Day number one...

I met up with Chris yesterday and he actually told me that King's Cross isn't the nicest part of town, and that his mum found it better if I stay with them instead, so I'm now crashing for the next few days at his place in Wandsworth. His parents have been so gracious and made dinner last night after I returned home from a long trek along the South Bank from the London Eye to the Tower Bridge.

As there was a horendous queue at the Eye, and Chris had to be off to work in an hour, we walked down to the Globe, only to realize the theatre closes in the afternoon. By this time, Chris had to be off to work, so we parted ways and I decided to explore the Tate Modern. Not being one for a lot of modern art, I actually found it quite enjoyable. One piece I found interesting was a number of artifacts that had been collected during a dig prior to the musem being built in 1999. The artifacts were all laid out in drawers and cabniets of a bereau, but they weren't in any order and weren't labeled. There was also this locker that included two buckets of seemingly unimportant rubble from the dig. What stricked me was that this "rubble" was pieces of porceline and china, that looked to me to have more archaeological significance than the plastic Coke bottle caps that were on display in the bureau. Also, since everything was out of context and not labled, thier potential historic value ment nothing. It was interesting to see an archaeological display depicted as art; however, I felt it was at the cost of the integrity of archaeological purpose.

Moving on...I walked along the river down to the Tower Bridge and the "egg" shaped ecological building next to it. Amazing Race style, I decided this would be my ending point of that day's leg, and I hopped on the tube and headed back to Chris' house. The tube was crazy, as it was the evening rush hour and I just got sweapt into the stream of people filing throughout the station. Thanks godness Chris warned me of the crazyness of Waterloo stations 19 platforms, or else I wouldn't have had a chance of finding my train.

Once I got back to the house, I ate dinner and went to bed early. I didn't even realize how exhausted I was until I woke up this morning and realized I felt like a completely different person. Todays plans involve Westminster and maybe the Eye again this afternoon if the clouds clear up.

Cheers!