Sometime in Guildford

1 May 2010

This Saturday, I felt like I want to spend sometime in Guildford, and not travel far to somewhere else... That led me to having a short trip in Guildford towncentre.

I went to the towncentre by bike and parked my bike at somewhere close to the end of High Street.

This is the most crowded spot of the towncentre. People flocked into the area on this sunny day, with children, families, and youngsters all around. Up on the High Street, there was a short parade of local people, trying to raise some money for a charity. It felt like they were still celebrating their St. George's Day, which is an English national day.

After a couple of tours of the street along with the adjacent ones, I finally arrived at the riverside, near Wey River. The end of High Street is a pub called White House, and a couple of more, which are traditional ones, and also a historical church. I started walking along the river towards, I guess, Farnham :) It first looked like just an ordinary short pathway, but later I realized that this was essentially a popular location for most Guildfordians :) I kept on walking and passed beside a couple of long and old boats, completely closed with windows at the sides. I guess these were for rental, and they looked like small homes floating on the river.

Then, I went all the way down the riverside path, as far as I could go with my remaining energy :) It was a beautiful spot with lots of green and a peaceful nature.

It was a good day-out and I will do this again ...

Visit to Dursley's

27 March 2010

Now I hit the road for a short but exciting trip to Harry Potter's home, the Dursley's.

After a short train trip to a nearby train station, in Bracknell, I arrive at a Tesco's store and get a quick steak & cheese traditional cornish pasty :) My favourite is lamb & mint, although I don't normally eat lamb meat for some reason I could not discover during the past 30 years of my life :P

Anyways, the goal is simple: find the house, take a picture, look around, come back.

Luckily, and in fact, as I checked the map beforehand for a couple of times, I could find it easily. It's not Privet Drive though, Picket Post Close. The next neighbor was not happy to see a stranger, so I quickly got a couple of pictures and left the promises :))

Then, I went back to Guildford... But the story does not end here, this time :) I headed to London, after realizing that the trip to Dursley's was quite short for a Saturday. The new target: London Zoo... Wooooo

As I have been to many zoos in the US, this one was not so interesting for me. I must admit, the Americans are much better in Theme Park, Zoo, and the like businesses. Full of children, crying, smiling, shouting, cheerful, but everywhere.. I immediately made my plans to bring my nephew to here, next time I get here.

As a mid-sized settlement, the zoo is quite exciting. Especially the sections dedicated to birds in a big cage outdoors was interesting to see. This place was a separate section of the zoo area, set aside by a local road and connected to the main grounds by underground tunnels. Well, I got used to "subways" everywhere here in Britain. Very convenient for pedestrians to cross crowded city spots indeed. By the way, it is called a subway for pedestrian passages, and what they call an Underground is where you can find the trains :) So English: Underground, American: Subway, French: Metro... All the referring to the same thing.

As the day was attributed to Harry Potter, I chose an owl for myself and headed back to Guildford ...

Trip to Windsor Castle

13 March 2010

A typical Saturday morning with a loaded breakfast of cheese and olives.

Then I hit the road for a historic location, Windsor Castle.

As it has been a while since I haven't seen a similar structure, the last one being Rumeli Hisari, I was quite excited, especially a chain of train trips were awaiting me. That said, I have to emphasize that I take great pleasure from train travel. The trip was simple: Guildford -> Weybridge -> Staines -> Windsor.

The castle is built on a fairly tall hill, but not noticeably tall as the surrounding area is already a "hills region". Anyways, a lovely town surrounds the castle with lots of pubs, restaurants, cafes and the like... I got a nice portion of fish'n chips and headed to the castle standing right at the other side of the main street. The place is also the home of the British Queen, that's why there was a security check. After getting my ticket, I also got an audio assistance kit, to guide me through the old walls.

First, you see the high keep with a flag on top, designating the Queen's presence. You can observe the narrow holes inside the castle outer walls, high enough to make long range shots and a large base where the marksmen can comfortably shoot their enemies :))

A narrow road climbs all the way up to the castle grounds where you see a small village. This place is where the staff lives. Right beside it is a medium sized cathedral. Inside the cathedral, there are statues of old kings. The keep is in the middle of the castle grounds and has a roundish shape. To the left, there is an archway leading to the inner area surrounded by the castle palace. That area is restricted and I could only get some photos from the outside. There were huge trees, probably very old ones, apart from the rectangular grass area, and the guards standing motionless in their gray coats. There is also a museum inside, and possibly the most interesting place in Windsor for me: The Royal riches and some belongings are presented. This place was called castle apartments, an odd name for a building full of precious things. There was even a miniature palace with so little and highly detailed models, specially made for a royal family member. There were also some paintings, mostly from the early English history , Henry VIII and so on. Just outside, guards in uniforms were marching either or demonstration, or for formality, or because they were cold and they had to move to warm up, I don't know why, but it was interesting to see their mechanical movement. A couple of old naval weapons were in the courtyard right beside the castle's inner walls. Of those, I saw even Chinese ones.

