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Published: March 23rd 2008
Greetings, bloggers.
It is 12:53 pm right now in London, and I am sitting at an Internet cafe, updating for you all.
When last we left, I was about to embark on my first day's adventures. Thursday I went up in the London Eye. It is a huge ferris-wheel type contraption. You get into a little capsule with about 20 other people, and go for a ride around and have a marvelous view of the city. The best is Big Ben and the Houses of Parliament, because it is literally right across the Thames. And, when you get higher up towards the top, you can see Buckingham Palace. Once I got towards the top, though, it started to rain, (of course), and then everything was quite blurry, as there were no windshield wipers. ha
When I bought my ticket for the London Eye, I bought a "2-for-1" type deal. Well, not really, but I'm not sure how else to describe it. Anyway, what I mean to say is that I bought my ticket for Madame Tussaud's at the same time, and got 5£ off that ticket when I bought them together. Make sense?
So, when I was done with the Eye, I found an Internet cafe, and got on the web for a little bit again. From there I proceeded to Wagamama's, which is a wonderful, tasty restaurant that specializes in Asian noodle dishes. Ashley and Mother, you may recall this wonderful place from our last visit.
When done eating, I walked around a bit more. I went back to my room, and called my MSUM friend who I had contacted earlier, and she had changed her plans for that night, and said she might see if she could still go the following night. It didn't really matter to me one way or the other. So I decided to go and see The Lord of the Rings, the musical that evening at the Theatre Royal Drury Lane. WHOA! It was actually a really terrible show, story-wise, if you are a big Tolkien fan, like I am. But the scenery, theatrics, spectacle, and costumes were pretty awesome. The music was fun, but overall, not the best. AND it was 3 effing hours! Yikes. But the theatre is BEAUTIFUL. HUGE. And very grand, and rich and just gorgeous building itself. After that was over with, I went back to my building, and headed down to the common room, where the kids "hang out" and they were watching TV, so I sat and talked with them for awhile, then watched an episode of The Sopranos, and headed up to bed.
Friday saw me going to Madame Tussaud's. Now, Madame Tussaud's, if you all didn't know, is the famous wax museum, with many wax statues of famous people. Hollywood stars, musicians, royalty, SHAKESPEARE, President Bush :P, and many, many others. It was amazing, except for the fact that it was Good Friday, and that is their busiest day of the year! So, of course I choose to go on that day. sheesh. But, since I had bought my ticket already with my Eye ticket, I didn't have to wait in line for 2 hours to buy one, and then wait again just to get in. I had to wait a little while, though. Once inside, there were about 70 MILLION other people inside. (Well, not that many, but you know what I mean.) I took many pictures, and will probably post those on here, and facebook, and wherever else, when I get back to Oxford tomorrow night. I had my picture taken with Shakespeare, of course. Also, Henry VIII, and Einstein. I highly recommend this attraction. Though, probably not on a day as busy as that! It was very interesting. There was also a portion of the tour that let you go through a sort of torture dungeon, and it talked about the French Revolution, the Terror, Louis XVI and Marie Antoinette, etc. You got to see their heads, along with others', on spikes. It was pretty interesting.
Overall, it took me the better part of 2 hours to get through the entire attraction. It concluded with a ride on the "Spirit of London", which is where you ride in a London taxi, and are taken on a little "roller-coaster" tour of famous events throughout London's history. It was really fun!
