Big City, Small World

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Today was another long day spent exploring London with our friend and host, Jason. Despite our slow start of leaving the house after noon, we covered a lot of ground. Our plan was to hit the London Dungeon first, but due to one of the main attractions being closed for the day, we decided to postpone and go straight to lunch. We had lunch at St. Katherine's dock near the Tower of London at a fun, yet expensive pizza/pasta restaurant. It was sunny, the food was good, and it had a great view of a small lock directly in front of it. However, we're still not used to the prices of things here, especially coming from inexpensive Thailand and Egypt. An 8 ounce glass of iced tea was $4 (without free refills to our dismay), and a smallish Ceasar salad was $18.

After lunch we walked to the impressive St. Paul's Cathedral in central London. It's size dwarfs the surrounding buildings and and the precision of the craftsmanship makes one wonder if buildings will ever be built like it again. We made our way inside the entrance gates and looked around before deciding against touring the entire building. Perhaps we'll tour it on our next visit to London.
From St. Paul's Cathedral, we walked south across the Thames to London's Tate Modern art museum. We arrived around 3pm or so and toured the 3rd floor until a few minutes before 6pm when the museum closes. It was easy to spend the time there as the Tate Modern has some seminal works in it - works by Picasso, Duchamps, Braque, Dali, Cindy Sherman, Matisse, and too many others to list. We could write volumes about the Tate, but we'll spare everyone the details and say that it was a highlight of our trip so far.

After we closed down the Tate we took a long walk toward Leicester Square and Piccadilly Circus to find a pub and possibly some food. London is a big city -- there are over 7 million people in the greater London area. We have three friends in London: Jason, who were were with, and Greg and Sylvia, who we were planning on staying with in a week or so. I don't think anyone could have imagined that as we were going through Leicester Square that we would run into the only two other people we know in London, but it happened. As we crossed street, there were Greg and Sylvia standing outside of a hamburger restaurant smoking a cigarette. Big city, small world.

After exchanging a few comments along the lines of "wow, what are the chances we'd run into each other", we did what any proper and self-respecting Londoner would do - we found a pub. Over about 3 hours and a few pints we covered a number of topics including, but not limited to: life in London, Republicanism, pubs, and chewable toothbrushes. Greg and Sylvia looked great and seem to be having a great time in London so far. We're excited to see them in a few days.

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Photos

Sylvia and Greg
Sylvia and Greg showing off why they're considered London locals now.

Pub Time
Jason, Lisa, Sylvia, and Greg enjoying a pint.

Sylvia, Greg, and Dan
Everyone is happy to see familiar faces.