Well, I guess my semester here is almost coming to a close. It seems weird, but I've passed all the mini-milestones that I had between me and the end of the semester, and now all I can do is get down to work and get everything done, hopefully seeing more of this city (and maybe outside it!) before I leave December 15th. It just seems really strange.
This past week (from Wednesday on), my dad was here, living on my dorm room floor and walking all over the city with (and without) me. We saw all of the regular tourist things (Parliament, Trafalgar Square, Big Ben, etc.) that I have already seen but also went to Greenwich, the Tower of London, and a couple of markets around the city that I haven't seen yet. Greenwich was interesting, as it has the Royal Observatory and therefore the marker of the Prime Meridian. We got some interesting pictures of straddling the line, and being in two hemispheres at the same time. Cool, right? We also saw the Old Royal Naval College, and the hall where Lord Nelson laid in state after he was killed at the Battle of Trafalgar. Another cool bit is that we took a boat down the River Thames to get there, so we saw a lot of the city that I haven't seen before and from the river at that. There's even a whole different chunk of the city that is separate from the historical parts because it was built over the old docklands as a huge business and banking center. It's called Canary Wharf and looks like any other city's downtown, except that there are a huge number of marinas and canals and bridges and things, because of the water there.
We also saw the Tower of London, which was a lot more interesting than I thought it would be. Honestly, I thought that it was just going to be another castle-fortress with some goofy story of the people who lived there and what they did and all that. But, the Tower of London was built by William the Conqueror in the 11th century (crazy old!), and while it was originally designed as a Royal residence and fortress, it became an infamous prison. So there are all sorts of stories surrounding all the "traitors" who were beheaded there. Gruesome, yes, but the tour we went on with the Beefeaters (former British military who are trained to be tour guides and "technically" protect the crown jewels) was really great. The man doing ours was really funny and sarcastic and altogether really interesting. He made the kind of lame history stuff a really entertaining time to listen to. Oh, and then we saw the Royal Crown jewels, which were ridiculous but again, I'm glad that I saw them.
On Saturday, we went to Borough Market (huge food market) and Camden Market (random crazy stuff market). Food markets are always fun to walk through, but this one is amazing and there are so many great things to see and smell. We even ate breakfast/lunch there. I got a grilled cheese and Dad got some raclette (potatoes, onions, pickles and melted cheese). My sandwich was delicious! Then we took the tube back up to Camden, where Dad bought a scarf for Mom and a T-shirt for Carter.
Sunday we went to the Victoria & Albert Museum (design and material art) and took a tour, which was interesting but I was really tired and had schoolwork to get done, so I left and came back. Dad walked by Buckingham Palace and went to Speaker's Corner in Hyde Park before coming back to my dorm.
Alright, well that's all I have to say about that. Hopefully I'll get a break in my work to do something else worthy of posting about, but who knows?
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