20 May 2004

Bad news first: jet-lag officially sucks. I really didn't think it would be that bad; stay up to a decently late time, sleep through the night, and wake up refreshed the next morning. It was going great until I woke up at 1:15. For some odd reason, I was wide awake, but unfortunately there really isn't much to do at that time. I tried reading myself back to sleep on several occasions, but only succeeded in finishing my book (Mary Shelley's "Frankenstein"). Finally got back to sleep some time after 5; not sure exactly when , but I was dead tired when my alarm went off at 6:45.

Luckily, however, the good news outweighs the bad. London rocks. If given the choice, I could easily spend the entire tour here, exploring the city and getting to know it. The group tour we took, though more crowded than I would have liked, was pretty good. Sadly, in my incredibly zombie-like state of mind, I actually can't recall everything we did. I do, though, remember the key points.

We got to see the changing of the guard at Buckingham, which was fairly impressive. And it's entirely ceremonial, which, if possible, makes it even more cool. Westminster Abbey was simply amazing. For starters, it was immense; no church I've been to has been nearly that huge. It's also an incredible piece of history. We got to see the Coronation Chair, the meeting place of the Most Noble Order of the Bath, and the tombs/tombstones of Edward I, Elizabeth I, and Geoffrey Chaucer, among others. Sir Isaac Newton and Charles Darwin are buried there as well. We weren't given nearly enough time there, though. We breezed past a lot of things, and barely got to see any of the side chapels.

At lunch, I had my first Guinness--not bad, but not all its cracked up to be. Which could be a good thing, I guess. I wouldn't want to get into the habit of drinking it, and then have to wait another year to start drinking it back home.

After lunch, we took a cruise on the Thames to the Tower of London. We were given a brief overview tour, then set loose for about an hour and a half. A group of us went to see the Crown Jewels--very sparkley--and then Emily and I headed over to the White Tower, the original keep built by William I. The architecture was amazing--yay for 11th century toilets. Unfortunately, they had closed off several sections of it, and turned the rest into a sort of museum (Corliss called it a Victorian theme park). Some of the exhibits were really cool to see, like Henry VIII's armor, some ceremonial swords (that were really huge... must've been at least 7 or 8 feet long), and a bunch of other miscellaneous weapons, but I really would have liked to explore the whole tower. We stopped by the gift shop on the way out, and Emily & I split the cost for a bottle of mead (basically fermented honey; one of those things I keep reading about & wanting to try). After that, we caught up with the group and headed off to dinner.

Chelsea, Crystal, Emily, Erin, Nicol, Rachel, Rob & I headed over to Picadilly Circus and found a pub for dinner. Food wasn't bad, and the Strongbow (hard cider) was good. We wandered around the circus, the girls shopping, Rob & I tagging along, trying not to look stupid.