Day 04: London

Quite a short day, this, but still as eventful as any other. Realised I missed out something amazingly hilarious in the previous post, but I'll tie it nicely into this one then.

The three of us woke up late today, so had to rush breakfast. When we met the other guys at breakfast, they had something amazingly hilarious (note the subtle allusion to the tie-in) to tell us. After we had gone to sleep the previous night, Mark (Leong), Jeremy and Yeow Boon had accompanied Phoebe and Meiyi to the kitchen downstairs to fix up some cup noodles or something, but only after ingeniously passing their one and only key to Warran, who slept immediately. This way, the three of them would have the chance to bang both their doors and our door an hour later, upon realisation of them having been locked out, although this probably awoke more hurt in their hands than the other 6 guys. So, HAHA, they slept on the couch at the stairwell.

Anyway boarded the bus which took us to Westminster Abbey for our guided tour. The tour guides there are superbly well-educated and extremely knowledgeable in almost all aspects of the place. Probably the best beer tour guides on our trip. It was without a doubt one of the grandest church I've ever seen (assuming that this post acts within the boundaries of the space-time continuum and that I have yet to lay eyes upon the Notre Dame). It was enormous and had a very grave atmosphere. Due to the many tombs and burials (sadly, this pun was intended) located all over the church- as the guide said, one cannot help but to step on someone's grave. Excepting, of course, the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier, bordered by poppies and wreaths. Sadly no photography was allowed within the church, but I know for a fact that Warran and Ms Chia (tsktsk) sneaked some pics. We spent at least two hours wandering around the church, seeing the tombs of Queens, Kings and various rich folk. There was of course the poet's corner, actor's corner, musician's corner and many other unnamed corners, and we even saw Raffles' memorial. Apparently he made some sort of discovery and significant contribution to the world that warranted his memorial in Westminster.


Took the tube to Charles Dickens useum, although we walked past the house, it looked like any other of the hundred houses on either side of it. It was the actual house Dickens resided in, and they preserved all sorts of his belongings. Clocks, pictures, cutlery, dining tables, even the kitchen sink (metaphor here, but could be true you know). Quite a narrow house, although it was three storeys high-almost all filled with his memorabilia- but I liked the garden best. Not meaning offense to his highly decorated interiors, but the small courtyard at the back, surrounded by three brick walls and the gift shop (every museum in London has this). The smell of flowers and the sounds of the fountains complemented the hot sun shining down. In fact the first time I remember it being hot in London. I remember Harris mentioning how this was how summer should be.


We had free time from then on, which was most of the afternoon and night, til 9pm. Had been arranging to meet with Jingyu (presently studying in London), but as we had already agreed to watch a musical, we already booked Chicago that afternoon, so could only meet him later in the evening. Ms Chia also tagged along, although some of the others preferred Les Miserables. The musical was fantastic, and one of the best musicals I had seen so far. That this was the only musical I have ever seen is a minor side issue. But seriously, the stars were quite talented- they could sing, dance and act, all at the same time. I can at most manage 0/3. Oh yeah, I forgot to mention the most important part of the play: we were late. It was, by right, according to Ms Chia, only 400m from where we were having lunch, but even with the map, we still managed to avoid the theatre entirely, circling around it and heading too far south before heading north, yet again passing it. All the passers-by we asked gave us totally different directions. Bloody British humour. They're probably still laughing now.

We then parted and took the tube to Oxford street to meet Jingyu, who brought us to a shopping mall and then a Chinese restaurant for dinner. Dinner was quite good though. Definitely better than anything we would have scrounged up on our own. We had lobster noodles, for example. It did cost ALOT though. About ₤160 (S$500). That's average-ly priced in London though. Took quite long to finish dinner, and only ended back in the hostel at 11pm. Whoops. At least we weren't the last group to return. Mr Teo, for example. Last night in London, so Warran's urge to go pubbing was quite high this time. Anyway we played cards in the recreation room til about 3am before retiring to our rooms. Tip: Don't play bluff with Jeremy.


OKOK sorry about the total lack of photos. Here're some random ones then (just got my cam back from Warran, so some shots might be from previous days):