London Stole My Heart (parte 2)

October 26/27 2013

I figured I would separate this blog into two, so it didn't seem like too much to read.

So on Saturday the 26th, Patti and I woke up, got dressed and hopped on the train to London Bridge.  Just like "Big Ben" the London Bridge is another name that many people associate with the Tower Bridge, when in reality the London Bridge, is pretty plain and not much of a site to see.  Don't get me wrong, it's still really interesting to see since there is so much history involving this bridge; the old city, the fire and all the different bridges that have stood in its place.

As we were on our way to see the London Bridge, we saw signs for a haunted house tour thing involving the London Bridge.  We were going to keep walking, but an actor from the exhibition pulled us aside to tell us all about the attraction.  It was actually a historical tour/haunted house about the London Bridge.  Only the last 10% or so was the "Scary" part he said.  He talked it up very well, and since we knew we weren't going to be celebrating Halloween, we figured we would go ahead and buy tickets.  Entonces (while editing this I realized I wrote "entonces" instead of "so" haha), we waited for a bit and then it was our turn.  The guides say if you didn't want to be too scarred, to say in the middle of the group, not the front or the back.  The whole time we had to walk in a straight line through each room, where there were different scenes set up all talking about different parts of the history of the London Bridge, but over emphasized to be scary and eerie and creepy.  Out of this part, the scariest part was probably a room where a lady talked about how after people were executed or killed for wrong doing, she cleaned out the bodies, and put their heads on sticks and she showed us her routine.  Pretty eerie and gross.

So the actual "scary" part and main attraction was the underground tombs.  The tour actually takes you down below the London Bridge where bodies are buried from the deaths that happened during the plague.  This is the part where they recommend not for children to continue and we had to keep in the straight line with our hands on the person in front of us.  For those of you who know me really well, I'm not into horror movies or this kind of thing.  I've been in many haunted houses at PumpkinFest but this was bigger, darker and was supposedly rated The Scariest Attraction in Europe or the EU or something.  So, my way of coping with scary things is to pretend they aren't scary at all.  Literally, I talked the entire time, every room we went through I narrated everything that happened.  At one point, a man with a scary as heck baby mask came right at my face I just said, "hello, nice to meet you, you aren't scary, how are you doing today....." The worst part of this, was in the very end, we went through a room where there were bodies, human and animals, hanging from the ceiling and butcher cutting them in the corner.  Then all of a sudden, a man in the back with a chainsaw began chasing us.  Haha oh man, the old man who was behind me in the line, was cracking up at my reactions and my talking to everything.  It was too funny, but a great way to learn about the history of the fires of the London Bridge and celebrate Halloween a bit.

The actual London Bridge

Me and my coffee

After this frightening experience, we saw the London Bridge and then begun the walk to the Tower Bridge.  Along the way we found a cool area called, Tooley Street.  It was a covered street, with restaurants and souvenirs shops.  And I finally found a Starbucks! Wooohoo!! That had porridge! I've been craving oatmeal every since I left America.  So we enjoyed some coffee, some food finally and then continued on our walk in the rain.

The Tower Bridge

The Tower Bridge was beautiful and again it was great to see such another famous sight in person.  We walked across the bridge and walked around White Tower and the surrounding walls and palaces.  We didn't want to pay to go inside so we just looked around. We came across an old wall, called the London Wall that is one of the most impressive surviving sections of London's former city wall.  The lower part was built by the Romans in about 200 A.D.  During the medieval period, the was was repaired and heighten and from the 17th century it fell into disuse and parts were demolished.

London Wall

Then we decided we'd catch the Underground and head to the British Museum so we could see the Rosetta Stone.  After trying to figure out on our own how to switch the tubes and get to where were going, we asked for help and finally found our way.  On the way, we stopped to buy some souvenirs and I found Sour Skittles, my all time favorite candy! They were in a small little bag and it was so cute.  They were different than in the US they didn't have the sugar on the outside, they were more like Shockers.

Anyway, along the way we found another park! Yay!! My favorite! This one was called Russell Square.  This one was a lot smaller, but equally pretty and tranquil.  So green and so pretty!

Outside the British Museum

Just around the corner was the British Museum.  It simply is an amazing museum! I wish we had more time, because we didn't have much time to go through the rooms and by that time too our feet were killing us!!  The museum was set up into about 90 rooms I think, 3 or 4 floors, all with a theme of different cultures and continents.  We saw some really interesting art from ancient Mexico, sculptures actually made from a really skull, but covered with tiles.  Creepy, but pretty and the same time.  As well, we saw busts and sculptures from Greece from the year 325-300 B.C. So old and so amazing to see right there in front of me.  As we started going to find the Rosetta Stone, they said they were getting ready to close.  So us along with a hundred other people all ran to the room with the Rosetta Stone in order to see it and take pictures before it closed.  Now that was a site to see.

Rosetta Stone

Next was the famous London Eye.  It was getting dark but we still wanted to see London from the Eye.  We bought our tickets and stood in line despite how badly our feet were hurting.  Thankfully, even though the line was long, we still made it through pretty fast.  Oh man am I happy we decided to buy the tickets.  The view was amazing.  The lights on all the buildings and on the Tower of Parliament, it was gorgeous!!

View from the London Eye

Next we headed back to Brianna's and thanks again to her sweetness, had the leftovers from the dinner she had prepared earlier and let us borrow clothes again.  Then Patti and I went out with two of her friends from school.  We went to this club called Venue.  It was really cool.  It had about 5 levels and 6 or 7 different rooms with different types of music.  The second floor was a small concert hall that reminded me a lot of the Fillmore in San Francisco.  In this room there was a tribute band to Kings of Leon playing and after awhile this was my favorite spot to be.  They played old 80's and 90's music and hit songs that were just fun to jump around and mess around, not the typical discoteca scene, it was a nice change of scenery.

The next morning, we packed our bags and headed out.  It was sad to say goodbyes to Brianna and to this wonderful city, but I was ready to head back to my home in Spain and my own bed. :)  I knew i would be back one day.  Despite running to catch our plane and then arriving and having to stand in line forever! we made it home safe and sound with time to relax and get some work done before class the next day.  All in all, it was quite a memorable weekend to say the least.