After Madame Tussaud's, I hopped on the Tube, and found my way to Covent Garden and looked around there for awhile. Again, SO MANY PEOPLE. I stopped at PRET, which is sort of a chain cafe type food place where you can get coffee, sandwiches, sweets, etc. Got a sandwich and some crisps and headed back towards my building. There is a park across the way from Passfield Hall, so I stopped there and ate my food, while the pigeons nearly attacked me. It was pretty sunny the entire day, so I decided to sit outside in the park. This was about 4 o'clock. I then headed back to my room, decided I wanted to get on the internet again, and proceeded to another Internet cafe right down the street from Passfield. Once there, I looked up movie theatres in London to see what was playing, and where. I really wanted to see The Other Boleyn Girl, so I found a theatre it was playing at in Leicester Square, and headed there, even though the movie didn't start until about 8:30. I wanted to make sure I could find it. Well, so much for sunny day! By this time it was about 5/5:30, and it had all of a sudden gotten really cloudy and dark, and it started to hail! What the hell?! Anyway, that didn't really last for long, but it continued to drizzle a little. But I trudged on. Made it to Leicester Square, which is also where London's Theatreland is. It's basically the heart of all the theatres in London: cinema and live theatre. I found this one theatre there that had some movies playing, and decided to see if Boleyn Girl was playing. It wasn't, but Vantage Point was, so I decided to buy a ticket to see that. It started at about 6pm, but really, there's a half hour of advertising and trailers, and then the movie starts. So, 6:30 it started, and it was done about 8pm, and when I walked out of that theatre, I looked across the Square, and there was the theatre that I had originally wanted to find. It's called the Odeon theatre, and it's really...different? There were only 2 films playing: The Other Boleyn Girl, and Love in the Time of Cholera. And you go up to the box office, and you can basically pick where you want to sit. They have a little map of the seating, and you can pay more for the seats that are farther back, and less for the ones that are closer. I opted for the cheaper, and bought a ticket for Boleyn Girl. Start time: 8:30. Actual start time: 8:50. Well, that was done about 10:50, and so I headed back to my room. I stopped at a little "convenience store" and bought a sandwich, some crisps, and some cookies, and headed back to my room. I called Mom, and Ashley, ate my stuff, and plopped down to sleep.
So, Saturday, yesterday, found me in a shopping mood! Whoo-hoo! No more tourist stuff for me. It was time to shop. Oxford Street is the place to shop. Once there, I headed to Primark, which is a huge department store that sells a whole ton of stuff. I want to say it's the equivalent to like, Gordman's? Or maybe...hmmm...I'm not sure. It's just huge. I bought a few things there, and went on to some other stores. It's tough to shop sometimes, because you see a price, and then take it times 2. Hmph! Oh well, this Primark place is REALLY cheap. 8£ for a pair of jeans? Come now, that's a deal! Went to H&M, GAP, etc. etc. I also wandered through a tiny part of Selfridges, which is really famous in London, I guess. I hadn't ever heard of it, but maybe you guys have. I planned to go to Harrod's, as well. (Not to buy, Mother, don't worry.) But just to see it. But I haven't made it there yet. After I was done shopping, I wanted to head back to Leicester Square to see the handprints in the cement of famous people around the Square, but when I arrived, there was this HUGE pillow fight! ??? Yes, I was confused as well. Right when I walked up, I heard the countdown "5, 4, 3, 2, 1", and then everybody just started hitting each other. By this time, I was quite hungry, so I went to The Mermaid's Tail, which is a little restaurant on the Square which specializes in fish & chips. When I walked into there, the pillow fight had suddenly progressed to everybody ripping the pillows apart, and a huge blizzard of feathers was pouring down everywhere. Anyway, after I ate my fish and chips, I headed back to Passfield, stopping by the Internet cafe again. Once in my room, I didn't leave again for the night. I hung out in my room, napped off and on a little, went downstairs to watch some tv, and write some postcards, and then just stayed in my room the rest of the night and read. Really quite boring, but hey, I was tired! Shopping all day, pillow fights. You know, that's a lot for a person to handle.
This morning, I got up for breakfast downstairs, then sat in the lobby and read some of the Sunday papers and magazines and stuff. Then I showered and got ready, and made my way here to the internet cafe, AGAIN, and decided I better update this thing. Because I know all of you were just waiting on tenterhooks to hear about my adventures. haha
Well, I hope this has been thrilling for you to read. And I hope that this Easter Sunday finds all of you safe at home with your families. I am not, but I know they are alright without me. Only about 7 more weeks to go!
Love and miss you all, very, very much!
cheers,
jenna lee
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MOM
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It sounds like you are having a great time... Watch out for the pigeons!! I do remember Wagamama's, great food. Happy Easter, Jenna.