The London Eye

Today was a much more leisurely day than the last few have been, especially yesterday! I had class at 10AM and we finished up Henry V and then started on Marlowe’s Edward II. Not familiar with anything by Marlowe other than Faust but I enjoyed the play. I like Shakespeare better but it was good to look at this play to understand the timeline of Henry V and what led up to it. I think it might have made more sense to do Marlowe’s first since it happened first, though.

After class Aubrey and I went back to the dorm, dropped our school stuff off and then went to find some lunch. We went down the street the Old Monk pub is on and found out it’s a really neat little side street. There were a couple of pubs like the Old Monk – which I have been meaning to get a picture of so you guys can see it. I have been there twice now - and bakeries. The bakeries are pretty small and when you hit lunch time it gets crowded but it is well worth crowds, especially for the meat pasties, which is what Aubrey and I had for lunch. We didn’t eat them right away, though because we walked the rest of the way down the street. There were more pubs and bakeries but it’s also a pedestrian street so there were vendors that sold things like touristy shirts, shoes, fresh fruit, etc. There were stalls that had Caribbean food and other food that was cooked on the spot. We would have stayed longer but we were both in need of a nap so we found a little green park – which seem to be all over, not just the big royal parks – and ate our pasties and people watched, then went back to Wigram and took a nap. When I got back I was finally able to post the pictures from yesterday, which I hope everyone has gotten a chance to see by now. I have also already posted the ones for today so go take a gander.

Then it was nap time. I hadn’t taken a nap since I had gotten here because I’ve been afraid that it would disrupt my sleeping cycle but if I hadn’t I think I would have fallen into my dinner tonight. I slept from about 4Pm to 5PM and then met with Aubrey to walk to the London Eye to meet the part of our group that was going on it. The Eye is quite impressive. From afar it doesn’t look like it’s moving but it is and it never stops moving. It seems a lot faster when you’re trying to get about 10 people from your group into one of the pods and nobody is quite sure what is going on. It made for a comical memory. The pods are oval shaped and offer a 360 degree view of London. When we got higher and I could see Buckingham Palace I realized that I am about a 5-10 minute walk away. The Queen is my neighbor! I wonder if she would let me use a cup of sugar? My cousin – who shall remain nameless *coughTARAcough* - suggested that I ding song ditch the Queen.

The best view, though, came after dinner when Aubrey, Jamie, and I were walking back past the Eye. The Eye was lit up and across the River Thames Parliament and Big Ben were lit. It was beautiful. The night air was cool and a light wind was blowing. I could have stood there all night and just stared and watched people. London is a wonderful city and I could see myself living here. I realize now why Tara didn’t want to leave. I know I will be back again.

Tomorrow should be a fun day. It’s the last day of class for the week and since we don’t have an evening excursion planned a bunch of us are going shopping or window shopping on Oxford Street – a mile of shopping – and then it’s off to Abbey Road!