Seeing all of London on foot

Hey
So let me tell you about Saturday. Oh Saturday. I had plans of reading all day, and doing nothing, well other than waking up at 10:30am and going to the gym. But my alarm went off 15 minutes early, which really confused me, so I picked up my phone and saw that I had a text message from Jenn. Wow! I read it, and it basically said that she and Arthur were going into London, would I care to join them? Is the Pope a Catholic? I called her back, and said of course I do, but I'll skip the Tower of London since my Mom is taking me there and call me when you're done. So I got up, made myself breakfast and then found out that Mitch, Patrick and Kathleen were going into London.

Oh before I continue, I never introduced Patrick and Mitch. Nice guys, they are studying abroad in France, and they go to school with Kathleen. I guess Kathleen and Patrick don't know each other, well they do now, but they didn't before. So they came on Friday, and we had a good time. Mitch played hockey for about 5 years, and Patrick saw Peter the Great on a plane going to Sweden. JEALOUS!

So back to story, so I joined them in going to London, but they wanted to get food from Sainsburys, so I said I would join them down there, I needed a few more minutes to get ready. I went down there and couldn't find them of course. I was standing by the door, and I heard it... Hans Zimmer. My ears shot up like Sam's and I went in search of the music. Well it was just coming from basically right outside, and there was a band attempting to play Pirates music. I say attempting because of course I started humming along and there would be a pause in the music where I know there isn't. They weren't bad though, but it could have been a lot better. But I'm standing outside, and the others come up to me, they went to the German market first. Okay cool. So they get food, and then we went off to London. The train ride in was funny, Patrick and Mitch had too much strawberry milk and it was not sitting well with them, but for the most part it was a quiet ride in.

We went to the National Gallery AGAIN! All of Kathleen's friends want to go there... not sure why. I hate art, but I went in, and we all separated basically as soon as we got there. Kathleen and I stayed together, and we went from room to room. At one painting, it was about Odysseus and his crew fighting the Cyclops... yep didn't see the Cyclops. Apollo was in his chariot in the sky, yep didn't really see that. I saw Odysseus's boat. That's about it. It was so sad, we almost set off the alarm we were so close just trying to see something! Oh well. We did stop at one of the tours, this guy was really good. He was talking about a painting that had three goddess, and Paris, and Paris is choosing who is the most beautiful. So the tour guy talked about each woman, and how they know who each one is, and then he got to Paris, said his name, and was like, "Now I know what you are all thinking... it's not the city Paris." Um actually I was thinking of Paris... Orlando Bloom... Hector's brother. I never think of the city, but always of the coward from The Iliad. But he so interesting, but I didn't see half the things he was talking about. Oh well, some people aren't made to enjoy and see art.

So we walked around more, and then met up with Mitch. They went down to see Monet, but I lost service on my phone half way down, so I backed out. I was waiting for a call from Jenn. I went outside, and just stared out at Trafalgar Square, the ultimate symbol of London to me. You got Nelson's column, other statues of generals, the lions, Big Ben in the distance and then a lot of people. I dunno know, I could stand on the steps of the National Gallery forever and just people watch there. To me London is not Buckingham Palace, but Trafalgar Square. It's just nice.

So I got the call, and I said I would meet them at Tower Hill. I jumped on the Underground, well somewhat, and made my way there. I'm quite proud of myself, before I came to London I couldn't make heads or tails of any Underground system. I could to to South Station via the Commuter Rail, but I always nervous about taking the T. Of course I've only been on it like 5 times in my life, but now I'm an expert at the Underground. I still hold my map close to me, but just for the best possible ways, I know what line to take for different places. So I got to Tower Hill, I'm going down some stairs, I look to my left and there is the Roman wall with a statue of Trajan in front of it. WHAT? I didn't see that before. I must have looked at the other side of the wall. So I stared for a few seconds, and kept going. I found Jenn and Arthur and our day began. Um I also saw the rink at Tower of London.. it's okay. It's in a moat.

We went to the British Museum and spent a while in the Medieval and later periods. It was awesome, I had never been in those parts before. We did walk through the Greek and Rome sections, and I saw a half a of head of Julius Caesar. I didn't see that last time... and I showed them my favorite Emperor... oh Marcus Aurelius. But we continued on and the Medieval stuff was so interesting. I think we were in the 18th century stuff, and there was a big display of jewelry. Of course I wasn't looking at that, but Jenn came over and asked what I wanted, and I pointed to the sword next to the jewelry. Hehe. Sword cooler. So we were in the Life and Death section, and they had a display of all the pills some woman took in her life. WOW... it was huge! Kinda disgusting actually, who thinks about all the pills they take, but they had this display.

So after the British Museum we went to Pic Circus, my idea because I wanted to see more of it. Last time we went right to Chinatown... er street. It was so crowded! We tried to walk one way, and yeah it wasn't happening. No one was moving, so we walked down the other way for like 10 minutes, turned around, came back, and then walked to Leicester Square where we got food. We went to an Italian place... hey they let me pick. Of course Arthur is going on about Domino's so now I'm hungry for pizza, so we went to an Italian restaurant that was more of a fancy pizza place. It was good though. I had to cut my pizza again, it takes half the fun out of eating pizza, and if you pick it up you should just put a big sign on your head that says American. Oh well. This area we were in, Jenn remembered it from her last visit, from when she was like 16 years old, and some things are no longer there, and she felt old. Hehehe. Arthur laughed at her for that. So then we walked to Trafalgar Square, and here is where things get weird. They kept making me choose where to go, but down by the Thames I've been there a hundred times, so first we went to the Thames, and then Buckingham Palace, and then Hyde Park. We would get to one place and be like, 'Okay well where now?' So we could have gone from Trafalgar Square to Buckingham, because it's down the street, but no. We walked soooo much, and then we walked halfway through Hyde Park to the bridge, and then found the nearest Underground Station which was not close. Our legs KILLED! I was dragging my feet. We had a good time though, we talked a lot, laughed a lot, and walked a lot.

Never again am I walking that much. I felt like Jack from Miracle, when he gets asked, "How's your legs" and he replies, "I'll let you know when I can feel them."

After Hyde Park we went our separate ways on the Underground, I went to Wimbledon and then got on the train home to Hampton Wick. I got here, got some tea and collapsed on my bed. The girls, Mitch and Patrick were going out, but I would not have been able to get up. My legs hurt that much. But it was fun, awesome to see them again.

So next post... the day I skated aka the day I made a complete fool out of myself. Stay tuned.