We started off our day today with an early breakfast at the apartment's café, and then headed straight to Westminster Abbey. Having successfully gained entrance, as opposed to being sad and stuck in the rain like yesterday, I can happily say that it was worth the wait. I was able to walk through the beautiful building, listening to the handful of different language tours and admiring the ornate tombs and places of worship. I saw the grave sites of countless Kings and Queens, and was blown away by the number of geniuses that were buried there in Poets Corner and the Prime Minister area. I saw Handel, Kipling, Chaucer, Dickens, Austen, Milton, Carroll, Tennyson , Olivier, and Byron among many others.
Past the Cloisters was Newton and Darwin, and before that the Prime Ministers who I’ve read about all summer for my Oxford courses in Politics: Lloyd George, Chamberlain, Baldwin, MacDonald, Attlee and Churchill. The place was breathtaking, and to avoid the pouring rain, Alexis, Blake and I sat and read a little before heading off to lunch.
For lunch, we hopped into a little pub called the “White Hart,” to be honest just to keep from getting drenched. There is a big picture inside of a woman named Martha Turner. She was apparently the first woman killed by Jack the Ripper, and the sign claimed she had her last drink in that very same pub. In fact, when they found her body, it was in the alley behind where we were eating. There was also a picture of the bartender with Pen and Teller.
After eating delicious pub food at a place where two unfortunate events happened, we went back to the apartment for some rest. I got minutes on my international phone after another long, almost fruitless search for the nearest Carphone Warehouse (I know I probably won’t ever see you again nameless construction worker, but thank you for being the only one out of at least 30 people I asked who knew where this place was).
After a brief nap at the apartment, I went with Joanna and Alexis to try and see what we could of the red carpet at the final Harry Potter movie premier in Leicester and Trafalgar Squares. At first, we had no luck, with a very limited view of about 10 feet of the carpet from the back of an alley crowded with tons of rabid fans. We called it quits and had a great dinner at a restaurant called "The Angel and Crown," and then got gelato for dessert. We wandered back towards the crowd in Trafalgar just for the heck of it, and actually saw some of the actors on stage from really far away. I was able to snap pictures of Emma Watson and Rupert Grint. It was a successful and joyous Tube ride home.
Tomorrow I have a tea to attend for Oxford students, which I'm excited for. I think I'm going to try and explore Fleet Street and the Strand beforehand. G'night.
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