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Published: February 10th 2011
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WestministerSo, a lot has been done and seen since I last posted, so I apologize for the lack of posting! I'm turning into Ms Rebecca Berube, and for that I apologize! Haha.
So, the last time I posted, I had just finished our little outing to Big Ben, Parliament, and the London Eye. So I'll start from there, but will probably not post my history lesson...yet.
The day after this little outing, we did a bus tour of a few major points of the City, once again going by Big Ben, Parliament and the London Eye. BUT, we did go other places too! The bus left Clifton Gardens pretty early in the morning...like 8:30am...ugh. From there, we drove to downtown and the bus let us off right by Westminster Abby (Picture 1). We didn't go in, mainly because it costs, but we did walk around the outside and then went into St. Margaret's Church, which is a small church right next door to the Abbey. It's really beautiful inside (Picture 2)!
From there we walked along the outside of Parliament and Big Ben, then went down towards Downing Street, where the
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St. Margaret's Church Prime Minister works. Unfortunately, we didn't get to see the leader of this coalition, that I've been told by numerous people...that many of the British people do not like...the jury is still out for me, mainly because I've been too lazy to look up enough information to make a good decision. Once walking past the PM's office, we made our way down that street to these mounted guards...but I never really found out what they were guarding...oh well. The horses were cute, but beware, they may bite! (Picture 3)
From there, we walked back to the bus, walking past a statue of Abe Lincoln. Once on the bus, we drove down towards the actual City, old London. Londinium. We drove by Fleet Street, by Buckingham, by the Royal Courts, and a few other places. Our second stop where we were allowed to get off led us to Tower Bridge (Picture 4). I was soooo hoping that while we were using up our time taking pictures, that a double decker would drive across...but alas it was not meant to be. So we got back on the bus, drove over Tower Bridge and to the Tower(s) of London (Picture 5). This
place I will definitely be coming back too! I've read countless books centered around Henry VIII and am slightly obsessed with the Towers history. Let's just say I kind of squealed like a little girl when we were standing on the spot where countless of people had been beheaded...and they had a list of names going back hundreds of years like Sir Thomas More, Henry Howard, and the list goes on!
After prying me away from the Tower of London, we walked over to one of the only remaining parts of the wall that encircled Londinium (Picture 6). This wall was built upon for years until expansion was needed. You can still see what is left of the original road that the Romans put down hundreds of years ago!
After this part, we stopped back at the Tower, then got back on the bus and went back to the flats.
The next day we did our day trip to Warwick Castle and Oxford. We were supposed to go to Blenhiem Palace, but it's closed until the end of the month, so instead we went to Warwick. Warwick was interesting...it was definitely a tourist location.
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Tower Bridge (with Ethan!) Apparently the people that run Madame Tussauds also runs this castle...so this means that there are people dressed up and play the roles of the people of the Castle throughout its time from knights to the Victorian age. (Picture 7) We basically walked around for a few hours...saw the dungeon, a few 'secret' passageways, the tops of the towers, and the peacock garden! (Picture 8)
From there we spent the rest of the day at Oxford (Picture 9). Why didn't I go to school there again? Even in the drearyness it was beautiful. We got to see Alice's Shop, the pub that JRR Tolkien and CS Lewis visited and wrote, and....the stairs that make up the Great Hall of HARRY POTTER! Because it was a Saturday, there were a lot of people there, but it was still an interesting place to be. We found one of the only covered markets that are left in the UK, and they had the original Ben's Cookies...WHICH ARE SOOOOOO DELICIOUS! If you ever see one, get one and savor it!
That night, since it was one of my flatmates 21st birthday, we of course had to go to a
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Tower of London pub. So, my first pub experience was The Green Man, near Edgeware Station. It was also karaoke night. So, we of course had to take it back and sing some Backstreet Boys. We tried to get the birthday girl to sing Party in the USA with us, but she wouldn't do it...however, there was a girl - Suzie- that reminded me greatly of the people you see on American Idol that thing they can sing, but really can't, but keep trying anyway...yeah, that's Suzie! There was also this one guy that came up to us (a group of 7 American girls) and told us he was Justin Bieber's manager...he started singing "baby." It was entertaining...He ended up buying four of us drinks, which I'm not complaining about! The guy was nice, he wasn't really trying to hit on any of us that I could tell, and was more interested in making a fool of himself in front of us...HOWEVER, one question: why do I attract the greasy, creepy guys?!?! When I first got there and went to get my drink, this one guy kind of next to me kept trying to talk to me...Thankfully, I'm slightly deaf (thank you drumline)
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The Roman Wall and the music for karaoke was pretty loud, so I could pretend that I didn't hear him. But, he kept trying to make eye contact the rest of the night. The second guy told "justin's manager" that he wanted to talk to me, but I just kind of ignored him. For one, he was shorter then me (which may be shallow, but its true). Unfortunately, as everyone else was still getting ready to leave, he came up to me and started talking to me, thankfully the other girls got the hint that we needed to go! So, my first pub experience was interesting...not bad, just interesting.
Sunday, we attempted to try to go to Trafalgar Square for Chinese New Years. This celebration is the 2nd largest Chinese New Years in the world...and it's true! There was barely any room to move! (Picture up later!) From there, we just kind of chilled and hung out back at the flat...
Monday was the first day of my internship, which seems like it will be really good! Though Monday was kind of slow, today (wednesday) was really busy! I make phone calls to different journalists for
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Warwick Castle national press and magazines, scan documents and find media coverage of the different clients, and help in research for different campaigns. Tuesday was the first day of classes were we got to meet our professors. I'm super excited for the London Theater class! We are going to eight plays. Some of the plays include: As You Like It, Frankenstein, War Horse, Heretics, and Season Greetings. They should be good, but I still want to see Wicked, Billy Elliot, something at the Globe, Legally Blonde, Les Mis, and maybe the Children's Hour.
So there is my past few days in a nutshell. If you want to hear more about something specific, skype, email, facebook message, comment, etc. I'll gladly talk about it!
And apologies for how the pictures show up...but i want you to be able to see them without having to have facebook!
Cheers!
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Ms. Rebecca Berube
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Make no apologies! =) what better role model could you have ;) ? That said, fantastic post!