A Ramble on a Ramble…
At first the days were absolutely dragging (in a good way), but now they are flying by! I can’t believe it’s been a week since I left home. That seems such a long, and yet short time ago. So much has happened since then, and so much is going to happen still!
On Thursday, a bunch of us went down to Covent Garden before class. It was really cool! No, it is not a garden, as some of my peers were to find out. It is essentially a MASSIVE outdoor market that sells food, clothes, pretty much anything. And they have street performers too! We saw Charlie Chaplin and another man that juggles knives. I didn’t get to spend as much time there as I could have, but I will definitely be returning! The food looked and smelled too good to resist :) Around the Covent Garden area there are a lot of cultural points of interest, like Drury Lane, the Royal Opera house, a film museum, and further on, Fleet Street!! I pretty much died of excitement. “The Worst Pies in London” was playing in my head nonstop walking down the street. We also stumbled upon the original Twinings tea establishment! I wanted to go in, but people wanted to move on, so I’ll have to return another time. At least it’s fairly close to school!
That evening, we took a double decker bus down to the Almeida Theatre to see King Lear. It was so fun! It felt like a ride at an amusement park. Maybe I’m too excitable, but I had a crazy good time on it. Plus you’re up high, so you can see above all the other cars. King Lear was “absolutely smashing!” as one British theatre-goer said to his companion behind me when I walked out of the theatre after it was done. It truly was smashing! Jonathan Pryce played King Lear, who we Americans know as Governor Swann in Pirates of the Caribbean and Colin Firth’s fiancee’s father in What a Girl Wants. He electrified the stage with his performance, and masterfully portrayed Lear’s descent into madness. That was the first time I had seen or heard King Lear, and I had never read it before, so everything was new and fresh and exciting, including the rather gory scene near the intermission. It was certainly an eye-full ;) The rest of the cast did a wonderful job as well. I particularly liked the characters of Edmund and the Fool.
The next day we took the Tube, then the Overground Train to Hampstead Heath, which is a huge park. We were there for a “ramble,” as opposed to an “amble.” We walked all over the place, and I was very tired after a while. But it there was certainly beautiful scenery to look at! I guess Hampstead Heath is also THE place to bring your dog on a nice constitutional, so we saw scores of dogs and their owners rambling about as well. At one point, a little dog wandered away from its owner and ran over to me and rolled over on its back and I rubbed its belly. It made my heart melt and break at the same time. I miss my dog. Anyway, we wandered around the town of Hampstead afterwards, which sort of sent me over the edge. At that point, I was really exhausted from walking pretty much all day, and at least half of the time uphill. Also, the weather got to be quite warm, so I ended up being too hot with my jeans. I might have to go back there when I am in a better mood/have more appropriate clothing and walking shoes, because it was a cute little town. It looked very European, actually.
That night, after we got to rest a bit, our group went out to a pub called The Junction in Harrow, which was a lot of fun! Ellen and I didn’t eat dinner until we got there, which was around 8:30 pm. Pub food is so cheap!! I got a burger and fries for less than three pounds. Which is close to 6 dollars in American money, I know, but that is still a pretty good price if you think about it. I was going to get a drink, but my stomach had been bothering me the whole day, and I didn’t want to aggravate it even more. I did sip a couple of my friend’s drinks though, and I definitely know what I will be ordering next time! We sat in the large outdoor courtyard area of the pub, and just all sat around and talked and generally had a good time.
Today, a group of us girls went down to Buckingham Palace, because obviously, that’s what you do while you’re in London. It felt sooooo surreal to be right outside the gates!! I was a bit disappointed to see that the balcony where so many Royal couples have sealed their union with a kiss was actually quite a bit lower and not as grand as I anticipated. But the Victoria memorial was absolutely splendid. So grand and opulent and generally impressive. After, we rambled around for a while, briefly stopped at the Royal Arts Academy, and then decided that we wanted to go check out the London Eye. Pretty much the worst idea ever, especially on a Saturday with nice weather. The line was so outrageously long that we didn’t even attempt to wait on it. I definitely will come back on a morning and be one of the first people in line, because I am not missing out on it! We rambled around some more, took lots of touristy pictures, and then made our way back home. I’m really excited for this coming week, because we get to go to the National Portrait Gallery and the British Museum for some of my classes! Now, to finish Richard III before Monday….
Source:
http://onedoesnotsimplyvisitlondon.blogspot.co.uk (my personal blog!)