Adventures in South Bank

"Good wine is a good familiar creature, if it be well used." - Othello: Act 2, Scene 3 

Today was our third day in London and we decided to focus our efforts on one area: Southbank. We went to bed lateish last night (for jetlag people) and getting up this morning was difficult difficult lemon difficult. We meant to get down to London Bridge by 10:00am but it ended up being closer to 11:00am. It didn’t really matter, though. We had plenty of time. We started our day by walking along the Thames to Shakespeare’s Globe (www.shakespearesglobe.com). I am a huge Shakespeare nerd so I was super excited. There is an exhibit detailing Shakespeare’s work, the Globe itself, and costuming and stage fighting of the time. We were overrun by a lot of French school kids and were worried they would be on our tour but fortunately that was not the case.

                After thirty minutes in the exhibit we met our tour guide. She was hilarious, mostly because she decided everyone was foreign (they pretty much were) and decided to mime everything she was saying. It was a pretty interesting tour. She took us right into the theater, which is reconstructed as accurately as possible, right down to the thatched roof. It was a Silent Tour, which means the guide talks quietly over a microphone, because there are rehearsals in progress. The last time I was here they were rehearsing for The Tempest. This time it was some actors preparing scenes from Shakespeare’s plays for schoolchildren that are visiting in a week or two. We watched them rehearse one scene from The Taming of the Shrew and one from Julius Caesar. It was pretty cool. Our guide wasn’t holding anything back and afterwards said it wasn’t a big deal we were taking pictures of the inside of the theater “because it’s not like those actors were going to be famous one day anyway.” Tell us how you really feel, tour guide. Overall it was really interesting and educational and I got out of the gift shop without buying anything, unlike last time. There was a Romeo & Juliet tote I really wanted, though.

                After our tour we went to the Tate Modern next door to kill time (www.tate.org.uk/visit/tate-modern). I really enjoy art but I just don’t get modern art. One day I would like to buy an audio guide and actually listen to their explanations. But not today. Fortunately Sarah felt the same way. We just kind of wandered around for an hour, occasionally remarking how a piece of art was cool-looking or, as was more often the case, speculating as to whether or not they were a serial killer.

                After our brief visit to the Tate Modern we went for lunch at Nandos (www.nandos.co.uk . This was exciting for us because we are One Direction fans and Ed Sheeran fans and they are always talking about it. There was technically one in Calgary but it was in the North East and we don’t go there. So finally, two years after we first heard about it, we got to try it. It’s a sit-down restaurant and we had to wait to be seated but you place your order at the front, like in a pub. Sarah and I both had identical conversations with our cashiers.

                Them: Do you have a Nandos card?
                Us: No.
                Them: Do you want one?
                Us: Not right now.
                Them: Are you sure?
                Us: Is it free?
                Them: Yes.
                Us: Okay.

                It was pretty funny. The card actually seems like a pretty good deal. After three visits we are entitled to a free ¼ chicken, which is awesome. I’ll probably hoard mine until I have no money. The food itself was pretty good. I had chicken wings with peri peri sauce. They were very spicy. I liked it. I think next time I will get a ¼ chicken because the girls at the table next to us had that and it looked really good. Overall a very satisfactory meal.

                Up next was Vinopolis (www.vinopolis.co.uk). It is basically an interactive wine museum. You purchase tokens and use them to taste different wines. The exhibits discuss everything from growing techniques to storing temperatures. It was very informative. Unfortunately, Sarah and I didn’t really like the wines. We had gotten the highest token package, thinking the wines would cost 2-3 tokens each. No. They cost 1, for the most part. Apparently we are very set in our wine ways and this was not going to change them. This was also the day we tried sherry, which will henceforth be known as the Devil’s Drink. It is disgusting. We wanted to die. It basically ruined the last half of the experience for us because it was so gross. And we both tried a different kind. So obviously it wasn’t that we chose wrong, it’s that it is evil. It was pretty fun, overall. If you ever thought about doing it I would probably get the middle group of tokens. The first level is too little but the third (the one we got) you suffer through trying to finish. We caved and got a 4 token wine and we still had 6 tokens left. It was brutal.

                And that was pretty much it for the day. It was only our third day in London, after all, so there’s no point cramming the entire day full of activities. Even then, we still didn’t get back to the flat until about 5:30. We did stop at Sainsbury’s to grab some groceries. We’re going to be here awhile so it’s not like we can afford to eat out every night. Of course, our groceries probably don’t resemble your groceries, but we are working on it. We even bought items on sale! Snaps for us!