I'm going to have to get them to come and fix it shortly. It's 1PM though and I haven't been out for any meals. I had some peanut butter crackers around 10:30 this morning and think I should probably go and eat something more nutritious. Strange thing is that I'm not really hungry. I'm going to head out though. I'll write more later this afternoon. I'm going to try and finish up today before Eleanor comes home from class. She wants to get on here and play on the internet in the evenings. I can't complain. I took her computer to DC with me and she has been without it for 2 weeks.
I went out at lunch time and had a ham/cheese pastry and some water, walked down a little ways and hit the motherlode of nirvana...a chocolate shop! It was even called "Chocolate Shop". I found some Serbian chocolates that are made here in Vjovodina (the name of the province). I bought a bunch of them to bring home...what a terrific souvenir. Amelia and Olivia should expect a little chocolate souvenir from me.
I watched a little bit of dance class this afternoon again--jazz class, followed by partnering again. It was so much fun. Partnering is dancing with a partner. It's much harder than the professional dancers make it look. Eleanor is mortified at this point. She accidentally slugged her partner a couple of times and stepped on his feet once. She is embarrassed. The rest of us were amused. She must have apologized to him fifteen times. Her teacher for partnering, Boris, told her not to worry about it--the partner was a "big Serbian guy" and he could take it. It gets better each time though. It is a learning curve.
The rain finally cleared up around 2PM and it is at least not drizzling on us, even if it wasn't sunny. It wasn't as cold today either. I'm not sure of the final temperature, but I was o.k. in capris and a sweatshirt walking around.
Random thoughts and incidents today:
1. High point--finding the chocolate shop--the man there spoke absolutely NO English--but I managed to make him understand that I was looking for dark chocolate. I paid cash. In Europe, the credit cards have something called the "chip and pin" system which is different from our credit cards. I took Lynda back to the shop and he couldn't figure out how to make our debit cards work--so over to the "Bankomat" (ATM) I went so I could buy my souvenirs. This was on trip 2 after I tried what I bought on trip 1! Debbie, Stevan's wife (Stevan and Debbie own the dance studio we take lessons at) and her grandson Mikel went back with me so she could buy some chocolates for her nieces here that they are going to see tonight. The shop owner and I are old friends by this time and I have brought him lots of business. I almost managed not to buy anything the third trip, but I bought Mikel a sucker (Mikel is 3).
2. While I was walking to meet up with everyone after the first trip to the chocolate shop today, a woman stopped me on the street and started talking to me. I thought she was looking for directions, so I stopped her and told her Engleska only. She switched to English, while apologizing for her poor English. She then proceeded, in flawless English, to try a con on me (while I tried to subtly make sure my purse was zipped shut!). When she hit the part of her spiel about "a woman will give you secrets of dark magic", I shut her off and told her that I didn't want to discuss dark magic and I walked away. That was surreal. I guess she was a Gypsy. My only experience with the Gypsies, or Roma, last year was that they stand (or sit) around and beg on the streets, sometimes sending their children. This lady was a little more direct on her con--I managed to escape with all my faculties and my money intact. Who knows, maybe she cursed me as I left though!
3. I also braved the post office today. This was a good one. The first time I went in, I stood in a line for a moment and then asked the woman in front of me if she spoke English (she did). She directed me to a window on the side for stamps. When I got to the window, I showed my postcards to a man there and indicated that I needed to post them. He got up to go and get what I needed when a woman stopped him and said she'd handle it. She then told me I had to go out the door and to the right. O.K. Out the door and to the right was a glass wall--no place to buy stamps. Every place other than where the lady and man were was a long line so I went away. After dance class, I decided to try again. I went to one of the lines and stood there for a little while. I finally found someone who spoke English and asked where I would purchase stamps. He directed me to the window from earlier. This is good now..... The same woman was there this time. I told her I needed to mail my postcards and she took care of me. ?????? It was an interesting lesson in bureaucracy I guess. Maybe I didn't look assured the first time or something.
4. I found out that butane is only $4/gallon, while petrol/gasoline is $9/gallon. I would probably convert my car to lighter fluid in that instance too. :-) The air quality here is awful though--there is a horrible exhaust from the fuel in the extremely old cars (many of which are Yugos). It makes me think Europe should stop fussing at the US on emissions standards!
Eleanor is bugging me to get off here and let her on, so I'll finish up and head off. The picture I've included is from today. The people in the picture are: Front--Eleanor and Allie Gilbert; Back--Igor and Vivian (Igor just got a contract to dance with the National Ballet of Serbia), Boris (the teacher) in the center, Jennifer and Boyen (he's Eleanor's partner that she accidentally smacked-notice how far away from Eleanor he is in the picture) :-)
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