Breaking Addictions

Hi, my name is Krista ("Hi, Krista.") and it's been 6 days since my last Dr. Pepper. ("How did she do it?" "You're so strong!") Never fear! The world has been righted and I am once again united with my beloved carbonated prune juice. 

We're very happy together. 

The Dr. Pepper (like everything else) is different in the UK though. It's sweeter and a lot fruitier. I'm not particularly fond of it. I will add it to my list of things I'm not particularly fond of about London. The list is as follows:

1. The use of military time
2. Dr. Pepper

Things I prefer about the UK:
1. Everything else

The past couple of days have involved less touristy sight seeing and more wandering and becoming immersed in the city. My biggest accomplishment thus far has been to learn how to navigate the Underground. As of yesterday I can honestly say that I am no longer at risk of becoming lost. It's actually a huge comfort to know no matter where I end up I'll be able to figure out the way back to my flat. The buses are a different story. As long as I stick to route 49, I'm fine, but I have no idea how to take various buses to get around the city. But it's fun to ride the buses because it provides a better view. Then if I get too terribly lost I can hop on a Tube and get back home.

Our station.

Charlotte (one of my classmates) and I met an awesome older man with Einstein hair at the bus station yesterday. As soon as we walked up he began talking to us. As soon as he realized we were American he asked me where I was from and promptly began spewing information about various celebrities and where they lived in London and what movies were coming out. He was very chatty and had a large wealth of information-- at least about celebrities. He continued talking to us during the bus ride and at one point he broke out into a marvelous New York accent. I was rather good, but his British accent mixed in with the New York one which made it funny and extremely entertaining to listen to. The bus arrived at his stop and without another word he hopped off. We were so distracted by him that we didn't notice it was also our stop. Rather than get off at the next opportunity we figured the bus would loop around eventually... and I'm sure it would have if we would've had an extra 3 hours to spend on a bus. We ended up ridiculously far from our flat and had to hop off the bus and take a 20 minute Tube ride to our Underground station and then get BACK on the bus to get to our flat. During the course of the bus ride another elderly gentleman got aboard. Charlotte and I looked at each other and we both whispered, "Don't talk to him!" And that's the story of how a British/New York accent turned a 15 minute trip into a 2 hour trip. It's also the story of why I avoid the buses. It was quite the adventure though. And it makes for an amusing story.

Yesterday our class went on a "Shakespeare walk" that actually had very little to do with Shakespeare. It was a lot of fun though. I didn't bring my camera though (because I fail at life) so all the pictures I took were on my camera and thus suck. We saw some incredible sites though. Our first stop was Middle Temple Inn, which had an amazing history. It was originally owned by the Knight's Templar until they fell out of favor with the French king. The table in the dining hall was the original table at which such people as Elizabeth I and Shakespeare sat.

I have touched that table. 

My favorite piece of information I gleaned from the tour was that the Inn was visited by Robert Louis Stevenson. Hanging next to each other in the Prince's Room are two portraits, one of a Sir Joseph Jekyll:

and the other of a Sir Nicholas Hyde:

His visits were previous to the writing of the novel and thus were likely the inspiration for at least the names. The English major inside of me may have fangirled a bit... or a lot. Another tidbit: part of the wooden frame of the Inn was destroyed during the WWII blitz and was reassembled piece by piece. The tour guide called it the world's greatest jigsaw puzzle.

A painting of the damage

Restored

Close up of the stained glass window

After The Inn we went to Temple Church, which was breathtaking. The high ceilings, the stained glass windows, everything. And there were knight efigies. I really wished I had my camera because my phone could never do justice to how wonderful it was.

We then crossed the Death Eater bridge

(known to muggles as the Millenium bridge) which led right to the Globe Theatre! (We're not even going to discuss how the use of that bridge in HP6 was historically inaccurate... because I have that much self control.)

We'll be seeing plays at the Globe later this term.

We stopped by the Rose theatre

and the original site of the Globe

(which wasn't all that thrilling)

on our way to Borough Market. Borough Market as a blast and a half. I love farmers markets. We were instructed by our professor to try the "mind-blowing grilled cheese sandwiches which are unlike any other grilled cheese you'd ever try"... so we did. And he was right.

Our magic sandwiches. 

They has cheese and onions and other whatnots. I also bought fresh fruit (5 peaches for 1.50!) and chocolate covered honeycomb (yum!). We mostly just enjoyed looking at the stands.

We debated for awhile about what animal this actually was...

And that sums up yesterday.