It's amazing how much the weather changes things

This past weekend, I went back to London. After my trip prior, I vowed not to waste my time returning to London, as I was appalled by the wind and rain that ruined two pairs of shoes and left me feeling cold and dirty.

However, Marie, a friend from high school who is studying in Italy, flew out to London with some mates from her program for the weekend. Obviously, I was not going to miss out on seeing her in a foreign city and I quickly searched train timetables and started a countdown on my Facebook status.

I woke up early on Saturday morning and dashed to the Cardiff train station to make the 8:25 train that would bring me into Paddington around 10:30. I was set to meet Marie and her friends in Piccadilly Circus at 11 and caught the Bakerloo line just in time to meet them outside of the station. We grabbed some coffee since they've been deprived in Italy and headed off toward Buckingham Palace.

We walked through Green Park and saw some of the largest pelicans I have ever seen.








We eventually made it to Buckingham, and because the skies were clear and the weather was delightful, I could see Big Ben peaking up through the trees.







We walked back past the park and headed towards Westminster Abbey and Parliament to get a better, more close up shot of Big Ben. The skies were so blue and beautiful that Ben's toffee color contrasted beautifully.




The sun set while we were on the train heading for the St. John's Wood Underground stop to walk the short walk to the legendary Abbey Road crosswalk where The Beatles crossed to get to their Abbey Road recording studio. We stopped traffic to walk in Paul's bare footsteps and smiled as we imagined George, Ringo, John and Paul walking back and forth every day.



I made plans to meet up with Toby, a friend from camp, later in the evening so we made the trek back toward King's Cross to meet him for a drink. We crossed the footbridge near the London Eye to take some photos of the River Thames and the London sky in the dark.

We met up with Toby around 8:15 for drinks at a little pub in Covent Gardens. I met his girlfriend Alexa and we all giggled and chatted about the beautiful weather in London that day. I had to leave just after 9pm to catch the Tube back to Paddington to make the last train back to Cardiff at 10. Proved to be one of the best daytrips I've taken while I've been here and I'm so glad that I was able to have a good taste of London, rather than a rainy and windy one.

Sunday, Dianne and I woke up early to catch a train to Swansea for the day. We'd heard much about the beauty of the beaches there and wanted to experience them firsthand. Praying hard for bearable weather, we grabbed the slow train to Swansea and made it there just after 12. Swansea's train station was about a 15 minute walk from the city centre so we headed down to the centre to look for the bus station. We grabbed a bus to Mumbles, the birthplace of Catherine Zeta Jones and were taken aback by the beauty of the coastline.

The water was choppy and chilly and the smell of saltwater danced through the air. I smiled as I realized that this was the same ocean that touched the States. It excited me to think that this was the final angle I needed to see the Atlantic from.

The wind picked up and a dark cloud came over the top of the mountains. Dianne and I ducked into a waterfront cafe' and grabbed a tea and some cake while the short rainstorm passed over the area. We walked back outside to find a rainbow diving into the water.


We kept walking toward a pier we saw off in the distance and found a small, secluded beach set at the end of a giant cliff. The waves crashed onto the sand and water sprayed, stinging my windburnt face just a bit.


We noticed several paths heading up to the top of the cliff. We climbed to the top, unsure of what we'd see to the other side. We looked out over the ocean and looked down on another beach.




We climbed down to go look around at the beach. The view was breathtaking. I was standing in a Utopia. My own little slice of Heaven on Earth. The chilly wind blowing through my hair, the icy water splashing onto my shoes. A perfect world of blue skies, turquoise water and deafening wind. I closed my eyes and breathed deep, filling my lungs with the pure, cold air. I snapped back to reality as Dianne stumbled on some stones a few feet away.

***

The trips this weekend made me realize how much I'm going to miss it here. The beauty. The purity. The culture. The life.