Guy Fawkes Jamboree

The bonfire and I. Good friends. Soo warm.
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November 1, 2006

Admittedly, these blog entries would be much better had I actually written them anytime near the dates about which I am writing, but I will have to depend on my memory and the aid of pictures to help these little stories along.

I was really impressed by seeing the subway drive out in the open and made a big deal of it, only to be thoroughly teased by the Brits and Frenchies around me. No fair.

Since I had made plans to go to Germany for my reading week, I had inadvertently planned to miss out on Guy Fawkes weekend in London. Guy Fawkes is a holiday where the entire city puts on fireworks displays and bonfires to commemorate the quartering, tarring and feathering, and subsequent burning at the stake of Guy Fawkes, a man who conspired to kill some king or queen in some year—I know I looked up the details a while ago, but for the life of me I cannot remember them. Well, it doesn’t really matter. He was caught and now the city has a really weird and somewhat morbid weekend of celebrating his punishment by putting on lovely fireworks shows for the kiddies.

Allizah, Vince, and Patrick, looking at the fireworks like little children. How very cute.
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Though I would miss most of the celebrations while in Germany, Vince and I found out about a celebration going on in Wandsworth Park on the evening before I was leaving, so we made plans with Claudia (his friend visiting from Bordeaux), Allizah, and Patrick to go down to Putney Bridge and see the show.

The tube ride was pretty crowded and it took forever to actually get down into the underground station, because we all needed to charge up our Oyster cards in order to afford the ride into Zone 3—I think we actually traveled farther than I had ever been in London before. Anyway, once we all got our coins sorted out and the tickets paid for in advance, we headed out. On the way, we transferred two times, I believe, and part of the ride took us out onto an open bridge and over a busy street. I was really impressed by seeing the subway drive out in the open and made a big deal of it, only to be thoroughly teased by the Brits and Frenchies around me. No fair.

This picture is perhaps the epitome of Allizah. Always silly. By the way, I should add that Allizah only gets part credit for this silliness. The hands on her face actually belong to Vincent and the gloves belong to me. Thankfully my friends reminded me of these facts, as I had totally forgotten.
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Anyway, once we got to Putney Bridge, we made the mistake of asking a sales clerk if he knew the way to Wandsworth Park. Important note for anyone traveling in London: never ask a sales clerk at any kind of food stand or paper stand or any trivial place about anything important. They are nearly all non-native and will never know anything. Or, if they do give you directions, they’ll do like they did to Isaac and I in Haymarket Square and lead you thirty minutes out of the way.

But that’s beside the point. We stood around for a bit looking at maps on the wall and this American guy from the train realized that he was looking for the same park we were, so he tagged along for the ride. He was weird, so we didn’t talk to him at all, but he ended up asking the right person for directions and we found our way to the park. It was actually on the other side of Putney Bridge, so we had to walk across the river in a kind of shady area—the Thames River Path, I believe. Still, walking over the river is always nice.

Allizah, Claudia, Patrick, and Vince. Not much else to say.
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Once we got to the other side of the bridge, we came out into a big, family neighborhood. It was really nice walking around the suburbs of London, as Putney is outside of the central area in which we all live and has single family homes, unlike the huge resident buildings in Bloomsbury. They were little, old houses with cute chimneys and a very intriguing WWI appearance. It was all very quaint, you might say.

Anyway, the event was clearly for families and children, with glow lights and sprinklers being sold all over the park. We stole away to the little convenience store across the street to get some really terrible nachos and Pringles other tid bits to eat during the show, and we headed over just in time to snatch a space on the fence near the bonfire. Vince, Patrick, and Claudia also pigged out on the free hot dogs being served. I passed, since you were only allowed to have a free hot dog if you ate it with avocado. The little vendor was apparently advertising for a new flavor of frozen hot dog. No thanks.

Finally, they started the bonfire. I was really taken aback, because I had no idea that there would be fireworks within the bonfire itself, and the thing started popping and exploding when they lit it. It was pretty cool and followed by a good half hour of fireworks, which left us absolutely frozen in the chilly winter air. That evening was actually the first that felt like winter in London, and had spent the whole of it outdoors.

Anyway, the evening was a blast and I managed to fall asleep a few times on the train ride home, being so exhausted from the night out. We took lots of goofy pictures and had a generally great time. I’m glad I got to see at least one London’s many Guy Fawkes celebrations that weekend—it was definitely a fun night to remember.