Day 11: The Day of Health, Harry, and Hurricanes

In the morning, after trying to sort out all this Hurricane Irene nonsense, I went to Borough Market, which was amazing! The following is just a bunch of pictures of the luscious things I saw...








Ostrich!


I'd like a hard boiled ostrich egg. I wonder how hard that is to do?





Award winning pies! I wonder if they're as good as Mrs. Lovette's? :)


Open wide! I want to shovel ice inside your mouth!


Fancy butters


This makes me miss Rose and Anna.





These were everywhere, and kinda shocking to see for the first time. They shave off little slivers of smoked meat right off the leg and into your mouth.


Eggs! Even in the grocery stores, they do not refrigerate eggs. They're sold in the biscuit isle, near the cooking ingredients.


There were several gluten free bakeries reppin' at the market. This place was selling GF brownies. You know I bought one! It was very rich, and the leftovers have since crumbled in my purse.


I thought this was clever! Flower pot bread!





Everywhere were these massive pans with hot curries and paellas and such. They'd give you a sample or scoop some into a box for you to munch on.


Potatoes....with the earth from whence they grew...





I got two health drinks, this was a power smoothie, the other was a wheatgrass juice blend. I'm trying to green power away The Plague!


Two organic iced teas...they were two for one and you know how I like to have more than one bev at a time!

I also got called a variety of sweet names, like lovey, darlin', cherub, and sweetie.

As I sat down outside, it started pouring. And I sat there under my umbrella, until it REALLY started pouring, at which point the water hitting the table in front of me kept bouncing up at me under my umbrella. It was also incredibly crowded at the market by that time, so I decided to go back to the British Museum, because I had an audio walking tour.

So back I went, and got to spend a more proper amount of time exploring the remains of the greatest cultures the world has ever seen. There are also a lot of benches in that museum, which was nice because I'm having trouble breathing.

I thought about going to St Paul's for a visit inside, but since I was close and hadn't been, I decided to go to the British Library! And since getting there involves going to...


King's Cross/St. Pancras, I decided to have a little search for....


Looking...


Warmer....


Platform 9 3/4! It has been moved outside while some construction is going on, and I have to say it was...kinda stupid! Look at that lame, unimaginative sign, and that hastily sawed off cart. They didn't try to make it look at all as though it was disappearing into the wall. Harry Potter fans require much better quality from the HP sites! I had a girl take my photo, none the less.

Nextly, the reason I had come! The British Library, which was incredible.







The building is rather modern and ugly, and the important rare books room is only a tiny part. The majority is a research library, that holds thousands and thousands and thousands of books, and requires permission to use.

The rare books room was spectacular, though. I saw original copies of Canterbury Tales, my second English-owned-copy of the 1611 King James Bible, and and earlier English Geneva Bible, another 1215 copy of the Magna Carta and the list of demands that led to the Magna Carta, Henry VIII's prayer scroll, first editions of Shakespeare, a handwritten copy of Handel's Messiah (which only took 24 days to write!), music written by Mozart, AND his marriage certificate to Constanze, which makes me miss my little Stanzi! And finally, the papers (and an envelope for Michelle) that Paul McCartney and John Lennon first scribbled lyrics on to some of their most famous songs. There were also very early maps, illuminated manuscripts, Da Vinci journals (did you know he wrote backwards and from right to left? You have a use a mirror to read his writing) and religious books from all over the world. It was an impressive compilation, and I was blown away. I even got some bookplates, which I promptly inserted into my new Harry Potters when I got back to the hostel.


As I was doing this I met a new roommate, Anya, from Germany, who is delightful! She went down to dinner while I spent some time looking into hurricane Irene some more. I hope everyone stays safe! And I hope it doesn't affect my flight!

I got even more medicine, and after looking at my credit card statement, I see the exchange rate is even WORSE! So now I've bought what comes out to $60 worth of medicine. And not that it's that much, but it's just so expensive, and the rate so poor. I don't really like nasal sprays but I gave in so I could sleep...


And thought it was weird that includes a warning about thyroid.

So here I sit, wondering where all my money went...but breathing happily through my nose.

Tomorrow is my last full day in London, and I will do my best to make it a chockerbock one. I plan on visiting Westminster Abbey for church service and a quick tour, and St. Paul's for a tour and organ concert in the evening, and perhaps one last London Walks tour squeezed in there somewhere. Hope all my NYC pals are hunkered down! I'm thinking about you!