Writing about Day 7 on the 8th day. I was so tired last night, I got into bed before 10 and slept till 8 this morning. Today’s agenda: Victoria and Albert and Natural History Museums.
Got a good amount of shut eye the night before, from about midnight to 8 AM. I wasn’t sure if there was cafeteria breakfast and I didn’t feel like having it, so I just stayed in my room, drank instant coffee, ate part of an Odawalla Bar and played with my pictures, some of which are up on Flickr. I’ll also put links by day in the earlier posts, and perhaps some actual pictures.
I left around 10. Getting to the subway to take me to London Bridge was absolute madness. There were zillions of people coming and going from the airport, on top of just the regular tourists and Londoners. But the actual ride was super short, about 10 minutes.
From the London Bridge station, I wandered over to Borough Market, as recommended by my brother. It was a lot of fun. There was such gorgeous food:
Plus the best grilled cheese sandwich I’ve ever had.
It was greasy and crispy and melty with pieces of sweet red onion. Yum!
Next was the Tate Modern, which I loved. There seem to be just two free floors, but those floors go on forever. I’d think I was done, then discover two more ginourmous wings. Of course I got the audio, though I remember little, except:
• I liked the Richard Long and Robert Smithson pictures. Robert Smithson did the Spiral Jetty, which I was obssessed with when it was at the Whitney.
• Meshes in the Afternoon was a totally bizarre surrealist film, but it actually kind of made sense. I could totally see how David Lynch has been inspired by it.
• Francis Bacon died in 1992. I thought he was much older and that he was a contemporary of Max Ernst. They are actually 20 years apart. I really like Francis Bacon’s stuff though a lot of it is disturbing. Maybe because I love horror movies, and see how a lot of them are influenced by his work, like when a face changes to something horrific for a split second.
• Then there was the whole series of works on the manga character Ann Lee from Ghost in the Shell. I’ve never heard of either, but it was still fascinating – the idea of person as a commodity, of having no identity. Of course we couldn’t take picures but I managed to sneak one in:
After the Tate Modern, I needed a break so I headed over to the Cut, which Anthony said was a cool area. It looked like a fun place to hang out, but aside from one bookstore, I just sort of walked around, then turned around and headed right back.
I wanted to walk back over to where Dali Universe was but got completely lost. Somehow I ventured off the Thames Path, and ended up in a quiet (too quiet) residential area. I saw signs for the Tower Bridge and followed those, but the signs led right onto the Tower Bridge and soon I found myself crossing back over. Dammit!
I was probably kinda museumed out anyway and just took my time walking back to my area. I passed the Tower of London, but didn’t feel like going in, and found St. Paul’s Cathedral.
Very pretty and peaceful, at least not at the main entrance. Too bad it was too late to go inside.
Then I just meandered my way back. I was wearing my new Keds, which sort of hurt my toes by the end of the day.
For dinner I tried the Japanese place next to the first Korean place I went to. While the food was pretty good, it was overpriced. And there was a 10 pound minimum, boo! I got tamagoyaki, fried noodles with veggies and meat, and a soda for 16 pounds, almost $30! Way too much. I guess it’s not that easy to find cheap eats around here.