Our group went to London this past weekend for an educational field trip! We left Oxford on Friday morning and took the bus into the city; it was one of those cool, double decker buses. I wrote down the directions, of course: A40, M40, back to the A40, A3220 into the city.
I ended up liking London a lot more than I thought I would. As you may know, I'm generally a low-key, suburban homebody type, and I'm not too fond of big cities. I had such a good time though, and I think I'll make an exception to this...
Day 1
We took a bus tour of the city the first day we were there. It was a great introduction to all of the major parts of London. I had my map out and circled all of the places we passed as we went along; Hyde Park, Buckingham Palace, Westminster Abbey, Big Ben, Parliament, Whitehall Lane, the London Eye, Picadilly Circus, Oxford Street, the river Thames, the Millennium Bridge, St. Paul's Cathedral, the City of London, Tower of London, and Tower Bridge. It was so nice to simultaneously see all of these places on the map and in real time. I think that I am really getting into maps and directions. I kept my map in my back pocket the whole trip, and I was always busting it out to see where we were, where we were going, and where we needed to be. I think this was possibly my favorite part of the trip - navigation. Simple navigation, albeit, but navigation still. There is something so exciting about connecting the places on a map to places in real life, and then going to them. That's why I really enjoyed this bus ride, because it prepared me mentally for the weekend and where we would be in the city.
The bus dropped us off at the Tower of London, which isn't actually one tower, like I thought it was. It's more like a little enclosed compound of a bunch of different buildings. It's right on the Thames, and there is a lovely view of Tower Bridge from there. Tower Bridge is AWESOME - I thought it was London Bridge, but it isn't...it is, however, the classic bridge you think of when you think of London. We did the tourist thing there; saw the old torture chambers, etc. For some reason they had some crown jewels on display too, and that was really neat...big old diamonds!
We had to be back at the hotel that night for a reception with a descendant of Lord Fairfax, and it was our first time using the Underground. At this point I did not have a map, so that hindered what little navigational abilities I have...we knew what stop we needed to get off at, it was just a matter of getting there. They don't call the names of the lines by their colors, like we do at the DC Metro; yellow, blue, green, etc. Their lines actually have names, like the Circle Line or District Line. Once I got that straight, we figured out which direction we needed to go and we off.
After the reception (FREE dinner!) I watched some of the rugby world cup in my hotel room. South Africa whooped England, something like 36-0. It was terrible, absolutely terrible. I'm really getting into this rugby world cup over here! It's a lot of fun, but England is not doing too well.
Day 2
Our group began the day the the History of London Museum, which I thought was alright, nothing too exciting. It is location within the City of London, which is the original one-square-mile Roman city and is now the financial district of London. After that, we walked over the beautiful Millennium bridge to the Southwark area for lunch. We were scheduled to go into the Tate Modern Museum, which is a huge museum of modern art. Frankly, I was not looking forward to this at all. I was expecting a bunch of crazy, stupid, sad excuses for art. We went in there, however, and I had a great time! Even thought it was full of a lot of crazy, sad, and sometimes stupid excuses for art, I enjoyed it and had a very good time.
Then came the London Eye! This was awesome! We had pre-ordered tickets, which was a smart move on the part of Jen. That day was also the Thames River Festival, so there were a TON of people around. We waited in line for about 45 minutes, and then went up. It's so cool, definitely worth it. I want to go back at night now :)
After that, we took a rickshaw to the Globe Theater, where we met up with our group again. I cannot explain how awesome the Globe is! It is an exact replica of the original Shakespearian theater, and the actors are amazing, very interactive with the crowd. We saw Love's Labor's Lost, which we had previously studied and written a paper on. When the King of Navarre opened with his line, "Let fame..." I was bursting with joy, because I totally understood what was going on! They did a GREAT job and I just loved the whole play! They had these period musicians play all throughout the play, so that was cool. The actor played Longaville had recently broken his leg, so he was on crutches, but he made the most of it. It was the best running gag ever, I loved it! The guy who played Browne did a great job as well, he was Scottish. Everything about the play was great; all of the ladies did a good job too. Oh, it was magnificent. Great venue, great acting, great atmosphere. I am definitely going back.
Day 3
We went to the National Portrait Gallery in the morning, and were on our own for the rest of the day. I know that DC has a lot of great museums, what with the Smithsonian's and all, but London probably has better ones. I loved the Portrait Gallery! I spent most of my time in the Tudor and Stuart galleries, since we have been hearing so much about these crazy people in our lectures. They had the originals of Henry VII, Henry VIII, Cardinal Wolsey, Cromwell, and Elizabeth I. I really enjoyed seeing these original paintings of these crazy, famous people! They also had a nice Princess Diana exhibit there. It was cool.
After that, Jen and I took it easy and enjoyed the day. We hung out in Trafalgar Square for a while, and then walked down Whitehall Lane. We got caught up in the crowds from a "save Darfur" protest march, and so we ended up talking to all of these nice police men for a while. They are so friendly! And nice! We needed to cross the street, so we could go to the other side and peer down Downing Street where PM Brown hangs out, but there weren't any crosswalks near. There were like, 10 policemen standing right there, and I didn't want to jaywalk in front of them and get arrested or something. So I go up to one and ask him "can we jay-walk here?" because of the crowds and all, to which he replied "Sure. You can do whatever you want to. Just don't get hit by a car." It was the funniest thing ever. So we continued on until we hit Parliament and Westminster Abbey, which were both closed. We ate outside at a little pub that Churchill used to go to, which was lovely.
We took a 5:30 bus home back to Oxford. We were all exhausted by this point, so the bus ride was a nice time to chill and relax. The countryside surrounding Oxford is gorgeous!
It was good to get home. One thing I realized on this trip is that Oxford is now home. It was a weird feeling, but a good realization. Our tutorials will begin three weeks from today, and things will get a lot harder. Right now I guess I've sort of been in vacation mode. Everything will be a lot different once October rolls around. That's what I signed up for though, so no big surprise. I guess it's just that I don't really know what to expect, so I am waiting with a huge sense of anticipation.
In the meantime, I am enjoying Oxford and all my new friends here! It finally got cold. I think it is supposed to rain tomorrow as well. In any case, England continues to delight.
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