Bunny-Hopping All Over the City

Happy (belated) Easter or Passover!

I can't believe I've been here for over three months. I can't believe I have less than four weeks left! I'm definitely having mixed feelings about it all...

Monday night a week ago I went to go see "Three Days of Rain" in the West End. I'd gotten rave reviews from friends and I'd heard it was starring James McAvoy (of "Band of Brothers," "Chronicles of Narnia" and "Atonement"), so I decided to go see it. It wasn't a musical, but it was very entertaining. James McAvoy was the best of the three actors, but the other male actor was very comical as well. It was definitely worth seeing, although I do overall prefer musicals! :-D

On Good Friday it rained and most of the tube system was down for the weekend, but I made it over to central Westminster in time to realize that it WAS Good Friday and of course Westminster Abbey wouldn't be open. I did see Westminster Cathedral (the difference being that the Cathedral is Catholic, not Anglican).


Then I walked up to Covent Garden and browsed the stands there before heading back to the flat.

On Saturday I trekked over to Harrod’s. I knew it was an upscale department store, so I dressed a little nicer than usual. However, “upscale” turned out to be an understatement, at least to a Vermont bumpkin such as myself! There was a doorman who greeted every person who walked in the door. Since it was the Saturday before Easter there were massive chocolate carvings of rabbits, chicks, ducks and eggs everywhere. Anything and everything you could ever want was sold: books, electronics, designer clothes, shoes, jewellery, animals, toys, furniture, pianos, food, glasses and even original prints of old maps. Since the Al-Fayed family who owns the store is Egyptian, much of the store is Egyptian-themed and there are a lot of giant Sphinxes all over the place. The main Egyptian staircase is overlooked by balconies from each floor, and there was an opera singer performing from one of them. I didn’t take any pictures, because I definitely didn’t want to be that girl who took pictures in Harrod’s.

On Easter Kara, Sarah, Kathy, Katie, Chris M and I all bought or prepared food for a “family-style Easter dinner” at our flat. It was really nice to do something homey for Easter…and eat a lot of good food!

Easter Monday is a bank holiday here in the UK so I didn't have to go to my internship (however, those who have Monday classes at the IC London Centre still had to go haha). I decided to have a little adventure and get over to the Tower of London on the east side. I say it was an adventure because all tube lines to the Tower of London were closed, so I had to find my way from the Bank station.


Although the Tower of London is generally associated with imprisonment, torture and executions, it was originally a royal palace. The place is quite grand, but it does have an air of creepiness to it.

As soon as I entered the gate the Royal Guards marched from the entrance over to the building where they keep the Crown Jewels.


I saw Traitor's Gate, through which prisoners were brought by boat.


I then hopped on a tour given by a Yeoman Warder (commonly known as a Beefeater) so that I could go inside the Chapel Royal of St. Peter ad Vinicula. It looks like an ordinary chapel; its draw is that it's the burial place of those executed on the Tower Green. Two of Henry VIII's wives are buried there (including Anne Boleyn, whose portrait is on the right hand side of this blog) as well as Jane Grey, who reigned for about a week before she was overthrown (quite rightly, actually) by Queen "Bloody" Mary. There's also a monument on the Tower Green marking where the scaffold that they were all executed at was.


I next went into the Bloody Tower, so named because two princes were supposedly murdered there. Well, in actuality, one of them was the true King of England. He and his brother were sent to the Tower for "safekeeping" by his uncle, soon-to-be Richard III, until the boy's coronation. Within two months, Richard III had them (falsely) declared illegitimate and the princes were never seen again. Centuries later, the skeletons of two boys their ages were found buried elsewhere in the Tower of London. They were determined to be those of the princes, but no one knows for sure who's behind their deaths.

At one point I got a really pretty view of the Tower Bridge...


I also paid a few of the ravens a visit. There are always six ravens at the Tower of London, because legend has it that if the ravens were to leave the Tower, the Tower, the monarchy and the kingdom would fall.



Then I went into the White Tower, which is in the middle of the Tower of London. It's home to a temporary exhibit of all of Henry VIII's armour (save one, which is at Windsor or Westminster Abbey). I then proceeded to Beauchamp Tower, where many prisoners were held. It was extraordinary; the curators have preserved many of the graffiti carved into the walls by the prisoners held there. Some of the graffiti is plain; others are quite elaborate. Possibly the most famous graffiti is one that simply reads "Jane."


Many believe that it was carved by Jane Grey's husband, Guildford Dudley, as he, too, awaited his beheading. It also could have been carved by one of her supporters or it could have been carved by someone else with a different Jane in mind.

Finally, I went to go see the Crown Jewels.


The queue was ridiculously long, but I was told it was worth the wait. And really, it was. No pictures were allowed, but they're quite unforgettable. I definitely think my favorite was the Sceptre with the Cross, which has the Great Star of Africa, the second-largest faceted diamond in the world.

After I left I decided to take a nice, looonnng walk from the Tower of London back to my flat in Bayswater. It was a beautiful day, so it was great to see the city at a leisurely pace. The prettiest part of the trip definitely had to be Hyde Park, though. I'd been through it before but not when the flowers were in bloom. Kensington Gardens was beautiful as well.


I took a different path than I had before, because I realized that I hadn't seen the Italian Garden Fountains or Peter Pan statue before.



Tomorrow night I'll be at Wembley Arena (capacity 18000 people) for a Prodigy concert. They're a huge electronic-punk-dance music group over here, very popular. However, we've been told that this will be wilder than The Rifles concert. One thing's for sure: I'm staying out of the mosh pit this time!

A FEW MORE THINGS I'VE LEARNED WHILE IN LONDON:

41) When the tube gate doors close on you, it really REALLY hurts.
42) Blackcurrant berries are the grapes of the UK. Blackcurrant jelly, blackcurrant jelly beans, blackcurrant lollipops, blackcurrant Starburst...
43) Queen is definitely one of the most awesome bands ever. And they are quite addicting and very often lead to long streaks of listening only to them.
44) On that note, "Video Killed the Radio Star" is possibly the most addicting single ever.
45) London during the springtime is a sight not to be missed.