London Adventure IV.: A Day of Sunshine, Shakespeare, Guitar Boys & Westminster

As promised in my previous post, here comes the foolish attempt to finish my London stories before the 1 year anniversary of the trip. If you are new here (Hellooo and welcome!) and want to read up more about the London adventure, check out the TRAVEL label.

I feel like I need to reiterate that these posts are in no way trying to objecitvely tell you what London is like and what to do when you visit. This is all heavily based on my (very) detailed travel diary, which, as diaries go, is a very subjective account of my personal experience and thoughts. Filtered to be fit for the public eye, obviously. And it's quite long. If the words bore you, look at the photos ;)

*timey wimey wheezing noise of the tardis*

Day 4: 6th June 2014 (Fri)

Waking up, I decided that today seemed like a good day to Globe :) and to South Bank :)

I wanted to get going as soon as I could, because the guided tours in The Globe Thetre run only until 12:30 and I had no idea how busy it would be… Ergo I’d better get there asap.

I took the Piccadilly line to Green Park, changed to Jubilee and went to Southwark (God’s sake! How do you pronounce that?) Oh, there was this strange thing in the station: like a glass or a plastic wall at the side of the platform, that presumably is there to prevent people from falling in… And it has doors in it that would slide open. So when the train arrives, it has to stop at a precise point so that the doors of the train would match with the doors in the wall… Very peculiar. Also it was quite deep. There were long escalators and everything was silvery, shiny and all futuristic. I suppose Jubilee is one of the newer lines on the map… Well, anyway…

I walked towards the river (Blackfriars Bridge) and it was BEAUUUUUUTIFUL! Sun brightly shining, splendid views across the river, a little cheeky wind blowing… I turned eastward, took the Thames Path (The Queen’s Walk) just along the river bank and walked to The Globe Theatre, trying not to stop too much for taking pictures.

For a detailed post about my visit to The Globe Theatre >> click here << 

When I left the Shakespeare world, the bankside was a million times busier than it had been in the morning when I arrived. And it was a hunt to find a spot to sit down. In the end I spotted a recently abandoned bench somewhere in the front of Tate Modern and I rushed over to take a seat. Soon I was joined by two young blokes, who presumably worked in one of the surrounding buildings, and we spent our lunchbreak politely ignoring each other.

After lunch I picked myself up and marched on to Park Street to visit the original location of the Globe Theatre, which is nowadays... a carpark pertaining to buildings that cannot be touched because of some bizarre regulations. That’s why they had to build the replica a couple hundred metres away. That was nearest spot possible and available.

I continued eastward and then I heard a sound of music ( not THE sound of music ;) which directed my steps back towards the river. Whereupon I discovered The Anchor - an ornately embellished, traditional and I gather very famous, pub. There was a lot of people there. The terrace overlooking the Thames was swarming with noisy and hungry souls enjoying eating out on a summer day.

Just beside the terrace, at a clever spot that everyone had to walk past, stood the source of the music: a busker :) For another extra post about the buskers I saw in London that day >> click here << There's videos with sound in it. And boys with guitars.

Back on my eastward track, under a bridge or two, past the Clink Prison Museum and the remains of what used to be Winchester Palace, past the Golden Hinde, until I arrived to Southwark Cathedral. (All along taking pictures of the Shard whenever it was in sight.)

old meets the new

It was very beautiful inside. I sat down for a bit, absorbing the atmosphere and trying to pray. Then I grabbed a leaflet with details on the specific monuments around the cathedral and I walked around.

There were groups of school children, visiting at the same time, and these wonderful ladies were explaining stuff to them. One was telling them about how the monks lived: explaining about obedience, chastity, poverty… She even had little monk cowls for them to try on :) Another one was teaching them some sort of an old dance in one of the side transcepts, another one, in a period costume, was organizing a game that explained about what kind of food people ate in the Middle Ages. All very interesting and interactive :) I kind of wished I was a little kid and could blend into one of the groups.

I turned back south and walked along the river. It was all very busy and artistic :) Lots of people, lots of street performers making money on the tourists. I walked back, the way I came, past The Anchor (busker was gone), past the Globe, Tate Modern, Blackfriars bridge and then continued along the South Bank.

Also: I finally bought some stamps. I swear to you, ever since I had my postcards written and ready, no, ever since I bought the postcards, all the post offices in a reasonable walking distance from wherever I was have simply disappeared. At last, I walked past a souvenir shop that sold them. Friends and family will receive my greetings after all.

