London - Day 3

After a long day I fell asleep before I was able to blog. Hopefully I won't forget everything we did yesterday!

Well at 1:30am the "fire alarm" went off in our hostel... It was literally (or as the British say lit-t-ra-lly) the loudest thing I've heard. I was standing up and gathering my things before I knew what was going on. Luckily it was a false alarm. Our real day started a little later with our usual free breakfast and leisurely getting ready. We took the tube, which we are now masters at, to St. Paul's Cathedral.

So beautiful. Being on a budget we all cringed a little at the 16 pounds price tag, but as a student we got it down 2 pounds to 14 and regardless I would have been worth 100 pounds! Unfortunately we weren't allowed to take pictures inside, but I'm sure the pictures wouldn't have done it justice. I was in mosaic heaven! It was so gorgeous and grand! We had an audio tour that was very thorough and interesting and took about 2 hours (and we didn't even listen to all the crypt tracks or bonus tracks). We also sat in for the 30min Eucharist service (really brought me back to high school). One of the coolest things was being about to climb up to the whispering gallery (inside), stone gallery (outside- in the picture below you can see the Millenium Bridge, Tate Modern and Shakespeare's Globe)

and golden gallery (outside- you can see the London eye and parliament to the right of us).

We definitely got a work out climbing the 528 steps up! It was crazy high up and the best view of the city!

Paige pointed out with all the narrow staircases and secret doors it would make for an epic game of manhunt (pretty much moving tag). We then went across the Millennium Bridge (that was featured in Harry Potter!) that lead straight from St. Paul's to the Tate Modern. (And the sun even came out!)

The Tate Modern was also awesome (and free) and had big artists like Van Gogh, Monet and Miro. Here were some of my favorites.

This is Van Gogh and what I loved was I looked at it and just thought it was a woman who had a two colored face but Arin read the distribution and it's actually two lovers embracing.

I forgot to look at the artist for this one but it reminded me of the exhibit I saw in Provence that I loved!

I piece of art I actually recognized! Water Lilly by Monet!

This was in the movement section and unfortunately it's lost some of its affect in the picture but the artist really conveyed a cool flow using the nails.

I'll be honest, the real reason I like this is purely because of the pretty lights. But it says silence backwards, violence and violins.

After the Tate we were absolutely starving so we went to Borough's Market and tired EVERYTHING.

Cheese, meat, sweets, speciality items, this street market had it all! I decided to accompany my snacking with a English favorite, a pie!

I couldn't even wait to take a picture before I dug in! It was called a Hiedi pie and had goat cheese, sweet potato, spinach and garlic. One of the best things I've eaten ever! We sat in a church park to eat our goods.

Not too shabby if you ask me! Paige also had a pie but hers was chicken and mushrooms.

Arin branched out and got a quinoa veggie burger on a tri salad with hummus and salsa. Any other day I probably would have chosen this, but when in London....

Next it was time for more taste testing and sweets! I went with the crumble fudge from Your Whirld! It was so nice because I could fill my bag with little pieces of every type! My favorites were ginger, nougat and salted Carmel... But honestly I loved them all!

The market was huge and so beautiful! It made things that I don't even like look appealing! Example A:

(But I'm starting to eat mushrooms more!)

Example B: (this ones for you mom)

(Licorice...)

One of the biggest differences about London is that there is no open container law. So lots of people were walking around with drinks or over flowing out of restaurants and pubs with big glasses.

Everything was so cute! Arin and I are trying to use the word cute less, but it was!

We finally pried ourselves alway from the market and walked down the wharf to the Tower Bridge (which I always figured was the London Bridge but the London Bridge is actually a SUPER boring bridge located before the beautiful Disney-ish Tower Bridge).

Right across from the Tower Bridge is the London Tower which you can see behind me across the water in this next photo.

And the tower bridge really is a drawbridge!

On our way from the London Tower to the underground we passed through another beautiful park/garden/square full of people with fancy beers in fancy glasses! The restaurants they must have gotten their drinks from we're all the way across the street! It's no fair.

Even with a later start we always are pretty tired by the end of the day....

 We always think our day is going to be a lot shorter than it ends up being. By the time we got back it was close to 8pm and we knew we wanted to explore the pub scene but pubs close at 11pm. We finally decided to go to the west side which is known for being a little bit of a tourist trap but also the only place you can find things open after 11pm. Coming up from the under ground it almost looked like we were in time square (with shorter buildings)! The streets were packed and there were big screens and broadway shows everywhere.

  (This picture really doesn't give the desired affect I would have needed a panorama). We went looking for a pub recommend in my book near Chinatown.

But we weren't able to find it. So we remembered another club/bar mentioned called the Village. We found it and then we remembered it was a gay bar... So we went it! As we approached the bouncer Arin gave him her ID then he looked at Paige, said he didn't need to see her ID and looked straight at me and said he'd need to see mine. The drinking age is 18 in London... 18! Do I really look younger than 18?! I guess I should have worn make up, but It was super fun! We all got a big Stella and did a little dancing. We asked the bar tender for another good bar that doesn't have a cover (most of the clubs an late night bars have a pretty large cover charge). He suggested The Yard which was just around the corner and open air and since it was such a lovely night we thought that sounded perfect. As we walked in the bouncer said "you know this is a gay bar right?" Haha oops well it looked lovely so we went in to explore anyways. It we much mellower, but super packed so after looking around we decided to leave and just walk down the street that was loaded with bars and clubs. The roads were absolutely packed but a bouncer waved Arin over and said he'd give us a discounted price if we came in. When we finally understood what he was saying we said nah and started to turn away, but then he said the magic word... Free! So we got "The O Bar" stamped on our wrists and head in. It was pretty empty, but the music was good so we did some dancing. I felt a little like Cinderella because we had to leave before 12am to catch the tube home before it stopped running. The tube was pretty funny full of young adults mostly dressed up and intoxicated. We got off at out stop and remarked about how safe we've felt in the area we were staying. That being said we've been taking all safety precautions, but still it's nice to feel safe. All in all our night was more for getting a feel of London nightlife but not fully jumping in.

Now I'm too tired to write about today. We are off to Amsterdam tomorrow so I am sure I will have plenty of time to write and get caught up on the train!