A bit about London

Hello, hello, my happy little blog readers (thus far, I think there are two of you),

Greetings from London.

Wade and I landed Sunday, tired yet oddly awake (I had watched Scarlett Johansson's newest masterpiece, The Nanny Diaries on the plane, and was invigorated from the experience). We met up with my friend, Mieke (who for anonymity's sake, and because I like to think of her as my own personal Madonna, shall remain last-name-less), who has been so kind as to let us invade her guest room in posh, posssssh "Hello, Hugh Grant, is that you?" Chelsea. That day was spent, utterly wasted, really, with a three-hour nap--well, more like four, but man, we were tired!--and some four-cheese pizza.

The next morning, I woke with a migraine--something I've only experienced once before in my life--and was utterly miserable. Poor Wade, after dragging his own jet lagged body around a 3-mile loop a few times on the bank of the Thames, had to tolerate my pain and/or laziness before we finally made it out of the flat--at last!--at about 1 pm. We headed to the Tower of London, and took a tour with a beefeater. He told absolutely terrible jokes--my favorite being "Now, let's head off!" as he ushered us to the next stop on the tour, after just telling a few stories about decapitation--and was definitely the most entertaining part of the Tower, which cost a whopping thirteen pounds (ahem, that's twenty-six dollars--I've stopped converting, because it's just too painful) to get in to as students. We wandered around the Thames and then across the extremely windy Tower Bridge (not to be confused with London Bridge, although, with its distinctive blue suspension and Victorian-esque towers, it often is.).

Tuesday was spent first at Covent Garden, where Wade and I wandered around, taking obnoxious pictures--mostly of ourselves, in terrible poses, near things like a red garbage can that proclaimed "Litter" on its side--before we headed over to Trafalgar Square. Now, hate me if you must, but, despite its overwhelmingly touristy nature, Trafalgar is really fun. The square, for those of you unfamiliar with it at home, is dominated by an impressive monument with four huge iron--or are they bronze?--lions. You have to climb up (the ever-chivalrous Wade hoisted me...awww) to get anywhere near the statue, but once you scramble (and/or are hoisted) up, it has quite the view. In front of the lions spans the National Gallery and behind us, lit up like in Peter Pan, is everyone's favorite clock tower, Big Ben.

So, as any two nerds would do, we salivated in the direction of the National Gallery, and went and checked out the art. The National Gallery, besides being one of my favorite words--free--is chock full of paintings, portraits, etc., from 1250 to 1900. We saw works from Boticelli, Da Vinci, Van Gogh...you name it, it's there.

Hm, well, looks like we're off to the Tate Modern, to see the second installment of Britain's collection of paintings--anything post-1900, before exploring the Globe, perhaps, or St. Paul's Cathedral. Next time, I'll try to update you on Westminster Abbey, Big Ben, the Houses of Parliament, and cute little St. Alban's, all of which we saw yesterday. Yeah, whatever.

Oh, and pictures will get up here eventually, too, worry not, friends.