Nice place to see, couple of hours of travel. That was the summary of this Saturday. Again, I got loads of photos... And back to Guildford.

Thames River Cruise, Greenwich, Royal Observatory

Saturday, 17 April 2010

I woke up with the idea of going to London this Saturday, but with no clear plans. As usual, this took me to Guildford train station after a quick breakfast. By the way, I am experimenting with different types of traditional cheese :) As you may know, cheese is a favourite food of mine. I'll talk about cheese in a separate blog soon.

After a breakfast of a big chunk of cheese, some nicely brewed earl grey tea, and black olives along with wholemeal bread (this is what the British call the wheat bread), I took my way to the station on foot and arrived there around 11:30am. Got on the fast 11:35am train to London Waterloo station... After a usual train trip (of scanning people around and staring outside), I arrived to London and walked to the riverside. Basically, I followed the crowd and found myself near the Thames River and the London Eye. It is a big fair wheel just beside the river, I think one of the famous ones in Europe. I didn't get on it, because there was a long queue (British call it a "queue", not a "line") . There, I was just roaming around and looking at a couple of people making some shows to earn some money. There were a couple of good ones, mostly entertainers were wearing interesting costumes and playing some sort of a character: a pirate, a robot etc.

While watching them, I got the idea of making a river cruise. Luckily, there was a pier close by. I got on the boat after a 20 minute wait. It was a guided river tour and stopped at Westminster, where the parliament building and Big Ben clock tower are located. The tour I got was a round trip one going all the way to Greenwich, and I decided to complete the tour rather than taking off the boat at Westminster, because I had already seen that area.

I called my friend Utkan on the phone when I got to Greenwich. I was normally thinking of not getting off the boat and completing the round trip back to where it first started. But, Utkan recommended me to take a look at Greenwich area, and so I did.

Greenwich is a cozy small town with lots of pubs, restaurants, shops, and of course, people. There is a large park there, which houses National Maritime Museum and Royal Observatory House. I decided to go to the observatory. After all, that is what Greenwich had to be about :)

The observatory was a single building and was also the house of a British astrologist, John Flamsteed . I learned about this scientist's life a bit and read stories about how astrologists coped with the famous Longitude Problem, a problem of marine science: basically shipmen had hard time figuring out the correct longitude, although they could correctly calculate the latitude.
The museum shows charts of the night sky showing stars and how shipmen used to find their position accordingly. Also, many original clock designs that can calculate the correct marine-time in a ship can be seen at this museum. I learned that various disastrous events at the open sea gave a push to studies like that, which made Royal funding available to scientists.
Flamsteed had a very little income, though. One surprising fact was that 3/4 of Flamsteed's works were copied without his permission by none other than the famous scientist Sir Isaac Newton. I thought: maybe Plagiarism was not well-defined at those times ;)

I went back to the pier at Greenwich to complete my trip after passing through a beautiful park full of people lying on the grassland with their families and having fun. It was a sunny and nice day on that Saturday. The boat trips back to London however were all over by the time I arrived back to the pier, so I tried to find the underground station. After seeing that the light train system was out of service on that particular day, and since I didn't want to take a bus, I decided to wait for another boat company's next trip. Then, I found out that people were going into an old roundish building just beside the river and taking steps down. I followed them with the hope that I would find something interesting. After going a big number of steps of some sort of "curling" stairs, I was in a tunnel! This was a tunnel under the River Thames. I put on my coat and started walking through the tunnel after I found myself in a similar building, with curling steps going up. I was outside finally, the place is Island Gardens at the opposite side of the Thames.

In Island Gardens, I decided to go to Canary Wharf and then use the underground towards central London. Canary Wharf is basically the towncentre (business centre) of London with the HSBC and the Citibank towers). I started walking but I found myself in the middle of nowhere, a feeling I got in downtown Los Angeles. I saw two people approaching to me and asked them about the underground station. They wre happy to help me find my way and we walked to the station together, and after 5 minutes I was at the station.

Canary Wharf station is a big underground station, it must be crowded with people during the weekdays. I took the Jubilee line (one of the lines of London underground) and changed lines at Green Park station. This time, I was at the Piccadily Line which took me to Piccadily circus. I thought maybe I could catch a theatre, but I was too late. It was around 8:30pm and the last shows had already started. So I decided to just look around. First, I had a Falafel pita sandwich as dinner and wandered around a bit, and then headed to Waterloo, where I got on the Guildford train ...

