Back to the City

Since I already had the tickets, I headed down to London on Monday. I kind of forgot, but Monday here was a bank holiday. Which meant two things to me. One, the museum I had hoped to visit that is free on Mondays, was not actually free, and even though I was right there, my frugality made me wait until I am there again on a non-holiday Monday. Secondly, it meant that tons of people were out and about.
So, I just kind of wandered. I got some fancy cupcakes near Covent Garden, and gave their market a second chance. It being a holiday, there were far more interesting vendors, and I got myself a WWII British Army issue field dressing. Nerdy, I know. But awesome.
I visited my old stand by, the National Gallery. Even with 5 million other people there, it was enjoyable as ever, and is always bigger than I remember it. I had a lovely walk back to the hostel through St. James park, fast becoming my favorite green space in London.

On Tuesday, my plan was a little more clear and led me to the south bank to visit the Old Operating Theatre Museum. Yeah, it's exactly what it says it is, and also full of quirky and strange medical instruments and remedies. The theatre itself was built in 1822 to teach surgeons and to separate the anesthesia free surgeries from the wards. It must have been unsettling for patients to listen to what awaited them. It is strangely situated in the attic of an old church which used to abut to the hospital. This provided great natural light and after surgery you could just dump the patient into the church: instant funeral! Just kidding. Kind of. It wasn't the surgery that killed you, it was infection. Anesthesia wasn't used in the UK until 1846, thanks to the Americans; we could do something right back then. A guide with an encyclopedic knowledge of medical history gave us a talk in the theatre, and I didn't drop any of my junior mints.

The rest of the museum is in the adjoining attic space which is filled with an eclectic (as these things always are) collection of medical instruments through the ages, random organs in jars, and explanations of old herbal and animal derived remedies. So in other words, the perfect museum!

From there I visited Southwark (pronounced 'Suth-uck', don't ask me why) Cathedral. This is London's oldest Gothic building and inside you can see evidence of a Roman road that ran where the cathedral now sits. It's a nice place, but charges for a 'photography permit,' therefore you have to look up interior pictures and the Shakespeare memorial yourself. Sorry, I'm cheap.

Despite the chilly wind, I had a nice wander along the south bank, which is a really nice place to be. For the first time ever, I visited the Tate Modern which I had been kind of avoiding. I was happily surprised to see a Dali and a giant Monet, which pleased me greatly. Otherwise, I left most of the rooms whispering an indulgent 'okaaay.' There's just something about modern art: some stuff felt like it was trying too hard to be avant garde, others I feel like I could have done, and most of the rest, I just didn't get. So, if you, like me, are not a connoisseur of modern art, then you too can finish this museum in about an hour.

I crossed the river on the mellinium bridge where the views were nice and there was a distinct lack of invisible Death Eaters. Yeah, I had to go there. I walked past St. Pauls cathedral and to the Museum of London. I'm frankly surprised I hadn't been here before. It's very nice, and at the moment goes from prehistory to the great fire of 1666. At the end of May, it will double in size, expanding to modern London, and I plan to check it out again then.

I walked a long way through lots of places I didn't know (none of them dodgy) and ended up spending another hour in the British Museum; only 598 more to go, and I'll have seen it all.

Did you know that the underground has 413 elevators?