interstellarglue

Blogging from Britain Part 2

What a lovely day in London.

Kyle and I are totally in love with London. Yesterday, it was just a crush, today it’s true love.

We left a bit too late to make it to King Lear on time. We had to skip breakfast and we were still 20 minutes late. I had to buy groundling tickets (standing tickets… only 5 pounds) because all of the seats were sold out. About 20 minutes into the play I started feeling light headed and queazy and I broke out into a cold sweat. A combination of my horrid condition, seeing the painful look on Kyle’s face (since we were late he had absolutely no clue what was going on), and also knowing that we were going to have to stand for the next 3 hours, convinced me that I had to get out of there (oh yeah, and it was sprinkling on us too!). We went inside the Globe center, got some water and chilled out for a few minutes. At that point I realized that I hadn’t had enough food or water, and that’s probably why I was feeling so bad. I decided that it would be best to skip the play and go find something to eat. We went to a nearby restaurant, and as soon as I had some water and nutrients I felt 100% better. I was bummed we had to miss the play, but I knew that it was better that we did. The Globe theater is awesome though. And the few minutes we did see the play were great.

After we ate we decided to walk along the South Bank. There were lots of shops and street performers. This is a really cool part of London. We saw the Tower Bridge so we decided we should cross it and then go to the Tower of London. The Tower Bridge is awesome- very weird and gaudy, true to Victorian form. We got there when a large ship passed by, so they actually drew up the bridge (is that how you say it?). What a treat! 

The Tower of London is amazing. Why don’t we make prisons like that anymore? There was only an hour until closing, so we decided we would wait until tomorrow to go inside. The City (the area we were in), is very odd. There’s quite a contrast between old and new. There’s the Tower on one side, and then the financial district with large glass buildings on the other. We walked around a little more and started to feel peckish, so we took the Tube to Piccadilly Circus. We found an authentic British pub, and Kyle had a couple of pints. I nursed on one, and still couldn’t drink the whole thing. It was very… British tasting. The bartender actually warned Kyle that Americans typically don’t like that kind of beer. He assured her that he liked it. I felt stupid that I couldn’t even drink half of mine. The kitchen had already closed so we had to go elsewhere for food. We decided to take the Tube back home and eat at Victoria station. After we ate (I had some killer baked macaroni and cheese) we stopped at a little convenient store and got some water, tea and British candy. Chocolate covered honey comb is to die for!

Even though we didn’t really do anything, it was such a wonderful day. This city has a certain charm to it that just sucks you in. I can’t quite put my finger on what it is. The best think to do in London is to walk around- there’s always something wonderful around the corner.

We’ve gotten quite used to the Tube system. We’re practically pros! It’s actually very simple once you get the hang of it. It’s so easy to go anywhere once you understand how it works. Thank god, because those cab rides were getting to be expensive!

It’s really funny that I can’t understand anything the locals say. It’s pretty embarrassing and frustrating. It’s really fun to pay attention to all of things that are different here. To name a few- their keyboards (for computers) are weird, the keys are in different places (not the letters, of course)- they don’t automatically give you water when you go restaurants- the speaker at the Tube station says “mind the doors” as they close- their coffee is actually a freshly pulled shot of espresso with water, it is SO incredibly delicious. There are weird things like that everywhere, I just can’t remember them all now. Oh yeah, they put beans on everything. They have “jacket potatoes,” which are actually just baked potatoes with some sort of filling on top (usually beans).

Tomorrow we are going to Westminster Abbey, Buckingham, the Tower (we’ll actually go inside), and St. Paul’s. It’ll be a busy day, but it will be great.

Time is going by so fast. We actually don’t want to go to Paris at this point, because we love London so much. I’m sure we’ll love Paris just as much. It’s so nice to see that Kyle loves it here. He was being so cranky before we left, that I was afraid that he wasn’t even going to have fun. His favorite thing to day was actually the Globe theater. He thought it was amazing.

That’s it for now. More to come.

Cheers! (Yes, they actually do say that here.) 

Posted under: London, Vacation