Buckingham, Thames River Festival & Bombay Brasserie

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Sunday was a very eventful day with a audio tour through Buckingham Palace and then the Thames River Festival right afterwards. The palace was everything I expected and more. We were allowed to go through the State Rooms and some other rooms as well. We listened to an audio recording as we were guided through at our own pace. They did the audio recordings because they were in 7 different languages! There are very grand and elaborate entrances, receiving rooms, staircases, and even the hallways are extravagant. The grand staircase is something you would only expect to see in the movies and I was lucky enough to actually get to walk through it. They were describing that when they built the palace they had a budget and they exceeded that budget by three times because of all of the detail that was put into the ceilings, tapestries, and even silk wall coverings. Besides the state rooms I was able to see the Wedding Dress exhibition, the Throne Room, and the Royal Collection of Faberge that was on exhibit. Everything was spectacular. There was so much detail put into the wedding dress and cake it was crazy. There were like 900 flowers on the cake and it was created with the language of flowers in mind. There was many different types of flowers on the cake, one for each realm of the kingdom: Ireland, Scotland, England, and Wales. Her dress was also constructed of a unique lace patter that included these flowers as well. But what was really remarkable was the Faberge collection in which so much detail was put into every little object. These objects were collected because whenever someone visited the Royal family it was custom to give them a gift of some kind and Faberge was so exquisite and so much detail was put into every object it looked royal itself. It could have been anything from a picture frame to a church statue, or a beautiful Easter Egg they were all beautiful. We weren't allowed to take pictures, but I did end up going to the gift shop and grabbing an illustrated history book about the palace so I would never forget the over the top rooms. On the way out though our tickets were stamped in order to allow an entry again for free!

Leaving the Palace we headed on our way to the Thames River Festival and found a little Mexican place to eat. There were many choices that were similar to what you would find in a Mexican Restaurant at home. The only difference was that the quesadillas and tacos were much smaller portions and the waitress said that most people get two orders of them in order to get full and there were already two tacos in one order! So I ended up getting a pork burrito that had a different sauce on it and it was delicious and filling. Finally, a food place that was filling! Something else I learned while I was there that they don't call bathrooms restrooms, they call them water closets. So we saw a sign that said "WC this way" and had an arrow pointing downstairs.

The Thames River Festival was awesome though. I didn't see much stands or music acts though. It was raining while we were down there. The thing we wanted to see the most was the parade that they had and we got there early enough to be in front for it! This parade was like nothing else I've ever seen! I don't think something like this would be allowed in the states though. There were so many elaborately designed costumes that had beads dangling or lights hanging from them which was really cool. It seemed as if there were so many different cultures expressing their music and dance style and the unique costumes they wore were amazing! Often there were floats that went along with each dance act and they were very glittery, bright, and lit up to the extreme. The reason I say that this parade probably wouldn't be allowed in the States is because there were so many scantily clad women in barely anything but their underwear which was of the most revealing kind. Although they were costumes and were still glittery and everything there were plenty of children there that was seeing the parade. They also had these huge contraptions that people would wear and it seemed as if giant skeletons were walking around or huge skeleton horses! People were also wearing dragon masks, alien costumes, and there was a huge pirate ship and Alice in Wonderland float! After the parade there was a firework show which ended the entire festival and it was the best one I've seen to date. Then again I've never seen a firework show in Chicago or another large city on the 4th of July, so I'm sure it might have been similar to something like that, but they were just huge! It was a really good end to the weekend.

On Monday the study center planned a lunch for us at the Bombay Brasserie where I had my first authentic Indian lunch! They had three different courses with coffee or tea following dessert. The food isn't just spicy like you would believe Indian food to be. It was also very flavorful and delicious and usually I don't like spicy food. The ice cream was very good and so was the bread. They also had shrimp in this really cream sauce that I couldn't stop eating. Apparently it's like 40 pounds per person to eat at a place like this and celebrities eat there all the time and I was fortunate enough to eat here for only one pound and with great friends.

Then I had my theatre class after lunch which was a tour of what London used to be like when Shakespeare was writing plays and of where the red light district used to be in London because that is where theatre took place in London. It wasn't something that was socially acceptable to the elite because it was controversial and exhibited things that weren't appropriate in their eyes. Where the Globe Theatre is now is not where is was originally and we also went to the sight where the Bear Gardens used to be but aren't anymore. The Bear Gardens was where Bear Baiting used to take place. This was a circular arena where a bear used to be chained to one spot and trained dogs would be let loose in the arena and it was sport to see which would over come and dogs would be replaced as they were killed. Obviously it's not there anymore and is now replaced by apartment buildings but the street that these posh apartments are on is called Bear Gardens and that is the only memory of what used to be there. Then we went down to the Globe Theatre and talked about it for a bit, but not too much because we're going to go there next Monday.

Overall, it was a great weekend and lovely time to spend class taking a tour of what used to be the red light district of London.

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