Stop Touching the Statues!!

The British Museum is like the holy grail for students of history. (It's also really pretty.) So many amazing things are located in this museum that it could take one at least an entire day to go through and really soak up all of the items. Hell, you could spend more than an entire day there and not see everything that exists. The history that exists in this museum is paralleled in only a few other museums in the world and it is worth a trip if your in town.

Hey, you can totally see my reflection!

Alas, everyone and their mother agrees with my assessment that this museum is the place to be. What they don't understand and what drives me insane, is that if the sign says, "Don't touch the Object," you don't touch the object? What a novel idea! It was absolutely infuriating. If I saw one more tourist touching the hieroglyphics on a sarcophagus, I may have caused a scene. Are these people insane? Don't they understand that by rubbing their greasy, grimy, germ-ridden hands on the hieroglyphics, they run the risk of eventually erasing the images. Angry hands!

Well now that I've ranted to you about annoying tourists, I shall continue with my tales of 13 Friday, 2012. Our class met at the British Library at 10 a.m. for our tour of the British Museum Archives. We got an awesome tour, about which I blogged here, and then were on our own for the rest of the day. Thus, we went out on an adventure to see the British Museum in two hours or less. First Stop: Egypt! They have the Rosetta Stone, which obviously attracts everyone. But they have a lot of other cool things that were brought to the museum from excavations. The museum also has a great collection of Greek and Roman items, most specifically the famous Elgin Marbles, brought "legally" to England by Lord Elgin in the mid-19th century. Greece is still clamoring to get them back, but when one looks at the mess that Greece is in currently, one wonders if that is the correct decision.

The Olympic Medals!

After going through the ancient Mediterranean region, we quickly went through the more modern times, seeing artifacts from the Middle Ages. Cotswold and I took a picture together by a statue from Easter Island, and then we saw a special exhibit about horses! It was all awesome and we did it in under two hours. Inconceivable! (We do plan on returning during our last week here to see a special Shakespeare exhibit. So look for more on the BM in a week or so).

After the Museum, we walked through Soho to find the holy grail of mashed potato places: Mother Mash. They have the most magnificent mashed potatoes, and some seriously awesome meat pies, and truly glorious gravy. I'm hungry just thinking about it now. I'm eating well, my friends. Probably too well. Then we found Ben's Cookies, an amazing homemade cookie place tucked away on Oxford Street. So, so, good. Much to the happiness of my stomach, we stopped our food tour of London after that and headed back to the dorms to rest and blog. One more day left before my trip to Scotland!

- Kate

Just Another Lazy Sunday

Sundays are lazy days and we had a very, very lazy Sunday. Us three northerners awoke to an overcast sky and much rain. Alas, we had no food and needed to venture into the wild to find nourishment to slake our thirst. At 10:15, we left the dorms and got absolutely soaked as we walked ten minutes to a very lovely French cafe. Here, we ordered coffee (real coffee! not Americanos like I've been drinking) and tea. We then got some savory scrambled eggs, mine with a side of prosciutto, and some phenomenal homemade bread.

We still didn't want to go outside so we ordered more drinks....and more food! I got a Espresso Chocolate Tart, Melissa a Slice of Chocolate Tart, and Jenny a Scone with Jam and Butter. Everything was wonderful and we enjoyed a lovely brunch whilst staying out of the rain. When we finally left, around 12:45, the rain had miraculously stopped! Thus we meandered across the Thames and boarded a subway train that would take us to the Natural History Museum.

We spent a good two hours going through this museum. It is a really awesome museum, but some aspects were poorly laid out (like the dinosaur area, which really annoyed me because I love me some dinosaurs). Still, we saw lots of gems, and learned about the earth and planets, and about mammals and all sorts of natural history things.

He's kinda crazy, but I love him

Yep, he was drunk.

And then we entered the gift shop...and I saw them...all of the dinosaur stuffed animals. I could not contain myself and I had to have them all, but one struck my eye and he needed to come home with me. Cotswold the Triceratops stole my hearts, and will continue to steal the hearts of many around the globe. We took him home in a bag but he needed to be photographed on the underground. And then he surprisingly asked for alcohol on the way home, so we had to purchase some. It seems Cotswold is a bit of a lush. He drank an 750 ml bottle of beer tonight all my himself. It's crazy. He's passed out now but I'm sure he will rally again tomorrow for another glorious day in London.

Well, I'm finally caught up on my blogs and I will be adding my British Library one tomorrow evening. I really hope everyone is enjoying my blogs. (I also hope you know I'm kidding about Cotswold since I'm actually the one who drank the bottle of beer. And it was a glorious beer. I'm so happy I found porters in London). There is another busy week ahead but I'm excited!

Cheers,
Kate