The Globe has the best special effects!

So, as you might have noticed, I uploaded my first batch of pictures this morning. I should have more uploaded tomorrow. Saturday at the latest! This batch, I have tons of St. Paul's Cathedral, a few of the Globe, and a few from the British Museum.

After I got done uploading my photos, I went to St. Paul's. It didn't take me long to get there, and I ended up starting in the Crypt. The Crypt was far from creepy, unless you don't like being near dead bodies. Of course, these bodies are well covered in stone statues, tombs, and flooring. That was a bit weird for me. All across the Crypt floor were these large plates and stones with inscriptions. It took me a while to realize that these were essentially headstones, not plaques of honor.

Next, I went up to the ground level of the cathedral. It's truly gorgeous, although quite ostentatious. Most of the ceiling decoration is trimmed in gold leaf, and there are huge, marble statues dedicated to lots of important historical figures, especially the military. There was a really nice memorial in the East Chapel dedicated to the American soldiers who died in WWII, paid entirely by the British public.

It's neat being in a place that has so much history to it. We just have almost nothing like it in the U.S. While the current version of St. Paul's has only been around since the 1700's, the old St. Paul's was there centuries before that.

After that, I crossed the Millennium Bridge, opened in 2000 for a weekend, before it was closed down for 18 months due to it's being wobbly. That's really bad for a foot bridge as most cities don't like their pedestrians falling into rivers. Right across from the bridge is the Tate Modern. I was going to go, but I wanted to go to the Globe more.

I went ahead to the Globe and bought my ticket. I had a pretty good seat, despite its being a "restricted vision" seat. I just leaned over when they were standing behind the support pole. I rented a cushion so my bum wouldn't get too sore after 3 hours! It was a great performance for a play I had never seen or read before. I'm not sure I really get what the point was, but they were good. One of the best parts was actually helped along by some really well-timed weather. Just as King Leer leaves his life behind and goes to the wilderness in a storm, it starts to rain, hard. After the scene was over, the rain stopped. Perfect. Not so perfect for the groundlings, but perfect for the play.

Oh, and the guy who played Edgar was (skip this part Daddy), seriously hot. That was good considering he spent a good portion of the play partially naked. Well, he had shorts on. But they were shorts and he was wet. (Okay, you can read again, Daddy).

So, after the play was over, I decided to head over to the British Museum and check out some of the galleries since they were open late on Thursdays(and Fridays). I didn't see much, because I was pretty tired by this point and didn't want to trudge up the stairs, but I did see the sculpture portion of Egypt, Assyria, and Greece/Rome. Unfortunately, the Alexander the Great gallery was closed, so I'll have to check it out tomorrow!

It was still pretty early by the time I decided to leave, so I thought I'd head over to see if I could get a last minute seat before Avenue Q started. Alas, I got there in plenty of time(well, 15 minutes), but then I got a little turned around and ended up near Charring Cross instead of on St. Martin's Lane, which was right behind the Leicester Sq. Station exit. Argh! So, instead I bought a discount ticket for tonight's show, and now I know where the theatre is.

It being barely after 8, I didn't want to go back to the hostel quite yet. So, I saw Iron Man a day early! No plot points, but it was better than I was expecting. Still predictable, just better than it looked. Also, I like U.S. cinemas better. Well, at least better than this one. No stadium seating, seats were assigned(which was bizarre), and the seats were small.

So, then I braved my way back, considering the Victoria Line stopped running at 10, and it was 11. So, I took a roundabout route via the Tube to Victoria Station and walked from there. It's further than Pimlico, but still not bad.

So, now it's almost 1, and I'm going to bid everyone adieu until morning!

Good night.