Day 2: London

Today I went on a tour of the Tower of London. The grounds are so huge and amazingly intricate; I couldn’t even imagine living there like the royalty did. Some pieces of the castle are dated back to 1114! It was incredible to walk around on the tour and hear about all of the history that took place in each of the buildings. To have that amount of history right before your eyes, or to stand in the exact spot that something happened is such an amazing feeling. I got to see old prison cells that well known royalty were locked in, where those royalty were beheaded, their burial sites in the church located on the grounds, the living quarters of these royalty and their servants, and the battlefields and torture equipment used on ‘enemies’. I also got to see the crown jewels which are kept at the London Tower, very very ornate and intricate. There is no mistaking that the person who wore them was royalty. I am jealous of the amount of sparking the queens got to do. I got yelled at by a Scottish guard for trying to take a picture of them /: The tour was guided by Yeoman guards, also known as beefeaters. These are very impressive men. In order to be a yeoman, you have had to serve in the British Army for 25 years, and have contributed something significant to history. There are only 20 of them in all of England, and they get to live on the grounds of the Tower of London with their family. One of them helped capture Dessa, Hitler’s ‘assistant’, who was brought to and imprisoned at the Tower of London. It was amazing, and I normally detest history. The Tower of London is also located right next to part of the Thames River, the London and Tower Bridges. The Tower Bridge is the most recognized bridge in London, and as I learned, is often mistakenly called the London Bridge. But, on my tour I found out that the London Bridge is actually just a small insignificant bridge located on the opposite side of the Tower of London that was the first built connection across the water to the other side back in the 1200’s. I visited Hyde Park today as well, which was beautiful and extremely massive. It is located across the street from a neighborhood, which is placed right in between two large shopping streets, Notting Hill Gate, and Oxford Circus. I visited a bit of Notting Hill before reaching Hyde Park, but was really on the way to Oxford Circus, an area of London full of fashion forward shopping. And I navigated the tube and buses all by myself today! I didn’t get lost once, which made me so happy. I had so much fun walking around and looking in all of the shops big and small. There were also many interesting street vendors scattered down the sidewalks and in little alley ways that were fun to check out. It was interesting to see the fashion in the stores too, which was all very different than what you would find in the United States or Canada. Even stores that we share in common, such as H&M, Aldo, and in Canada, La Senza and Zara, had such different items! I honestly rarely found something I would wear; the London fashion I am noticing isn’t quite my style, or anybody else’s that I know. It continues to amaze me how much these countries differ. Even little things, for example, there are “bureau de change” on every block here, which you don’t find in the United States. In the tubes, instead of signs pointing towards the “exit”, it says “way out”. And in restaurants, they always ask you if you want to ‘stay in, or take away’, which is just slightly different. Outside you can hear little cars and mopeds zipping around, and the cars have the English classic car honking noise in all of the movies. It is the weirdest sounding horn ever. The cars also drive very differently here, besides the obvious driving on the other side of the road and car. They drive uncomfortably close to each other. The lanes are skinnier, and the proximity they stop behind each other is so tiny, a person could barely squeeze in between. It makes me really nervous sometimes. And, England clearly doesn’t have any pedestrian laws in regards to cars. Jay walking is highly encouraged, walkers usually have the right of way, even though hurried cars give you that odd little car honk, and you know that law in the U.S. where a car cannot proceed unless a pedestrian is two lanes away from the vehicle? That absolutely doesn’t exist here. I feel like I’m about to be hit as I walk across the street sometimes because the cars don’t wait one second for you; they are maybe 3 feet away from you slowly inching forward until you are just barely out of their way and then they speed off. I thought the United States rushed! London is far worse. It’s fun to be in this different hustle and bustle, but I am most certainly accustomed to the U.S. way of living. It’s funny the things you discover about yourself once you are put into a different environment.