My War and Peace

The long version of Titus Andronicus, the Tower of London and the excursion to Stonehenge and Bath.

This is Stonehenge with Bryn standing in front of it

(Written Saturday the 23rd)

What a past few days... Since Wednesday evening, it's been essentially non-stop action. I've seen Titus Andronicus at the Globe, spent a day at the Tower of London and been to Stonehenge and Bath. Oh, and seen the funniest movie of the year.

There's only one way I'm ever going to finish my tale, and that's to start it. So here goes...

Titus Andronicus -

It's not every day you're shoved out of the way by a Roman soldier. It's also a rare occurance to be spat on during the ending soliloquy, have one of your friends get blood from the actors on his shirt and have at least five people faint before the intermission. Needless to say, all these things and more happened on a Wednesday night trip to Shakespeare's Globe.

The show itself was spectacular, the cast convincing and the experience exhausting - right down to the last gory detail. I imagine a fairly decent number of you aren't familiar with the storyline (just like I was), so I won't spoil the plot for you. I will, however, share the one morsel of information I was given prior to the start of the show - it's bloody. And the play certainly lived up to that promise.

We had yard tickets, meaning we stood for the whole three-plus hours. A decent number of my group pushed forward and got right up next to the stage. I hung back towards the middle of the crowd with a couple friends from the other group next to some platform tower thing. Right about 7:30, these guys dressed a Roman soldiers appeared and started banging it with sticks, and one guy climbed up on to the platform. Then they started pushing it through the crowd. I had to quiickly grab my backpack and coat (which I had set between my feet) and jump out of the way. That sort of thing happened several times throughout the night, including the final soliloquy, which actually took place about five feet in front of me (and about five feet over my head). The only thing between me and the platform with the actors was a nasty-looking Roman soldier with a sword that nearly hit me a couple times as he was looking around.

Earlier I mentioned that some of my friends had pushed forwards right to the edge of the stage. Well, afterwards one of them was pointing out a spot of blood on his shirt that had appeared sometime during the performance. Oh, and there was a guy (actor) who played a drunk and a couple times as he was gesturing he "accidentally" spilled/tossed his wine (maybe water - I didn't get hit) into the audience. The actors really used the whol building, too. Not just the stage and the yard, but a couple times there were some actors up in the balconies as well.

The only problem was that we had to stand the whole time. We showed up at around 7:15, the play started at 7:30 and didn't finish until 10:45 or so. I think I survived a lot better than most people, but I definitely needed a rest by the end. A few people left early 'cause they couldn't stand it any more (haha).

Afterwards, a bunch of people decided to go to a nearby pub for a bit to hang out in London while we were actually there. It got to be fairly late, and the Tube stops running around 12:30 so I decided to take off to make sure I'd get all my connections back home. When I switched onto the Metropolitan line at Finchley Road (the last switch before home) I had to jump on right as the doors were closing, so I didn't have time to see which branch I'd gotten on (the Metropolitan line branches at Harrow-on-the-Hill and I need to be on the Uxbridge line, not Watford or the other one). I checked as we pulled into the next station at Wembley Park and sure enough, I was on the wrong one. So I got off and waited for the next Uxbridge train. As it pulled up about 10 minutes later, I thought, "Wouldn't it be funny if everyone else was on this train?" Well, guess what... Yup, they were... It was worth a good laugh when they saw me getting on.

The Tower of London -

The next morning, my Art & Architecture class met at the Tower Hill tube station for our field trip to the Tower of London. The school was paying for us to go, so that was pretty awesome. Otherwise it would have cost £10.50 or so when I went on my own later. Our teacher gave us a little background on the Tower and pointed out a few architectural details and then let us loose to go through the White Tower and to answer the questions she had given us. I didn't particularly pay close attention, but we weren't exactly given all day, either.

Since the last time I was there, they added a room or two about the Gunpowder Plot - I'm assuming either in response to the movie V for Vendetta or the 400th anniversary of it (this year or last - I don't remember which). I thought it was pretty cool, especially because I really liked V for Vendetta and that whole premise.

About 20 minutes before class ended we met back up again to talk about a few things, and the teacher pointed us in a couple other directions. At noon (when class ended), most people had to leave because they had class at one. I was done for the day, so I stuck around to look at the rest of the place. I think the first place I went was to see the Crown Jewels, especially since I hadn't gotten to see them before. They were pretty spectacular, but unfortunately, I don't have any pictures to show you because photography isn't allowed inside... It's really amazing how lavishly decorated they all are.

As I was exiting that building, I realized I didn't have my sunglasses with me any more. I was kinda bummed about that because they'd lasted since July, and that has to be a record for me, especially considering how much I wore them... On the flip side, they'd only cost me a dollar, and as the weather starts to turn bad here, I don't have to worry about them any more. Who am I trying to kid here? - I'm still pretty bummed about losing them...

I did end up going back through the White Tower again, this time looking for the architectural stuff I was supposed to be looking for the previous time. I got a decent amount of stuff written for the first few rooms, but after that, all the rooms started to have the same features - the same type of arches, etc. It was kinda cool to be able to see all the stuff from a different angle though - instead of looking at what's in the room, looking at the room itself and all that.

