London: day thirteen

I came down to the lobby of NIDO this morning and parked myself on the couch next to Hannah and Abi, none of us said much of anything, just kind of tiredly stared off into space and eavesdropped off the conversations around us. Even though ten o’clock on a Sunday can barely be called “early” for the weekend, days and days of constant exploring, adapting, walking, and adjusting, eventually starts to wear on you a bit. But even though it has become progressively harder to roll out of bed (probably not helped by my late night habits), once the day starts going, energy usually picks up too.

Today, we followed the IES group down to the waterfront near Westminster Station, where we boarded one of the river tour boats. This boat then took us downriver (stopping a few times for other boardings) to Greenwich. On the river, we passed the characteristically London icons; Tower of London, Tower Bridge, the Globe, HMS Belfast, the Shard, etc. but past those, just outside of the city limits for central London, the character of the city changes. Many of the buildings are made up of old warehouses and factories set right up against the riverside, reminiscent of a time when the city and the country were run off water traffic and transit. These buildings have since been converted into luxury flats, but their character remains. We also passed some notable pubs, also set on the waterfront; “The Anchor” a place known to be frequented by Shakespeare and one of the oldest pubs along the river, “The Mayflower” which sits in the exact spot where the Mayflower boarded her passengers, and “The Grape” which is where Charles Dickens lived for quite some time.

We reached Greenwich and were turned loose for the day to do whatever, and find our own way back when ready, so Abi, Hannah and I set off in search of Greenwich’s most notable features. First we passed the Cutty Sark; the most famous and the fastest of the British Tea Clippers, which is now dry-docked and with purchase of a ticket is open to the public to go inside. Unwilling to make any unnecessary purchases, we opted to simply take photographs from the outside and made our way through the streets to the National Maritime Museum. We spent a good amount of time here and thoroughly explored what it had to offer. Old relics or ships, men and battles long passed. When I was a middle schooler, I had a deep fascination with nautical literature; I read anything I could get my hands on that promised a good sea story – Moby Dick, Mutiny on the Bounty, Captains Courageous, Kidnapped, The Sea Wolf, Mutiny on the Bounty, Men Against the Sea, Pitcairn’s Island, and the entire series of books (about 20) by Patrick O’Brian that the movie Master and Commander was based on. These were what I was reading when most of the others my age were devouring Harry Potter and other young adult literature. And while many I will need to read again for the finer details, I do take pride in the fact that despite my youth at the time, I can still recall large portions of those books and can at least recall the plot lines of almost all of them. Most especially though, my favorites were those that told the history of the HMS Bounty and the mutiny that occurred.

For those who don’t know, the history is, in short, as follows: the HMS Bounty was sent to Tahiti on a mission to trade and bring back Breadfruit. However, due to harsh treatment at the hands of the captain, a mutiny occurred, lead by Fletcher Christian. The mutineers put Captain Bligh and 18 of the loyal crewmen into a longboat (23 feet long) and set them adrift. Miraculously, after a near 7 week and 3000 mile long journey, Bligh and his companions made it to safety. Simultaneously, the mutineers returned to Tahiti and gathered women and supplies before searching out a tiny island called Pitcairn's Island - there they burnt the Bounty and attempted to create a community for themselves, but due to severe disagreements, all harmony failed and a series of massacres and murders ensued until very few were left. It wasn't until then that the community began to take root there.

So my main point for this digression though, is to say that I found the National Maritime Museum to be fascinating and I most definitely had one or two nerd-moments when I came across a familiar name or relic. Especially happening across Captain Bligh’s sword, as well as the coconut bowl, stone and cup that he used to measure out food and water rations during the long-boat journey. For me, that was like a fairy tale come to life – one of the stories I held onto most and was most enthralled by as a kid, knowing it to be truth but always having it feel like most of the other stories; just a sea-yarn. But it is strange how items so simple can make fiction into truth.

From the Maritime Museum, we made our way through a large, extensive park and up a hill to the Royal Observatory. Here we looked through a series of exhibits on astronomical science and looked at some of the equipment used in early research. We even saw William Herschel’s telescope with which he discovered the planet Uranus, its moons and two moons of Saturn. And, as most know, Greenwich is the city that the Prime Meridian runs through; where time starts, and this is why the global time standard is called Greenwich Meridian Time. Due, again, to exorbitant ticket prices we did not go inside the area where the line is drawn out on the ground and labeled “Western” and “Eastern Hemisphere,” however, it does not change the fact that today I walked across the Prime Meridian, and within the same day I had traveled between the two hemispheres of the globe.

After a late, late lunch, we boarded the boat once more and returned upriver. I have then spent a great majority of my time since refreshing my memory on Romeo and Juliet as well as working on some other homework. Tomorrow I begin my second week of classes, and am looking forward to a trip to visit Cambridge which will be taking place at the end of it.