What was described to us as a "leisurely stroll around the river" was in reality a 5 hour power walk down the South Bank of the River Thames. Not that I'm not stoked about how much exercise I'm getting whilst over here, but that was a lot of walking to be doing in sandals. Enough with this though. Onto the more exciting bits of the day.
We were given FANTASTIC views of Big Ben and Parliament. I could not get over how gorgeous it was. We took the underground RIGHT up to the side of Big Ben and it was surreal. We then took the Queens Walk down the South Bank and saw the London Eye, a lot of street performers, and all the various bridges connecting the two banks of London. While walking, we saw all these statues of elephants (why elephants I've no idea) painted differently, and it reminded me of the Peanuts characters they placed around Minneapolis and St. Paul a few years ago. Some of them were pretty cool, and all of them will be auctioned off at the end of summer to raise money for charity.
Next we passed the Globe Theater which was the home of Shakespeare. I had a mini spaz session on the sidewalk because that's something I've always wanted to see, and I knew my English teachers would be proud. Shelby, I thought of when I got you Shakespeare's entire works for Christmas however many years ago and I laughed; it was too good.
After The Globe we went into the Tate Modern which was MASSIVE. It looks like an old shipyard on the inside and is probably big enough to still build a decent sized boat in. It was celebrating its 10th anniversary, so they were hosting a party for local artists and charities inside, and the public was welcome to mill around and see it all. I felt like my brother, Shaun, would have appreciated it more than I did, but it was still cool to see. There was one guy who had half of the lower level to himself and was just having a field day playing his saxophone, while another was painting one of the walls however he liked. Modern art to me isn't something I necessarily understand, or appreciate if I were going to be totally honest, but how everything was laid out was really interesting. It was bright and colorful and just crazy some of the things people came up with. Even though I didn't get a lot out of it culturally, it was still very interesting to see, and really displayed a different side of the museums in London.
This was the name of the exhibition we saw...
And this quote I appreciated, just because it's blunt.
Then (!!!) we saw the Millennium Bridge which our whole group renamed to The Bridge That Gets Annihilated In The Harry Potter Movie. My second spaz session of the day took place here, but Jordan and Amanda joined me, so all three of us looked like fools rather than just me. A small price paid for the excitement we got out of it. There were some great views on that bridge, too, and I got my favorite pictures yet of St. Paul's Cathedral.
After all this we "leisurely strolled" for another two hours and then finally were let go to do whatever. Some girls and I booked it to Oxford Street to scope out the stores we want to hit up tomorrow, and two underground connections later we arrived back at the flat. Tonight we're seeing the London Philharmonic Orchestra, so we're in the process of getting ready for that. 10 girls in 2 bathrooms makes for an interesting prep period...
LATER:
The Philharmonic Orchestra was AMAZING! The concert was held in Royal Albert Hall, which Queen Victoria built in honor of her husband, and the space itself is immaculate. It's a large circular building in impressive red brick and just walking into it you feel important. We had the seats at the very top of the sections and although our views were hindered, it didn't take away from the concert at all. They played scores from a bunch of popular movies like Avatar, Lord of the Rings, James Bond, and Harry Potter. They were unfathomably talented and I know everyone in our group, although tired from the day, completely enjoyed themselves. Hearing the score from Harry Potter was definitely my favorite, but I got chills throughout the whole show, they were just that good. I think they might tour in the US, and if they come anywhere near the Minneapolis area, I'm fore sure going to go. It was something else to see all of these people work together without the help of amplifiers or anything else and their volume just carried... Incredible.
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