mangosteen | Thursday and Friday

I finished off Thursday by heading off to a pub with a bunch of my host's friends, having some incredibly good, reasonably priced beer, and then heading off and going to sleep. It was my first true English pub experience. I liked it a lot. Well-lit, especially by US standards, not noisy at all, food that was reasonably priced (and was quite edible), and the aforementioned good beer. Not to mention the amicable company at the table. All told, I'll chalk it up as a win.

Friday, I headed back into London, armed with a map and a knowledge of what to do when you get to a turnstile in the Underground (present ticket on entry and exit). I emerged at the Tottenham Court Road stop, oriented myself, and worked my way towards the British Museum. A friend of mine once said:

The British Museum should have a large sign on the front saying: "It's a big world, but somebody has to loot it."

I wholeheartedly agree.

The British Museum contains all the large archaeological finds that the British Army, um, acquired in their travels. There are other things, such as massive amounts of miraculously restored greek pottery, and other smaller artifacts, but the really impressive stuff (to me), were the statues and other architectural artifacts that were there. The general was "something is much much bigger and older than you". Oh yeah, and you can take pictures of pretty much anything.

I could elaborate more, but this isn't a guidebook, so I won't. Suffice it to say that, if you can, bring a good SLR camera with a fish-eye lens. some of this stuff is really big, and there's no way you'll be able to get far enough back to take a convincing shot of it.

So, after that, I spent some time walking down Oxford St. (a *very* main street in London), as well as some time walking through the Soho section of London (which, in some odd way, feels like the Union Square section of Manhattan, but it might just be the big square park in the middle). I felt like I was in Manhattan again, except London is much much bigger. I observed, I listened, I tried to get some basic sense of the rhythm of the city, and I think I succeeded. I fully expect I'll be back again in a few months when I have more time.

But now, I have to get my day on the move, such that I can head down to London (from Cambridge, about a 45 minute train ride) and take in some theatre, which is significantly cheaper for the big shows than it is in the states.