Wednesday I woke up with a bad cold and had 4 hours of internship followed by 5 hours of classes. It was a long day, but I made it through. On Thursday for my British Pop Culture class, our prof took us to the British Museum and we had a small your. We didn't get to see much because it was already late in the day, but it seems like you would need a whole 3 days to get through the whole thing. I did get to see the Rosetta Stone, which is much bigger than I was expecting.
On Thursday night, my flatmate Maddie and I went out to explore central London (the ancient city). We started out on the infamous Fleet Street, and walked in the footsteps of Charles Dickens and Shakespeare. We each had a pint at Ye Olde Cheshire Cheese pub, where Dickens and Dr Samuel Johnson (a famous Brit who wrote the dictionary) liked to write. It was rebuilt in 1667 after the London fire, and it now has 3 bars on different levels, with a large open cellar room for sitting. After that, we
found the Tipperary, which is the oldest Irish pub in London. It was one of the only buildings to survive the fire, which makes it one of the oldest buildings in central London. We found Dr Johnson's house and a statue of his cat Hodge, sitting on top of a dictionary.After that, we set out to see the supposed living place of Sweeney Todd, if he even existed. When we stopped at 186 Fleet Street, we met a group of people being led by another one of their friends on a ghost tour of old London. They invited us to join them, and they took us around the Temple of the city, where crusaders were blessed before they went to battle in the 11th century. We also stopped at the Blackfriar Saloon, a 900 year old pub, and had a pint. At the end of the night, we said goodbye to our new friends, and made it home safely.
On Friday, my flatmates and I did a little shopping on Kensington High Street and then went to the Victoria and Albert Museum. The V&A Museum, like most other museums in London, is free admission. My favorite exhibit was the Theatre and Performance section, where they had old outfits worn by Mick Jagger and Elton John, along with a large tribute to BBC's Top of the Pops. We had to get home early, because we had a daytrip to Stonehenge and Bath planned for the early morning.
Stonehenge, on Saturday, was pretty boring. There were way too many people there, and it was kind of lackluster, so my friends and I just took some interesting pictures to try and spice it up a bit. Good thing we were only there for 45 minutes, and then we were off to Bath, an ancient Roman settlement.
Bath was beautiful. It is a middle sized town with hills all around it and a little river running through it. Nicholas Cage used to own a house there, and it's rumored that Johnny Depp is looking to buy a house there. We toured the city and the Roman bath, and sampled some of the spring water.
Today, my flatmates Maddie, Lindsay and I went on a daytrip to Greenwich, which is just east of London. We wanted a different experience, so we opted to travel by boat. We took a commuter ferry all the way up the Thames and ended up right in the heart of Greenwich. The city has a large Royal naval college in it, and it has the national maritime museum. We got lunch in the Greenwich Market, which was filled with food from all over the world. I got the most delicious gyro I have ever eaten from a small Turkish vendor.
From there we explored the royal naval museum, where I got to try on some knight's armor and got to hold a jousting lance. From there we climbed the hill in Greenwich Park to the Royal Observatory. There, after waiting in line for 20 minutes, I got to stand on the Prime Meridian separating the western and eastern hemispheres. The view from the top, however, was more exciting than the meridian. We could see all the way to London from the hill. We took the ferry back from Greenwich, and had a nice nap on the boat.
My flatmates and I are busy planning our travels for the rest of our stay in the UK. Looks like I'll be headed off to Ireland next weekend!
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