11 Nisan 2010

10 gunluk Turkiye ziyaretim sona erdi, Britanya yollari tastan :P
Abimlerle Florya'ya gidiyoruz. Hava ruzgarli ve kapali. Abim trafikte zigzagli hareketlerle bizi Florya'da denizin kenarinda bir parka ulastiriyor. Burasi sasirtici sekilde San Diego'yu hatirlatiyor bana. Burasi ayni zamanda Ataturk'un denize girdigi yer. Park denize paralel uzaniyor, 4-5 tane de lokanta yapmislar. Bu lokantalar epey unlu olmali ki tiklim tiklim... Kerem bebe ruzgardan etkilenebilir diye hemen birine girme telasesi sariyor, hava da sogumaya basladi haliyle. Abimler daha onceden geldikleri lokantanin hangisi olduguna karar vermeye calisirken en sonunda birine giriveriyoruz. Guzel bir yemek, nam nam nam. Epey yiyorum, yolculukta mide fesati gecirecegimin adidir :) Yemek sonrasi hemen havaalanina gidiyoruz... Abimlerle vedalasiyor ve iceri giriyorum. Guvenlik kontrolu cart curt falan filan, duty free'den de lokumlari aldiktan sonra kapiya gidiyorum. ikinci bir guvenlik kontrolu de burada yapiliyor. sonrasinda ucus. yucak kalkiyor, yarim saat sonra onume yemegi koyuyorlar, amanin!!! neyse azicik yiyorum ve uykuya daliyorum. uyandigim zaman yanimda oturan Ingiliz elemanin cep telefonuyla bulutlarin vs. fotografini cektigini goruyorum. Inanilmaz, olaganustu, muhtesem birsey tarzi seyler soyleyip duruyor, belli ki ya ilk kez ucaga biniyor (ama bir sekilde Turkiye'ye de gitmis olmaldi demek ki ilk degil :P ) ya da balik hafizali, her seferinde bir daha heyecanlaniyor, veya ben uyurken konyaklari goturdu :) her neyse, ucak iniyor, esyalari kapiyorum, giris guvenlikteki amcaya neden geldigimi "I am a Researcher" aciklamasini yaptiktan sonra asagi kata iniyorum ve otobus beklemeye basliyorum. Woking otobuslerinin tek gidis icin 10.5 o=pound'u tami tamina istediklerini ve bende sadece 20 poundluk bir kagit para oldugunu farkedince, haliyle 20 pound odemek istemedigim icin parayi bozdurmak icin gidip bir marketten bir sise su aliyorum. marketteki kasiyer asyali teyzenin, parayi ona uzattiktan sonra bana "bu parayi boyle verme, kaptirirsin" tarzinda yaptigi abuk uyarinin ne anlama geldigini anlayamasam da, teyzeye tesekkur ediyorum ve otobus kalkis noktasina variyorum. tam ben varirken otobus kalkip gisiyor, kaciriyorum. yani random gelen bir yolcunun beklemesi gereken en uzun zaman nedir diye bir matematik sorusu sorulsa onun cevabi kadar bekleyecegim. iki otobus zamani olan yarim saat kadar bekledikten sonra otobus geiyor, 40 dakikalik yolculuk sonrasi Woking'e variyorum. Woking'de tren biletini alip Guildford'i bekleyecegim. Panik bir Cinli kiz elinde iki kocaman valizle cevredekilere Guildford trenini soruyor, her yerde isikli panolar var halbuki, hepsinde de kocaman Guildford yaziyor. Ortamdaki baymis kilikli bir Ingiliz eleman anlatiyor: Portsmouth taraftarlari Wembley'den gelecekler, Guildford'a gidenler tika basa dolu olur (Nah binersin! tarzinda kafasini salliyor :)) ) Tren geliyor, hakkaten tika basa dolu, ben vazgeciyorum, baska perona gidecegim. Giderken bakiyorum, bizim Cinli kis 10 Panda gucune ulasmis, sagli sollu ilerliyor, atalarinin ona verdigi azimle kalabaligi yariyor ve amacina ulasiyor. Gittigim platformda bizim baymis Ingiliz'i goruyorum, o da ayni karari alip benden once platform degistirmis. Bana sesleniyor: "Gordun mu Cinli kizi, inanilmazdi nasil da bindi yaw??" Hafifce siritiyorum ve yeni gelen trene biniyoruz. 7 dakika sonra Guildford'tayiz.
Yolculugun son ayagi basliyor, yerel otobusu bekliyorum. yarim saat sogukta bekle babam bekle. Iki kisi daha var, ama onlar daha bir aliskinlar bu duruma gibi duruyorlar. Otobus geliyor, beni evime ulastiriyor. Yorgunum ve uykusuzum, isiticimi calistiriyorum, ve derin bir uykuya daliyorum.

