My inner thoughts are beginning to have a British accent...time to come back to the States.
lll
I first went to Portobello Road Market. I've had this vision of this magical place my whole life from the film "Bedknobs and Broomsticks"...in which the family flies their magical bed to this hidden gypsy market down a dark alley to retrieve a spell book. I believe the lyric is "Anything and everything a chap can unload..." and I bought everything they were unloading.
If you ever go, you must try this incredible little cafe, hidden just off the road...it's called "Charlie's" (link below). I had chicken celery soup, and coffee...just in case you were wondering. Oh yes, and words with the very cute waiter. This damn accent makes everyone appealing.
After staying WAY too long, I limped to the edge of the Thames River, to The Tower of London. I spent um, ABSOLUTELY ALL DAY there. I have attempted to get in several times before, first discovering it when I toured the UK years ago. I never had the time to get in, but today I was determined to brave the crowds.After standing in line for an hour, getting trampled on by an overly excited/spoiled Italian redheaded kid, I was granted access to this 1,000 year old fortress. I proceeded to get ABSOLUTELY LOST in the history of it. Everyone around me faded away, I literally do not remember any people at all...and when it was over, I had to take a while and get back into myself.
I was face to face with the Crown Jewels Collection...the jewels of the royal family dating back to the 1400s. I climbed winding staircases, so small you had to trudgesingle file...to enter rooms at the top where imprisoned traitors and (innocents alike) carved their names and stories into the stone walls as they awaited their executions. I sat alone in the bedchamber, in which the rulers as far back as the thirteenth century slept. I stood on the spot where Anne Boleyn was beheaded (and many others)...and stared across the grass to the room where she spent both her wedding coronation night, AND the night before her execution only THREE years later. There is a great deal you realize about life when you're staring up at an ancient building like that...
By now it was dark and freezing, and I walked across The Tower Bridge as I headed to The Old Vic for the comedy "Noises Off". I stepped into a very fancy place across the street, and had the most delicious tortellini with prawns. I enjoyed a heaping basket of bread and olives, to find out later they charged an extra two pounds for it...so I emptied what was left into my pockets and hurried out. (You think I'd really do that?). I must say, I've had my fill of taking myself out on dates for QUITE a while.
The show was hilarious, and I was incredibly overcome with emotion at being where my favourite actors carved their careers. Photos line the lobby of Richard Burton, Lawrence Olivier, Vivien Leigh and Claire Bloom on the VERY stage I was seeing. If that won't bring you to your knees out of gratitude for your chosen work, nothing will.
I ended the night by telling an Englishman at the bar that Brits SUCK at coffee...and he told me "We do tea, YOU do coffee...and you can't do tea for SHIT". I gave him that, and came home to make a cup of tea.
*MARKET...http://www.portobellomarket.org/
*TOWER...http://www.hrp.org.uk/TowerOfLondon
*THEATRE...http://www.oldvictheatre.com/
AND WRITTEN ON THE TOWER OF LONDON'S EXECUTION SLAB MEMORIAL...
"Gentle visitor pause awhile, where you stand death cut away the light of many days. Here jeweled names were broken from the vivid thread of life. May they rest in peace while we walk the generations around their strife and courage under these restless skies."
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