GA Roommate was desperate for sushi, which she can never find, and coaxed me out of eating fast food (which I never usually crave lol!). And I was at her mercy since I had left my home-cooked lunch at home..yes :( Fortunately the sushi bar had veg varieties too. It was genuinely Japanese and fresh; however I realize I have been permanently spoiled by my Taoist-Italian uncle's homemade sushi lol! which he taught me how to make although I don't have the fancy bamboo matting to roll it in or razor-sharp ceramic knife to cut it with. It's really tough to roll it exactly round and cut it perfectly; my roommates tell me you have to go to sushi school for years to learn how properly. Anyway, we took our lunch to Covent Garden to eat, where there were lots of crowds, a market and a Punch and Judy show advertised. There was a street performer doing an acting and juggling routine too. All of this as you may expect kept quotes running through my head like "When a man is tired of London, he is tired of life" (Johnson) garbled with "By seeing London, I have seen as much of life as the world can show." (Boswell)
After lunch we parted, with many admonitions to me (who was having crowd/culture shock) to call if I got lost, and I set off in search of the gelato shop we had seen on our way in, for dessert, before starting on the museums. You would think I could have found my way directly back to ice cream, but, true to form, I promptly became lost. And, again in character, instantly found myself outside a Hotel Chocolat shop. For those of you who read Chocolate Mission, this needs no introduction -- for the rest, I suggest you look it up :) It was fascinating, with slabs bigger than my head, as well as in all other shapes and sizes. They were even giving out free samples of milk and white chocolate in Halloween shapes, which was delicious, and I bought a bar of dark as well.
I am not sure if I just notice these shops or if they thrust themselves upon me, but the next shop I ran into (I was apparently on "The Strand") was Cybercandy. This is hilarious because I had VOWED that I would not visit Cybercandy since it is a) marvelous with every type of international import you could fancy b) expensive and c) I am trying to stick to a reasonable chocolate ration/budget. Which I had already blown by sharing 98% of my discount multipack at the pumpkin party. I decided it was fate, and entered.
It was completely fascinating, as well as overwhelming with so many choices. They did not have any weird Kit Kat flavors in stock, which is what I really wanted, so I made my escape with only 2 giant chocolate bars (Cadbury's Desserts from Australia, Creme Brulee and Pannacotta on a 2-for-1 deal).
I finally located the gelato shop, which had so many homemade flavors like pomegranate, mango, kiwi, peach, vanilla, walnut, hazelnut, chocolate gianduja, watermelon, apple crumble, straciatella, forest berry, etc. plus the raspberry one that would have been my first choice except it was sugarless, and I don't want to know what they used instead. So after trying a few, I settled on lemon, which was wonderful.
Just outside the cafe in Leicester ("Lester") Square, there was also a mini amusement park, along with that scary "Storm" ride that non-dg and I went on last week, which looked even worse since it was set up in the middle of trees this time. The funny thing was I actually felt the stirrings of the desire to go on it again, which I had thought had died forever, but I decided instead to ride the carousel for the first time in years :D which I'd missed out on last time, deciding that I might as well get it out of my system before turning back into serious museum girl/graduate student. OK who am I kidding :D It was super fun! There were mostly little kids on it but two senior citizen ladies right in front of me were having the best time of all those spinning around. Not counting me.
After this, I headed for the National Gallery, which was just around the corner, but which naturally I had to ask directions to. In the gift shop I asked in, I also purchased a "bobby's (policeman's) hat," for my upcoming starring role (not really, I asked for a bit part! I haven't acted since I was a kid) as 'officer' in our amateur play. Hopefully, this will cure me of my urge to pinch one, a la P. G. Wodehouse, which I have been (wo)manfully struggling against ever since I got here (not that there has ever been an opportunity).
Then I went to see all the museums I could fit in before closing time. They are all free! (except in case of some of the 'special exhibitions'). First I went to the "National Gallery," which is amazing. The National Gallery is next to Trafalgar Square, which has granite fountains and huge iron lions and a ship in a bottle and a statue of Lord Nelson (?) and crowds. There was another street performer/acrobat outside dancing with a small crystal globe which he rolled all around his torso; he was really good. The National Gallery as far as I understand from my guide book, is a museum dedicated to paintings by the best artists. It is very well organized -- each room is a different color and they are all numbered inside so it's very easy to find your way around to your favorite artists. Also the 4 or so main sections are all around a central open hall, which makes for easy access as well as some interesting time travel, like you can walk from Leonardo DaVinci's Virgin of the Rocks straight across in a few steps to Van Gogh's Sunflowers! Among the paintings I saw, one that really stood out to me was Monet's snow scene at Argentueil http://nationalgallery.org.uk/paintings/explore-the-paintings/latest-arrivals/*/chooseTop/2008/ because I had only seen his paintings in color before. I also really liked Picasso's girl (child?) with dove. And Raphael's angelically serene faces...basically, just about everything there!
Next stop by 'tube' was St. Paul's Cathedral, which I've wanted to see for years. On the way there I stumbled upon the "Texas Embassy" which is actually a restaurant! And which I also had not planned to visit, but my colleagues back in Texas and I had joked about it so much that I just had to go in. The waiter greeted me with "Hi, Darlin!" and I didn't have the heart to tell them that I'd never been called that in TX, just 'hon' :D I told them I was Texan and just wanted to look around, which they readily agreed to. Their decor included TX license plates all over, horseshoe prints up the stairs, tile mosaics, cowboy hats and Texas flags flying outside, and Mexican/honky tonk music. It was a lot of fun.