Well… so I walked along the South Bank. Just at the right time I remembered to raise my eyes and look for a tall building :) -> I popped off to a little side street and stalked the ITV tower :) Pardon, I mean the London Television Centre. Whatever you call it, it's home to a couple of television programmes that I enjoy watching. I did not see anybody famous. Only a gathering crowd of audience members.

Then I walked between the BFI and the lovely National Theatre, home of so many amazing productions some of which I had the great pleasure of seeing, sometimes even in live broadcast :) Aaah :) However, there was a reconstruction going on, so a lot of it was covered in scaffolding.

And then I had a most lovely surprise. There was a bookfair under a bridge! Waterloo bridge, to be precise. Rows upon rows of used books of all possible kinds: fiction, non-fiction, poetry, drama, graphic sheets, maps,... you name it. Some very old, some not so old… I spent a good amount of time walking from table to table, browsing and wondering… And I did find a couple of pieces I would potentially be interested in, had I not spent money on a … new book. New Henry. Plus, I wouldn’t possibly have enough room in my luggage to bring home a Terry Pratchett or anything like that.

Just a bit further past the books and the bridge, there was another guitar guy :)  I sat down, not far from him and had a little snack, drank some water and took down some notes.

I felt a little bit strange… I was all right. I was perfectly fine! Not scared, not worried, not… any of the bad things. I felt reasonably safe, confident, quite content with myself and relaxed. Almost happy even… I say almost, because… it would be much nicer if I had somebody with me, if I could enjoy and share all this loveliness of London with someone. I don’t mean anyone special! Really. Just anybody… a pal… But it just so happens that I roll alone. And in the end I always get used to it and get really good at being alone. Frighteningly good.

Anyway…

It was such a sunny day! The light was soooo bloody bright! And for some reason, I didn’t bring my sun-glasses on this particular day. Just didn’t think I’d be needing them. lol :D Ouch! I was kicking myself for it all day. My eyes were killing me. At times I got teary and could barely see. I was just praying that the photos would turn out more or less ok, because it was really hard seeing anything on that little display on the camera.

Another bridge, another busker. I can smell a blogpost coming. Something along the lines of “Maree’s Collection of Handsome Guitar People” :) :) :)

And yet another one :) I’m just so glad they are here! 

I sat there.. and enjoyed… life. It felt so nice not having anything to do or anywhere in particular to be… being free to just sit here on the bank of the Thames, listen to this lovely bloke and be alive. Nothing more, nothing less. Just exist… and not think about ANYTHING. I wish I could have stayed there forever. Or at least until the guitar boy would finish his set.

But I did have to move on. There was London out there waiting for me to see it. I had to go. So I decided to brave up and give him a coin of my money :)

So I continued my awesome sunny walk by the river Thames. I was asked to take a picture for someone, which I happily complied to. I crossed the Westminster Bridge (enjoying revisiting the first places that I ever set foot on in London when I first visited all those yers ago) and I went down to the Battle of Britain memorial to pay my respects to our Czechoslovakian RAF boys.

♥

I then went on and had a little photo session of Westminster: Houses of Parliament, Westminster Abbey and all that. I think some sort of a big and important event was about to take place, because the street that runs by the H. of P. was closed for traffic.

Also, I finally ran into a mail box to send my postcards.

Just before 7 p.m. I set off homeward from Westminster. Not stressed one little bit about the tube anymore. Tube is a friend :) Only, I learned that sometimes it gets a bit hard to breathe, especially in this warm weather.

Aaah, this day, it felt good :) :)

When I got home A&E were out. I took some rest, enjoyed a bit of online time. Had lovely fb chat with a friend, telling her all about the HT gig :) And I tweeted the first of the buskers I saw and I thanked him for brightening up my day. He @replied :)

Lalala :) I have a music-induced perma grin on my face. What an amazing day today was :) <3

When A & E got back, we had a sort of fun chilled evening together :) I told them about my awesome day and we looked at photos from the HT gig, we played HT songs, sang along… ended up almost having an Eminem rap battle :D and we went to sleep very late. Oopsies :)

Random thoughts from today:

>> Do you know why Brits look so damn good in suits? Because they’ve been wearing them since they were little. School uniforms. They’re just used to moving around in them, doing things,... and they just learn to make it look cool.

>> There is a slight pain in my heart. I keep questioning whether I would be able to live here. Could I do it or is just too big for me? Too dangerous and too intense… ? I feel like I might be able to, but I’d have to have somebody with me. Not be alone. Have somebody who’d be here for me and who would support me in any sort of crisis or hardship…Although, to be honest, the longer I have been here, the better I’m doing. And I’m pretty much by myself...

That's all for this part. I shall see you soon with more words and photos. Prepare for something Bard-tastic!
Leave me a comment telling me when and where was your last holiday :) x

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