Abbey Road

Ello Mates, here is day two of my London adventure. Plans, as they should be, were out the window. Enjoy.

Friday 26 April 2013

8:30AM

Generator Hostel Room #329

Yep I slept in… Myranda and Linnea had left without me to go do the river walk. “Well there goes my plans for the day,” I thought to myself as I rolled out of bed and made my way to the showers. I suppose as far as hostels go the showers weren’t bad, and somehow over the course of last night I had managed to get an extra breakfast ticket. When I was dressed for the day, I made my way downstairs and snagged a bag breakfast from the bar. I sat with a handful of students from my group, and asked what they were doing today. My plan was to find someone who was doing something I would find interesting, and to tag along. Those someones ended up being Amber, Jess, and Brittany. Now there is one big problem with going anywhere with Brittany. Tardy is her middle name. We were all ready and waiting for about half an hour before she finally showed up.

Amber, who had been in a generally irritable mood already, was positively livid. This did not make the journey out to the V & A museum enjoyable. Once we got there and started to look at some of the more interesting sites, she did calm down quite a bit. We first went into a Medieval England exhibit which, although being a little recent for my taste, was really rather cool. There were loads of interesting artefacts to see, but my favourite by far was a book on medieval music. Now I can’t read music, but that’s a skill that would have held little value for me here. This was music that was scored in an archaic method that probably only a handful of experts could still read. It was a vestige of a bygone era that would otherwise be lost. This museum also had a wonderful selection of sculptures and iron works.

When we were done here, I really needed Caffeine, and so Amber and I went to a nearby Starbucks. Brittany and Jess went on to visit the museum of natural history. I was glad that Amber was in a substantially better mood, and so we had pleasant time as we made our way to the shop. When we had our coffee, it had begun to rain, and I lamented on forgetting my umbrella back at the hostel. Luckily the rain was short lived. We were dry by the time we made it to our next museum.

Now knowing the dynamics of our friends, we decided that in a museum of natural history Jess would be by the fossils and Brittany would tag along. So our objective was to find the biology stuff and we’d find them. However, upon walking in we were distracted by the escalator leading up to the giant metal orb designed to look like a planetesimal. Amber decided, that if she were Jess, that’s where she would be. Although I was fairly confident that this was not Jess’ choice, I thought this was genuinely cool.

I was right on both counts. This was a pretty great exhibit on the origin and formation of the earth. Amber and I had a lot of fun with the hands on exhibits that are probably better suited for small children. I suppose what’s the point in being a grownup if you can't act childish every once in a while.

We eventually found Jess and Brittany. We decided that we were hungry, and so the four of us went in search for lunch. Amber and Jess had to return back to the hostel soon, and so they got some take away and hopped back on the tube. Brittany and I found some take away soup and sandwiches. We ate slowly and chat for about an hour, enjoying the warm sunshine.

Our next destination was Abbey Road. We were going to head there with a few other people but they ended up being busy, so it was just us. On our way to the next tube stop, we passed Herods Department store. I made a special point to take a few photos of the shop so that I could tell mum that I’d been there too. Brittany didn’t want to stop. She had a very specific agenda in mind, and so we got on the tube and made our way north to Abbey Road.

I suppose now is as good a time as any to talk about British road rules. In the United States, pedestrians have the right of way when it comes to the road. This is not the case in the UK. Here pedestrians should not cross the street or spend any time in the street unless there are no cars. There is one exception where pedestrians have the right of way. They are called Zebra crossings. Luckily the famous spot where the Beatles posed for their album cover is just that.

Even though Brittany and I had the right of way, we felt bad about standing in the middle of the road and holding up traffic. There was a guy there who had a Polaroid camera, and was willing to take our photo for £4. It seemed like a good deal, but we decided to just use our own cameras. This made the process take easily an extra half an hour dodging traffic and waiting for the perfect moment.

When we had finally gotten our pictures, I realized I walk with a horrible slouch. Of course it was too late to go back. By this point, we were on our way further north to the Freud Museum. Personally I couldn’t have cared less, but since Brittany’s crush was a psych major she was insistent about going. As it would turn out, the Freud museum is further north than either of our maps showed. With it being one of the smaller tourist attractions, it wasn’t easy to find. In fact, we never did. We found a statue of Freud, and so we were probably close. Even still we walked down the quaint little streets for a while before giving up and heading to Baker Street.

Upon arrival, we made our way to the surface and Brittany inquired which way we were going. I responded, “Elementary, my dear Watson… our destination is just right around this corner.” Brittany, not being a Sherlock Homes fan sadly didn’t get it. Anyway we walked around the corner and up Baker Street to the Sherlock Homes museum. We weren’t actually going to go in. I just wanted a picture of the outside. Brittany wanted to stop in the adjacent Beatles Store.

Everything in the shop was incredibly marked up, but it was fun to look all the same. I suppose I kinda wished I were a bigger Beatles fan. I mean I love the song’s of theirs I know, but I just don’t know that many. I know some of their history, but I could know a lot more. I think that if I ever plan to visit Liverpool, I will do some hard core Beatles research.

When we were done here, we made our way back on the tube towards Russell Square. This time when I got to the sign that said do not use these stairs unless in an emergency, I began to run. Brittany was supposed to wait for me at the top, but that didn’t happen. Either way, I was able to dash up the equivalent of 15 flights of stairs. I was tired, but felt pretty accomplished.

I bought some stuff for dinner at the Tesco Metro across the street, and then went back to the hostel to eat. When I was done,  chatted with my roommates for about two hours while I waited for Amber to text me that they were back. At the end of the two hours, it was more or less clear that they weren’t coming, and so I went with Nate, Kevin, and Pat to Russell Square where we met up with Casey, Elle, and Katie. My roomies were going to a comedy club. The other three were going to walk along the river and take some pictures of the London Eye. I could see a comedy show anywhere, so I decided to tag along with Casey, Elle and Katie.

We walked across the white suspension bridge that is torn apart by Death Eaters in the 6^th Harry Potter, all the while listening to live music and having a great view of the London Eye and Big Ben. We ended up making a big loop  across the bridge, past the eye, across the other bridge, past Big Ben, to Buckingham Palace, and back to the Wellington Arch, where we caught the tube home.