You should come back over mate, I can show you round the power station
Me and my wife were set on going there. But then she was diagnosed with cancer and we had to put a lot of those kinds of plans on hold. I'll be going to France next year because after seeing Notre Dame reopen, I came to a realization, on a profoundly deep level, that these historic places aren't guaranteed to stand forever. They won't wait for me.
As for England, when I went back as a junior, I was a huge faget that was fascinated because of swords and dragons and stuff.
I still AM fascinated with those things, but more from a Joseph Campbell/Jordan Peterson perspective, where I look for the throughline in human consciousness rather than having a boner for drow elves or whatever.
Anyway, I was looking for all the wrong things when I went last time. 'Wrong' in the sense that I didn't really appreciate all the things I was being exposed to at the time.
A couple of cool tidbits:
We went on a 'Jack the Ripper' tour where we were shown the five locations where his victims were discovered. Well, three or four of them. One of the murder sites was inside of a building that was still being used for tenancy so we couldn't go in there. We also went to the building where the famous Goulston Street graffito was written on the door: 'The Juwes are the men that will not be blamed for nothing.' Stinky Dinkins may have written that while he was drunk or high. Maybe. Maybe not. God Bless. He's basically retarded ahahahaha
On the way back, the two chaperones sent the class back to the hotel via the Underground and said they would 'catch up.' I could tell that we were not in a nice area of town so I told them I'd stay with them and make sure they got back safely. 17 year old me lol. I was pretty big for my age, however, so I at least looked like I could do some damage. I don't think they were too keen on that because the rumor was that they were lesbians still in the closet but because we were a Catholic colleg prep school, they couldn't be 'out'. In 1987, they probably couldn't be 'out' at any school that wasn't in San Francisco. Looking back on it, I wondered if they were either going to a gay bar in the area that they knew about but couldn't take us to or if they just wanted to get away for a little while to have some fun.
I could tell they weren't thrilled about me sticking around but I didn't understand at the time. So...we're walking back to the Underground and dudes just keep making obscene gestures towards them as we go. Making the V sign and licking between and that sort of thing. They were getting pretty scared of the riff raff, so when we finally boarded the train, they both told me how glad they were I stuck around.
Other tidbit:
One morning we all get on the bus which is supposed to take us to a bunch of places around the countryside. Some castle out in the middle of nowhere (don't remember the name but it was up on a hill and it was fucking awesome, we got to walk around inside unsupervised and everything), the mansion where Winston Churchill was born (the RAF used the front lawn as an airstrip during the Blitz, I believe) and a town surrounded by standing stones called Avebury.
I know the name of that town because we thought we were going to Stonehenge. Turns out the chaperones decided not to go because it was 'too far out of the way.' So I'm very upset about this because in my head, how do you go to England and NOT visit Stonehenge on your first trip?
So I basically instigated a rebellion. I was rousing the students up with my revolutionary talk about how we want to go to Stonehenge and everyone is getting really upset about it. Eventually, the chaperons decide that we will go to Stonehenge because everyone seemed to really want to go. When we get there, the teachers pull me aside to talk to me.
I say 'I'm in trouble, arent I?'
They tell me that they're impressed by my ability to motivate others and be a leader. Additionally, because I chose to stay behind with them, they saw that I was also someone who puts himself in harm's way for the sake of the greater good. They wanted to reward my initiative and dedication to my causes so we went to Stonehenge after all.
So yeah, I had a great time and learned some things about myself in the process.
