So much to say about London already, I don't even know where to start! We left Berlin Wednesday evening. We flew Ryan Air, so our flight was only $25, though you can kind of see why: there aren't assigned seats, so everyone just ran across the tarmac to the plane to get a good seat. Being the runners that we are, we were easily able to get seats together, and quickly dug into our German pastries while waiting for takeoff. We landed in London at about 11PM, and then had to figure out how to get to our hostel. We took a bus into the city, though we had to wait in a long line for that, and it was an hour ride, so it was 1AM before we got into the city, and then we had to deal with a city-wide subway strike. Luckily I overheard another girl say that she was going to our same hostel, so we latched on to her, letting her take charge and find the right bus for us to take. It ended up not being too difficult, and we finally collapsed into bed by 2.
We woke up on Thursday in time to get our free breakfast. The hostel that we are staying in is called Clink Hostel; it used to be a courthouse and has been converted into a hostel. The internet room is in the old courtroom, which still has the benches and everything, and the rooms bear a striking resemblance to jail cells - the bunk beds are lined up next to each other with only a partition between each one, so that you have to climb into bed from the foot of the bed. It’s not too bad though, and overall all of our hostels have been very nice, much better than I expected.
At breakfast there were people recruiting participants for a study they were doing, and all you had to do was wear a GPS around your neck all day and then answer a few questions at the end. The compensation was a 25 pound gift card to Marks and Spencer, a store here in London. Both of us couldn't do it, since we would be spending the whole day together, but I signed up so that we could at least split the gift card. It was kind of fun knowing that we would be able to see the exact route we took, especially since throughout the whole trip we had been saying that we wished we had a pedometer. With the subway strike we just decided to walk everywhere, and at the end of the day we had walked 23 kilometers. The funny thing was that we didn't even feel like it was that much compared to what we did in Vienna, which means that we must have walked at least 15 miles that day, probably more.
Our first stop for the day was at King's Cross Station, where were hoping to find platform 10 and half, from Harry Potter (apparently they have put up a sign there), but you had to buy a subway ticket to get down there, so we'll have to do that another day. We then walked to the British Museum, which has artifacts and ancient art from around the world. The building itself is amazing: the outside has the typical pillars, but the inside is very modern, with glass ceilings that let in tons of light. We visited the Africa section first, where Maggie informed me that she would like Malian fabrics for Christmas. Then, while looking for the Middle East section we got more lost than we have on the entire trip! Way too many staircases and corridors. On the way, though, we saw the Rosetta stone, surrounded by tourists, of course.
We had lunch in a park, and then went to the Sir John Soane Museum. My aunt and uncle recommended the museum, and someone at our hostel agreed that it is the best museum in London. Sir John was an architect and he owned a large, very interesting house where he collecting many Greek and Roman statues and lots of other pieces of art, furniture, etc. There was even a famous sarcophagus that he had bought when the British Museum said that it was too expensive for them to buy.
After the museum we wandered along to the House of Justice and then to St. Paul's Cathedral. We didn't go in, because it was kind of expensive, but instead decided that we would attend a church service there on Sunday so that we could see the inside and also experience a Catholic service while we're here. We then crossed the river and saw the Globe Theater, then walked back towards the hostel, stopping for coffee and a snack on the way.
Friday morning I went for a run in Regent Park, and I was thrilled to finally see other runners - probably more than I have seen in the other cities combined! A number of them had on backpacks, so they must have been running to work, which is really cool. On a side note, it has been interesting to compare the bike presence in each city. In Munich everybody and their mother had a bike, and every road had bike lanes, and the bike racks literally had hundreds of bikes on them. Then in Prague I don't think we saw a single person riding a bike. Here in London there are quite a few, and I think that it is the law to wear a helmet, or maybe people just feel it is necessary, since the roads are crazy and we already saw someone almost get hit by a bus. I had a hard enough time running - weaving in and out of rush hour traffic and trying to remember to look right at intersections instead of left. Luckily they have instructions written on the ground at every single intersection: "LOOK LEFT" or "LOOK RIGHT."
Another note about London: there are security cameras EVERYWHERE. Once you start looking for them, you realize that they are every 10 feet, at least. Maggie took a few pictures of different ones today, and I said that they are going to think that we are plotting something, and that if we get arrested at the airport we will know why!
Anyway, back to Friday...after my run we had breakfast in the hostel, which is always craziness because there are literally hundreds of people staying here. We then bought a daily tube pass since the strike was over and took it to the Monument, which recognizes the fire of 16 something. We then went to the Tower of London and joined up with a tour that is offered with the admission price. My travel book had said that it would be very entertaining, and it definitely was! The tour guide was a Yeoman Warder, which I'm still not entirely sure what that is, but he was dressed up in their traditional garb and was hilarious. He kept barking out orders for us to pay attention and to walk faster. He was also responsible for the quote that is the title of this entry. Other notable quotes: When describing the moat that used to surround the tower, he said that people would relieve themselves into it and that it would make for nasty water, and then said "high fiber, floating poo, bet you didn't think you'd learn that today!" He also said, with great sarcasm, that the diamonds of Africa and India "were given to us by grateful nations." Apparently the tower also used to be a zoo of sorts: people would give other people animals in order to annoy them, saying "Here's an elephant, take care of it!" Anyway, you get the idea. After the tour we waited in line to see the Crown Jewels. While waiting we watched a video of Queen Elizabeth's coronation, which was neat to see, and then the jewels themselves were obviously amazing. They had a moving sidewalk in front of them, probably so that people couldn't crowd around them forever. We then continued on to an exhibit on the armor of Henry VIII. Also included in the Tower area was a little monument to commemorate the people who were beheaded on that spot on the grounds, including two of Henry VIII's wives.
We then walked across the Tower Bridge and along the wharf on the other side of the river. Our next stop was Piccadilly Circus, which is supposed to be London's version of Times Square. It does have a similar feel, but it's nowhere near as big, and of course lacks the skyscrapers. From there we moved on to Leicester Square, where many of the theaters and ticket selling places are. We found ourselves near the National Portrait Gallery, so we went in there and looked at the 20th and 21st century portraits. Recent additions include photos of the Harry Potter cast and Dame Judy Dench. Our last stop of the day was Marks and Spencer, where we spent our gift card mostly on food (we couldn't find any clothes we wanted and figured that was the most practical use) and treated ourselves to some tuna steak, veggies, and carrot cake for dinner.
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