Day 2.5 - Being a London Tourist

Just checkin back in from London; it's Thursday at about 8:42 pm here (20:42 if you really want to get in the spirit). We've done a ton of stuff since last night, so I'm sure I'll miss half of it trying to remember.

Well last night we were going to go on a mini pub tour just to get a feel for the area and meet some of the people we're staying with, but it didn't end up happening so we asked the guys working here for some suggestions. They recommended this place called Churchill At Arms just west of Hyde Park which is about a 20 minute walk from here. We took a map, navigated the streets, and finally ended up there. The place was pretty unique - it served Thai food on one side, had a traditional pub bar on the other, and featured a lot of old memorabilia of fat, funny Winston Churchill. For £13 a person we got huge meals and 2 pints of some warm, barely carbonated London Ale. Since our main goal in London is to make Rachel Ray proud, old Churchill was a success.

After that we came back to our hostel, where a bunch of mostly non-Americans were watching American Pie 3 - ha. We told them about our bars back home and they asked if they really used those little red cups from all the American movies. I had no idea Solos were so legendary / cliche American... but yes, they do.

The beds are pretty comfortable, so that was good. Got a decent amount of sleep, and woke up this morning to start out on the 'tourist day,' trying to hit up all the popular spots that you have to take pictures of while in London. First saw Big Ben and Parliament, and the London Eye across the river. We were too poor to ride the Eye so we just took some pics of the clock tower. This was indisputable proof that London is into big buildings, having history, gold, and being like Hogwarts - a tradition that would continue.

From there we went a very short walk over to Westminster Abbey. It's pretty crazy looking from the outside, so we got curious about what it was like through the doors. Breaking the tradition of not paying for any attractions, we handed over £12 for the ticket. Even though we weren't allowed to take pictures, the abbey was pretty worth it. It is ridiculously ornate; we were saying that it seemed like the planner must have said 'make me an abbey, and make everything inside it the nicest thing you've ever seen.' We got little audio devices that took us around for the abbey for a walking tour. As you might expect, the place has a lot of history - a ton of English monarchs, writers, composers, etc. are buried right under your feet as you walk around the church. At one point I found myself standing on Charles Dickens.

Afterward, we headed over to Brick Lane on Dubs' reccomendation. He said it was a cool outdoor market-type place where you could get awesome deals on authentic Indian food, and that the restaurant owners would hang outside the restaurant to offer competing deals to people on the street. That turned out to be exactly right. Some guy sold us on the offer of a free beer, and we had a huge delicious lunch for £8 total each, tip and all. It really did feel a little bit what I imagine the real India might be like - all I could have asked for was a little MIA in the background.

Next we walked down to the Tower of London and the Tower Bridge. All very cool stuff, the tower of London is an old fortress of a castle that you would have to be crazy to attack. The tower bridge is a newish drawbridge with some intesne decorative architecture. I spose it might have been interesting to go inside either of these things, but for £17 to enter the Tower, we were content to look. There were some people dressed as medieval soldiers and a trebuchet set up on the green outside the castle, but they never flung anything so we decided to keep on keepin on.

Finally we tubed over to St. Paul's cathedral, which is an enormous church - even bigger I think than Westmister Abbey. Apparently it was built in 1410 too, that's pretty old. Anyway, we found a good trick to avoid paying the £8.50 entrance fee. There's an 'Evensong' ceremony once each day at 17:00, and it just so happened we were there at exactly 16:50. The ceremonies there are free to attend. We put two and two together, and ended up getting inside for the ceremony, which is a type of Anglican prayer thing set to song sung by a choir. There were actually seats remaining in the choir, so we sat there. Somewhat relieved - we didn't have to sing. But the ceremony was really interesting, and we got to observe the inside of St. Paul's from a pretty unique vantage point. The cathedral itself was awesome in a different way than Westminster; pretty much it just looked newer and cleaner, with more modern architecture and decoration. Don't know if that's actually true, but both were cool and definitely worth visiting. Listening to the singing was really relaxing to the point where I could not stay awake and kind of went half-conscious in the seat. In retrospect, I guess that might be frowned upon.. but what can a man do?

Last... and least... we went over the Millenium walking bridge to see the Tate Modern (art museum) and Shakespeare's Globe Theatre. The Tate ended up being closed, but we found out it was free to visit, so we might stop by tomorrow. The globe ended up being pretty hidden among the streets, and you could barely notice the classic white exterior. We walked inside, but we weren't allowed to see the actual theatre area without paying £9. This left me wondering, why isn't this whole trip free? On top of that, touring was closed for the afternoon because they were getting ready for a showing of Romeo and Juliet. While I'm sure it would be cool to see a show in the Globe, or even just to look around, I think we're going to end up keeping the pocket change. Literally, cause these things come in coins, and end up filling your pocket annoyingly by the end of the day. In any case, this Globe is a reconstruction, not the one that Shakespeare actually hung out in. I'll just count it as seen.

Anyway, we're back here now at the hostel, really beat from walking so far today. Probably going to get dinner soon, but I'm not even really that hungry yet. Plus, it's almost 9:30 and it's not even dark yet! That part of London is definitely something I suggest the US talk to them about. But not everything. What the heck is a pound anyway.