Back I feel like I did quite a bit today. I learned that my Hostel is about a 20 minute walk from Shakespeare's Globe Theater, so I walked over there in the morning (wednesday). I bought a ticket for the play that night. More on that later. Since I was in the area, I walked over to St. Paul's Cathedral. It was quite impressive. Full of beautiful frescoes, ironwork, and carvings. I was a bit dissapointed that a place of worship would be filled up with so many monuments to soldiers. There were literally hundreds of people comemorated there, most of them having died in battle. Ah, well. So much for my religious idealism. IT was, as I said, truly magnificent. At one point, one of the nuns, I assume she was the mother superior???, asked everyone in the church to stop and join her in prayer. She said the Lord's Prayer and asked us to say it with her. As I recited it, I was moved by the power of it, something I have not felt from the lord's prayer before. After the audio tour that I rented was over, I went back to the hostel for a quick bite to eat, and then off to the Globe.
The play was extraordinary. They were doing "As You Like It." I only payed £5 to see it, which meant that I was standing in the gallery right below the stage. Just before it started, one of the ushers came out and told us we all had to stand up, or we wouldnıt be able to move fast enough. I was puzzled by this until the play started, with the players entering from behind us. Throughout the play, they would take the action right out into the gallery, often right next to me. I literally was bumping elbows with the actors as they were playing their roles. On a few occasions, they grabbed one of the bystanders to help in the action. Toward the end, it started to rain a bit. not so much that anyone left, though. I got back to the hostel about 11:00, had a bit of soup to warm me up, and have been fighting with the paperweights they call computers ever since.
Tomorrow I think I will go over to Westminister Abbey, and perhaps one or two other sights along the way. Itıs really amazing how their underground makes almost everything seem close.
Well, that's it for tonight! I'm off to bed. I'll write more tomorrow night, if the gremlins stay out of the computers, that is.....
Scott
Home