Originally, Adanna had planned to take us around the city today, showing us all the tourist spots. But she was lucky enough to get called in to an interview and thus was otherwise occupied. Abbie and I didn’t mind though. We planned to take the tube down to London Bridge, then walk up the embankment past The Globe, the National Theatre, and eventually meet up with the London Eye and Houses of Parliament. Sounds like a simple enough plan, right?
Currently, a lot of the Tube is undergoing construction and most of that construction takes place on the weekends. The line that would have taken us directly there was only going halfway that day, something we didn’t realize until we were forced to get off. Okay, we said, we’ll take another line up to King’s Cross, get on a different line, and go straight down. Apparently, the line we picked didn’t stop at King’s Cross that particular day. So we had to switch lines at the next station, go back to King’s Cross, and eventually got down to London Bridge.
By that time we had spent easily an hour and a half underground and when we emerged, I was disoriented and didn’t have any of it on my map. Needless to say, I was a little cranky that morning. But we found London Bridge (which is really not that impressive…the original one is in Arizona) and eventually found a Café Nero where we got breakfast (because food makes everything better). After breakfast, we finally found the route we were supposed to take and came upon The Globe. And guess who was standing outside?
The Italians.
That’s right. Remember the Italian kids who swarmed Corrib Village and blocked every entrance and stairway? I recognized their blue backpacks immediately and turned to Abbie in horror, which she quickly returned. Luckily, it seemed they had just gotten done with whatever they were doing and moved on, leaving the space free and clear of people who would back up into you whilst you’re holding a cup of hot coffee.
Since there was a matinee on that day, I wasn’t sure if we were going to be able to take the tour of the actual Globe and thought we would only be able to go see foundations of the nearby Rose Theatre. Turned out…we could do both. So we did. The Rose tour was leaving just as we bought tickets, so we tailed along at the end of the group as our guide took us a few blocks from the Globe to a very modern looking office building. In the 1980s, when the office was being built, the builders uncovered the foundations of the Rose—what currently is the only surviving example of an Elizabethan theatre in the world.
There was fierce controversy over the fate of the remains. The builders wanted to build, and theatre, art, and history lovers (and celebrities) were willing to throw themselves into a bulldozer to prevent the remains from being destroyed. Eventually, a compromise was made: The builders would be allowed to put an additional three stories on top of the building if they build a sort of “basement” to house the Rose. And that’s exactly what it was. Our tour guide unlocked a door on street level and led us through a small room to a platform in a completely pitch dark room. Once there, he flipped on some red rope light that outline the shape of the foundations (the foundations are actually kept underwater to prevent remaining clay pipes from crumbling).
Though we couldn’t see much, it was still pretty amazing to be standing next to a sight where people would come to see plays over 400 years ago. Next, he led us a few more blocks down and showed us where the original location of The Globe was (it’s their best calculation based on the position of the Rose). The building currently over the site is itself a historical landmark and so there can be no excavation. But, he said, he doubted there would be anything there after all this time.
After the brief tour, Abbie and I killed the hour and a half till our tour of the theatre by looking at the exhibition that featured details on the history of the original Globe, authentic costume making processes, musical instruments, voice recordings of notable actors delivering Shakespeare, and the reconstruction of the new Globe (yay Sam Wanamaker!) By that time, our tour was ready to depart.
As we entered the Globe, taking seats on the second tier, we were able to watch the stage crew changing over the set from “Helen” a new play, to Romeo and Juliet. The theatre was beautiful and even though it is a reproduction, the details are just as ornate and perfect as they would have been in the original and it was amazing to think of what it would have been like to have heard Hamlet’s speech or seen the balcony scene or watch Lady Macbeth rub the blood off her hands for the very first time.
After the tour, we headed to the shop where we went a little bit all-out on souvenirs. Don’t worry, I refrained from buying the disturbingly cute “plague rat”…though I did buy a friend for Wagner! After shopping, we got an ice cream cone and ate it on Millennium Bridge (as seen on Harry Potter 6) before walking the short distance to the National Theatre and taking pictures with the Laurence Olivier statue outside. By that time, we were pretty much wiped, so we headed back to Adanna’s house.
After eating dinner, we decided to be proper young adults and go out on the town for some drinks. We took a bus over to Camden town to a bark along a canal where we only stayed for one or two drinks (they were out of pretty much everything on tap) and then moved to another bar with a nice beer garden. It was there where we saw the largest spider I’ve ever seen in my life. It was easily bigger than my palm and crawled out almost right next to me, causing me to shriek and hastily move my chair away (Abbie was freaking out too, don’t let her fool you). Some nice gents from the table over trapped it in a beer glass and tossed it outside the garden, saving the day.
By that time we were all feeling the drink a little so on the way home we stopped for Chinese food (and discovered their interestingly shaped eggrolls) and hungrily ate it before going to bed, feeling quite content with ourselves.
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