saturday wanderings in london...

Well it is about 1am and I am just back from a busy afternoon in London! My housemate Brooke and I decided to head into the city for a couple hours since we spend all of our time here wandering the same set of roads! We arrived in London around 2pm and made our way to our first stop which was the British Museum. It had been many years since I had been there, and it is still quite an impressive institution. The most famous item in the museum is the Rosetta Stone (see photo), which was the first record and translation of three languages in one place. There are hieroglyphics at the top, another Egyptian language in the middle, and Greek at the bottom. It is so impressive to see things like this from BC years and to be reminded that there were lots of people doing amazing things that long ago.

Another really impressive item in the museum was a mostly reconstructed temple from somewhere in Turkey. It was called the Nereid Monument and dated from around 380BC. It was really impressive in it's location in the museum, had great lighting, and therefore tons of tourists getting their photos taken in front of it! It took a few moments to get a people-free photo, but I did manage.

After tackling the British Museum, we wandered down to Trafalgar Square and also spent some time walking around the National Gallery. Quite a large selection of paintings from every time frame, though by then our feet were getting a bit tired! We decided that it was time to sit down somewhere for a break, and somehow I convinced Brooke that we should head to a pub to watch the England v. Austria world cup qualifying match... :) We found a place with seating and smoke free, and were both happy. England won the match 1-0, though there were some tense moments during the game, particularly when David Beckham (the England captain) was thrown out of the game near the beginning of the second half. Still, a good way to pass some time!

After the game we wandered a bit more and ate a good English dinner at a restaurant called Porters near Covent Garden. With happy full bellies, we made our way to Marble Arch where we caught the bus back to Oxford. Tomorrow it's time to focus some more time on readings for the first lectures this week... Reality sets in on Monday!