Monday, 16.03.2009
One of my roommates forgot to turn her watch (between Estonia and Britain there is time difference 2 h) and woke us all up at 6 am. It was a bit dark and foggy outside, so I told her, it's still dark. She just thought it was going to be a rainy day. She was already brushing her teeth, when someone else said, that the clock is not 8, it's 6. So we realised, that she had forgotten to turn her watch back.
When the clock was really 8 am, we got up. It wasn't foggy or rainy, the Sun was shining brightly. After eating we went to a Tube station, just over the street from our hostel. We bought tickets and wanted to go down. Before you can get down you have to go through a ticket barrier, just like in movies. But in Queensway station there are no escalators, only 2 lifts and stairs, and the lifts were always full of people going to work, so we decided to use the stairs. I'm telling you, this subway is very deep. I just went down and down and down. I'd never drove in a subway train so was pretty exited.
I thought that buses in the capital of Estonia have a tight schedule, they come about every 15 min. But these trains came in every 2 minutes. Before the train a gust of wind came, then after that you could hear a sound of the approaching train, then you saw two lights and then the train came and boy, these trains drive fast. It is just a white and red and blue blur, before the train stops and you can really see it.
Nice woman voice from the speakers said “Mind the gap”. And I was like what! I saw key chains yesterday, that said that and thought why would anybody want to buy those. Mind the gap means you have to be careful getting in and out of the train, because there is a small gap between the train and the platform. So we got in.
It was just like in movies. People sat there, reading newspapers, listening their iPods, heading to work. While in the train I realised, subway is one of the coolest transport forms, it was fast and foolproof. I really started loving the metro system, or as in London it is called the Tube.
We drove only five stops on Central line and went off at Oxford Circus. Without coming up to the ground nor using tickets we went on to a next line, Bakerloo line. We got out in Baker Street station. To get out of the station you also need a ticket. So if you somehow have managed to get in there without a ticket you still need it to get out. If you have a ticket you can get in and ride under London without coming up all day long.
What is different about London underground, besides that it is the oldest in the world, is that it doesn't smell bad. Subways usually do but in London every day some amount of cheap perfume is being “released”. To be honest, in some parts there you could really smell the flowers. At least I think I did.
We got out of the station and everybody who know something about subway stations in London, know that Baker Street is just next to Madame Tussaud's wax museum. And that is where we went. First we waited for about 20min in the line. Then I had to open my bag and show, that I have nothing dangerous in it. Then I got in.
First I had to walk up the stairs, excitement rising. Our guide told us that just when you got in, there is a wax figure of a tourist taking a picture and most of people just walk by it, thinking it is real tourist. Well... I have to admit, I didn't see the figure. So yeah, I must of thought it was a real man.
First hall was full of film stars, there were Johnny Depp, Keira Knightley, Susan Sarandon, Tom Cruise, Nicole Kidman, Will Smith, Orlando Bloom, George Clooney, Mel Gibson, Brad Pitt, Angelina Jolie, Daniel Radcliffe etc. but also Kate Moss, Victoria and David Beckham, Madonna and Justin Timberlake. I must admit that I had passed Jennifer Lopez without realising that, they're just so realistic, the figures.
Next room was dedicated to High School Musical and you could take a picture there with Zac Efron. There was a camera there and two dudes who were taking pictures called me there to take one. I had to explain them for more than a minute, that I'm not a fan, I just wanted a photo of the figure for my sister. For explanation- it is possible there to let photographers take a picture, later pay some money and get a photograph in a special map.
Moving on. I don't remember the right sequence of the rooms but there was a room with English writers and poets (like Wilde and Shakespeare) and part were all the royal people are. Starting with queen Elizabeth I and queen Victoria and ending with Elizabeth II and Charles and two princes. The most realistic figure was the queen Elizabeth II. There were also the Spiderman, the Hulk, Jim Carrey, Britney Spears, Freddie Mercury, Bob Marley, The Beatles, Albert Einstein and a corner of politicians starting with Margaret Thatcher and ending with Hitler. Over there was the most popular statue of them all with a huge line for taking pictures- Barack Obama. I tried to take a picture of him without any tourists hanging there but which turned out to be a mission impossible.
