After adventures at the Queen's residence, we ventured over towards Big Ben and Parliament. First stop was Westminster Abbey, and was it ever beautiful! The Gothic-style church reminded me so much of Notre Dame. I have been so blessed and have seen so many things! We did not go in b/c there is a charge, but, service is free. We are all about the free and were up to checking that out, but that's for another day's telling. Right next to the Abbey we crossed the very busy street (street crossing is quite interesting, you just go when you see a clear shot when there is no real crossing). The park we crossed to had statues of great men, my favorite of which was Nelson Mandela who I had to take a picture with. From Nelson, we had the best view of Big Ben!
Since beginning to 'grow up' I've always talked about how if I want to go to London, stand on one of Big Ben's hands, look to the second star on the right and fly on straight 'til morning. It was amazing and of course Peter Pan songs got stuck in my head. We ventured closer and were further awed by the beauty of Parliament. I love the yellow stone and all of the delicate details (Check out my facebook photo albums for the photos). I believe this area was Mandy's favorite, and quite possibly mine as well. From the Westminster bridge we caught sight of the London Eye, the huge ferris wheel. NO need to pay 35 pounds to get on, a look and a pic were plenty.
By now we were hungry and went back towards Piccadilly Circus in search of food. I was determined to get Indian food while in London, and Indian food I did get. I felt sort of bad because Chelsea wasn't up to Indian, but I was determined. I knew that while in London I would buy at least one thing and that was going to be it. It was Mandy's first Indian food experience and I believe she liked it. I LOVED my vegetable dish and naan (which was sweeter since I got the nutty naan). Delicious! Although, the service was REALLY slow, the only sourness to the meal was the rudeness of the waiter when we asked for our bill. It was odd how frustrated his rudeness made me, but maybe it's because my father always taught me politeness... anyways...
We then got Chelsea and Mandy Cinnabon and I had a fun chat with the woman working the register there about Cadburry's Chocolate, true story. From there we went to Trafalgar Square to visit the National Gallery. Outside the Gallery, while Chelsea ate her cinnabon, Mandy and I watched a street performer do some silly stuff. Not quite the juggling Rachel, kayla and I caught in Paris, but hilarious nonetheless. The gallery itself was impressive. Mandy was really cute. About halfway point she said she had the chills in realizing just then that these were the original copies. That we were looking directly at some of Monet's paintings, that he did, not a replica. The coolest example of this were the few unfinished paintings that went up. I have to admit, it is pretty cool that they were the real deal.
Off to Oxford street we went. (I think). It was suggested that we check out a store with cheap shopping along there by my high school friend Megan Madrigal. Sadly, I did not find it, no biggie though. We did find a cool bookstore that we later returned to on Saturday and Mandy bought books 1 and 7 of the British Harry Potters. We walked to Tottenham Court Road, mentioned in the HP books for a pub they went to. We didn't find the pub but a very nice professor and a student noticed we were looking at our map to find our way home and gave us some lovely directions. I truly love meeting kind people and we met so many in this adventure!
On our way home we passed by the British Museum and noticed parts of it were still open, so of course we went in! The first exhibit we hit was Living and Dying, which showed how cultures throughout the world deal with daily challenges. With my love of worldy cultures, I was in heaven. Anecdote time! So I went into the room by myself, the other two a ways behind me, and I started flashing my camera on the Andean case of devil costumes used at carnavals (made me think of Rachel and her Kechwa studies). Suddenly a guard started to approach me quickly, I thought I was in trouble for using my flash like I'd done in the Louvre once or twice. I started to apologize and he started to reach out as to grab my camera, smiled and shooed me to go stand by the display so he could take my picture by it. Then he told me to follow him to the Easter Island statue he'd seen me gawking at a minute before and took my picture there. He just brightened my evening! I truly loved the display, it was phenomenal, so much culture, history and tradition in one room.
We also caught the Africa display right below that exhibit. Africa was amazing. The pieces that stood out were the Throne of Weapons and the Tree of Life. Both were made from decommissioned weapons after the war in Mozambique. The chair was sort of eerie because it made me think of an electric chair at first. After reading about it, it was sort of beautiful because it made something beautiful and useful out of something that had caused death and suffering previously. The tree of life was particularly amazing because it symbolized hope to me. The decommissioning project bought back weapons in exchange for agricultural goods to help promote growth in the post war country.
Our whirlwind day brought us back to the hostel. I took my first hostel shower, it was hot and I was happy. Going upstairs to ask the front desk a question with Mandy, we wound up watching this crazy British show called Skins. We met a guy who had been listening to Mandy explain to me the plot line of One Tree Hill, thinking we were talking about Skins and thanked us for explaining that tricked out show. After clarifying things, we wound up all sitting together, exchanging travel stories. Curt was studying for a year in Germany. We were joined by another guy and all wound up talking until about 2. Mandy and I had made arrangements to meet up with Curt again, if not for breakfast, which we did, then on Saturday at Platform 9 and 3/4 when we returned from Cambridge. How cool is that, to meet up there? I'm such a HP fan :)
That night, although Mr snores a lot had left, it took me a while to fall asleep. Probably because I was so excited after the day's adventures!
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