London part 3

As I didn't post anything yesterday this one may be a little long. You may want to get a cup of tea and a biscuit (or in Dad's case some fruit cake).

I decided to have a quiet day on Tuesday. I had to check out of my room by 10am and check back into a different room after 2pm. Now, you may think that sounds a little silly..... and you'd be right. When I first booked my accommodation in London I wanted to stay in a female dorm but there wasn't any availability for the first 2 days of my stay, so instead of just staying in a mixed dorm for the week I'm in London I instead booked 2 nights in a mixed dorm and then the remaining 5 nights in a female dorm. At the time I didn't think much about it, but once I arrived I knew it was going to be irritating.

Firstly I had to repack my suitcase on Tuesday morning (it was hard enough to pack at home when I had plenty of space to spread everything out, compare that with a cramped dorm room), then store my luggage in the luggage storage room in the basement, check out of the hostel and lug my shoulder bag and laptop with me around London until I could check back in after 2pm.

I'd decided that seeing as how I had so much stuff to carry around with me I wasn't going to do too much sightseeing. So, I hopped onto the tube and headed to Leicester Square. It was completely different to the day before when it was full of screaming girls. Yesterday it was a calm, peaceful little park - lovely. I wanted to check out the prices for some plays and see what I could afford.

Next I hopped back onto the tube and headed to Victoria station. As Uncle John requested I went and had a look around. You can tell that it would have been an amazing station back in the day. Today it is an interesting mix of modern and new - some parts work well other parts not so well. I would be very intrigued to know how much it has changed since Uncle John was there last. I do have pictures and I will attempt to post them as soon as possible.

There was a Marks and Spencers in Victoria Station, so I grabbed myself some lunch and hopped back onto the tube and caught it back to Russell Square, which is right near where I'm staying. Russell Square is a lovely park, with a small cafe and a fountain. At lunch time it is nearly always packed with workers enjoying the sunshine. I decided to sit down, eat my lunch and just enjoy the sun and the breeze and watch the pigeons play in the fountain.

By the time I'd had my lunch it was nearly 2, so I decided to head back to the hostel and check back in. I'd had a worrying feeling about checking back into the hostel and I was right to worry. It turned out that my new room was on the top floor of a 5 story building. Of course we can't forget that my luggage was in the basement, so I had to go downstairs from the foyer and get my suitcase, then I had to carry it up 5 flights of stairs. Just to make things interesting, the last flight of stairs are a narrow, spiral staircase! I was slightly puffed by the time I got to the top!

One of my room mates was in the room. I can't remember her name, but she is very friendly and is from Prague. She headed out soon after arrived and I decided to attempt to repack my suitcase and throw away anything that was taking up excess spaces. Unfortunately there isn't much in my bags that I don't need. Another one of my room mates came in shortly after that. Her name is Katarina and she is from Germany, lives in France and is currently in London to do some exams for her Law degree. She's very nice and we spent quite a while chatting.

After all of that I grabbed a quick bite for dinner and then went to bed.

I should probably tell you a bit about my room. It's small! Really really small! It's about 6ft wide by about 15ft long (about the same size as the second room you stayed in Rome, Mum). That would normally be a comfortable single room, but in this case there are 2 sets of bunk beds in the room. Just to get my suitcase into the room I had to left it onto the first bed, shut the door behind me and then lift it off the bed and carry it over to mine. To say the least it's rather squishy. Luckily the view from the window is very good compensation. The room looks over a large private garden which is very pretty.

This morning I decided to hit the British Museum. It's actually across the road from the hostel, literally! I knew it was close by, but I didn't realise it was quite that close. I went the last time I was in London, but I just couldn't resist going again - even though it is an evil organisation. I spent a good 2 hours wandering around taking lots and lots of photos (I can hear Lachlan sighing right now).

Next I caught the tube to the British Library. You would never guess the amazing library existed behind such a bland exterior. Inside there is a fascinating display of lots of original books.

I was really excited by Jane Austen's original journal, a letter from her to her sister and her original writing desk. There was also original works of Shakespeare, very early music scores by Mozart and Bach and lots of different religious texts.

The library also contains the King's library which is in the centre of the building and from the outside all you can see is shelves and shelves of books from floor to ceiling and the public aren't allowed access to it. It looks like a huge column of books filling up the centre of the British Library.

After looking around for a while I headed into Leicester Square and bought myself a ticket to Monty Python's Spamalot which is showing at 8pm tonight at the Palace theatre. I'm very excited. The show looks like it should be a lot of fun. The ticket was half price, but it still cost me £30, but I don't care!

I had a quick lunch in a little Italian restaurant in Leicester Square and then walked to the National Gallery. I've been into the National Portrait Gallery before, but never into the National Gallery. I think I will have to go back again when I have the time to look around properly, because it is much too extensive collection to see in an hour.

After the National Gallery I headed back to the hostel. I'm going to have an early dinner and get ready to see Spamalot! Yay, very exciting.

I should probably hop off the computer as there is a very long line of people behind me waiting to us the computer.

I will post again after I've seen Spamalot and tell you all how it was.