A London Weekend

First weekend in London! I can't believe I have only been here one week! We've done so much that it seems like it should have taken us longer to fit it all in! Today was the sunniest day we have had yet although it was really chilly. There was a bit of snow on the ground when we left for our tour this morning. We started at St. John's Cathedral. It was pretty sweet our tour guide told us bits of history about it as we walked around it. There was a platform thing where there would be 4 sermons going on at once and also there are golden pineapples at the peeks of a few steeples that is a sign of hospitality. From the cathedral we crossed the street to hear about London's coat of arms and crossed the 'wibbly-wobbly' bridge. It really wasn't wobbly but when it was first built it was. After we cross the bridge, we went in the Tate Modern Museum or something like that. It had a big black steel box that if we would ever go back it gets darker and darker and darker until eventually you lose all your senses. Sounds like quite the experience huh? Then we moved on to the modern reproduction of the Globe Theatre, where Shakespeare plays are performed starting in April through August. Hopefully i can catch one before i have to leave for home. Mark said last semester they went to one and it poured buckets of rain the whole time....but said we should experience a play just once. Then we moved on to where they think the Globe Theatre was originally built. There was a lot of archeology done and they found perserved nut shells and other remains that they used to tell where the rich sat and where the poor sat and how much each seat would have been worth. Interesting huh? Our guide them brought us down a street where there was bear fighting at one time. It sounded very gruesome! They would put two bears in the ring and bet on which one would survive; before they fight they would do anything to make the bears mad like not feed them or tear off their claws or something on that sort. Yeah, like a said, gruesome! but the people back then loved that sort of entertainment. They tried to make that building into a theatre but people stopped going so they turned it back into a bear fighting ring and the people came back. What would PEDA do about that?! We then walked through a street of where a few more theatres were, like the Rose Theatre, and made our way to a Pub that Shakespeare's dad owned. The same one where Tom Cruise drank in in the last part of a movie (don't remember which one). We made our way through a part of Borough Market. This is a gourmet food market where you can get anything from Turkish Delights and other sweets to meats to wines and cheeses. Right as we entered the market our guide pointed out a major filming place, for example where Bridget Jones' flat was and where Tom Cruise filmed something or other. We ended up at the oldest pub in London. (there are 9000 total by the way). By the end of the tour i could not feel my hands any longer. I was a little too optimistic on the weather and didn't remember my gloves. I misunderstood the sun. however, it was still really cool to hear a little more of the history. We walked back through the market to see what else was there and then headed back to Victoria Station where we got a few groceries, made some lunch.

A few guys wanted to find a place to get tickets to a concert so me and Erica decided to tag along and then we realized that we wouldn't make it there before they closed. so we decided to walk around Oxford Street for a while and see if we could find any shopping deals. i was successful! I bought a few "londonish" items that will help me blend in more and not look like such a tourist:)

One thing we have to get used to is closed Tube lines on the weekends. Today District and Circle weren't running for maintenence reasons. These are the ones that I use the most so far, so that really threw me off! I am still making progress on the Underground though I think:) we'll see what happens when i have to find places myself!