The most memorable place was the Room of Horrors. There was a line there also. One for those, who go there and another one for children under 12, pregnant women and other people who can't dare to go in. For all the people in the line there were TV's on the wall, that showed, what was going on in there- people running and screaming. And under them was a writing that said something like: "Are you sure you want to go in?" Well I wanted to go in. Unluckily I had lost all my mates and had to go in with a bunch of strangers, about 7-10 people. The guy who let people in was quite scary, like a lunatic. And then he let us in.
There were small dark corridors some of them had smoke in there. There were bags with corpses hanging down the ceiling and under the floor some places people jumped out. To make this clear, in the Room of Horrors there are real live actors with scary make-up and they get paid for frightening people.
I saw these bars and a woman behind them and I remember thinking “Oh thank God, she's behind the bars” and then I saw that the bars were opened and I have to go through there to go on. Then in one of the corridors there were just me, some Asian woman with her daughter and another British woman. And I was the last of them when I suddenly noticed that some dude turned around the corner behind me and started walking just behind me. I started to walk faster without daring to watch behind me, just peeking. He was still there. I started to go even faster, but so did he. Until that I was just exited but at this point I really got scared and started running. Corridor ended and the dude went back. I'm telling you, it was really scary.
Then there was this little room and you could see that the next one was full of smoke. Two women and the girl were already there and didn't dare to go on, so when I arrived they told me to go first. Usually I don't to things like this first, but my adrenaline was pumped up because of the last guy and I did go first. I knew that in the minute I'm in the room,some ghost will jump out from some place and so it was. A didn't even look just moved on really fast. Suddenly the tunnel was over and I breathed calmly. It got over pretty fast because your always running and you're in this weird state, that you don't know what comes next but you know it is frightening and not going to be pleasant.
Then there was a James Bond room. I'm not a fan of the films so I just took a picture of the blond Bond and moved on. One of the characters looked so realistic that I didn't dare to look it very closely. Later my cousin told that he went to look at it and well...it was an alive actor.
Then I got into a room that first looked like a library, then I saw little black taxis (miniature copies of the real ones, that drive in London). They were constantly moving and took people in. I got in, there were 4 or 5 buttons that flashed and you could choose a language from there. I chose English and then speakers in my car started talking about London's history when same time the taxi drove trough different statues and buildings of London. Basically it was a ride through London's history starting with pre-historic time, through the Great Fire in 1666 to nowadays. Unfortunately taking pictures was forbidden there.
At the end of the exhibition was a gift-shop. I was even more tempted there than I was in National Gallery. So I bought another mug (£7), a very colourful and big. Later I thought why didn't I bought any posters, but that is just another reason why to go back there.
Once out I noticed a big car which had writings on it: “Crime response” and “Emergency Rapid Response” and thought something bad had happened, like a robbery or something, but then I saw that the two men in uniforms who drove the car came out of the cafe with a bunch of donuts. What a cliche.
So we went back to the subway, drove to Oxford Circus with Bakerloo line, then switched to Central line and got off in Holborn station, walked a little and then there was British Museum. In front of it masses of tourists. I was pretty exited about it, I mean, British Museum is like THE museum. Besides just few days ago I watched “Mummy II” and some of the action takes place there, so I was anxious to see the mummies.
I went in and it was really beautiful, there was like a dome, but it was different beautiful than the one in National Gallery. Everything was white and first it didn't feel like a museum, more like some important ministry or something. But it was so big. We only got 20 minutes there so I looked the map and saw Egyptian department. So I went there. But no mummies. So I went on, then Greek and Mesopotamian departments came, with huge monuments and pieces from the Greek Parthenon were there (now UK and Greece fight over those). But no mummies.
The clock started running out and I went out of the building. Later I heard that the mummies were on the second floor, which map I didn't even look. One of the girls said, that they weren't that interesting and I saw her photos taken, if she did those of the most interesting things there, then I can agree, wasn't that interesting. But surely, I'll go back there one day and check out those uninteresting mummies myself.
So we went back to the Tube station- this time to Tottenham Court Road. Took the Northern line and got off in Waterloo station, which is also an international rail terminal. After a 5min walk we saw it- British Airways London Eye- a huge observation wheel, third biggest in the world. With a clear weather (like it was that day) the sight was told to be 40 km. After a 20min waiting (which is not long at all when it comes to a place like this) we could get in. Before that we had to open our bags again and they prod a bomb detector in them. When they found that I don't own anything dangerous, I could go in. My cousin had a rolled poster sticking out of his bag and they thought it was a sword, so for him it didn't go so smoothly.
