While everyone else seems to be scrambling to get their final assignments before the break done, I had a day off (since I submitted my paper early). We had to stay at the house until noon, so eepak could come by for an inspection. I also did something today that I've wanted to for some time- I put a few posters up- giving the room some colour (yes, it's England)!
After the inspection I headed down to London. I had been to the city twice as a kid, and had been by Westminster Abbey many times. In fact, I even got to climb the roof of the Abbey in 1995, during a reconstruction project- but I had never actually been inside. For that reason, my first stop was to go inside the Abbey. Photos are not allowed inside- but it was incredible!! To see so many amazing tombs- Queen Elizabeth, Edward the Confessor, Dickens, Chaucer, Newton, and so on- it was an incredible experience. I kept thinking of the Royal Wedding, just this past spring, and how amazing it would have felt to be there. I also liked how James had to put Mary, Queen of Scots (his mother) in a parallel tomb to Elizabeth- and that Elizabeth is buried on top of her half-sister Mary- such intense rivals all together in death.
I left Westminster Abbey, thoroughly impressed, and walked to Westminster Cathedral. I had seen it from the outside but never went in- not my favorite place- very Byzantine feeling, which is not my favorite style- and the domes are completely undecorated on the inside. I did go to the top of the tower and got some good views of the city. Then I walked through Hyde Park to Marble Arch. I couldn't find my bus stop, so went to the "Museum of Everything" (again no photos allowed)- a nonprofit display of modern art. After that I had dinner at McDonald's (I took the picture because the fries were actually the best "chips" I've had in Britain- not their normal fries, these were potato wedges), and then walked to Picadilly Circus where I took the underground back to the coach station. In the pics I included pics of the chicken korma I made for everyone yesterday.
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