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Well, I've been pushing myself too hard recently, and now I'm going to have to take it easy for a few days. To be honest I'm quite conflicted; my black belt test is in October now, and I need to be practicing, if not hard, then regularly for that, and I haven't had a chance. Still, I went to bed at eight, and I still feel quite woozy, so I'll just rest until I can get back into my routine. I think I'll start doing a workout in the mornings and then going sightseeing once I recover. Anyhow, Happy Birthday me!
The corollary of that is, London is awesome enough that it made me neglect a cold to go sightseeing. I kept busy while I was here; in the short list I've seen the British Museum, Hyde Park, The Museum of Natural History, Royal Albert Hall, Harrods, the Globe, the exterior of the Houses of Parliament, Westminster, Chelsea, Green Park and Buckingham Palace, the Borough Market... and this is in addition to the portraiture gallery and the Wyndham theatre!
I think the best thing I did was the Royal Albert Hall; I went to one of the BBC proms while I was here - they did an arrangement of Swan Lake. Actually I was quite ambivalent about going, but I knew I had to once I saw the prom number - 42. Very beautiful! It was worth going just to see the interior of Albert Hall, actually. They've apparently always had problems with the acoustics in the building and there are these huge pancakes hanging from the ceiling that only half solve the problem. The rest of the building is done in a baroque revival, so it makes an... interesting visual effect.
The Borough Market is also very worth seeing. I'm afraid nothing will replace the French markets, at least as far as I'm concerned, but this came close. I bought some excellent cheese for Andy, some great chocolate for myself, and an amazing cup of coffee - the Monmouth coffee company will brew drip coffee in front of you, and they buy nothing but the best beans. On my walk to Westminster, I also found a building called the Chocolate Factory Gallery. The artist displaying didn't know why it was called that, but it's a decent little gallery showing (very expensive) art for sale.
Using the rough guide was a good decision; I've flat out gotten lost because of it but because I've been lost, I've seen a lot of different places that I wouldn't have otherwise found. Of course, sometimes I just want to get back to the hostel quickly, but one can't have everything.
Finally, the British Museum is very worth visiting. With the free museums, I usually take an audio guide as a bit of a donation, but this was the first museum that I took one of the audio guide tours. In fact, I took three. I think the Ancient European History could be a little better, but the Korean and Enlightenment tours are amazing. Don't forget to check out the Chinese pottery by the way. It's an amazing exhibit.
Of course, London is the least friendly city I've seen, worse than Paris even. Paris has crime but the hostels give discounts at the hostel bar, there's free bathrooms everywhere and most restaurants will let you use one for free, there are free and open green spaces and you can make eye contact and people will put up with bumbling French if you're not in one of the famously rude restaurants.
London on the other hand - no one makes eye contact, most of the gardens are fenced in and regulated, people can be a little more impatient and the metro is constantly being shut down for repairs. The riots don't help the city's reputation either. I suppose it could be the fact that I've been at least slightly ill for the duration of my stay here, and I must qualify that this is only in some areas (people in Soho and the Theatre District are really quite friendly). But still, if you charge someone 50p for use of a toilet, a good number of them are just going to whizz behind your bar instead.
Even with that qualification, there are still things I want to do and see in London - go to a play at the Globe (I took the tour), get into Westminster Abbey or St. Paul's, do a bike tour... It's best to leave somewhere feeling like you want to come back. It helps that this seems to be the place that Hollywood leads come to do Shakespear; Kevin Spacey is doing Richard III (I found that out by accident and after the last show had sold out).
Off to Andy and Mary's today, on a quite civilized, 11:30 two and a half hour coach ride. They can't actually pick me up until either four or seven, so depending on how I feel I might go for a movie or do some gumdo in a park somewhere. I'm looking forward to seeing Bristol, though this is starting into the 'counting down the days' territory: I have exactly ten days left in Europe.
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