London Bridge is Falling Down: The City of WhoLock

By Caitlyn Tendick

 

I could describe how the Tower of London isn't really a tower at all, or try to explain to you the slightly offensive man that hangs out in Trafalgar Square with a hawk.  I could tell you about the Underground and explain the unique scent that bellows from the tube openings or I could tell you about how the city is overwhelmingly massive and a force to be reckoned with.  I have heard many times about how magnificent

London is and there are plenty of travelers, bloggers and writers that I’m sure could paint that city in such a way that makes you believe that the clocks are dripping with gold and the royalty has left its mark in jewels everywhere you go.  The thing is, London isn't a town for poetics.  I think to give it poetics actually does it a disservice.

I was there with two friends this past November and while I had been there before, I think I enjoyed the city much more the second time. It is big and it is overwhelming and it is hard to take everything in all at once.  Now, there are plenty of stories I could tell you about my trip there; all of which seem so insignificant and monumental when I think of them now.  But, since my blog mainly seems to be about stories and about writing (or the lack thereof lately) I want to spend my time pointing something out to you fellow readers and travelers that I think does not get discussed enough.  London is no longer a real place.  It has ceased all economic or world power that we think it holds.  No. London is a story; a conglomeration of different tales and legends all combined into one anthology.

 

Think about it for a moment.

You have Big Ben where Peter, Wendy, Michael and John, all flew past on their way to Neverland and where Jack and Rose danced to Glenn Miller’s Moonlight Serenade.

You have the old Dickensian streets playing out before your eyes, the dirt and the grit of a smoggy London filled night rolling through the alleyways and the twisting down the cobbled side streets that still exist.

You have Fleet Street, home of the demon barber and the tavern dedicated to him where you can get a fantastic meat pie and a glass of mulled wine.  Just ignore the image of a flashing blade as you exit that night and hope that the streets are a bit crowded as you weave back home on unsteady and travel logged feet.

You have the black smoke that reaches out from the gap on the London Underground, stealing away the people that are easily forgotten if the gap is not minded.  Out on the streets there are numerous the forgotten alley’s that we all pass without a second glance, never aware of the portals that are contained at their end.  Door and Neverwhere’s slew of characters are waiting down there.

Shakespeare’s Globe sits in the heart of this town, old stories of betrayal and murder playing out inside its dome while out on the outskirts of the nightlife and bustling roads, Charles Dickens house still sits.  His walls are covered with words he wrote a long long time ago and his writing desk still sits empty, waiting for another story to be composed. 

Connecting these two worlds is the infamous London bridge that we see knights riding across to go to jousting tournaments, carrying favors from their ladies while the bridge itself holds echoes of markets and women hanging from windows to call down to the men below.  Then, it is beneath these bridges that ghost stories were made and where hands reach up from the icy tombs they have been banished too, beckoning the lone wandering as they try to find their way home.

By Caitlyn Tendick 

All the while, Big Brother is apparently watching us in this city, giving a whole new meaning to the London Eye.  But, James Bond is protecting us, racing his numerous flashy cars up and down these roads while wearing designer suits bought from the shops in the ritzier part of town.

There’s Hogwarts Great Hall, Sherlock’s Baker Street, and the fear that the Doctor has instilled in us that something horrid happens here every single Christmas season.  You have Kings Cross Station with Platform 9 ¾ and while not fiction, the gruesome images of Jack the Ripper still haunt the passages leading through the forgotten parts of the city.

And let us not forget that Spike and Drusilla were once from here and that Oliver begged for more at some point in time.  Let’s also remember that Canary Wharf was attacked by Cybermen or that Nick's High Fidelity record store is tucked between other crumbling business in the cheaper side of town. 
 

RomComs have their lovers meet outside the National Gallery in front of the lions. Diagon Alley is hidden somewhere in this city an hidden inside the tunnels are tales of secret meetings and deceit.

There are countless moments that we think of when we think of Europe.  It calls up images of Arthurian Legend or pilgrimages from the Canterbury Tales.  London is always at the center of it all and has continued to be there throughout the ages of literature.  Because of this, it is with a firm hand and tone, that I am declaring London to no longer be the city in which we believe that Queen resides or one in which we even call a part of our world.

London, is not a real place. London, is a book that we somehow have the ability to step inside and have been granted the privilege to walk its pages.

You can find Caitlyn Tendicks pictures here at http://www.flickr.com/photos/97205176@N06/.  Go give her love and then like me on Facebook.

