london! [days sixteen, seventeen, & eighteen]

thursday. we spent the afternoon in bath, a place where jane austen spent many a vacation and lived some of her life. how perfect, then, that this is where i finished reading pride and prejudice. the latest film adaptation of the novel (directed by joe right, with keira knightly and matthew macfayden) is my favorite movie of all time. the sound track, the actors, the cinematography, every little scene and detail is fantastically fantastic. it's my idea of the perfect story illustrated in the most perfect way. but the point is, jane austen is an incredible story teller, and i really enjoyed reading the story as much as watching it. so, of course i was excited to spend some time in bath and learn a little more about her life and her works. we also visited the roman baths, which the town is named for. we walked through the baths and through the city, got some lunch and hopped back on the bus. next stop? stonehenge! i've seen the colossium and the leaning tower of pisa, and i was so looking forward to seeing another of the wonders of the medieval world. so we're all on the bus, ready to go. until we look around and notice that two people are missing. oh no. ten minutes go by...thirty...fourty-five. an hour goes by and they finally show up. just in time to nix our visit to stonehenge. that hour we spent waiting for them was the hour that we were meant to spend at stonehenge. so instead of getting to see the monument up close and take in all its wonder, we got to drive right past it. people were literally crying out of disappointment. i wasn't among them, but i was definitely bummed. really bummed. but, i'll take it as another excuse to come back to the british isles again some day.

hanging out with jane mmm, who wouldn't want to take a bath in there? hey look, the window of my bus. oh, and that little thing in the corner? yeah, that's the glimpse i got of stonehenge.

and, with that, we made it to our final stop on the trip: london! now, i've been to london before, which has brought about some definite pros and cons in the past few days. the benefit of having been here just two years ago is that i remember very well how to get around the city--how to work the tube--which lines will take you where, and how to change from line to line to get to the place you want to go--and where everything (or at least the main stuff) is. so i have acquired the title of tour guide within my group of friends here. it's been nice to have some confidence in an area that many do not. the cons, however, are that i've been to and seen many of the places that we've been visiting. but then, i've gone to some new places and experienced some new things, so it hasn't been all bad. and i don't really mind seeing the city again, i just wish a little bit that the city was newer to me, making it more exciting. but like i said, i have done some new things and seen some new sights. so let's talk about those things, both old and new.

we got to the city and took a "flight" on the london eye--the largest ferris wheel in the world. it's nearly 450 feet tall, and when all of its 32 capsules are full, 960 people can be on it at once. once you're on top, you get a pretty incredible view of the city. it was a great way to start the trip, and gave everyone a good idea of where things where and what london really looks like.

after taking our spin about the eye, we all split up and went to explore the city and eat some dinner. some of us were walking along st. james park when all of the sudden we see a man with squirrels on his lap. we were, of course, a bit taken back and amazed. we asked him how he got them to do that, and in response he opened his hand to reveal a palm full of peanuts. he then offered us some and invited us to have a go at feeding the squirrels, and whatayaknow, they came right up to us and ate right out of our hands.

the squirrel man katie and her new squirrel friend

we continued on towards the picadilly circus, similar to but not as grand as new york's time square--just sort of a center of the city--when we ran into some police men, who offered to let us sit on their giant police motorcycles. so, of course, we did. and by this point, how could i not love randomness of our first evening in london?

fighting crime, one photo-op at a time

after some more walking, we made it to picadilly. by this point our tummies were a-rumbalin'. so we were determinted to eat at the first place we found, which hapend to be pizza hut. but don't be mistaken, this is not the pizza hut you're used to back in the states. pizza hut here is a classy place. people were dressed up and sipping whine and whatnot. we couldn 't help but laugh at the sight of a fancy pizza hut. oh how i love little foreign oddities like this. i didn't take a picture, so you'll just have to trust me. and if you don't, come to london and see for yourself.

