suffered through the plane ride and the movie (charlie's angels II). the jet lag was awesome. had to room with my brother, but the view from the window wasnt half bad. british tv rocked. i love their talk shows. and the fact that they dont have any censorship rules. we wandered the city the first night. picadilly circus, leicaster square, trefalger square. and those double decker red busses really are everywhere. as well as the phone booths.

pub food is better than i expected, and i definitly miss the sausage and mash. britain really knows how to make a sandwich.

the thing is that you'd never think that there would be a language barrior in an english speaking country. but when they call ketchup "red sauce", and the pharmacy is the chemistry, the elevators called lifts, they dont say "watch your head" they say "mind your head" you dont take out, you take away. there are no exits, only ways out. and they say cheers and bloke and mate ....

we went to the national gallery and i saw more van gough. its so much cooler to see it in real-life and not just in my van gough calendar. then we walked over the queen elizabeth II jubilee bridge to see the london eye, and street performers singing eric clapton, playing the steel drums and being human statues. we walked across another bridge and waited for big ben to ring. the clock is much more impressive in real life. with its guilded gold trimming and colorful crests. the same goes for the parlaiment building which is across the street from westminster abbey. we ate in another pub and headed back to the hotel to get changed. of course we were late for the play and they had to lead us in the back way. it was a comedy played by 2 actors who played 17 roles between them. it was set in ireland on the set of a movie and they were the extras, and the actors, and the set people, and the towns people ... it was really good stuff. then we ate indian food, and i can now fairly say that i dont like indian food.

the next day we saw the tower of london. and i loved it. the beefeaters, or yeomen were extremely interesting, and had a million stories to tell. thats what makes history worthwhile, when there's a good story to go with it. the view of the river and the tower bridge were amazing from the castle spires and i tried to imagine that a king once stood there thinking the very same thing. we walked (shivering) across the tower bridge to see the london dungeon. which was supposed to be an educational experience, but was instead a reason for someone to make manequins of people with their intestines spread across their laps and the ground. the whole thing was supposed to document the history of torture, war, murder, and execution in london, and they did a marvelous job of bringing it all back ... in the most gruesome way possible. yeah i didnt get much out of that one ...

we walked to tate modern, the most amazing museum ive ever seen.

as you walk in you are greeted by this enormous room with a huge glowing orange orb at the other end. the light is the same kind they use for street lights, the orange kind. and they were pumping steam into the room so it was just this orangy, glowing room where the lighting only made everyone look like a silhuette. the cieling was all mirror and you were instantly fixed on watching your upside-down self. people were laying at one end all sprawled out on their backs staring back at themselves in the cieling. we of course fell into the same trance and lay on our backs on the cool marble floor making snow angel movements and watching them in the cieling. i took alot of pictures.

we saw the globe theater. too bad it was closed.

the next day we went to buckingham the science museum, which was rather boring and then went to the lord mayor's parade. hundreds of british soldiers and royal guardsmen and the like marching the streets with old fashioned cars and floats and marching bands and music and candy. and the lord mayor coming by in this beautiful guilded gold carriage. then we went to st. pauls cathedral where princess diana was married.

the last day we watched the palace guards at buckingham line the streets for the rememberance day parade. and i watched the queen drive by in her car waving at her subjects. yes, i saw the queen.

i loved the cars, the fact that they drive on the other side of the road, the accents, the underground, the fact that there were fireworks every night i was there ... and that i saw more history than i could possibly imagine.

i wish i could tell people about it and have them understand.