Well, after a very exciting beginning to the weekend, Saturday was a lot slower. It pretty much consisted of sleeping in, tidying up my room, and then dealing with the unimaginable horror of not having working internet. I spent the afternoon trying to make mine work, but to no avail, and as it turned out, the internet would soon fail for the entire building. Inconvenient.
Sunday held a little more activity, as the Jack the Ripper walking tour for the whole Guelph group, which had been postponed because of the tube strike was rescheduled for that evening. We were asked to meet at the Tower Hill station, and Brooke, Alison and I decided to head down early to take in some of the Thames River Festival. All along the waterfront were little market and food stands (and girls selling flower wreaths for your head), so we browsed a little and then settled in a park near City Hall to eat dinner and listen to a really fantastic Middle Eastern band. After chilling for a little while, and taking in the scenery of Tower Bridge right above us, we headed across it (!!) without any large boats coming through (we would have to wait for it to raise and lower). I took a whole bunch of photos like a tourist, and when we got to the other side, took even more of the Tower of London. Along the road there were also several little carts with guys selling the most fantastic smelling roasted, candied peanuts, which I am bent and determined to eat a lot of before I leave London.
We met the group, largely assembled by the time we got there, at Tower Hill, and waited with Karen and our guide for a few more people. A few of the girls on the trip took the opportunity to come over and find out all the juicy details of my personal life (“Who was that super-hot tall guy you were with?” Etc.) which was adorable and quite amusing, and then we set off. Our guide was absolutely fabulous. He took us to a slightly creepy back alley to begin with, stood on a box and then proceeded to set the stage of what the East End of London was like in the 1880s: full of doss houses, alcohol, and prostitutes. One of the first places we stopped was the so-called “Prostitute’s Church,” where women would frequently gather to meet clients, and where one of Jack the Ripper’s victims was last seen, talking to a man. We moved on to Mitre Square next, the actual site where one of the women was found, and then moved through the still-existing North Passage; the only way out of the square, and likely the route that Jack used to escape, thoroughly creeped out by the voice acting our guide was doing. We stopped a few other places, including the site of the doss houses where Mary Kelly, the last and most famous victim lived, and was killed, some preserved streets, and the Ten Bells Pub, which was the local for the neighbourhood at the time. The whole tour was really interesting and creepy, and after it was over, we all pretty much wanted to stay flocked around Karen. As a group we decided to head back down to the river to see the fireworks display scheduled for 9:45, so we all moved in a mob towards the Liverpool Street tube station. On the way, we were heckled by some drunk guys who thought that “Yanks and Canadians are all the same” and that I looked “angry,” after having been warned by our guide that people were a little “rough” in the area. Interesting indeed.
We got down to the river near Embankment station just in time, and saw what I can honestly say was the most amazing fireworks display I’ll probably ever see in my life. Rockets were being launched from about 9 barges in the middle of the Thames, and each volley of explosions was like the finale at Disneyworld. I took about 200 pictures, since it doesn’t get much better than spectacular fireworks with St. Paul’s, and double deckers crossing London Bridge in the background…
Thoroughly dazzled after all the pretty, the girls and I, along with Sharmylae, Paisley and Anna decided to head to a pub. We wandered around for a bit, found a place called The Sherlock Holmes, decided it was perfect, and went it. The pub itself was lovely, although we missed the kitchen service, except for the group of obnoxious and extremely LOUD Americans. We think Michigan. Everyone was irritated, and it’s really no wonder that tourists get reputations. After that pub, we went to find food in Trafalgar Square, had delicious nachos, and then unfortunately discovered that even though it wasn’t quite cut off time, the Tube was closed. So, we were adventuresome, and got on a bus to Warren Street station (thank goodness for my Oyster card), and walked home from there!
I’m trying to play catch up now, so expect mondo-posts in the very near future. I’m currently sitting on a train on my way to see Tom, so we’ll see what I get done in the next little bit!
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