Tower Hill

11 May 2011

It has been a pretty busy week, which is part of the reason why I haven't been constant with blogging, that and our internet is shoddy at best. It cannot handle 11 students on it all at the same time, which is what tends to happen. We return from our busy days and all want to just relax on our computers, but if we all do, it bogs down the network (or this is what the house manager Fabio stated during that first meeting). 

In a nutshell this week has been walking a ton, seeing areas of London I have never even imagined, and watching a lot of shows. Like a lot of shows. One every night since Wednesday.

Tower of London being protected by a metal bowman.

Wednesday started with a class meeting going over our itinerary for the day and discussing the Tower of London (which we would shortly be going off too) and the show that we would be seeing that evening, The Cherry Orchard by Chekhov. Going through the tube, we got on the Piccadilly line to Tower Hill (appropriately named) to come out of the station with the menacing old castle spanning across the horizon. This was not the first time I have seen the Tower of London, and I do hope it is not that last (there is always still so much to see there, I feel), but every time I love just looking up at it, realizing the immense history that oozes from it's very stones. Weddings, funerals, tortures, beheadings; the Norman Tower is a place of tragedy as well as awe. 

We saw the crown jewels first, which were ridiculously expensive and hugely sparkly (yes, sparkly); nearly every surface was covered with some sort of precious stone or metal. I also learned that the fur ring around many of the royal crowns and robes is actually hundreds of tails of the rodent ermine. It is a special breed that is albino and the only spot of color they have is the little black dot at the end of their tail. They are extremely rare and hard to come by, so having so many of those black dots implies wealth and prestige because one can afford the luxury.

A guard at his post where the Crown Jewels are kept.

Finishing up our tour of the crown jewels we were left to wander around the area (which is quite large, as you can imagine) and a gentleman came up to us in costume that proceed to act in character of a warden of the prison as if it were 1614 (I believe). It came to pass that one of our group was decidedly visiting Sir Walter Raleigh, a prisoner there, for the tobacco that he was growing in the gardens of the prison (because he paid enough money to be allowed to grow tobacco). He was fairly amazing, almost seamlessly playing the part of a 17th century prison warden and being a fabulous guide in letting us know where the exhibits were. He and Cat were improv'ing which brought up a pretty fantastic blunder in which he asked if we were from the "Colonies" and how difficult it must be for us to live with the "red-skin savages"; her response "we should have let them keep their country" which left our guide speechless. 

It was both humorous and eye opening. In the States we are all aware that what we did to the Native American's was terrible, but as American's we forget that while much of it was going on we were still under British rule; and [particularly] while that man was playing in character they would not have seen it as wrong. His pause reminded--me at least--that our views are not all encompassing. 

The Real Diagon Alley as seen by "muggles".

After a longer chat and some wandering around the Tower a bit more it was time to go on a walk about London. It lead us to a very special area that was used in the Harry Potter and the Philosopher (Sorcerers) Stone movie. Diagon Alley was quite beautiful, the shops nearly as fantastical as one would imagine in the books themselves. The most wonderful part was the contrast with the newer buildings so close by; they fit together quite nicely but with Diagon Alley looking so classical and renessicence in conjunction with the tall metalic city-scape it was quite an experience. 

After a very quick dinner, we were off to the National Theater to see The Cherry Orchard where we had to cross a rather large bridge at night. Now I don't have many height problems, but I do suffer from a combination of agoraphobia and anablephobia; it's not specifically either one of them, but I cannot handle the wide open sky and tall things shooting up into the air.  The combination of the two makes me nauseous, light headed and extremely anxious and the bridge we crossed had all the right components to give me a start. It was a very long walk over the bridge but I managed to make my way.

An example (this is not London) of what would set off my phobia.

The Cherry Orchard was not what I was expecting, but I did enjoy it. The premise was a family where the mother, who has been abroad, comes back home to Russia because the cherry orchard they own can no longer be kept up and they must either pay their debts or it will be auctioned off. It is set right before the Russian Revolution and there are many illusions to what will soon be happening because of it. 

Now, tonight I will not be going on about it, but the National Theater is becoming one of my personal favorite places because of the sightings that have so far happened there. Luckily we have another show that will be previewed there and in the next few days Cat and I are planning on on seeing a different one that opens up next week. But more on all that in my next post, for tonight I must sleep and hopefully catch up the rest of my days tomorrow!