To get into the capsule you have to step in it while it's moving. It moves about 20cm per second (or something like that). Anyway there were 32 capsules, in every one of them 25 people can go, in the middle it, there is a bench for sitting (like for me, whose legs were extremely tired) and it makes the whole round in about 30 min. After the round is done and the people are out, securities go into the capsule and do a little round with the metal detectors. It was fun to go higher and higher and the view was spectacular, but to be honest, I waited something more thrilling out of it. I mean, it was cool and I recommend everybody to go there, definitely, but it wasn't as interesting as I had hoped it would be. But I don't regret a bit going there. Actually, I would be crying my eyes out, if I hadn't.
With the Tube again we went to Oxford Circus and went up to Regent Street, where we visited the world's biggest toy store Hamley's. There were, I think 5 floors, maybe more, full of toys. One floor was only for girls and then there was a food department as well. So I bought London chocolate and candies to take home with me. I wanted to buy the famous Hamley's teddy bear, but I didn't want a small one and the big one wouldn't have fitted in my suitcase. Another thing to do- buy a bear.
If I had been like 7 yo it would have been a heaven to me, there were movie themed toys starting with Harry Potter and ending with Batman, there was a whole section of soft toys and teddy bears. And whats more, there were selected games there, which you could play there, in the store. Next to the main entrance there were two men, blowing bubbles and entertaining the guests.
After that we went back to our hostel. We were supposed to go to Harrods that night but we didn't. Instead, we went to Queensway tube station and got off in St. Paul's station to see the St. Paul's Cathedral.
All the royal persons are buried in the Westminster Abbey and usually their burial ceremony takes place there. Also royal weddings and all the coronations. With few exceptions. W. Churchill's funeral took place in St. Paul's and since the abbey was too small for all the guests in Charles's and Diana's wedding, this also took place in St. Paul's. Since it was dark, I got some lovely snapshots of the city in lights. From there we walked to Millennium Bridge and over that and saw the Tate Modern gallery.
We walked on the south banks of the river Thames, saw the Shakespeare's Globe theatre (which one of the boys noticed, our tour guide had forgotten it). When Shakespeare lived, then the audience could say whatever they wanted about the play during the play. In the Globe you can still do it, say your opinion during the play. Not easy for the actors. On the Thames there was HMS Belfast (HMS stands for Her Majesty's Ship), important ship from the World War II. Now there's a war museum in there. When walking on the banks, it is hard to miss it, it just so big, as though it shouldn't be there.
We also passed London Dungeon, which is a perfect place for you, if you love scary things. There are funny and scary attractions about the plague (in 1665), Jack the Ripper aso. But basically it's about medieval tortures.
We passed the London Bridge (where there was bridge already when the Romans invaded Britain) and there was the City. When you look at it, it seems as the newest part of the city, and the houses there are made of glass and they are new. But the truth is, this is considered as the oldest part of London, there were houses there in Roman times. They just haven't preserved. The whole place was under a bomb attack in World War II too. Now there are London's government buildings and it's a business and financial centre. And just next to them was the famous Tower Bridge.
As we sat there, a bunch of Asian guys walked by. And my mouth just fell open. They were so stylish and good-looking. To be honest, most of men are there. I don't want to say bad things about Estonian men, but the truth is, they never look so good. I mean, even on the first day there I saw, that people are a lot more stylish there, like they knew better how to dress. There's a lot of uniqueness there, therefore in Estonia everybody look the same. And when your different, you're considered weird.
I took a bunch of pictures of the bridge and then walked over it to see the Tower. I'd really wanted to go in there and I thought we will do that some day, but we didn't. So we walked on to the next tube station and went back to our hostel.
It was that day, when we sat in the Tube and about 40 yo guy came in, stood just next to my cousin. He had blond hair, but was bold on the top, wore glasses and wore like a diplomat's suitcase. He had earphones on and whatever song he was listening- it appeared to be a rock song- he kind a moved with the music and sang too. Like a real rocker. If I could I would show you, how he did it. It was extremely funny. I mean everybody there had a good laugh. But it wasn't like a “Oh God, he's a freak”, more like a “What a funny dude.” Made us all happy.
Just two more days for being in London I was already starting to wish I lived there. Everything felt so nice and perfect to me. I mean even the funny people.
xoxo K.
