Day 3 - More Art, More Walking, More Eating
Well, I’ve gotten some messages from some peeps so I’m glad to see people are still following along with me. I’m more than happy to share my experiences, thoughts and pics. By the way, you can view ALL of my photos here.
So I didn’t have a lot planned today, my main goal was to check out St. Paul’s Cathedral, check out Tate Modern, and eat at Borough Market. I find it funny that Cathedral’s charge money to view their building. Museums with millions and millions of dollars in priceless art are totally free, boring cathedrals will charge you 10-15 pounds to take a look inside. Bah. I refuse! So I took some free pics outside. Nice building. I bet it was dreary and boring inside though.
I crossed the Millennium Bridge to get to Tate Modern - a Museum showcasing modern-ish art. I think the building is kinda boring. It’s basically a giant brick rectangle with a suggestively phallic silo in the middle. I guess that’s art?!? You decide:
Although the art pieces weren’t as impressive as the ones in the National Portrait Gallery (and I suppose it isn’t a fair comparison), I did feel that it was neat to see pieces by Warhol, Pollack and Picasso. It’s actually kinda weird to think they were alive less than 50 years ago. There were lots of other weird ‘art’ pieces too. I use the word art loosely since some of it was video of pervy dudes wearing masks and dancing around in the nude. I know a bunch of people that could probably produce some of the same shit, but artsier. So not all of it was paintings. There were some remarkable installation pieces that took up an entire room. I wish I could have taken some pictures. I did see some people sneaking pictures, but I felt like respecting the rules. It was less than three floors of art, but some how I managed to spend over 2 hours perusing the collections.
Next up was Borough Market. I had a few people recommend this place to me so it must have been worth it. I held off eating until I could check it out. It was a lot like Granville Island but smaller and grungy. I pigged out and had to hold back on things like pies and cakes. I had a wild boar sausage sandwich, followed by a hamburger, some fresh squeezed juices, and a fantastic creme caramel.
At this point, it was 2pm and I was beat already. My feet, legs and back were killing me so I went back to the hotel for some R&R. I totally needed it and I think it was a good call. So after some computer time, I headed back out to Picadilly Circus. I wanted to pick up a ticket for the London Eye and I know they had some cheaper tickets for sale out there. I picked up a fast trak pass for 17 pounds, which is normally 27 on site. I’m going to check that out tomorrow. It was around this time when I realized I didn’t have anything planned for the evening. My choices were: hang out at a bar/restaurant all night, and/or watch a movie, and/or go back to the hotel to chill out. Since I pussied out the night before, I decided to fuck all those choices and went for a musical. I hit up Leicester Sq for some half-price/cheap tickets. Les Miserables didn’t look very promising when I checked a few cheap ticket booths, so I settled on Avenue Q. If you’ve never heard of it, it’s like an adult version of Sesame Street and The Muppets. I snagged a ticket and I still had 2.5 hours to kill til show time, so I went over to Covent Garden and Market.
The place was pretty cool and as soon as you turned the corner, you could feel the energy emanating from the people and venue. Don’t get me wrong, it was a total tourist trap, but it had everything people would want: chain restaurants, quaint little restaurants and eateries, merchandise stands, retail shops (even a David and Goliath), lots of street performers, etc… I did my requisite walk-thru and watched some of the street performers. I find that I don’t have a lot of patience for a lot of the gigs because the performers waste a lot of time talking shit and doing nothing. I cannot give them credit for that. I’d much rather stand around listening to someone sing if they’ve got a decent voice. I gave a singer some of my change because I felt all the other performers had wasted my time.
I’m always drawn towards McDonald’s at other countries. I’m always curious to see how different their menus are. So for a snack I tried something called the Little Chorizo Melt, which was a paper thin chorizo patty with pepperoni, cheese and lettuce. I wanna say it sucked but maybe my expectations were just too high for it. I also got a fancy Chocolate Cornetto McFlurry, but they gave me Chocolate Mint instead. Despite the botched up order, it wasn’t too bad, although the Flake Cone I had yesterday was wayyy better. I vow to get another one before I leave here.
So bare with me, I’m almost done. Avenue Q was great. It was totally lighthearted and funny. What could be better than Muppets swearing, and singing a song called Internet Is For Porn and having sex on stage? That gives you a good idea of what kinda show it was. If you ever find yourself with nothing to do and it’s playing in the neighborhood, give it a go.
To cap off the night, I stumbled into neighboring Chinatown. Chinatown here is awesome. It’s nothing but restaurants and none of the stink and shit like it is in Vancouver. I settled on a bowl of beef brisket and wonton noodle soup. It was awesome. Almost as good as the one from #9 and infinitely better than the garbage that I find in DC.
Oy! That was way more than I expected to type. I hope it was as fun for you as it was for me. Tomorrow, new adventures to come! ~ AC