The Underground was also full of musicians: violinist, guitar, and singer. I had to stop and listen to the violinist. Unfortunately, when I reached there at 4, St. Paul's was just closing, like the last time I went 5 years ago! Apparently they open again in the evening for 'Evensong' which anyone can enter for. So next time, I plan to time my visit for that. Then I walked across the "Millennium Bridge" over the Thames, to the "Tate Modern" museum, which like it sounds has modern art. Last time I walked across it, the museum was about to close, but this time the hours are longer and I made it. Last time like this there was also a beggar on the bridge, I think begging is forbidden but they hang out there anyway. I remember because it was the first English-speaking beggar I had ever given to and he responded, "Bless you, love." This one had a sign saying "homeless and hungry". World hunger is my bugbear (www.1billionhungry.org ) but I never know whether to believe these signs or if giving directly is a good way to address the problem. I do know what it feels like not to have a home of your own to go back to, though, and sometimes I get angry to see someone who obviously needs help and isn't getting it...so although I felt funny, the only food I had on me was chocolate, so I gave this one the rest of my creme brulee bar, and he was not insulted because he ate it.
Outside the Tate was another outdoor musician, this time with a synthesizer. It didn't start raining till the evening, and wasn't too cold, so they were all out, it was great. The Tate had some very interesting exhibitions including a very strange one (I have to be honest) with thousands of porcelain sunflower seeds. I am still trying to open my mind and overcome my natural aversion to modern art, which takes time :) They also had some neat etchings by Picasso in his final years.
After that I took the underground again, across to the V&A (Victoria and Albert) museum, which is mainly for design and sculpture. It is huge so I will have to go back, just like the other ones. The sculpture hall(s) were my favorite; also they had a "South India" exhibition on, not as southern as my part but still very fascinating with fabrics, jewelry, and exotic items like "Tipoo's Tiger" which is a life-sized wooden mechanized doll of a tiger eating a man! They also have the famous "Raphael cartoons" which are wall hanging replicas of those (paintings?) in the Sistine Chapel, and had an incredible 'fashion' exhibition on all sorts of costumes. And last but not least, they had a tiny "Chocolate Art" display of associated paintings, advertising, toys, china, etc. that I of course enjoyed too. And then it was closing time so they shooed us all out :)
After the museums I made my first M & S visit of this trip (Marks and Spencer, the food/department store) and bought English muffins and milk for supper, delicious. It was next to Harrods, which was all lit up, so I went in there to explore. It is worth the trip since it is like the Disneyland of shopping, although disturbingly opulent. The decor is amazing, with themes like Egypt, or retro/art deco, sugarplum, etc. It is almost as fascinating to see the shoppers inside all dressed up.
Finally I checked my guide book since I had a few more hours until meeting my friends, and went to the "Barbican Centre" it recommended, which hosts art shows & musical performances, usually by the London Symphony. They also had a modern art display, which was trash, literally. It was pretty cool to see what they came up with by recycling things, it reminded me of First Friday art (in San Antonio, TX), which is even better and should defitinely do an international tour! The symphony wasn't on this evening, but I arrived just in time for a performance of "These New Puritans", an indie art rock band that was playing accompanied by a chamber orchestra and children's choir! How unusual is that?!
The opening act was really not to my taste :D I don't know who they were but they relied on their smoke machine and monotone a little too heavily for me...not to mention shining strobe lights into the audience's eyes (which packed the hall). Fortunately, I had sunglasses (which I never used because it started to rain as soon as I remembered them). lol, I'm serious, I put them on!! But in keeping with my firm resolve not to knock it till you've tried it, I sat through the entire 45 mins :) and then I actually liked the main band. I could not understand any of their lyrics, lol, since they were drowned out, but their sound quality was absolutely superb. I thought they fused the classical and contemporary pretty spectacularly. They had the stage arranged with Japanese drums & hand clapping in the back center, the children in black T-shirts with UV designs on the back left, watermelon smashing (seriously) back right, drum set center, the woodwinds front left, piano front right, and electric guitar/singer (and smoke machine) in the center! I really liked the woodwinds, drums, and choir. The merger just bordered on awful but somehow it all worked. It reminded me of the Chinese Opera/contemporary fusion by "Silk Road" (interestingly enough, the Barbican is located on Silk Street), the band which won world music album of the year, although this was much more atonal. Next time, though, I'm bringing earplugs since apparently the Barbican sound editors subscribe to the same ideal as Indian ones back home, 'louder = more'!
On the way out I saw my second homeless man of the day, in the upstairs remote Barbican lounge (yes...I became lost inside the Barbican..sigh). I know he was because just he looked exactly like the men I saw in the libraries in Vancouver and Austin, with a beard, a backpack, fatigues, and a newspaper, and was asleep. So that is what became of the rest of my 2nd Cadbury chocolate bar. Finally I navigated the subway at night, which was an adventure -- it still runs till pretty late, and it and the streets are lit up and full of people, but half of the lines were closed for repairs, engineering work, etc. After going round in circles in Victoria rail station, I finally made it to the coach station and met up with the others, who told me the exciting story of "Love Never Dies" in full. We came back on the midnight coach. Which did not turn into a pumpkin! And so after going round, came home full circle. And I can tell you, life, and the world, is beautiful.
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