I began my Sunday with a morning trip to Costa’s (the UK equivalent of
Starbucks, except less commercial) to work on several assignments for my English lit class – including one highly entertaining essay justifying my use of a completely random photo of one of my friends as the cover for Spencer’s The Fairy Queene – while
enjoying some smooth jazz. There’s a Costa’s just up the road from Scape, across the street from Mile End (the nearest tube station). It was a lot of fun getting to appreciate the local atmosphere and people-watch while being productive!
In the afternoon, I met up with a group of friends to go wander through Chinatown and Soho before an event in the evening… More on that later. Chinatown is very ornately decorated, and polycultural despite it’s specific faction-oriented name. It is because of this synthesis of cultures that we happened upon a delicious (and inexpensive) lasagna restaurant sandwiched between bubble tea shops and Asian markets. From Soho, we wandered south toward the Thames.
Yesterday marked the 350th anniversary of the end (roughly) of the Great Fire, and in celebration, a giant fire was started. Except, unlike the original, last night’s fire was on a barge in the middle of the Thames, and instead of acres of land or logs, a scale model of the affected portion of the city in 1666 was consumed by the flames. The riverfront was absolutely packed; an estimated 200,000 people lined the streets to watch, and from where we were standing, that
was nearly impossible to imagine two-thirds of the city awash in fire. The constant glow alone would be enough to set people on edge, not to mention the added stress of protecting one’s livelihood and family.
Today was slightly more structured, with the addition of a pseudo English lit class in the morning. Rather than hosting class in our usual classroom at Into London City University, we met in front of the Globe theatre to take a tour and learn about Shakespearean-era history. This was made a more interesting experience due to some delays on the tube, which rendered it necessary for my friend and me to sprint from Blackfriars Station, down through the financial district and across Millennium Bridge toward the Globe in order to make our appointed meeting time. Even though it was a bit stressful, it was a gorgeous route!
After touring the Globe, several of us headed over to a large covered
pavilion that houses the Borough Market to find lunch. It was packed with people, and the stalls ranged in types of wares from French cheeses to local flora. I tried an English vegetarian pot pie with spinach, paneer cheese, potato, mango and peas… Yum!
We then went back to Soho to do a bit of shopping (mostly of the window variety), stopping in any places that suited our fancy. We also happened upon the Bag O’ Nails club, which is where Paul McCartney first met Linda Eastman in 1967, in addition to where The Jimi Hendrix Experience first played in 1966! Very cool!
I’m currently hanging out in the common lounge area at Scape with a bunch of friends watching Casino Royale; hence… 007, out.