Looked at all the rest, too: the Bloody Tower, the Medieval Palace, the ramparts, the Fusiliers' Museum, etc. It was about 3pm when I left, and because I was right there, I thought I should walk across Tower Bridge. Somehow, even though I know it's not, London Bridge Is Falling Down got stuck in my head as I was going across and remained there for the rest of the day.

Stonehenge and Bath -

I had to get up at 6:30 Friday morning in order to be able to meet the bus at Harrow-on-the-Hill at 8. The bus didn't actually show up until 8:15, but it didn't actually make that much of a difference. In fact, it was probably good for those people who always manage to be late to everything. That and there were some delays on the Tube coming out of London, so some of the teachers/administrators coming from that direction were a bit delayed.

We went to Stonehenge first. That was about a two-hour drive from London. It was pretty overcast - we were due to get the remains of Hurricane Gordon sometime that day - after unseasonably warm and dry weather until then (it had been too warm for my jacket at Titus). As we pulled in to the parking lot, the program director, Martin, mentioned that the government was planning on building a new highway farther away from Stonehenge and covering up the old one that currently runs right by the stones. I really think that's a good idea. It'd return a bit of quiet to the area and make it seem a little less overrun by tourists/modern society.

They gave us a half-hour there, which was more than enough for some people, but I felt a bit rushed myself. The stones were a lot squarer than I thought. Not square as is a shape with four equal sides, but square as in sharp angles and flat sides. I was expecting something a little more weather-worn.

Bath was a little over an hour farther. The coach driver tried to kill some of the time by telling jokes and tales - one that I remember was that he commented that he was glad that the hay bales were rectangular and not round because that way the cows would at least get a square meal. Beautiful stuff, I know.

When we arrived in Bath, we were given an hour for lunch before we started the actual tour stuff. By this time, it was starting to rain. The group I was with found a pub after a while and ordered some food, but it took forever to arrive and we almost missed getting back in time. We would have been late if we hadn't asked to settle the bill before the food arrived.

It was really pouring now, so they decided to switch the order of things - instead of going on the walking tour of the city first, we went to the Roman baths, which were at the very least, underneath a roof, if not completely inside and hope the weather would get better. The baths are located on top of the only hot spring in Britain, a site that has been used for at least five or six thousand years. The amount of water coming out of the spring is pretty amazing. The number I remember is something like a million liters per day. The baths are amazingly complete, too. Sure, they're not exactly ready for use, but there are quite a few rooms that they've uncovered, and the main pool still has the same lead lining the Romans put on it. It's pretty cool. It's also weird to think that for as much of Europe that I've been to, all of it (or almost all - can't remember about Frankfurt) was under control of the Roman Empire at some point.

The walking tour was next. It was essentially a walk from the Bath Abbey through the main Georgean area, up to the elite part of the city, designed to attract the rich and famous. Pretty posh, you could say. I guess the bridge going in/out of the city is one of the only bridges in Britain with shops still on it. I looked at Bath Abbey, too. It was really cool. On the way out of town, we drove by Jane Austin's house.

There was nonstop traffic on the way back to London - Friday rush hour I guess. One of the leaders pointed out a castle as we were approaching London and I think she said it was Windsor Castle. We got back an hour later than was planned, but I didn't have anywhere I had to be.

Note - The AHA London Centre has photos from this excursion on its Web site here.

Talladega Nights -

This probably doesn't deserve its own subhead next the the Tower of London and Stonehenge, but it was a damn funny movie. If you enjoyed Anchorman, I recommend it. Don't see it if you're offended by foul language, dirty humor and men kissing. Yeah, I wasn't expecting that last one either. I thoroughly enjoyed the movie.

After eating dinner Friday night, a few people decided to go to the movie theater and see if anything good was playing. I had to stick around home for a bit and make a phone call and take care of some other important business first, but I caught up in time to see the movie (minus a few minutes at the beginning, maybe).

Saturday -

Saturday morning marked the first time I was able to get myself to go on a run. I was pretty excited about it (wow, I guess it doesn't take much...), but I'm also pretty out of shape. Got a nice half-hour run in though, and figured out the road that connects a couple of the Tube stops. So that could be useful later if I'm forced to walk home one night after the Tube stops running. All in all, a very successful morning. Maybe I can start going for at least a short run every morning...

The afternoon was just business though. I have a 20-minute presentation Monday afternoon in my Modern Britain politics class on the Westminster system of government and whether or not the prime minister actually has as much power as people think he does. What makes it so tough is that we just started learning about it last week, so none of the three people in my group have a very good handle on it yet. We got a decent amount done, but still have to meet again tomorrow. It's kind of a royal pain, but once Monday afternoon comes around and I'm done with it, I won't really care any more.

Upcoming events -

Next week's schedule includes a play Wednesday night (The Alchemist) and the weekend trip to Wales Friday through Sunday. I might try to see Comedy of Errors at the Globe if I find time. Standing tickets there are only 5 pounds, so I don't feel too bad about that expense...