I had the worst night sleep of my life last night. I fell asleep right away obviously because I was so tired, but I woke up in the middle of the night and couldn’t go back to sleep for a number of reasons. For 1, the fire department is down the block, so there are tons of sirens, 2. the streets are extremely noisy in general, and 3. The beds are still hard as rocks!!! I had to bunch up a blanket on top of the pillow for my head because it’s actually painful to sleep with my head directly on the pillow :( I was like wide away at 4 in the morning, I got up and had a glass of orange juice, got up and charged my camera, and basically waited for the sun to come up.
So a bunch of us woke up early and went to that shopping center. Faryn and I bought some groceries. I still don’t have a phone because the cheapest phone they had was out and I refuse to spend a ton of money when I’ll probably end up throwing out the phone. The line in starbucks was ridiculous, so I went to another coffee place called Giraffe, and the coffee sucked to say the least. We went back to our rooms, Faryn and I sat down and ate a little breakfast, and then the lot of us was off to the Tube (their version of the subway).
We arrived at Leicester Square in Westminster, which is kind of like the Theatre district of London (technically next to London), known as Theatreland. We met with Patsy and our tour guide named Val around 1:30 PM. Val was a great tour guide, but she had purple hair (I’m just saying). Anyway, we had a walking tour of Westminster for about 2 hours. I learned a lot from her. Some things that I found interesting that she told us was that London was not a planned city, therefore there are a lot of different kinds of buildings and architecture. WE went to a church called St. Paul’s, which is a church dedicated to the theatre and many English actors have memorials there. She explained to us how England switch from catholic to protestant around the time of Henry IIX because he wanted to get a divorce and the pope wouldn’t let him.
We also saw the Savoy hotel and theatre, which is supposed to be one of the most luxurious hotels in England. The street that drives up to it is the only street in England where everyone drives on the RIGHT side, rather than the left. The reason for this was back in the day, females needed to get out of the carriage on the side closest to the theatre (or something like that). There are no signs there though so I don’t know how they expect people to assume. That’s another thing I noticed about London… THERE ARE NO STREETS SIGNS ANYWHERE! It’s the most bizarre thing.
We went to Covent Garden, which is like a big piazza now, but it used to be a major farmers market. The walking tour continued until we got to the Thames River. Val explained the importance of the river and its history in London. She said that when the Romans developed the city, it was crucial to be centered on the river for trade purposes. She also said that the river is gradually getting narrower and deeper with time, which I thought was cool. We walked across to the other side of the river, which is considered London and the tour stopped there.
When we got there, everyone immediately agreed that we should go on the London Eye which is that Ferris Wheel looking observatory which has a perfect view of anywhere near the river, like the bridges and Buckingham Palace. The palace is on the Westminster side of the river, while we were on the other side in London. There was a really cute street fair going on around there so I’ll be wanting to check that out in the near future. We saw billboards for the Beatles exhibit and a Dali exhibit, so those are some things I might do on a day off.
For dinner we went to a pub called the Mad Hatter which had the Mad Hatter from Alice in Wonderland painted on the ceiling. They claim to be one of the first pubs in London. I got vegetarian lasagna, which was different but tasty. Eventually we walked back to the tube stop and ended the night back in our flats. I am very exhausted but it was a great day. It was kind of cold out towards the end, but Steve tricked me into dressing very warmly in the morning so I was very content. A bunch of us hung out in Emily and Amy’s room later that night and ate chocolates. Amy
and Steve decided to make a fort in his room? And a bunch of us watch my dads bootleg of 2012. I fell asleep immediately :P when I woke up I had a second wind which sucked because I need all the help I can get falling asleep tonight. Oh well, hopefully tonight will be different! I am just going to finish up a homework assignment that’s due on Thursday and then I am off to bed (hopefully!). We are seeing Inherit the Wind tomorrow night with Kevin Spacey! I’m very excited.
Goodnight!!
View from the London Eye:
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