UK Day 15: London Town

I'm back in Vancouver - and glad to see that it's just the way I pictured home to be: cloudy and raining. I haven't gotten a chance to post on my last couple days in the UK and London, so I figured I'd do it now before I completely forget.

Sunday, March 6:

Yesterday was just one of those days that flowed. Not having my friend around I was tentative about going out. It was the accumulation of fatigue, combined with being more than a little nervous about exploring on my own, but I'm really glad I pushed past it. There was still so much to do and see in London.

Since I didn't have a real plan this morning I picked up a couple of brochures for walking tours, including a couple offered by this group called Sandemans. Apparently they offer tours all over Europe, and generally offer a couple of free ones to entice people into taking their other paid tours. I took up their "free" offer and went on a walking tour that covered the Royal palaces. I caught the views of Buckingham and St. James's Palace, learned about King Charles the first, Oliver "No-smiles allowed" Cromwell, the preservation of Horatio Nelson's body in Brandy after the battle of Trafalgar, etc. I was a little disappointed the public isn't able to poke and prod the guards at Buckingham Palace anymore, but it certainly makes sense (apparently it got so bad one time one of the guards snapped and took out a tourist). If you're wondering about security though, apparently the guards aren't very effective - a drunk Irishman (who else?) named Michael Fagan apparently climbed over the wall, stumbled around the palace and so happened upon the Queen's bedroom. The story goes is that he actually had quite the dignified conversation with the Queen.

Breaking for lunch after the tour I got to know a Spanish couple in the same tourgroup - we traded some stories about where we're from and where we'd like to go. I dashed off afterwards to catch the last bit of time at the British Museum - that's a pretty incredible place. Home to an incredible amount of culture and history, it houses one of the largest collections of artifacts and objects of human culture in the world. It's also quite controversial, having kept a number of objects plundered while the British Empire was at its peak, not the least of which being the Rosetta Stone.

Earlier today I had signed up again with a Sandemans' tour, this time it was the Grim Reaper tour - a tour that shadowed the misdeeds of Jack the Ripper, the ghosts of the Tower of London, as well as the dank docks where criminals were shipped "down under," as well as a recovered gravesite for as many as 15,000 victims of the black death. I think I crammed a week's worth of history lessons into a day at that point. While walking on the tour, I managed to strike up a conversation with a cute girl from singapore. Being both of the same mind we ended up having dinner on Brick Lane, not too far from Liverpool station. Brick lane is the heart of London's curry district, where you can find an active nightlife and hundreds of curry houses. The sheer concentration of curry is so amazing as soon as you get in the vicinity you can smell the curry wafting through the air. I developed quite the love affair with curry in the UK and I think I've been spoiled for life now, bar India or Bangladesh themselves.

PS. this is getting super long, so go and look up:

• on youtube: pigeon eating pelicans
• on wiki: jack ketch
• google: quack doctors/bubonic plague