Shakespeare and a Rooster

After Cardiff there was about a week and a half where I didn't go on any big adventures, but I did lots of fun smaller things around the city, since none of these things really warrant their own post I'm going to combine them all into this one. Enjoy!

March 24 - Shakespeare's Globe Theater and Blackfriars Bridge

As part of our British Life and Culture Classes about a hundred students at FIE went on an outing to Shakespeare's Globe Theater for a tour and a lecture on how the plays were preformed then, how that differs from today, and the construction of the Globe Theater that is standing today. The theater itself is really cool but as someone who isn't a huge fan of Shakespeare I found the lecture on the differences on how things are preformed to be a bit long. I did get some very cool pictures however, and the talk about the building actual construction was very interesting. For example, as you look at the pictures below you'll notice that most of the walls in the theater, with the exception of those closest to the stage, are white, this is not historically accurate, in Shakespeare's time all the walls would have been painted, and that was the intent when they built this theater, but they ran out of money during the building project. The plan to one day finish painting everything but in the list of repairs and improvements that need to be made it always seems to come last since it's not necessary to order for the building to function.  

Outside

The benches 

There was a performance of the Merchant of Venice later that
afternoon, hence the sign. 

This is above the stage, it's viewable form the standing room
in front of the stage

This is the seating area as viewed from the standing room

After the outing finished, it took about two and a half hours, I headed over to the near by Blackfriars Bridge. One of the many things I enjoyed about London was that I got to see so many places that I've read about in books, and this was one of them. In the series The Infernal Devices two of the characters are cursed so that they can only meet once a year for close to two centuries, and the meeting place they choose was Blackfriars Bridge, so naturally I had to go visit it. 

 

March 30 - Columbia Road Flower Market

My professor for British Life and Culture was by far the best one I had while studying abroad, apart from being a fantastic teacher she was always happy to point us in the direction of something interesting to do in London and one of the things she suggested to me was a visit to the Columbia Road Flower Market in the East End. She said it was a nice place to go on your own and wander around for a while so I took her advice and got up early one Sunday to go check it out. The market turned out to be incredibly cool. Columbia road is probably about a quarter of a mile long and every possible space if filled with every imaginable type of flower. One thing that I found really interesting/ironic was the fact that most of the flower vendors where these really tough looking middle aged guys yelling out in thick East Ender accents "This ones a fiver, this ones a tenner" over and over surround by some of the most beautiful flowers I'd ever seen. Additionally this market might just be the best smelling place on Earth with literally millions of flowers packed into such a small area. 

  

March 30 - Le Mis

This next day I was able to achieve one of the goals I had set for my trip, seeing a live performance of Le Mis on the West End, specifically in the Queens Theater where it holds the record for the longest running stage performance and after seeing it I understand why. One of the other girls from my flat, Eva, ended up having tickets for the same day, just different seats so we made our way to the theater together and stopped for a Cinabon on the way home so all in all we had a amazing night. The show was amazing and the way they set up the stage was so clever. The entire stage was a giant wheel and what they would do was only light the front half so that while the back half was in darkness the crew could assemble the set for the next scene, then when it was time for the seen change the floor would just rotate. This way the crew had up to 10 min to assemble a scene and since they had a lot more time than usual the sets were much more complex and detailed than most shows I've seen. The actors where amazing, and the singers were fantastic, and all in all the show was just amazing! 

April 1 - Trafalgar Square and Harrods Department Store

You know the saying "The third times the charm"? In the case of this particular adventure across London that happened to be true. Sarah and I had planed to go to Trafalgar Square and Harrods two times previously, the first time we woke up to pouring rain, and the second time I woke up sick, so we had to scratch the plans, but on April 1 things finally fell into place. 

Harrods is one of the oldest department stores in the world and I have to assume one of the most opulent. Picture Macy's on steroids, lots and lots of steroids. The place is five stories tall and a full city block long, and sells everything you can imagine, at prices you don't want to imagine. While we were walking around I stopped to check the price of an infants shirt out of curiosity, it was the equivalent of one hundred American dollars. For an infants shirt, that will be covered in drool and God only knows what else the two times the baby wears it before they grow out of it! Needless to say I was a bit horrified/disgusted.

That being said their toy department is a magical place that I would have killed to live in as a child. They have one of the costumes from the West End production of the Lion King on display, live sized models of Captain America and the Hulk, and the first Iron Man sit worn by Robert Downey Jr. in the first Iron Man movie. 

Extremely fancy elevator 

From Harrods we made our way to the significantly less opulent Trafalgar Square. Trafalgar Square is one of the most iconic landmarks in London and even if you don't know the name of it I'm sure you've seen a picture of it somewhere or seen it in a movie or TV show, and if not here's several pictures of it so you'll recognize it next time you see it. 

Part of the square is a rotating art instillation and the day we
visited the sculpture on display, for reasons unknown to me
was what Sarah has named "The Big Blue Cock". Why someone
decided to display a giant blue rooster in one of the most
popular tourist destinations in the city is beyond me.

On top of some very cool, and very strange, statues there were several very talented chalk artists in the square the day we visited. And, possibly the least expected of all the things we saw, a man with several hawks teaching people about birds of prey.

This guy was a very nice old hippie who we chatted with for
several minuted. He works on the same piece for several days
at a time coming back and adding more each day.

Several people worked together on this one drawing all the flags of the world and people put coins on the flag of their home country. The details and accuracy were very impressive. 

Sarah was the first one to spot the birds of prey on top of the street lamps, and for a while we were very confused seeing as hawks aren't exactly common in the middle of large cities, but a few minutes later we found the guy teaching people about them, along with two more of the birds who were staying closer to the source of food.