London!

This weekend I went to go visit my friend Cory, who is currently studying at UCL. I took the train both ways, which was an exciting adventure in itself because---I've never really ridden a train before. So to go from Edinburgh's Waverley Station to King's Cross in London was amazing, even though it took five hours one way and 7.5 to come back.

Friday night I got in late, and we dropped off my stuff in Cory's room, then went walking down to the Thames to see the Parliament Building and Big Ben lit up. Also because we were there around midnight, we heard Big Ben ring! Which is does every 15 minutes, but all the same.

London was a little overwhelming. It just seemed so huge and so incredibly full of people... and yet, didn't have the skyscrapers I feel comfortable with in NYC or Chicago. It was British, but in a different way than Edinburgh, and there it's not just a question of scale but also of England and Scotland, north and south.

Saturday we got up early to head over to the National Gallery, where we looked at mostly 19th century paintings... Impressionism and Post-Impressionism, my favorite genres. Pizarro, Cezanne, Monet, Renoir, Seurat, Van Gogh, Morisot, Manet, Sisley, etc, etc. Popped into the National Portrait Gallery, where the portraits of past monarchs lost my interest but the "modern" portraits were extremely interesting to look at.

St. Paul's Cathedral was a shortish walk away, but expected 8.50 quid for student admission, which we were unwilling to pay no matter how cool the Whispering Wall might be. So then it was to the British Museum, housing a lot of historical exhibits. I forgot until I was inside that it had the Elgin Marbles and lots of Egyptian artefacts. They are particularly defensive about the Elgin Marbles, and I took a pamphlet explaining why the Museum hasn't returned the marbles to Greece to read on the train.

The Elgin Marbles actually took up an entire, gigantic hall... they were placed in the approximate location as at the Parthenon. Another hall held the mural-like friezes of an Assyrian palace, depicting a royal lion hunt and military conquests. The Egyptian exhibit was extensive and I wish my camera hadn't run out of batteries at that point... I do have mixed feelings towards Britain keeping all the artefacts, but I suppose that can't be helped.

In the evening we went to a choral concert that Cory was in, then wandered around London finding grocery stores still open.Only one seemed to be, and luckily it had the pumpkins we sought for jack-o-lanterns.

Now it's back to the reality of classes and cold weather (London is several degrees warmer than the rest of Britain, and especially the windiness of Edinburgh). I'm working on getting pictures up, so be patient!