Anzac day at Westminster Abbey.

Ahhh, Anzac day. A day of remembering what the diggers did for us and of how blessed we are to be a) Australian and b) be living in such an amazing, free country. We always like to celebrate this day back home and the fact that we are half a world away didn't stop us doing so today. We hopped up early and ran from our dodgy backers to Westminster Abbey where we were attending an Anzac day ceremony with Chris' old friend Bron and another friend of hers named Adam. We'd heard that free tickets were being given out for today’s service; we’d jumped online to secure some but had missed out on seating tickets and instead been allocated standing tickets. No matter, we were happy to be going along to celebrate and remember Australia’s history in such an amazing, beautiful Abbey. Now, my dad has always called me Big ears as I seem to have this amazing knack of hearing conversations etc a mile away and for once my super human ability came in handy as I heard an usher saying "These seats are free, standing guests may sit in them if they wish" Yes please! So I grabbed Chris' hand and made a mad dash to the small row that was free, score! The ceremony was lovely, so many ex pats filled the Abbey and there were so many representatives from around the world, Australians, British, New Zealanders, Turkish, it was lovely. Lots of flag bearers, bugle playing, hymns, bible readings and laying of wreaths on the grave of the unknown soldier. It was moving and I admit I had a tear or two. The Abbey was also amazing. It normally cost 12 pounds per person to get in, so Chris and I were taking as much in as we could during the service to save ourselves going back, another good score for the day! The Abbey has amazing stained glass motives and stories built into the glass, amazing statues and pillars and beautiful ceilings. Unfortunately we couldn't take any photos due to the service; we just had to ‘Kodak moment’ the place in our minds. After the service we all piled out side where we decided to honour the diggers in the only way Australians know how. With a beer. We trudged off in search for a pub with some sun and eventually after much trudging and almost forming blisters we came to the pub of choice. I don’t know its name but it had a great view over Westminster and was situated right on the Thames. Very nice. We consumed a few beers, a few pimms and a few ciders and wrapped ourselves in the supplied blankets as we did so. I thought it was showing a lot of forward thinking for this pub to have blankets for the taking (and returning, though I wonder how many people just happen to ‘accidently’ forget to return them...) They were lovely and warm and Chris and I must have looked like right old nannas tucked up under ours while sitting outside. Eventually it came time in the day for us all to part our separate ways and Chris and I head towards Shakespeare Globe to see if they happened to have any spare tickets available for the nights showing of Romeo and Juliet. Unfortunately they didn’t, so instead we head to the Tate Museum of Modern Art where we saw quite a few of Picasso’s paintings. I freely admit that I stood in front of his paintings for some time, taking it in and trying to understand what the big deal was about. The paintings are good and all and I understand that Picasso paved the way for many in his field of art, but it just doesn’t do it for me. In a way it looks as if a kinder kid has gone in and tried to draw a picture of their mum. None the less, we spent quite a bit of time in there checking his stuff out. After this and deciding we were both tired and hungry we head for our dodgy backers. We’d stopped at the supermarket for a few supplies and were making our way ‘home’ when 2 slightly intoxicated young women jumped out in front of us and began talking all at once. Between the two of them Chris and I were able to make out that: They were in London on a girls weekend, that they’ve been out drinking all day, should have gone back to their hotel to get cleaned up first but didn’t and now were in this pub listening to this really AWESOME (there words, not ours) singer who was really upset (there words again) as no one was in the pub listening to his music and the bar man had told them that if they could get some more people in then he’d give us free shots with any drink brought. Well, we’d hate to see these poor girls beg for nothing, so in we went for a drink and shot. The guitarist wasn’t fantastic I must say, but in the same sense he wasn’t all that bad either, none the less we cheered for him loudly and clapped till our hands hurt. The group of girls we’d met and been pulled in by were also very nice, loud, lovely and friendly and we had a nice time talking to them until we made an excuse about our shopping needing to be put away and got out of there. It was a random, fun thing to have happen at the end of a full, fun filled day!

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Chris and Emily on April 25, 2009 from London, United Kingdom

from the travel blog: Europe 2009

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