Whimsy Travel's

Monument in Lucerne Switzerland

For this Travel Tuesday, we're going to do something a bit different. In the past four years, I've been lucky enough to get on planes (of which I'm deathly afraid of) empty out my bank account (which I kind of hate) and see some pretty amazing things (which I love). Normally, I am a homebody. I like my apartment and I like my computer. I read my books and write my stories and Friday nights normally don't have me leaving my apartment because the lure of a good cup of coffee is more important. But then there’s travel. When the bug hits, it bites with a vengeance and has a tendency of ripping my insides apart until I am buying a ticket to someplace new.

Abandoned castle outside London

This first happened close to four years ago. I had been saving up for years to go to Europe, but it wasn't ever a reality for me. Then, after some personal tragedy, I did what only crazy people do. I booked my trip and three months later, I took off to Europe for close to two months. Since then, I have gotten to go and see different cities here in the States and have even made my way up through Canada. There are weeks that I live on Top Ramen because of it but traveling has never been something I regret. The stories that I hear during my travels are often times humbling, and the things I have seen and experienced have made me into the kind of person that I am proud to be.

Now, switching gears.

I've known Caitlyn since I was about four. This girl has been a part of my life for over twenty years at this point and I can still remember my first meeting with her. Little did either of us know that the day her mom and her came over to introduce themselves to my family, that the two little girls that were sizing each other up in ways that only four year olds can do, would still be friends years later. We grew up next door to each other in a small little country town and have been pushing each other to be the kind of person we each want to be since our playground days. I can't speak for her, but for me, this girl has never allowed me to give up on my writing and she has been instrumental in pushing me to continue to improve. She's the girl that I ran around Chicago with. She's the girl who is responsible for some of the gorgeous coast pictures you've seen in previous Travel Tuesday's and she is at fault for me watching so much Doctor Who and Torchwood. But hey! I got her hooked on the Whedonverse so its a fair trade.

And now we're teaming up. But don't worry, my wonderful blog readers (of which there's probably about a dozen of you), we will not use our powers for evil.

Welcome to the face of Whimsy Travels!

Caitlyn and Moi

And while we are not as cool as this face

A pretty awesome face that we are not

We are still pretty awesome.

Our goal is to travel the world, taking pictures and writing about what we see. We've both met some incredible people when we've left our small town here in Oregon and we want to meet more of them. So, doing this as cost effective as possible (because lets face it, during the day her and I are simply a hairdresser and a florist), we plan to go and seek these people out. Ask them their story. See the passions that they have in life and maybe, through these small actions, remind the world that living your life exactly the way you want it, is possible.

Chicago
Photo courtesy of Caitlyn Tendic
http://www.flickr.com/photos/97205176@N06/

Our first trip is planned for the end of November. Stepping foot across the sea's, we plan to visit Cardiff, Wales, Edinburgh, Scotland, and London, England. It'll be ten days of seeing and meeting all that we can while living on little to no sleep and indulging in the coffee that, from experience, isn't very good over there. Except at the Unicorn Cafe. I cannot express how much I love that place.

Here's the catch, though. We need your help. Following this crazy dream of ours is being done on a minimum wage budget while both of us are trying to balance the life that we're sure all of you are trying to do as well. This is not something that we want to stop us, however because both of us have learned from experience that you don't get what you want if you aren't willing to think outside of the box. After all, the only time its appropriate to think inside the box, is if its bigger on the inside.

We aren't asking for much. Our hopes is to just raise enough money for our plane tickets over there. If you would like to donate, please visit our fundrazer page at https://fundrazr.com/campaigns/0YTh5

Anything you can give would be of great help. Of course, you will get something in return for this. If you donate, please send your contact information to whimsytravels@gmail.com. While we are in Europe, we will be picking up postcards of the places we visit and sending them off to everyone that helped us get across the sea.

Is this crazy? Of course it is. But no one ever got anywhere without being just a bit crazy. We want to write. We want to document the world through pictures and words and share it with everyone else. Our goal is to travel this world and discover all the little things that make it tick. We don't want to play the tourist. We want to be the people to live their lives. “We live as though the world is as it should be, to show it what it can be.” Caitlyn and I want to help show the world that.

If you would like to donate, please visit our page here: https://fundrazr.com/campaigns/0YTh5

Don't forget to email us at whimsytravels@gmail.com and let us know your contact information so we can send you some postcards.

Also, check out Caitlyn's flicker page, which I tend to steal pictures off of relentlessly: http://www.flickr.com/photos/97205176@N06/

And, as always with the closing spiel, like this blog on Facebook, follow it on Twitter, or check out my Pinterest page. The links for all are on the side bar of your screen.