Day 2 - British Library and Evening stroll toward Parliament

Parliament
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Today turned out to be quite different from my plan. I woke up at 6AM, unable to fall back asleep. That is neither CA time nor normal London time (for me at least), so I have decided that I am on Russian time. Anyway, after an English breakfast (I even ate the egg, well, not the yolk), I headed down about 2 blocks to the British Library. They have a room called "Treasures of the British Library." It was fascinating, some of the stuff was over a 1000 years old! Photography wasn't allowed, so the only 2 pictures I have are of postcards. I started off in the literature section where they had the original manuscript of Alice and Wonderland (see picture), stuff from Shakespeare, Jane Austen, Jane Eyre, and Alexander Pope. My stomach did a summersault when I saw the original manuscript of James Joyce's Finnegan's Wake!!! I really wish I had a picture of that. There had stuff from Handel, Mozart, and Beethoven in the music section. There were amazingly old maps, some of the first to have the Americas. And some old, horribly inaccurate ones of England and Europe, haha.

Dawn
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They also had a huge section on religious texts. They had the original Gutenberg Bible, original King James Bible, and tons of other Bibles. These two guys, they looked like professors, were running around like kids in a candy shop and nearly peed their pants when they saw the really old Lisbon Old Testament. In addition to all of this, the library had a teeny version of Dante's La Divina Commedia, Stamps from the Stamp Act from Colonial America, and stuff from Newton and Galileo. The most impressive of all, however, was an original of the Magna Carta (they had 2 actually). Only one of the original 4 still has part of its original seal, and they had that one. It was badly burned in a fire in 1731, though, so it was very hard to read. So basically, this was the place to be if you are a history or literature buff.

(postcard, original in British Library) Sultan Baybars' Qur'an: Opening from Volume One of a Qur'an in seven volumes, copied by the calligrapher Muhammad ibn al-Wahid, for Sultan Babybars II. Cairo, 704 AH (AD 1304)
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After that, I eventually found a supermarket and got lunch. Not too bad and not very expensive. Starbucks on the other hand, woah. I think the prices are numerically exactly the same as the States, but in pounds. So it costs almost double what it does back home. Anyway, I ate lunch, and ended up falling asleep for 4 hours. Whoops. This time change is taking its toll on me... So, I couldn't do the British Museum. I decided instead to wander around and see where I ended up.

I walked through Russell Square, past the British Museum, and eventually made it to Trafalgar Square. The sun was just setting, and it was really pretty. Just when I had decided that my walk had been worthwhile, I saw Parliament peeking out over a building, and I just had to look. All of a sudden, Big Ben appears, and woah was I excited. Parliament was all lit up and it was amazing. I knew Westminster Abbey was around, so I crossed the street and found that too. After looking at that, I headed back to Big Ben and crossed a bridge over the Thames about half way. I called my mom so she could hear Big Ben ring at 8PM. That was awesome.

(postcard, original in British Library) Alice's Adventures Under Ground: The original autograph manuscript written and illustrated by Lewis Carroll between July 1862 and September 1864, subsequently developed and published in 1865 as Alice's Adventures in Wonderland.
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I also had an amazing view of the Ferris Wheel (the London Eye). That thing is massive and I can't wait to take a ride on it. I walked along the Thames for about a mile, then backtracked a little and headed back into what I think is Central London. Super packed full of people, lots of shops and restaurants. I picked up some food at a supermarket and made my way back to my hotel. My feet are killing me. I think I walked about 6 miles today, according to my maps. Thank goodness I have a good sense of direction. It's also a good thing that I was near the Thames and I knew exactly where that went, so I could figure out where I needed to go to get back.

Russell Square
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Check out my pictures. They are sort of blurry because it was dusk/night, but they are still kinda cool. I am really glad I got to see everything lit up at night.  And it feels so safe! Maybe it's because the streets are packed with people (because of the congestion charge for cars) and they are all either wearing nice suits, or are tourists. Feels very different from New York, and it isn't even comparable with Los Angeles, haha.

The weather is still very nice. Not sure what I am doing tomorrow because I am sort of hindered by checking out/checking in and my first orientation meeting, but we'll see. Now to upload my many pictures...