Today, we visited Greenwich, which was a rather impressive trip, because, although it is artificial, in everyone’s mind it is in fact a very real thing, and a thing to which essentially all time on Earth, and therefore all time we really know of exists. In other words, we went to the very thrilling place that sets the meaning of time as we know it. Naturally, being the historical buff that I am, I was very happy to hear all about the history of the place, although they mentioned the Astronomer Royale much less than I would have expected, not that I was particularly bothered by this, but it was just something that came to mind. On the way to this lovely site, we got up fairly early, hit the tube, and got to the university, there, we met our tour guide and I entered the bus without my mates but, I figured I would meet new people on this bus, so it was all good. I sat next to a girl from New York, named Rosalyn, she was fairly nice, and on the way to Greenwich, we got a quite funny tour guide, who looked rather English... he wore a white suit, complete with a straw fedora, and he wore a proper white moustache, and was a little more stout making a really funny sight in my mind. On the way there, our guide told us all about the various sights of London we were driving through, namely those of Whitechapel (where Parliament is) and it was really pretty interesting stuff how much famous stuff happened all over this massive and most important of cities.
When we approached near the Isle of Dogs, we stopped across from the area that the observatory was and looked south of the Thames, which was pretty neat. We then proceeded to go to that area, and we were then pretty close to the Royal Park that Greenwich is situated in. We found ourselves near an open market, and I bought 8 king prawn (deep fried) for £4.00 which wasn’t the best deal, but not bad either, and they were rather huge and tasty. After that we rejoined the group at 14:00 and went up to the observatory. There we stood upon the Prime Meridian and it was kind of awe inspiring to think that by standing there, I was momentarily straddling two hemispheres for more than just a fraction of a second at a time. Afterward, I proceeded to look at the small museum they offer there, and found it to be rather interesting, filled with horological things and the likes of that, as well of course as astronomical instruments. Leaving that site, I set out and met a guy named Dave who attends our school, and who also appears to be rather much of the history buff. We walked down together past the naval museum, or some sort of maritime museum and back up to where the coaches were due to pick us up again at 16:00.
I thought I could just take the tube from where we were back to my place, but did not know how, so I went to ask the guide, and he said that it was a long ways away, so I could take the bus. I then asked him how easy it was to get to Covent Garden station, because I wanted to walk from there to the Savoy, at which he had a very obvious expression of surprise on his face. I then asked what would be the closest station to the savoy, and he was very helpful, and I also asked him the best route to Grim’s Dyke, and he was again very helpful, and proceeded to tell me all about books to find about Gilbert and Sullivan and so forth from there, so I assured him of my gratitude and left when the coaches were nearly about to leave. I then sat on the coach next to one of the student helpers named Brian (I think) and he and I had a very long and interesting discussion covering many topics on the way back to the uni. When we returned Seamus and I left and taking the tube back to Notting Hill Station, we walked back up Portobello Road, which I found a bobby’s helmet being sold outside for £65.00, so I had half a mind to buy it. Upon returning, Seamus made pizza and the girls’ professor and friend visited later on, and he was in interesting fellow. We went to the Elgin (the local pub) and had a beer, I drank a Strong Bow, which tasted very apple-ish almost like cider. As we sat and talked, we got onto many subjects including Iraq and New Orleans. It was funny, because he solicited my opinion on Iraq, and I gave him my rather conservative viewpoint, which probably surprised him, and he assured me of his disagreement with my opinions but his willingness to accept them, so I was happy with that. Later on, we returned home and I just started to watch Space Ghost, and Erika had been out, but had come home and she and I talked in the kitchen a while, and I was very given to her, because we compared some stories about our love lives and realised we had much in common. Then I wrote this, and that was that.