..busy, busy, busy..

So the past two days have been lots of walking, wandering, getting lost, and coming across cool stuff. I don't have enough time to mentally recall everything I've seen.. (right now I have a limit on the internet). BUT - some of the highlights:

Yesterday I spent many hours at the National Gallery and National Portrait Gallery. They were pretty cool - might even rival the Louvre (but not quite). The National Gallery just has a little bit of everything - some Raphael, some Rembrandt, some Poussin (actually, quite a bit of Poussin), some Rocaille, some Monet, etc etc. The Portrait Gallery was actually pretty interesting because as you move through the chronology, you learn a little about of British history. I got confused after a while though, because the rooms aren't really marked to tell you which direction to go. So I jumped from Elizabeth to George to James to someone else, without really understanding the heritage. Also, I saw Shakespeare, Jane Austen (such a tiny picture!), and the Brontes. Speaking of Shakespeare, I saw Romeo & Juliet at the Globe Theater that night! It was pretty awesome to see what the theater used to look like. It's an interesting set-up, with the audience almost completely surrounding the stage. It was also interesting to see a play of his, which I have studied so much, in live performance! While I was looking for all the sub-plot themes that I've caught from re-reading the play, I realized that most of the audience probably didn't even notice them. It's weird to think that even though Shakespeare wrote about such complicated and complex themes, they probably weren't even realized by most of his audience.

Today I went to the British Museum, and was startled when I turned around and found myself looking at Cleopatra's mummy. Yes, it was CLEOPATRA'S MUMMY. I didn't even know her mummy had been taken from its tomb!!!!! It was weird. She wasn't very tall, or at least her mummy isn't. The rest of the British Museum was cool too, although I've seen many similar things at the Louvre (Greek pots, Roman sculptures, the works). Afterwards, I walked around the neighborhood trying to find Virginia Woolf's house, but instead I just got lost and walked in circles. It was fun.

Later, I met a friend for tea at The Orangery. This tea place is in a part of Kensington Palace, in the Kensington Gardens. It was very charming - typical English tea, I would imagine. It was kind of like Lovejoy's in SF, but without the salad greens on the plates. The scones were awesome though, and the tea was ok.

Been a busy day, my feet kind of hurt but I'm not letting them stop to rest. I'm starting to realize that 5 days in this city is not nearly enough time to see everything.. this is making me a little worried. But's it's ok - I'm just going to get up extra early tomorrow so that I can squeeze in as much as possible!! Agenda for tomorrow: Tower of London, Tate Modern Museum, St. Paul's, Westminster, and maybe the Museum of London or Imperial War Museum. Although I am starting to feel like I'm overdosing on museums..

Been taking lots of pictures, and promise to upload them as soon as I'm home!! That's all for now.