DAYS SEVEN AND EIGHT

So yesterday I slept in so late I almost missed breakfast. But I didn't! I then decided to wander to the British Museum, which the map told me was easy to find! No way to get lost!

... I totally got lost.

BUT! I saw a large group of people in suits all walking purposefully, so I followed them and they led me to this giant market/mall/thing where I found a wireless shop and bought myself internet! The jury is still out on how effective it is- we'll wait and see how well it works when I'm not in a basement. I walked out of the market/mall/thing and found the tube station which was, theoretically, right next to the British Museum, so I plundered on with my journey.

A side note about British culture you might find interesting- jaywalking? Totally legal! Or well, I should say not illegal at the very least. This means that people are stepping into streets helter-skelter all over the place. I usually follow the people in suits- if very rich people are willing to risk it, it's probably pretty safe.

Anyway, back to my story! So I wandered around this area for a bit until some nice man with a mustache pointed me in the right direction, and finally I found the British Museum!

Guys, when the British decide to take souvenirs? They take some freakin' souvenirs. The whole museum was stuff that had been collected mainly over the golden age of the British Empire. Treasure from all over the world- Africa, the Americas both North and South, Asia, Pacific Islands, other parts of Europe, the Middle East... and I'm not just talking jewelry and vases and books and stuff, although obviously those were there in abundance. No, I mean the Brits would knock down WHOLE WALLS and then bring them back piece by piece. Or excavate a tomb and bring everything, including the floor and the walls, back. At one point? There was an ENTIRE GREEK TEMPLE they'd just uprooted and shipped back. It was pretty cool, in a colonial kind of way. Definitely made me want to hop on board a giant ship and raid an island or something.

Then I decided I wanted to take a walking tour, so I went to try and figure out where such a thing would start. I wandered around in puzzlement before realizing that the Russell Square I was sitting in and the Russell Street on the map were, in fact, two completely different places.

So I hoped on the Tube and went over to Covent Gardens, found the meeting place- and realized that for some reason, my phone was an hour off and the tour had already left. This prompted me to buy a watch- my Official London Souvenir, as it were.

So here's a history of Covent Gardens- the name is a lie. There are no gardens. There haven't been gardens there in over 500 years. A long, long time ago (like 1100 AD) there was a Covenant there, and the nuns had a garden where they grew all the fruit for the monks over at their Abby. Over the course of about 100 years, they became the main fruit supplier for the entirety of Old London, and other merchants started setting up shop. By the time good ol' Henry VIII decided to do away with nunneries, the market was already established, and there it still stands today, minus any kind of fruit. Unless you want fruit-flavored candy.

At one end of Covent Gardens stands London's Transport Museum. I went, because it made me think of my mom. ... Sorry, Mom, I'm just not that into the history of buses. It was really kind of dull. So I wandered around, accidentally found myself in the West End, found a Tube station, and went home.

This morning I woke up disgustingly early and did laundry. I met a friend in the laundry room! His name was Matthew, and he was from Perth Australia. We had a lovely chat and then I decided it was time to go Out on the Town.

The thing about the laundry is important for the following reason- the bag I use as my shopping/umbrella holder/book/extra crap bag doubles as my dirty laundry bag. So I emptied everything out of it and into my lock box and went to do my laundry. Then I came back, hung my laundry up round the room, and put some stuff back in my bag. Book, rain jacket, umbrella, postcards, notebook... do you notice anything missing?

I didn't until I got to Hyde Park and wanted to take a picture. That's right, folks, I left my camera. (Safely locked up, Mom, it's fine. Everything's still here.) It turned out to not be so terrible- I went to the National Gallery, and you can't take pictures there anyway, and then I went on two walking tours with this LOVELY girl who I will get to later, but who promised to share them on Facebook.

ANYWAY, the National Gallery was fantastic! The really cool thing about Britain is that any museum owned by the government is free to the public, so I got to go see all this incredible art for free. There was lots of Biblical stuff, and man- the Bible has some AMAZINGLY horrifying stories. Seriously.

I did see some more Van Gough and I've gotta say- I was never a big fan of his from prints, but up close? His work is hypnotic. So beautiful. Then, checking my new and shiny watch, I realized it was time to make my to the walking tour.

It was a tour of Old London, and it was so neat! Beautiful day, beautiful walk, lovely people. I was going to then go to the Tower of London, but it was 17 pounds and I was feeling cheap, so I went on a second walking tour called the Grim Reaper tour instead. This tour was of the East End of London and talked about the plague and the fire and Jack the Ripper, and was suitably creepy and fantastic. The tour guide was Scottish and very funny, but the best part was that Erica, a Canadian who had been on the Old London tour with me as well and with whom I'd talked briefly, ended up coming on this tour as well! And she was so sweet and funny, and was from right around Vancouver. Yay Northwest! After the tour we went to dinner at this posh restaurant- the food was amazing, the location was to die for, the staff were French and therefore incredibly obnoxious.

Now I'm going to go pass out, because I have to get up early tomorrow if I'm going to check out by 10.