Last Night and Day 3

Yesterday afternoon Liz, Megan, Abby, Chelsea, Kelsey, Stephanie, and I went down to Trafalgar Square. We walked around and took some fun pictures with a guy all painted in silver w/a funny outfit on that only spoke like a mouse--in squeeky peeps. Then Abby wanted to check out a cheap clothing store called Primark and we walked all the way up Regent Street and all the way, basically, to the Marble Arch where the store was on Oxford. It was worth it though to see Oxford St.--the major shopping area--at its finest on a Friday night. It was packed!! On the way we stopped in at this 5 floor toy store, I forget the name. It was pretty cool. Primark was insane so Liz, Megan, Kelsey, Steph, and I left for the Marble Arch and then home for dinner. That evening Steph, Kelsey, and I went to the Tesco a few blocks away. It was basically a Target with less flair.

Met one guy who lives on one of the upper floors of our flat named ...something from Brazil. Later a few of us went to our first pub/restaurant, so I guess those are called Gastropubs now. It was O'Neill's just down the block from our flat. Mom and Dad can be so proud that I had my first experience ordering a drink :) I know you must be proud!! It was nice and quite, a very local place. We had a lot of fun chatting and getting to be about at night.

Got up and ready to meet Gammon and the group at the London Bridge Tube station before he set us free in the Borough market. Our connecting train was shut down today, though so we switched to another line that ran pretty close. From our group, I wanted to get off at that one and walk across the London Bridge because the market is just beyond that. Kelsey and Steph came with me. The others put little faith into my amazing map reading skills and amazingly detailed pocket map that Erin and Mom gave me--everyone's totally jealous, by the way! That map knows EVERYTHING!!


Borough Market


So we walked across and this morning it was beautiful and sunny. The market was right there and we waited around the tube station for the others--we were all to meet at a shop around there, but which actually was in the station so we never met up. Instead I though we should just go in. The three of us wandered around a little bit. It is a HUGE market! Full of food, drink, candy, and flower stalls. Amazing fresh fruit and meat. We sampled some--I had a delicious white chocolate covered raspberry! I decided I want to try an ostrich burger another time I go--yum yum!

Don't worry, we met up with people of the other group and told them we were okay. Gammon figured we were. Otherwise he might have just said, "oh well!" :)

After some more wandering, Kelsey, Steph, and I walked up toward the Thames and headed east. We saw a replica of Francis Drake's ship, ruins of Winchester Palace, walked around Shakespeare's Globe, North on the Millennium bridge where we got to see lots of rowing teams in funny outfits pass underneath, and up around St. Paul's Cathedral. Then we pulled out the Walks of London book Erin got me (Thank's again!) and decided to do one, but start with lunch. It took some time to figure it out backwards, but we did it. In the meantime, a bird sort-of pooped on Stephanie's hand. Her reaction was pretty funny :D And I'm such a good friend that I took a picture to commemorate the event!


On Millennium Bridge with a view of St. Paul's


So we got all the way up to Smithfield and ate at the Rising Sun. A very small pub in a tiny neighborhood off the beaten path. It was really cute and everyone was really nice. It was fun to hear the old guys at the bar chat too. I ordered a traditional bangers (sausages) and mash (mashed potatoes) which was pretty good and cheap too. Then we started on our walk:
a place where an old burial ground for the Black Plague used to be (and technically still remains--just under the buildings/park), the old Smithfield Meat Market, St. Batholomew's Church--the first parish church in London c. 1123AD, the memorial to William Wallace (aka Braveheart) and some others who died around the area, the Fat Golden Boy on Pye Corner commemorating the end of the Great Fire, St. Sepulchre's Church and the house where it's watchman would watch for body snatchers, what used to be Newgate Prison, the Old Bailey (which held all the court proceedings from Newgate spanning hundreds of years), and St. Bride's church (it's spires give us the modern tiered wedding cake). The places we could've gone into were either ones we're going on in group trips, were closed, or charged something we didn't want to pay so we just checked out what we could.

We expanded our walk since we were already in a pretty good area to include an old building where Mary Queen of Scots lived a few years, the alley way behind No. 185 Fleet Street--Sweeney Todd's place, the Royal Courts of Justice (which were HUGE!), and St. Clement Danes Church. Then we went down toward the Thames where we tried to check out an old Roman bath by Somerset house in an alley, but a guy told us it was private property. I at least managed to get a picture of the plaque beforehand. Then we checked out Somerset house but decided to save the art exhibit--we might do that on an art class day anyway. Then we checked out the Cenotaph (Cleopatra's Needle) down by the river and got back on the tube for home. All in all we probably walked about 4 miles total. We were pretty tired!


Dead behind Sweeney's Barber Shop. It really was kindof creepy because that grate covers up a door one story beneath that goes to nothing...or Mrs. Lovett's bakery! Dun Dun Dun!!!





Cuddling with a Sphinx by the Cenotaph





*Long sigh* And now you're all up to speed!! Our whole weekend is free and I have no idea what I might do yet, but I don't think I'll be bored :D I'd like to try something on my own sometime even though I know the others will be needlessly worried about me. I find I'm a little more adventuresome than some others (don't worry mom and dad--not in a dangerous way!) It is again, thanks to the amazingly detailed and informative pocket map that Erin and Mom got me that I feel very confident in finding my way around. The others will catch on! ;)


P.S. Others have tagged me in their photos on Facebook so you can check them out on my page.