Towers, bridges, and theaters.

Hello again!

If it is possible, I think I might be more tired today than I was yesterday. But today I am tired because I have done a lot instead of just sitting on a plane. It feels much better.

I spent a good part of the morning finding places to stay while I am in northern France. Necessary, but kinda tedious. Turns out most places are already in top tourist season and are all booked up. But I found places, even with my minimal french, and I think it will work out.

Then I took the tube () to the Tower of London. First off, the London skyline is very peculiar because you have things like St. Paul's Cathedral and the Tower of London which are just as tall as all the modern and funky office buildings. I walked around the Tower of London (didn't stand in line to see the Crown Jewels) then crossed the Thames on the Tower Bridge. Hmm...I wish I could upload pictures.

There is a beautiful path all along the south side of the river called the Queen's walk. I followed this and stopped at the rebuilt Globe Theater. I was just in time to see a matinee of Othello so I joined the groundlings. It was a blast. You are just feet from the actors and it is totally worth standing still for three hours to see. I had read Othello in high school, but I'm pretty sure my essays would have been a lot better if I had seen it like this before writing them. At the end all the actors came out and did a little dance to a medieval type band's music. Hilarious...

The Tate Modern museum was next on the river walk. Sometimes when faced with modern art I either feel like I'm not cool enough to get it or like the artists are just lazy and trying to get away with painting a red circle on the middle of a white canvas. This experience cured me of some of this. The split up the exhibits by style-ish. Each room has a description of the art and a background of the artists. It helped me understand about the post-world war anger many of the artist were dealing with. They were breaking away from the systems that were causing so much pain in the world. The names of galleries I visited were Material Gestures, Poetry and Dream, Idea and Object, and States of Flux. My favorite was the Material Gestures exhibit. They have Monet's Water Lillies on display. Tamie had once mentioned that for a class at a museum they were required to sit with a painting for a while. Stealing this idea, I sat with the water lillies and felt like I could reach my hand down into the water. The sense of depth is incredible. Hanging opposite this painting was a Jackson Pollack. Believe it or not, these two paintings actually have a lot in common. On a different note, I'm still not a big fan of the minimalist movement. Red circles on blank canvases will never be my thing :)

I continued down the Queens walk and saw a very short but beautiful sunset (it doesn't get dark here till almost 10:00!). I stopped to take a picture of Big Ben; the man I asked to take a picture of me in front of it must have been a professional photographer because he took several shots (with and without flash) before he was satisfied. I wish I had run into him several times today.

And then I returned to the hostel. It is weird traveling alone like this. It is nice to be able to decide exactly what I want to do and when I want to do it, but I must admit that it is lonely. Yes, even I the super-introverted get lonely. But there are tons of people to talk to at the hostel and I am going to try to meet up with a friend from last summer in Paris, so it's not too bad.

That's all for now!