Canterbury

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Wandering off

09/01/2010

Today we went to the Victoria & Albert Museum, an art and design museum where we still managed to find pilgrimage related artifacts. During our break I visited the Science and Natural History Museums which might as well be called the "History" and "Outdated History" Museums. The science museum was basically a collection of scientific artifacts and the Natural History Museum was like a collection of show and tell items from geology class. Oh well, at least it gave me something to do with the time.

When I got back I still had 25 minutes, so I went for a Kebab… which took them 15 minutes to make. I wasn’t going to make it back in time so I decided to head straight to the British Library. Upon arrival at Kings Cross I looked for everyone else, but they were already at the British Library. At the time I didn't know where we were supposed to be so I asked some local officers where the closest Museums/Cathedrals were. They told me the National Gallery and sent me to a square near the British Museum at which point I went ahead and made the trip back to my room to check the day's agenda for myself. I arrived at the British Library just in time to look at the maps and manuscripts for a while. Apparently the tour I missed had actually been extremely annoying anyway due to a guide who insisted on testing everyone on stuff she was supposed to be teaching...

Lost in London

08/28/2010

Today I made my first breakfast in the flat kitchen then went out to get a Vodafone wireless device. Turns out the device was useless, so I returned it and went to a Chinese buffet. Then I ran into Annie and Tiana and we went out to get drinks but got lost for three hours in the Soho area looking for Michelle.

08/29/2010

Today I went to Camden Market with some of the girls before stopping over at my friend Ross’ house in Wandsworth.

After checking out his terrace and having a drink with his roommate James we went to the Cat’s Back Pub for Bangers and Mash.


08/30/2010

Today we went to the Notting Hill Carnival where I had a dumpling with rice and beans and watched human floats walk around with massive contraptions attached to them. Next we went to Harrods and saw some of the most ridiculously overpriced junk I’ve ever seen including a £3000 teddy bear... Later I headed for Wagamama (recommended by Rick Steves) but stopped on the way for the Fruily strawberry beer that James recommended. I ended up hanging out with some guys from Chicago and New York talking about the Yankees.

08/31/2010

Today we went to Trafalgar Square and voted for the fourth plinth. The choices were a mountain with a footprint shaped like Great Britain, a guy on a horse covered in jewelry, a blue cock and an ATM that rings bells every time someone makes a withdrawal - alarming the pickpockets of viable victims... 

We also went to the St. Martin-In-The-Fields Church and later some of us went to Wagamama and Tower bridge.

Wandering Off

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Lost in London

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The British Museum

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London

08/25/2010

Today I left Edinburgh at 6a for a nine hour bus ride to London. At 3:30p I arrived, set my GPS for the Sidney Webb House, and walked 3.3 miles in the rain with 50+ lbs of stuff and a cold… I arrived about an hour later and was about to pass out when a guy from the lobby showed up with information about a class meeting taking place. After the meeting I took a shower, unpacked and passed out in my dorm.

08/26/2010

This morning we went on a walk around Southwark (pronounced "suffic"). The first stop was St George the Martyr - a 1726 church with a beacon utilizing three aluminated faces.

Next we went to Southwark Cathedral and Borough (pronounced "burra") Market - the last wholesale food market, where we saw "dead" rabbits hanging around still twitching a bit.

Then we saw a reconstructed galleon called the Golden Hinde. Sir Francis Drake sailed around the world the world from 1577 to 1580 and 140,000 miles in total in the galleon.

Finally, we stopped at The Tate Modern museum where we also saw the Millenium Bridge, St Paul's Cathedral and the Globe Theater. 

We took a break and then went to the London Eye where we saw Big Ben, Parliament, etc from a birds eye view. 

08/27/2010

This morning we went to the British Museum and saw the vast selection of fossils, modern art and artifacts from around the world including the Rosetta Stone - an ancient Egyptian granodiorite stele inscribed with a decree issued at Memphis in 196 BCE on behalf of King Ptolemy V. The decree appears in three scripts: the upper text is Ancient Egyptian hieroglyphs, the middle portion Demotic script, and the lowest Ancient Greek. The stone provided the key to deciphering Egyptian hieroglyphs.

After the museum I went to Tesco and bought some food and an Ethernet cable then had an LSE student try to log me into the internet with her log in info but it didn’t work… worth a shot.