Sparkles & Sarcasm: "Cool story mate. Tell it again."

Another happy happy day!

We had to be at the Globe Theatre at 9 this morning for our tour... at 10:00. I was not a happy camper. However, I took a little power nap on the ground (I've gotten really good at sleeping in odd places: the tube, buses, kitchens) and I was ready to go by the time the tour started. Our tour guide Callum (who I secretly called Gollum in my head because come one... Callum?) told us all about the Globe. Of course the original burnt down after only 14 years of business because someone thought it would be a genius idea to set a cannon off during a production in a theatre with a thatched roof. A second Globe was built shortly after but it too was destroyed because religious fanatics condemned the theatre and had all the venues in London torn down. Then an American built another just down the road from the original spot. It's a lot of fun to go to and experience a Shakespeare play in the kind of theatre it was meant for but it's a shame we don't have the original anymore.

The Globe! It probably didn't look like that on the outside but apparently the architects elected to design the theatre according to what we think it looked like rather than sticking to accuracy. Stupid move in my opinion. I'd rather be in as close a replica as possible.

Before our show started, we had some time to kill and elected to head over to Borough Market which is one of my very favorite places in London. It has some of the most delicious goodies and meals I've ever had. Today I had a sirloin steak sandwich on a ciabatta roll with spicy tomato sauce and topped the meal off with a giant chocolate chip cookie. It was the first sunny day we've seen in a long time so we basked in the sun and ate delicious food.

Yum cookie

And THEN we headed back to Camden Market. I bought a jacket and even haggled with the guy. I'm pro.

My sick nasty new jacket

We saw The Tempest. And as we are college students, we got the cheapest seats which meant we had to stand for the entire 3 hour production. So I suppose we didn't have seats at all. We purchased standing space. You aren't allowed to sit down. It was a very long show. But also a lot of fun to watch. For any Merlin fans, Colin Morgan played Ariel so that was fun to see!

My panorama of the inside of the Globe

The Globe and me :)

Getting all of the sitting in that we could before the show started

Colin Morgan's loveliness

Then we took a breather and chilled at the flat for a minute because we were pretty beat. And then to finish the day off, I went to the Tower on my own because I've heard it is beautiful at night. We are going there tomorrow morning and I just wanted to check it out on my own first. It was simply stunning. The history that took place there is so rich and so very alive to me that I just wanted to sit and stare at it all night. Builders discovered sections of the very first outer wall when they were building the tube station that were from the 13th century! I was staring at a structure that had been around since the 13th century! The Tower is my most favorite place in London and I'm so glad I went and had some quiet alone time tonight before the massive touristy chaos of the morning.