St. Pauls, Degas, and the Prime Meridian

So, we were back in London. I was so tired and also quite tired of having to pack, repack, etc. with all the travelling, so being back in town was a welcome change. The day after returning (Jan 2), was a bank holiday, so most people were just coming back into town. We decided to take advantage of this and try to do some shopping on Oxford St. with all the sales. However, it was still busy, though nowhere near xmas shopping busy, and neither Kara, Trace, or I found anything we really liked. We made our way then towards St. Paul's to tour that and climb to the top of the dome for a view. The church was neat, though I'd been in it for the xmas concert, I hadn't relaly looked around afterwards. I had more time now to check out the crypt and see the tombs of Wellington and Nelson, etc. as well as admire all its churchiness (in a good way, of course!). We then climbed to the tob of the dome for neat views of the city, but also really fulfilling any need to see the city from up high after climbing the dome and having done the London Eye. After, we made a quick stop at the British Museum to check out the Egypt room before trying to find a show to go see. However, we couldn't find anything and settled on heading back to my flat to watch a movie.

The next day I returned to work, which was actually nice to get back into a routine. It wasn't too busy, which was also still v. nice. Afterwards, I met Trace and Kara and we got tickets to see Les Mis before catching a v. tasty dinner accross from the theatre. Trace and Kara hadn't really seen the show before (Trace had, but had seen a bad cast and had hated it til then), but both came out of it absolutely loving it. The cast we had was pretty good, but the man who played Jean Valjean was amazing (comparable to Colm Wilkenson!)!!! After the show, it was home for me after saying goodbye to Kara on the tube since she went back to Germany for school again the next morning.

Wednesday aftwer work I met Andy at the National Gallery to kill some time beffore the first BUNAC pub meet of the year. They had all sorts of specials like free snack food for us since there were so many new arrivals. It was definately weird for people who'd just gotten here to react at my being here for two months as being "a long time."

Thursday, Kate and I came to the conclusion of a loooong debate about whether or not to move from our flat. We decided that since GP and Sam had moved out (and besideds the wacky and stingy/greedy landlady), the flat had gone downhill and the crazy (if not actually, than v. close to it) girl taking Sam's place was enough to drive us from the flat. Our lease is up in mid January, and since we find ourselves increasingly not wanting to come back to the flat at night due to the unwelcoming atmosphere now, we want to get out and find someplace new for the rest of our time here. There're some prospects, but those are still being explored. After discussing housing, we made our way to The Clifton for some chill hangout time for the evening. Friday, friends from work and I went out after work before I met GP, Kate, John (Kate's boyfriend), Trace, and GP's friend Katherine at Ye Ole Cheshire Cheese for a while as well.

Saturday I woke up earlyish and headed to the Tate Britain. I particularly wanted to catch the exhibit on Degas, Sickert, and Toulouse-Lautrec (which I did and which was fabulous!). I really enjoyed this museum as it was much more my style than the often disturbing Tate Modern. I then headed town the river towards Westminster, catching a bite to eat before meeting a group in Bayswater to see "Brokeback Mountain." After, we went to the "Sports Cafe" in town to watch American basketball (including the Pistons!), American football, and a bit of Canadian hockey. A strange night, but fun and finally with good nachos.

Sunday I met Morgan (a BUNAC-er) and Trace to go to Greenwich for the day. We got to ride two tube lines that we hadn't yet been on (I only have one left til I've ridden them all!) and it was a nice ride since we rode an above-ground train to Greenwich, only about 20 minutes from central London. Greenwich was such a lovely town that had the feel of it's own place without being absorbed by the city, though still a 20-minute tube ride away from the heart of the city. We walked through town on our way up to the Greenwich Royal Observatory, home of the Prime Meridian and Greenwich Mean Time. We did the "Now I'm East! Now I'm West" hopping over the prime meridian and set our watches to noon exactly as we stood on the Meridian, as well as seeing lots of old astronomy tools and telescopes. After the Observatory, we headed back into town to the National Maritime Museum, complete with anything anyone could ever want to know about anything nautical. After being about shipped-out, we actually had Mexican (ok, more like Tex-Mex) for lunch and then went to see the Cutty Sark, an old tea cutter tall ship in a dry dock that you can walk through. It wasn't too much to see, but still neat when you could walk around at will on deck. Then, we started back to London via another new tube line, making it back with pleanty of time to do laundry and blog. Alas, I may have to add pictures another night since it's now getting a bit late... (photos: the Observatory, me on the Prime Meridian (i'm not saluting or anything), and the Cutty Sark)