Today was a good day. To start off with, we were able to sleep in a bit - after staying up till 2 last night it was nice :]
I was going to go find a jacket and get some groceries before skyping with my parents at 12 (for me - 6 am for them. I guess they like me :D ). Well, I found a black button up shirt, but no bloody jacket. I don't know what I need to do or where to go to find a simple jacket that's not £75 O.o I did get to go grocery shopping with Nicole before noon, so that was good.
After talking with my mom and dad (Ricky wasn't there for some reason...), I went on the bus tour. The guide was good - for me at least. She had a similar sense of humour to mine, I was laughing a lot when others weren't :] I learned all sorts of fun new things, but I can't remember all of them now. I'll share what I remember.
When the Romans invaded England in the AD 40s, they established a city called Londinium on the banks of the river. They built a wall around their new square mile city, along with one along the England-Scotland border to keep those strange men in kilts out. Today, there are dragons that mark the perimeter of the original wall. When you pass a dragon, you're either entering or exiting the city.
The City of London (it's different than just 'London') is a banking hub - there were banks everywhere. When people say London, they mean the entire area of 2 cities, 32 boroughs and a river. The City of London is one of the boroughs and has its own elective staff and police force - and it's the location of the original city Londinuim.
We drove along Fleet Street in the City and our guide told us a story.
One time on Fleet Street, there was a pie shop. The owner of this pie shop was one Mrs Lovett, and her pies were absolutely delicious. No one could quite put their finger on what her secret ingredient was that made them keep coming back for more.
Around this same time, a man living on Fleet Street had been wronged and was bent on revenge. He would lure his victims into his trap with the offer of a shave, and once they were seated Sweeny Todd, the Demon Barber of Fleet Street, would slice their throats. He and Mrs Lovett would then cut up the bodies and she would take the meatiest, juciest parts back to her shop for the next day.
It's stories like this that make me even less likely to regret becoming a vegetarian >.<
We also drove by the Tower of London. It was originally built as a residence for the monarchy and only consisted of the White Tower in the middle. Then later kings built 2 walls around the outside for defence and added more towers, but it's still referred to as the Tower - singular. The last monarch to live there was Henry III (I'm pretty sure - I can't remember which Henry it was right now) but Elizabeth I was prisoner there for a time while her half sister Bloody Mary Tudor was ruling.
There have been 7 people executed in the Tower, and 5 of them were women. Of those five, 3 were queens and 2 of those queens were wives of Henry VIII - Anne Boleyn and Catherine Howard. Both were accused of high treason - and evidently it's still the law that if the wife of a king or heir has an affair it is considered high treason. If the king/heir does, it's a story for the papers. The guy sitting in front of me enjoyed that...
Just outside of the Tower walls is Tower Hill. The normal executions took place here for the entertainment of the public who would have the day off of work and school. They would cheer and apparently loved it when the axe blade wasn't sharp enough and needed multiple strokes to cut off the convict's head. I can't imagine those convicts enjoyed it quite like the crowds did...
We also learned bits about various places in the city - Piccadilly is extremely touristy and Sloane Street (near where I'm staying in Chelsea) is Designer Store Central. Charing Cross Road is the place to go to for book stores (!) and Oxford Road is lined with stores.
We also learned that about the destroyer I saw on the river tour. She's the HMS Belfast and she's now a permanent fixture in the river near the Tower Bridge. She was part of the fleet that led the D-Day invasion and has been turned into a museum.
When the tour was over, I decided that I needed to get reading on the school stuff (who does that?) so I changed into sweats and made myself some dinner. I made one of the vegetarian country pies that I had gotten at the store earlier and felt proud of myself - I've been trying al sorts of new things on this trip. I had an English pie, a drink and I finally tried Nutella (Nicole may or may not be addicted to the stuff) and I plan on trying tea and maybe even coffee sometime soon.
The reading for Living and Dying (the history class) was fascinating - it was about how most of what we know about childrens' early lives in the 1600s is from the records of convicts' testamonies. An Ordinary (clergyman) would ask for information about their lives as part of their final confession and then published books to serve as warnings to the public - a life of crome could start anywhere. The funniest line was talking about then the mother dies and the father remarries and the effect on the kids - the book called it the 'wicked stepmother syndrome' :D
Nicole and I are going to watch some Psych before going to sleep - I knew that we'd get along just fine :D Tomorrow I'm going to Windsor - I'm excited!
Till then,
-Carly
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