Tiyatro- Waiting for Godot

20 Mart Cumartesi.
Utkan bugun Guildford'a geldi. Benim pesi sira Londra gezilerimden sonra, Utkan da Guildford'i merak etmis olacak. Tren istasyonunu begenmedi, ama sehri orta seker sevdi galiba. North Street'te asagidan yukariya, High Street'te yukardan asagiya, tekrar yukariya... Aradaki ince dar yollardan da gectik tabi ki. Internet kafeye girdik, acaba beraber eve cikabilir miyiz sorunsalina cevap bulamadik, 2 saatlik arayis sonrasi. Utkan, pazar gunu Blackpool'da bir fuara gitmek isteyince o aksam Londra'ya geri dondu. Ben de pesine takildim :) Cumartesi aksami haliyle, Londra yapayim dedim.

Aklimda tiyatro'ya gitmek vardi. Neresi oldugunu da biliyorum. Royal Haymarket Theatre, Piccadilly'de. Aksam 7'de vardim, 7:30'da seans varmis, sans iste. Hemen 16pound'luk en ucuz kisimdan bileti aldim, gisedeki eleman bir kiyak yapti, ayni fiyata cok daha iyi bir yer buldu, sevindim.

Tiyatronun ismi: Waiting for Godot
Oynayan: Ian McKellen,

Tiyatro cok kucuk geldi bana, ve eski idi, ama cok da guzel dekoru vardi. Tunelimsi koridorlardan gectikten sonra Royal Circle denen orta kabinede yerimi buldum. Arka siralardan Fransizca konusan insanlarin sesleri, yanimda oturanlarin henuz cok iyi anlayamadigim bir Ingiliz agzi, tabi hangi yoreye ait bilemedim.

Sahneye 6-8 metre kadar uzaktayim, dusundugumden cok cok yakindayim. Inanilmaz heyecanliyim, cunku birazdan Yuzuklerin Efendisi'nin Gandalf'i, X-Men'in Magneto'sunu canli izliyor olacagim. Ve oyun basliyor. Ian McKellen karsimda... Toplam 4 oyuncu var, hepsi de olaganustu oynuyorlar. yaklasik 1 saatlik iki bolumden olusuyor. 1 saat boyunca sahnedeler, yani gidip geri geldikleri olmuyor. Soyleyecekleri onca cumleyi, yapacaklari hareketleri, davranis sekillerini bu kadar mukemmel nasil yapabiliyorlar inanamadim. Ustelik hic durmadan.
Gandalf'i canli izlemek. Mukemmeldi.

Tiyatro sonrasi siki bir yagmur disarida. Piccadillly Circus capcanli. Metro istasyonunu buluyor ve Guildford'a donuse geciyorum.


ENGLISH
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Utkan stopped by Guildford, today. After all, I had several trips to London; he must have wondered what Guildford looks like. He didn't enjoy Guildford's train station, though, but I guess he liked the city to an extend. We walked through North Street and High Street for several times, up and down and up... And of course we went through the alleys connecting these two streets of Guildford towncentre. We have been planning to share a flat, so we searched the web to answer this question: is it plausible? But 2 hours of browsing did not answer that... Utkan had the idea of going to Blackpool for a trade fair, and decided to leave in the evening, and I followed him all the way to London :P Well, after all, it is a Saturday night.

On the train to London, I already knew what to do there: Go to a theatre. I even knew which one. It is the Royal Haymarket Theatre in Piccadilly. Having arrived to the theatre at 7:00 pm was quite lucky, because the show I wanted to see was at 7:30pm. I got the most affordable ticket of £16. The salesman made me a favor and booked a better seat for that price :)

Name of the show: Waiting for Godot
The Cast: Ian McKellen, ...

The theatre was a little small and of old-style, yet it had a fabulous decoration. After passing through tunnel-like corridors I found my seat at the mid-section of the audience chamber, called the Royal Circle. I heard people speaking French at the back rows, and the guys next to me had a hard English accent, which I thought was a local one; I couldn't get which locality it was, though.

I was only 6-8 meters away from the stage: this was far closer than I imagined.
I was extremely excited, because I was about to watch the Gandalf of The Lord of the Rings and Magneto of X-Men. And the play started... Ian McKellen was just there, standing in front of me. There were 4 main players and a small boy who appeared for a few minutes. Their performance was incredible. The play has two parts of 1 hour each. That means, the players are on the stage for an hour non-stop. It was amazing to see how these talented people memorize what to say and do so brilliantly. And it was wonderful to watch Gandalf!

After the show, a thick rain salutes me outside. Yet, Piccadilly Circus was so alive, full of people. Then, I made my way to the underground station towards Waterloo and finally Guildford.