London

  London, England, United Kingdom
Friday, August 1, 2008

I stayed in my friend's sister's apartment for my weekend in London!  My friend, Shevon, is from Ghana (http://www.luventicus.org/maps/africa/ghana.html), and she was in my program in Valencia.

Me and shevon!

 In London, I visited the Tower of London, Tower bridge, a Malaysian culture festival, the West end, Buckingham Palace, and Big Ben.  I also saw many sites on a bus tour I took.

It took Shevon and I sometime to figure out out the train map (http://images.intolondon.com/images/intolondon/transport-maps/london-underground-tube-map.gif) and the tube map (http://www.bulgarianlondon.com/bg_lon/bg/images/tube_map.gif).  The tube is the the underground train.  Same as the metro in Washington DC or the subway in New York City.  Also, the weekend I was in London, one of the main lines, the Circle line (yellow line) was closed for the weekend.  And that was the line that would have taken us to all the tourist sites we wanted to see.  So, it took us like an extra hour and half to get to the tower of london.

The tower of London is not just a tower.  It's actually a medieval fortress.

Tower of London in the first days

  It basically looks like what you'd think a medieval fortress looks like, high walls, and buildings and towers on the inside.  The crown jewels are located in one of the towers in the fortress (aptly named the Jewel Tower).

The tour guides are actually called Yeoman Warders, or unofficially Beefeaters.  I took this info of a website:

  The guards at the Tower of London are called Yeoman Warders. In principle they are responsible for looking after any prisoners at the Tower and safeguarding the British crown jewels, but in practice they act as tour guides and are a tourist attraction in their own right. There are twelve Yeomen Warders.
While their role is usually confined to the Tower of London, the Yeomen Warders do take part in one State ceremony. At Coronations, they form a guard of honour inside the annexe at Westminster Abbey.
Their nickname is Beefeater.
--Where does the name Beefeater originate from?
The name Beefeaters is often thought to come from the French word - 'buffetier'. (Buffetiers were guards in the palace of French kings. They protected the king's food.) However, the name Beefeater is more likely to have originated from the time when the Yeomen Warders at the Tower were paid part of their salary with chunks of beef. This took place right up until the 1800s.


 Our tour guide was very good and interesting.

Tour guide and me

  And, I later learned, she is the first female Yeoman warder in English history.  It took a couple of hours to tour the tower of london, and Shevon and I didn't even finish looking around, it closed at 5:30pm.  I really enjoyed it and loved the history behind it.  I highly suggest it to anyone who visits London.

Next, Shevon and I visited and crossed Tower Bridge.  The museum there was closed since all the tourist things close at 5:30pm.

Surprisingly, at the end of the bridge was a Malyasian Culture festival.  It was pretty small, but very nicely put together.  We got there as the fashion show was ending.  There was an art show of a Malaysian man whose goal is to a piece of artwork 1 kilometer long of the famous world landmarks to remind people that we are all the same.  Too bad I can't remember his name.

After, on the stage, there were some famous Malaysian actors that are only famous in Malaysia.  It didn't seem like most people had heard of them and the only people who clapped were other Malaysians.

1-Famous Malaysian

And even then the clapping was lackluster.  One of the actors had to clap really louldy to get people kind of into it, ha ha.

Then, we met up with Shevon's cousin and sister at Leicester Square, the heart of the West End.  We ate at the restuarant Guys and Dolls and then went to a Haagen-Daaz ice cream restaurant.  PHOTO_ID_L=leonora-and-kai.jpg]Basically, it's a nice restaurant where they serve (you guessed it) ice cream.  I ordered a mixture of chocolate, vanilla ice cream and brownies, which were freshly baked and warm.  Then we went to back to the apartment and went home.

Next day, I visited Big Ben--House of Parliament!

Me and Big Ben

I think it was very beautiful, too bad it kept raining off and on.  Lucky, I had my scarf, which I kept wrapping around my head to keep my hair dry.

After Big Ben, Shevon and I went on a bus tour.  Then, I took a tour of Buckingham Palace, cost me $30 (or 15 pounds).  The Palace, as you can imagine, is beautiful and huge.  Paintings and nice furniture in every room.  Obviously, I only saw one section of the palace.

Buckingham Palace

This summer has also been a big deal because it's the first time the palace has been set up for a state dinner for the public to see.  The dinner room is also as you'd imagine it.  Dark rose room, a table shaped like a U, only with all sides perfectly straight instead of a curve.  Large flower center pieces and a lot of forks and glasses.  No pictures allowed in the palace.

That night, I gathered my things and took the train to the bus station and was off to Scotland!