Sunday 1 February 2009

London - once more for the people in the back!

That's right everyone - I went to London again. It's got a lot going for it okay? Many things to see. Miranda was my travelling companion this time and we set off on the train - of which I now have a love/hate relationship. Love because it gets me to London and back - Hate because today there was no one available to buy tickets from, one of the machines was broken and you weren't allowed to get on the train without a ticket. Naturally, trains whizzed by us as we waited in the very long queue! Yay! Britain = awesome railroad, crap system.


We need make it! Yay! And returned once more to Waterloo (more on this later!). Hopped on a tube and travelled to St Paul's to see, funnily enough, St Paul's Cathedral. Okay I've seen a lot of churches and what not before but this one LITERALLY takes your breath away. You just walk inside and let your jaw hit the floor because it's an epic structure. Christopher Wren really outdid himself. It's simply amazing and I have got some pictures of the outside to give you some perspective but pictures on the inside were forbidden. But I have to say that even if you could take pictures inside they wouldn't compare to the real thing. Just being in the building makes you feel so small in comparison. The ceiling just looks like the heavens - it's that far up. Which is where we went next! You can climb many stairs to get to the top of St Paul's and there are many - in fact Miranda and I had to stretch before starting - as you can see. The walk was totally worth it - despite the tiny walkways and very narrow stairs the view was an excellent reward. You could just see everything. It's summed up in such a few words but the view was magic. Looking in every direction you could see all the buildings and witness the history that has made this town. Very philosophical I know but that's the effect it had. I mean just looking down and imagining what it would have looked like when it was built. Horses and carriages rumbling on cobblestones, smoke billowing from every available chimney and people busily coming and going. It's strange how, even now, there are very few tall buildings. I mean this view is as good as the London Eye - just a slightly different position. Also very windy as you can tell by the hair flying in my face.

Downstairs there is a crypt with good ol' Nelson who (since I've been in London know) fought and won at the battle of Trafalgar. There are loads of military memorials dotted all over the cathedral which is interesting.

Well after St Paul's we decided to go Shakespeare's Globe. Now you may be having deja-vu and, yes, you would be right I have been there before. But Miranda hadn't. It was a fair trade because I hadn't been to St Paul's. Anyway the Globe was really interesting and I had a different guide who told a whole lot of new things about it. For example he told us about really dumb questions he's been asked on the tour - these are gold.

Someone looking up asked "Who painted the ceiling?" (it's an OUTDOOR theatre) "Does this building have air-conditioning?" and the best one "Does Shakespeare ever come and watch any of his plays?" SERIOUSLY. Why would you visit this structure and not know anything about the author. Apparently this woman thought that Shakespeare was alive and just wrote in an old style. I kid you not. Another girl was in the gift shop and was asking after the DVD of Romeo and Juliet on a boat. That's right a boat. After a long conversation they realised she wanted "Titanic". Brilliant. What brilliant people there are plaguing the Earth. So here's a photo of me there just so it's proven that I was, in fact, there.

Moving on from the Globe Miranda and I toyed with the idea of going to the "London Dungeons" or the "London Tombs". Looking at the entrance, however, boasting "London's scariest attraction" we weren't really in the mood to be touched by actors with jam on their faces. It might have been fun but we decided to keep our money and spend it at the Camden markets instead! Ha ha! On the way to the tube I did see an excellent ice-cream van with "Hot Dogs - Often Licked, Never Beaten" written on it - I'll leave that for you to think about. The Disney characters are kind of concerning.

So then we caught the tube to the Camden Markets. It was as lovely as it was last time except we ran into this one really annoying sales person. Miranda was looking at some coats and he started joking with us that if she bought one he came free. He then added he had just broke up with his girlfriend and wanted to marry Miranda. Meanwhile, he was helping her with the coat - stroking the coat smooth and so on. In the end he overcharged and we left with his co-worker pretty much mocking us. Some way to make a sale. Bleh. The market was really good though - it varies from second-hand clothes, new clothes, homemade items and little bits and bobs. After all this we were getting tired and hungry and decided to go to "Burger King". You heard correctly. But the sign on the door welcomed us with "No posh allowed" so we felt right at home eating our surprisingly satisfying grease bucket. Trained it home and didn't get in until almost 11! How hardcore are we? Coming home from London at that hour. We felt pretty special. Wow you're getting a lot of photos today. I guess there are many opportunities for hilarious photos.
Now moving onto today (Sunday). Slept in (awesome) and bumbled around doing uni readings and stressing further over this thing I have to do next week. Tonight I went to a meeting with the "Royal Holloway Players" which is a theatresports group! YAY! I haven't done or had the opportunity to do theatresports since high school. Theatresports, for those who don't know, is improvisation in games and so on. It was a lot of fun and afterwards I walked back to Founders battling against the snow that was falling. That's right - you heard correct - the SNOW that was fluttering onto my head, face and coat. It sounds elegant and poetic when in reality I was trying not to slip over with every step. I'll try to get a photo tomorrow if it's still snowing. It's so crazy. I mean I can count the amount of times I've seen snow on one hand and yet here it is before my eyes. Freezing my bum off!

2 comments:

  1. PHEEBS! STOP MAKING ME TRES TRES TRES JEALOUS!
    glad you get to go on london adventures, and that the snow is at least romantic to look at, if not to experience. and the idiots the globe guy talked about - priceless!
    and so very jealous that you get to go to st pauls and whatnot. sigh.
    so have lots of fun precious, adn enjoy theatresportsing xoxoxoxox

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  2. AH - i see, it's logged onto nic's gmail account. Well, you should probably know it's Michaela, although Nic says hi too.
    lots of love xoxo

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