When in London the on going joke is "Did you go to Buckingham Palace and have tea with the queen?"
Sad to say, I did not, but I did go there and cried?
(Not because I didn't have tea with the queen but because of the horses)
Yeah, let me just get into it.
It was an early crisp morning and everyone in my class was excited to head over to Buckingham Palace, I mean who wouldn't? We were going to go see the exchange of guards. Which for those of you have not been is when the guards in front of the palace switch and hand over the keys to the palace. It is truly a beautiful orchestrated exchange, with soldiers coming in on horses, trumpets blaring, and a marching line so uniform you wonder why you trip on your shoelace 10 times a day. The majority of people's attention was on the music being orchestrated and the marching line, but me, I was really focused on the soldiers starting the ceremony coming in on horses.
I am an avid horse lover, and a horse back rider. All because of my dad. It is a bond that him and I have shared, even though our actual relationship has not been what I have wanted to be growing up. Whenever I see horses I immediately think of my dad, and how everything I know about horses is because of him. It is sometimes hard for us to hold conversation due to the lost time in our relationship, but when I show him pictures of horses that I ride or see on the side of the road on a farm, it is something we can talk about for hours.
I didn't tell him I was going to London because I knew he was busy because he was moving soon, and also just a part of me didn't care to tell him. But, when I saw this performance, I knew I had to send him all the pictures and videos I took and call him immediately.
Trumpets and soldiers yelling demands were in the distance and it caught my attention right away. I couldn't believe what I was seeing. I grabbed Lauren like a little kid, and somewhat shocked her "Do you see those horses, holy shit they are beautiful. Those horses cost millions of dollars I bet!" She replied with a "I know oh my god! Wait why are you tearing up?" To then I quickly tried to tell her about how it connected to my dad, but keeping it brief as I don't tell people about it much, and didn't want to have a full on cry session. She told me that that was sweet, and that he will probably love all the pictures I was going to send him.
After the ceremony I was pretty emotional, but excited to tell my dad about it all.
When I called him a cop passed by on a horse and he immediately said "Was that a horse I can hear the hooves on the street? Wait where are you?"
I laughed, "Dad I am in London, and I just saw this ceremony at the Buckingham Palace, and they had all of these horses, and I took so many pictures I am going to send you pictures right now!"
"YOU'RE IN LONDON?"
"Yes dad! Did you get the pictures?"
"Yes, just got them, oh my god the one on the far right in the front of that video is gorgeous."
I smiled when he said that because I thought the same thing...
"Dad I will call you later, we are leaving now, but text me!"
"Okay, I will have fun and be safe!"
And then we hung up. Now I started to feel like shit even more because I was just feeling like an emotional wreck. I wiped the little tears that were starting to develop and said to myself "No crying you're in London."
It is crazy to me that no matter where you go, there will always be a small moment that reminds you of someone or something that has or had relevance in your life. Like when you hear a song that you and your ex you to listen to. Or something that you know your best friend would laugh at. I wasn't expecting Buckingham Palace to do that for me, I was just more so expecting to stand there and wait for the queen to invite me inside for some tea. It made me think a lot about what was going through other peoples minds during this, and what emotions did they feel?
Such a small moment on my trip, but definitely something that had a big effect on me. It was probably one of my favorite days here.