London

On March 24 we flew across a little water to Great Britain. We were there to visit our good friend Keith in London. We had some trouble immediately entering the country as we went through customs, we needed to have an address of the place we were staying and, well we didn’t have one because Keith was there to pick us up and take us to his place. The lady was really adamant that we could not enter the country without an address because they would not know where to find us if they needed to. We showed her that we had residence in Spain and she finally let us through, thank God.

Keith was there to pick us up which was really nice. We didn’t have good previous communication about how or where we were going to meet but he was really smart and figured out exactly where he would see us come out from our flight. He was there waiting with bags of goodies for us. All kinds of Cadbury chocolate, a pocket-size London guide book, some water, and throat lozenges for me, since I had been sick every single time he had ever seen me. He then took us to the supermarket to buy some food to get us through our time there, even some ice cream! He was already outdoing himself and we didn’t even know how to begin thanking him for his generosity. He was really happy to have us for company, and we had great conversations with him. We learned a lot about his previous missionary work, and his journey that lead him to where he is now in the church and about all of his studies as he is completing a Masters degree right now through Graceland in Lamoni, Iowa; all the way over in London.

He was very busy with papers and exams, so he wasn’t able to explore London with us the next day but we didn’t have anything in mind anyway other than just to see what we found. He took us to the train station that took us into the city. In about an hour we stepped out into King’s Cross station then transferred to Camden. The only thing we really wanted to see in London was Camden Market. And, it was so worth it. We spent the entire day on Friday (which was the first sunny, and warm day all year in London) strolling through the old horse barns that have been turned into endless little streets of shops. There were cultural sorts of shops from all over the world. And, this wasn’t the typical black market stuff we usually see. Those things were on the outside of the market. Not only were the shops and diverse people really cool to see, there was fresh ethnic food all over. People brought out little stands and little cookers with all kinds of fresh organic food and cooked and served it to you right there. We actually didn’t even buy any because as we walked through, we got so many samples, we were satisfied.

We bought a couple pieces of affordable, but original jewelry. We realized as soon as we got there that we had to be really careful with our money because it didn’t go very far. Prices were twice as much as in the states, AND, the pound is 2 times as much as the dollar. That means a typical 4 dollar item costs $16 with the conversion and price increase. It adds up really fast. Luckily for us we were spending Euros that we already had, and things only cost us double, but we still knew in the back of our minds the worth of our money.

When we were tired of walking we found a nice spot with all kinds of young people like us sitting outside next to a small river by a little bar having drinks. We each had one then decided that we would try to catch the sunset from the Westminster bridge (it said it was a good spot in our guide book). When we got there however, the London fog started to roll in and we couldn’t see anything. We glanced at Big Ben and the houses of parliament, but those typical sorts of postcard images didn’t have any impression on us other that reminding us of where we were. I didn’t even want a picture, because I didn’t want a photo that I’ve seen before. The weather started changing fast and we were dressed for hot weather, so we decided to find a place to eat. This was not an easy task. We just wanted fish and chips, but every place we went was either way too expensive or was completely packed with people and we needed to sit. I think we walked around for an hour and a half before we found some food. It was good, but we were both so tired we were focused more on finishing and heading back to Keith’s. We sent him a text but after that we were never able to communicate…we lost service on the way back. But, somehow as soon as we got to our train stop, Keith was pulling up to pick us up. He has got some wicked intuition, almost as much as a woman which is scary, but really great for all of us.

That night we had some ice cream then were fast asleep. The next morning we woke up to make some breakfast then were back to the city. This day we had no set plans either. We thought about going to the Brittish Museum then decided to go to a café to have a nice warm drink and a pastry to start our day. When we left there we decided that we were just not in the mood to spend the day at that museum and we happened to run into the Natural History Museum, so we went there instead. There was an exhibit of the Sexual Nature of Animals that looked really interesting but once we were inside found out that you had to pay for it (all the museums are free however). So we just went through the entire museum instead. It was definitely worth it. The dinosaur part was incredible. I’ve never seen anything like it. There were over a hundred dinosaur skeletons. The exhibits were incredible, but the museum itself was almost more stunning. Every inch of it was adorned with moldings of animals and plants. It was like the cathedral of natural life.

The museum took up most of Saturday. When night began to fall we thought that it would be great to go to a musical while we were there since there were so many of them. We went to this ticket office that was selling last minute tickets, and out of the 40 shows that were playing, there were only 3 that were not sold out. We got cheap tickets to a play called Mouse Trap and ran to find it since it started 10 minutes later. It was quite entertaining although our seats were pretty high up and it was hard to hear everything.

We left the play and tried to call Keith and got through once again. He said he’d meet us at the station. We got back late and got on Skype right away to call Pam, Blake’s mom because it was her birthday! It was nice to talk to her and the Argotsinger family, and they all got to meet the famous Keith that we are always telling them about.

We went to our room soon after to pack because in the morning we had to get up early to catch our flight. That night, daylight savings time changed to our unawareness and it caused much confusion the next morning. We got to our flight in time, but poor Keith had to drive back home just to change then head right back out the same direction to do a service that morning. We are so grateful to have had the weekend with him. He is one of the most gracious and thoughtful people I have met. Visiting Keith was worth the trip to London more than anything else.