I apologize for not having kept up on my blog here. The past
few days have found me hitting a wall of exhaustion and last night I crashed
for a good ten hours, which is twice what I get on a normal night.
Yesterday, in an attempt to make up for my errors the
previous day which caused me to miss class, I went to the National Portrait
Gallery in the morning – I had been so lost, apparently, I had not even gone to
the right meeting place near the Pret A Manger because as luck would have it,
there are not only two, but three just in the proximity around Trafalgar
Square! Anyway, Hannah came with and we wandered around the gallery. I snapped
a few pictures of interesting portraits that I could potentially use for the
assignment my professor had given the class. Thankfully, my professor had been
forgiving and had told IES that my absence had been accounted for so everything
was okay, all I had to do was the assignment. She also made a point of
mentioning that my midterm essay was “very, very good” and promised to hand
them back next class – this is good for me because I wrote that paper the night
before it was due and was up until 4am doing so. It was practically a rough
draft. But hey, what’s good for the professor is good for me, so that means I
have done extremely well on all of my midterms for my English classes, now just
to get back my Psych test and the grade for my British Youth Culture project.
The later I’m sure will be fine, the first, ehhh, not so much – oh well.
Anyway, at the National Portrait Gallery, there were portraits of all the
royals, naturally, but I also found some really great ones of the Bronte
sisters, Jane Austen, Robert Lewis Stevenson, Shakespeare, Elizabeth Barrett
Browning and her husband Robert Browning; funny, I just realized when listing
those that all the ones I took pictures of were only authors… haha, guess you
can tell what I am drawn to. Honestly though there were many other portraits;
royalty, scientists, politicians, activists, and so on and on.
Afterward, we took the Tube immediately over to Tower Bridge
where we paid to go up to the very top. The elevator took us all the way to the
top and we first entered a room at the top of the Main Tower (closer to the
Northbank) where we watched a video that introduced the Bridge’s designer and
architect. We then walked across the walkway that spans the two Towers.
Sometimes difficult to see, but there are actually two walkways parallel to one
another. From the eastern walkway we looked out toward Greenwich. Buildings
sprawled for miles and the Thames glittered in the sun. In the Main Tower
closer to the Southbank, we watched another short video which showed the
construction of the bridge before walking back across the walkway, this time on
the west side. Back this way, one could see more of the London landmarks; Tower
of London, the Shard, the Gherkin, etc. We then took the stairs down the South
Tower and walked on the main part of the bridge to the engine room which is
underneath on the South shore. We toured around here and got to see how the
engines that raise the middle of the bridge work – just don’t ask me to go into
the specifics, I couldn’t recall it if I tried. But afterward we perused the
gift shop for a bit and I picked up a few souvenirs for people back home.
Hannah and I then decided to just walk to the Monument
rather than taking the bus because it wasn’t all that far and we wanted to stop
for lunch on the way. We ended up just stopping at one of the Pret A Mangers
and sat in the window watching a group of wealthy businessmen and women having
some sort of (probably) company lunch outside in the sunshine. We wondered a
bit what it would be like to live that sort of life, or at least to have a
career like that, and we wished we could sit like a fly on the wall to one of
their conversations. For me, they rather looked like an entirely different
species. Personally, I don’t think I could live that kind of life, I don’t
think I would want to. But they were entertaining, and after lunch Hannah and I
continued on to Monument.
The Monument is a tall pillar set on the location where the
Great Fire of London in 1666 began. If you want more info on the Fire itself,
Wikipedia has a pretty good summary: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Great_Fire_of_London.
But anyway, they do allow people to climb all the way up to the top via the
narrow spiral staircase inside. On the way up there was a large group of guys
coming down who seemed rather intoxicated, not only because at least one of them
had a hat on that was shaped like a beer mug but they were all sing-shouting;
“DOWN! DOWN! DOWN! DOWN! DOWN! DOWN! DOWN!
DOWN! DOWN! DOWN! DOWN! DOWN!” as they made their descent and were all smiles. A bit winded, Hannah and I eventually
defeated the climb and had a wonderful view from the top. While, naturally, the
view wasn’t as spectacular as that from St. Paul’s, we did get some really
beautiful pictures of the London skyline, much of which was silhouetted in the
distance due to a sort of faint, dusty fog that had settled amidst the
buildings and hadn’t been burnt off by the sun. All around the narrow top
observation deck there is a sort of mesh fence that creates a sort of bubble
all around it to prevent unfortunate accidents, the interesting thing though is
that the railing and the mesh have a sort of wavy design to them, so that in a
few places, the railing leans out slightly almost over the side of the platform
so that those who dare can lean out with it and look straight down. Leaning out
like that puts one in a position beyond vertical so that if it were not for the
rail, falling would be certain. But the view was really cool, and the little
adrenaline surge it causes is enough to make one’s heart pick up the pace a
bit. Pretty sure Hannah thought I was nuts, but I was having fun and was loving
the view.