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friday. we woke up early to grab some breakfast and a double decker bus. our first stop: westminster abbey, a great big church where kings and queens are ordained, married, and buried. other people are buried there too, like charles darwin, isaac newton, and geoffrey chaucer. across the street from westminster is big ben, which is actually not big ben. that is to say, the clock tower's name isn't big ben, but it's the giant bell's that's inside. either way, though, we saw the giant clock tower up close, as well as some statues and a park full of protesters who were protesting pretty much everything that could be protested--war, capitalism, injustice, etc.

on top of the buswestminster abbeyfun fact: that minute hand is forty feet long

the protest park, also known as "democracy village"

we then hopped back on the bus and got a tour of the rest of the city from a very strange and creepy tour guide. also, it was a very warm day, and with the sun beating down on us and the wind blowing in our faces, it wasn't the most pleasant of rides. in fact, it pretty much wiped everyone out. needless to say, we were all glad to get off of the bus, away from the tour guide, and out of the sun. we ended up at the tower of london (which is not really much of a tower at all), took a brief jaunt through the inside, and picnicked on the outside.

the tower bridge

one of the "towers" that make up the "tower of london"a guard!

next was a boat ride up the thames, the river that runs through the city. we eventually made it back on the land and back to our hotel. even though most of us would have very much liked to lay down and take a nap, we only had ten minutes to change into something a bit warmer and head back out for a group dinner at ye old cheshire cheese where more meat pie and fish and chips were eaten, a definite motif of the trip. to end the day, we all headed over across the millennium bridge to the old globe theater for a production of macbeth.

walking into the theater, the first thing we see is this sign....awesome.

here's the view from our seats. now, see those black sheets down on the floor, with heads popping out of them? those are seats. or well, stands? i mean, those people had to stand for the entire three hours with their heads poking out like that.
from the very moment the play started, the sign in the beginning rang true. men, covered in blood, popped out of the stage and out of slits in the sheets, screaming and writhing in agony. and so macbeth began...

having read the play some years ago, i knew that it was going to be dark, i just never realized the extent until i saw it. it was gruesome and brutal, but the whole thing was actually very well done, and this time everyone enjoyed it as much as me. in fact, most people enjoyed it more than me; i happen to have liked romeo and juliet better. but what was cool about seeing macbeth in the old globe theater is knowing that i was watching the play performed on the stage where shakespeare himself pictured it being performed. it's an experience that i am very thankful to have. i was also thankful when the time came to lay my head on my hotel pillow that night and finally go to sleep.

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saturday. it was a free day, meaning that we weren't do anything as a whole group, we could go off and do whatever we wanted whenever we wanted with whoever we wanted. so, we started the day off at the portabello market--the largest antique market in the world (go ahead, mom, you can be jealous). it was way bigger and way more crowded than any of us were expecting, but still so much fun. i love flee markets and i love antiques, so it would have been really hard not to love this. i got a watch that i'm really excited about; it's sixty years old and so cute. and while i wanted to buy everything, my watch will definitely do.

the market and the crowds

we then continued on with the theme of shopping at harrods, the largest department store in the world (yeah i know, they have a lot of "largest" things around here). harrods was ridiculous. if i were wealthy, and i mean really really wealthy, i wouldn't have to go anywhere else to buy anything. furniture, pets, food, instruments, books, cosmetics, clothes, electronics. you name it, they sell it at harrods. they also had museums and even a live opera performance going on while we were there. and there was a whole room (and the rooms at harrods aren't small) of chocolate. so, of course, i got some. and it was SO yummy. if you ever go to harrods, buy chocolate.

here she is, takings up an entire block

after making our way through some of the department store--seeing all of it would take hours--we set off for an afternoon out of the city center. we took the tube and a bus and a long walk to a giant park to watch a rugby game. my friend katie has a family friend on the team, so we went to cheer him on and take in some english culture. we had no idea what was going on the whole time, and the game was absurdly violent and strange. it's some sort of strange mix between soccer, football, cheer leading, and wrestling. after the game, matt (katie's family friend) tried to explain the rules and whatnot, but i never really caught on. oh well. it was a relaxing afternoon, laying in the grass, eating a sandwich and watching the game. i enjoyed myself, even if i didn't really enjoy the rugby so much.

walking back from the game

and that is that. the main events of thursday, friday, and saturday. that means i only have two days left here in the british isles, which means only two more posts for you to read. so, enjoy them while you can while i enjoy the rest of my time here. and in the mean time, isle be seeing you...