The past few days have been pretty wild – I am actually really enjoying this whole ‘travelling alone’ business. It’s actually quite relaxing because there’s no one else to consult about what to do next or where to go. If I feel up to it, I go do it. If I don’t, I take a break and sit down for a few minutes and then head out again.
You should see the hostel I’m staying at, it has some seriously bare-bones accommodations. I’ve got a bunk bed in a room with 7 others, a place to lock up my more important valuables, and a rudimentary kitchen in the basement where they serve a complimentary breakfast of corn flakes, nutella, and toast! Not exactly the traditional English Breakfast (all that ham, mmmm) but it does get me going in the morning. And unlike everything else in this crazy city (except the museums – boo yah!), it’s free. One of my major impressions of London as a city is that it is extraordinarily expensive. I don’t know if everyone is secretly eating ramen or if they’ve got some secret cheap restaurants out in the burbs, but every meal seems to take at least 8 pounds. So thank God for that free breakfast and the 30 pence rolls at Tesco.
On another note, this will be yet another picture-less update as the internet at this wacky hostel is somehow not able to handle pictures. Maybe they’re afraid that if they did, everyone would use up all the bandwidth. I just don’t know. But in any case, hopefully once I get to Rome and get settled I will try to upload some of my photos from today. And there are some seriously cool ones coming. I’ve got the Tower of London, Buckingham Palace, St. Paul’s Cathedral, and the inside of the restored Shakespeare’s Globe. I’m actually quite disappointed that I wasn’t able to get tickets to see the current show in the Globe. But they were sold out of all tickets (even standing room only tickets!) for a production of Marlowe’s Doctor Faustus. Now that would be a cool play to go see in a period theater! Nevertheless, I took the tour of the new Globe, saw a swordfighting demo, learned about bear-baiting and the history of the south bank area, etc.
The highlight of the day, however, had to be St. Paul’s Cathedral. It is a magnificent building, to my American Protestant eyes which are used to bare wood and a nearly iconoclastic avoidance of figures it is perhaps even opulent or garish. But if it isn’t beautiful, I don’t know what is. Still, and I suppose this is a very ‘provincial American’ reaction, there is something creepy about the memorialization of war heroes (and by extension imperialism) in a place of worship. I’m not saying it’s wrong (who am I?), but it is odd to have monuments to Nelson, Wellington, and the Blitz in the building of a religion of peace. I did, however, appreciate Admiral Nelson’s monument, which was decorated with four sleeping lions representing war which his actions had ‘put to sleep’ as it were.
But those were all in the Crypt, the highlight of that visit was in the other direction: the seemingly endless ascent to the top of St. Paul’s Dome. I believe they said it was around 500 stairs to the top (maybe 560?), but however many it was the trip is completely worth it. And I finally lucked out and caught some sunshine up there. But you climb and climb and climb, up to the Whispering Gallery, then another 100 steps up to the Stone Gallery, then another 150 up winding narrow metal staircases to the Golden Gallery. If you have a fear of heights, avoid it. But what a view of London! The Cathedral, a 400 year old building, it still virtually the tallest building in the entire London skyline and you can see the city stretching all the way to the horizon. It gives you a sense of the sheer magnitude of the place.
And if I’m yammering a bit, forgive me. I’m on a bit of a coffee binge at the moment. I scheduled my flights very stupidly (7:15 am from Heathrow – what idiot... oh, right) and unfortunately the Tube doesn’t run early enough to get me there in time. So that means I’m taking a Night Bus (route N9 to be exact) at around 3:30 am local time to make sure I have time to get through security for my flight to Frankfurt and then... Rome! So I’ve decided, rather than trust myself to an alarm clock, that I will simply accept that I should not sleep tonight. Instead I plan to get some rest on the planes. This may not exactly do wonders for my mood, but at least I won’t miss my flight. Once there, I’m going to be hopping a train from Fiumicino up to the Trastevere Station (and that ought to be fun for someone who doesn’t speak Italian) and then hoofing it up to the Centro. So ‘tonight’ and ‘tomorrow’ (is there a difference?) could turn out to be quite interesting... But I’m sure I’ll survive. Next update will most likely be coming from the Eternal City itself. Here I come!
No comments:
Post a Comment