After Monument we walked over to the Bank of England to see
if we could go into the museum portion of it. Unfortunately it was closed for
maintenance reasons but we did go into the Royal Exchange and look around a
bit. Hannah had her guidebook with her so we looked at that a bit to see what
was available to us and eventually decided to go check out St. Brides Church.
We walked all the way from the Bank of England over to Fleet Street and found the
church. The place was deserted when we walked in save for an old man sitting at
the welcoming desk reading who barely looked at us when we came in. We wandered
around a bit and Hannah was desperately trying to stifle her hiccups which were
echoing in the dead silence. We looked around, all the while trying to be as
quiet as possible but failing miserably as my shoes kept squeaking on the stone
floor and Hannah’s loud hiccups were causing me to laugh.
After wandering throughout the beautiful church, we went
over to a nearby pub called the Ye Ol’ Cheshire Cheese which is one of the
oldest pubs in London and ordered a drink. I asked the bartender what his
favorite beer on tap was and he served me one that was dark and extra stout…and
tasted horrible. It was absolutely dreadful and Hannah can vouch because she
took a sip of it too and was equally disgusted. But I downed the whole pint
even though I considered several times sneaking into the restroom and pouring
it down the sink. But God, I would take straight whiskey over that any day.
REALLY not a beer person… The pub itself was really cool though, it had both an
upstairs and a basement with a bar in each section and was beautifully
decorated, had a wood fire burning, and was incredibly cozy. I wouldn’t mind going
back, but would certainly order something different next time.
We then went back to NIDO for about 45 minutes to make
dinner and then meet up with Alyssa so that we could go to a walking tour that
was all about Jack the Ripper. Unfortunately, I couldn’t find my phone and
ended up being a few minutes late, that, plus the fact that there were no
Circle Line trains coming around. Because they were taking too long, we had to
get on another line which ended at the stop just before where we needed to get
off. So we literally sprinted from Aldgate to Tower Hill and just barely got
there in time to make the tour. But we made it. The tour was really interesting
and informative. I know more about Jack the Ripper now than I did before, but
of course, the case is still a mystery today and there are many discrepancies
so no one knows who he actually was. It wasn’t scary or anything, just
interesting. I admit though that it was hard for me to pay attention because by
this time I felt as though I had multiple blisters on my feet. My feet had been
tired before by the time we went to the pub, but now, after running and then
walking for another two hours, they were screaming. So I shuffled along and
after the tour was over I was relieved to be able to sit down at a pub we
stopped at near Liverpool Station. Alyssa and Hannah ordered desert while I
nursed my feet. The pub itself was actually quite beautiful though, high
ceilings, brightly lit and decorated more like a Victorian ballroom than a pub.
Being a Friday night, it was also incredibly busy. While Alyssa and Hannah were
ordering I couldn’t help notice the people next to us, one guy had brought back
some drinks one of which was a shot of tequila with a lemon and he was trying
to give it to the girl who kept refusing it and when she tried to pass it to
the other guy at the table, he passed it right back. No one wanted it and I
wondered if they would offer it to us because we were in close proximity. Just
about then Alyssa and Hannah came back and I quit watching the people next to
us and was listening to them two. But sure enough, not long after the guy who
had originally brought the drinks leaned over and offered us the shot which
Alyssa took. I just find it interesting what you can notice of people by just
watching, sometimes even predicting their actions. It’s always been something I’ve
inadvertently done, and like in this instance, it is often not as though I was
going to tell them “Oh I bet you they give us their shot” or afterward say “Knew
that was going to happen,” just because the instances are so small and not
worth mentioning at the time. But it is useful and I really just like people
watching because of it.
Finally, after a long and exhausting day, I got back to NIDO
and was finally able to get my shoes off. Thankfully, no blisters, but they
were definitely sore as all hell. The sleep deprivation has also been catching
up with me so it did not take long before I practically passed out and finally
had a long, full night of sleep – didn’t even hear my roommate when she came
in. Today I just bummed around and watched a lot of TV, didn’t want to be on my
feet too much as tomorrow we will be making our way to Dover.
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