family and friends - the good things in life

London continues to be a decided vacation. The other two times I was here I made an effort to get up early and roam all about the city, this time I've focused on people and resting up for the big trip east.

Yesterday, using Meg's instructions and her A-Zed (which is one of the more brilliant and necessary tools to get around this city), I made my way down to Oxford street and met with my grandfather's first cousin, Eva.


Eva outside the Bond Street tube station.

We chatted in a pub covered in St. Patrick's day decorations (tomorrow) for about two hours - she's one of those women with an epic life story that you meet in a film or a novel. A survivor of the camps during WWII, she has lived everywhere since, including the US (in the south, in NY, and in Jersey), Prague, Romania (of course), and even India for several months. It shows in her opinions and the advice that she gives. Although she made me answer a lot of questions about myself and my family, I honestly think, when I was able to inquire about her, that it was one of the most interesting conversations I've had in a long time. She will, apparently, be giving a full report to my grandfather with her impressions this coming weekend.

The other amazing thing about meeting family members who knew your close relatives at very different times in their lives is that they give you an entirely different perspective on what that person must have been like before you were around.

Yesterday's other major event was meeting up with Anna in the evening for drinks. Background: Anna and I became friends through a series of events when I was living in Strasbourg. She's from the England (Essex) and at the time was studying oboe at Strasbourg's conservatoire. She, Kate, and I were practically inseperable towards the end of my stay there. Since then , she visited me (and Florence and Kate) in the US for a month and I stayed with her the last time I was in London.

Anna actually doesn't live too far from Meg and we walked to the Angel tube station to meet her. It is, in fact, quite impressive that I have been able to see Anna three times in the last year and a half, given that there had been almost a two year gap between our experience in Strasbourg and her visit to the states.


A fuzzy picture of miss Anna and I - unfortunately this was the one that came out the best.

I don't know if I will be able to see her again on this trip given that she is one busy lady. But I am very happy for her, because she was accepted to one of London's top music colleges with a fantastic orchestral program, which she and her oboe will be beginning in the fall. Excellent.