London, Day 3 (Tuesday 8 December)

Highlights of my second full day in London:
1. Charles Dickens Museum
2. British Museum
3. Hyde Park, take two
4. Embassy Row
5. Harrod's

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1. Charles Dickens Museum

So, the hostel I was staying at was close to other places besides just King's Cross. It was only about a fifteen-minute walk away from the British Museum, and on the way was supposed to be the Charles Dickens Museum. I think it was supposed to be at the home of one of the places where he might have lived in London, because it was on a residential street. Anyways, I actually showed up a few minutes too early, and once again it charged for admissions, so I passed it by in favor of getting to the British Museum early. I did get a picture, though, and that has to count for something.

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2. The British Museum

It's a fantastic museum. They have two whole wings for Ancient Rome and Greece, two for Egypt, special exhibits... I could go on and on and on. On this day in particular, I stayed on the first floor (that's the second floor to you Americans) and wandered around what seemed to be their 'lifestyle' displays for the Romans, Greeks, Etruscans, and Egyptians. I got to see the Sutton Hoo horde, which was COMPLETELY AWESOME. As a Beowulf fan, I couldn't pass it up. For those of you who don't know, the Sutton Hoo burial is supposed to be the closest replica to the Beowulf-style burial anyone has ever found. There was an entire ship buried with a horde of treasure that must have belonged to a great king. It was so cool being able to see it. (Can you tell I'm enough of a nerd?)

I kind of freaked myself out when I was in the Egypt rooms. There were mummies out on display, as well as a burial site from before mummification became common. That was cool enough, but then my brain just started thinking, what was in those mummies (and what had been the bones in that burial site) was once a living, breathing person. When you start to think about that for too long, it starts to freak you out and make you a little upset. Especially since there were various groups of schoolchildren (about elementary school age) wandering around and exploring. At that age, I was all, MUMMIES ARE COOL, but then I realized that they were Soylent Green (you know, they're people and all that) and my thinking changed drastically.

I remember being more caught up in the jewelry than anything else. Not only am I attracted to shiny things, but it was also interesting seeing the shapes of various things. If I'd see an earring, I'd wonder "how were ears pierced back then?" If I saw a bracelet, I would wonder "were wrists really that small back then?" You get the idea. I'm just fascinated by that. Any culture that's rich enough to have those sorts of artisans... it's just really cool to me. Maybe it's also that I'm a detail oriented person but I can't even understand how people put together jewelry in the ancient times. So delicate... so awesome to see. (Kind of makes you wonder what archaeologists 2000 years from now are going to think about our habits if all they find is our jewelry.)

I had a quick lunch at the museum and then went back to the hostel for a little while to take a short nap before I embarked on the next part of my day.

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3. Hyde Park, take two

Remember I said on Sunday that I had seen what looked like a fair from the entrance I had been at in Hyde Park? Well, on Tuesday, I actually got to visit it. I met up with Kate, the other girl at the Oxford program this year, at the entrance to what they called their Winter Wonderland, and we went ice skating.

It was an outdoor pond, which was kind of disconcerting seeing as it wasn't cold enough to freeze anything in the park, but it was neat. We got tickets for just as the sun was setting, so we watched the lights of the carnival rides get brighter and brighter against the sky. I remember we talked about tutorials, going home for Christmas, and Disney movies. I missed ice skating. It's not Christmas until there's some sort of skating. Maybe I'll go again with Justin once I get home... that would be nice.

So we spent an hour ice-skating before we were ushered off the rink, and then we wandered the wonderland. To give you an idea of what it was like, imagine Epcot Germany, and then add all of the quirkiness of the theme park from the movie Adventureland. It was wonderful. All of the food stalls were German themed, and so for dinner Kate and I got cinnamon-suger pretzels. Delicious and so totally worth it. I also looked for those stupid rassafrassing sour watermelon gummies that they have at the Huddle back at ND, but I haven't been able to find them anywhere since I had them back in April-May-ish. Makes me sad... I have some good memories with those candies.

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4. Embassy Row

So, Kate and I got a little lost between heading from Hyde Park to Harrods. As it turned out, we went in the complete wrong direction, but we actually got lost in a very charming area of town: where all of the foreign embassies are. We must have seen at least fifty different kinds of flags waving from the columned porches. Especially after the very international Winter Wonderland we had just been at, it was really cool. Unfortunately, my camera batteries died just before I got into Hyde Park, so I don't have any pictures of ANYTHING after that. (Though I did find my charger, which I thought I had lost, but it makes everything MORE ANNOYING because I could have taken more pictures!!!!!)

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5. Harrods

It's big. It has everything. Everything luxury, that is.

Kate and I just kind of gaped our way through. I swear our eyes were bugging out of our skulls. I could give you a floor by floor account, but it's really something you have to be there for. I did see a pair of gloves for 295 pounds, a champagne bar, a chocolate bar, a Lebanese restaurant (yes, these things were INSIDE the store), a Tiffany and Co counter (yes, INSIDE the store), dolls made in Robert Pattinson and Kristen Stewart's images for Twilight/New Moon (gross), and a lot more that I had written down. I was kind of afraid to even breathe the wrong way, because everything in that store was so expensive. I did manage to get a souvenir, though. Kind of a creepy place to be, though, if you're not super rich.

That took me until about 9 at night, at which point I packed up and made my way back to the hostel to journal about it all and call home. Much like any other night in London, really.

- Jen -