London-Day 3

So we woke up Saturday morning with ambitious looks on our faces. Actually, it was more like "are we really going to walk 5 or 6 more miles today?!". We packed up our stuff and headed out to Leicester Square in search of some West End tickets. Originally we were going to try and see Chicago, not for it's stellar plot and phenomenal actors, but more for the fact that one of our professors at UE was the associate scenic designer. He's kind of a big deal. Anyway, we got there and discovered to our dismay that the cheapest seats for Chicago were 30 pounds and none of us was willing to spend that much on that show. SO... we did some looking and finally decided to go see The 39 Steps instead. I actually worked for the stage manager who is currently stage managing the Broadway production. Deciding to go to 39 Steps was the better decision by far, but I'll tell you more about that later. So after we got our tickets we hung out in the little Leicester Square park for awhile and then split up into two groups. One group was going to take the Tube out west to the Portobello Market and the other was going to take a short train ride to the Camden Market. I chose to go to Portobello market and I personally think I made the better decision. So we had to take this totally round about way to get to the Portobello Market which is near Notting Hill if any of you know where that is. So this market... is like a flea market on steroids and heroine except it is full of really class, upscale stuff at ridiculously low prices. I was talking to a booth owner and he said that it's even larger on Sundays and that some people have had a booth there for 30 years, so this is no 21st century invention. This stuff is old school. They have everything from handmade jewelry that is one of a kind to off the beaten path designers, to antique stuff, to impossible to find vinyls. They have food from everwhere including fresh fruit, really really fresh fish and bread that literally just got out of the oven. They have jackets and scarves for miles and silver tea sets and typical touristy souvenir things. If you can imagine it they have it. There were hundreds upon hundreds off booths that took up almost this entire neighborhood. It was incredible. You could spend a whole weekend there and still not be able to stop at every booth. Almost immediately after we got there we got separated from each other, but we had made a plan to meet back at the tube station in time to take it down the the British Museum to meet up with the other group. I was with my friend Dani and she and I barely got half way through when we had to stop looking at stuff and book it towards the end of the Market. Even when we stopped looking and just walked we didn't make it to the tube on time. I definitely plan to go back there as many times as possible. 

We made it to the tube station about 10 minutes after we were supposed to and so we just hopped on because we figured the other group would figure it out. We arrived at the Tottenham Court Road station 15 minutes later and walked another 10 minutes to the British Museum. The British Museum is another hopeless case. It is huge and you couldn't get through it if you even tried. I think we saw 3 exhibits and that is pathetic when you understand the size and scope of the museum. We were so exhausted from walking so we kept it simple by going to the see Ancient Egypt exhibit and the Greek Pantheon exhibit as well as part of the Mesopotamia exhibit. I know you'll hate me, but I didn't take many pictures because it was pointless. The museum is SO overwhelming and everywhere you turn there is more stuff and it just starts to give you a headache. So I kept the pictures to a very very bare minimum, but includes the Rosetta Stone and a few statues from the Pantheon and some of the Book of the Dead. So after all this we crashed on the floor of the British Museum and waited for others to finish up and meet us. We all went to dinner at this pub called The Plough and after dinner we headed to the theatre for 39 Steps. We could have taken the tube, but we decided to walk instead. Yes, we are fools.

The show was incredible and before curtain I met these 3 lovely English gentlemen who were sitting behind me. They were three brothers who got together for the day to go to a boat show down the river and then came up to see a theatre show. They were charming and witty and half the time I couldn't understand a word they were saying because their English accents were so thick and they were speaking so fast. They told me that Grantham doesn't have a good crop of good looking young men and that I should hit up Nottingham instead. We had a lovely chat and they were so kind even though I am American. 

After the show we went back to the hostel and decided to stay in for the night because we were all exhausted. We sat around talking in the lounge. Oh wait, we did go down the street to a little coffee shop/ internet café because we were starving. I don't know what it is in the food over here, but it leaves you less full and so you get hungry every 3 or 4 hours. Anyway, while we were there there was a torrential downpour and so on our way back to the hostel we got soaked to the bone. AFTER that we called it a night.

So I guess this means end of day 3.