portrait of a lady, poster of a girl

Today I went to Windsor. We got train tickets that went straight from Waterloo station (right next door, in case you haven't heard me say so about a million times already) to windsor for only 5 pounds, round trip. We left our flat at 9:30 and were on our way by 10, gliding along through the suburbs in the morning sunshine. The trip took less than an hour, and when we got off we were right in town at the bottom of the hill leading up to the castle. After a short stop at starbucks, we went and saw the castle. It was a beautiful stunning fall day. All of the leaves were red and orange and yellow, the sun was out, but the air was cold. The place looked just exactly like a castle should. We went inside and saw Queen Mary's dollhouse, which was totally incredible. I have never seen such a cool dollhouse in my life. They had mini towels in the linen closet, mini chess board, mini silverware, mini everything. Then we saw original da vincci drawings, and pictures of royal people getting married, and jewels and china. then we got to go into the state apartments, which were totally gorgeous of course. By the way, I wasn't allowed to take pictures of any of this. Finally we went to see st. george's chapel, which was way more impressive than i expected. first of all it was more like a cathedral than a chapel. second of all it's where knights are installed, which literally means they are given a choir stall in the church. above each of their stalls there is a flag with their coat of arms, a sword, and a crown-type thing. I asked if any of them belonged to paul mccartney, but apparently these are only for really really special knights who actually matter, not just pop singer ones. So I felt pretty dumb for asking. But soon I forgot because I saw the grave of King George VI and his wife Elizabeth, aka the queen mother, and also princess Margaret. Basically that means the parents and sister of the current queen. Cool! There were all kinds of other royalty burried there as well. It was all very historic. We finally left the castle and went in search of food. By now it was cold out and everyone was grumpy. It feels nice to have to kind of friends you can be grumpy with, so I didn't mind. Finally we settled on an italian place where i had a really delicious calzone, definitely one of the best ones I've ever had. Then we wandered back to the train station to see off yuki, who was really tired and had been being a downer all day and didn't feel like walking anymore. So he went back and we stuck around for another hour to see the town of Eton, whcih is right across the Thames from Windsor. There wasn't much to see there, but it was a cute town. We took the train home at about 6, but it felt way later. Thanks, daylight savings/waking up early! Tomorrow I have to wake up early again to go with sam to get her computer fixed because it's an emergency and she is totally freaking out. Then we are gonna go to the library and get some work done. After all, this is "reading week." Oh wait, I forgot to say that it was reading week. That means I get a week off class. I'm not sure if it's meant to be a vacation or a time to study, so I am using it as both-- writing for the first half, and going to rome for the second. Italian food, here I come! Oh, and Charlene.

edit: Judging by my sister's reaction to this post, it seems I never mentioned that I was going to Rome. Woops. Yeah, so I'm going to Rome on Thursday to see Charlene.