The Globe Theater and the Tower of London

The first site on our FSU guided tour was of the Globe Theater. Known for being the center for entertainment at the time, the Globe was Shakespeare's theater and inspiration that influenced the way that he wrote and directed the majority of his plays. The most important thing that I learned was that this was not actually the Globe Theater. The real Globe burned down many years ago when they were using a cannon for a sound affect and it caught the thatched roof on fire. Now because of all of the fire regualtions in London after the great fire that they had in 1666, there were a couple skeptics who didn't like the idea of putting a giant wooden/thatch buldings in the center of London, but it was really neat to get a general idea of what the building would have looked like in the day even though this building was built in 1996.

Next we went to the Tower of London which ended up being my favorite tour and site that we have seen this far in London. I was surprised that the Tower was not actually a very large tower, but the building was made to be a fortress for the city of London. It was designed to be used as not only a prison but also a home for some of the Royals up until the 13th century, but also as a site for a lot of beheadings of very influential members in the British history.

Besides the history of the Tower, we were able to see all of the Crowned Jewels. Many of these had been used in coronations, but they included crowns and septors that had the largest hand cut diamonds in the world. There was also a large exhibit in the White Tower, where the Royal guests stayed because it was built in order to be a fortress in itself, of the armor that was worn by the kings and princes.

I feel like the sites that I saw today are some of the most influential sites in the historical makeup of London and I know that I would have never gone and done these to this extent by myself. I just know that there are so many more of these throughout the city, and of these I am hoping to make it to Parliament and attend services and tours of the major Cathedrals within the next couple of months.

Bath, England

For our first free weekend from planned Florida State activities, a group of 9 of us decided to go to Bath. The city is known for being a site of the famous Roman Baths and is also located near Stonehenge. We left thursday night on the train and arrived around 00:00. After getting completely lost and helped by complete strangers, who happened to be around our age and acted as tour guides for our walk to the hostel, we were finally able to relax and enjoy our vacation.

Our first day was spent taking a tour at the Roman Baths

We learned all about the history of these heated baths that have been around since about 75AD, which probably doesn't sound very cool, but these were the entertainment of the day and acted as the spa for the public to go and worship, in this case, the Goddess Manerva. The tour highlighted the time in which the baths were at the height of their popularity and gave details about the lifestyle that surrounded them.

On Saturday we took Mad Max's tour which took us to Stonehenge and to Lacock, which was the site of a lot of filming in the Harry Potter movies.

Stonehenge was beautiful, but also probably the windiest place that I have ever been. It is crazy to think that these 7 ton rocks were carried 100s of miles from their origin to this location. I really enjoyed learning about all of the theories for why the monument was built, but seeing it in person was an unreal experience. Then the rest of the tour was going to Lacock where we were able to see Goddrick's Hollow, the house of Professor Slughorn, The graveyard where Harry's parents were buried in the movie (which happened to be right behind the church where Camilla's daughter was married), and the house that was used as Harry's parents house (where they were killed) in the movies.

The rest of the trip was spent enjoying the city, seeing the Royal Cresent and the circus, having tea at the Pump Room, which is where all of the aristocrats had tea, and doing a little shopping.

Week 1

So I have been horrible about keeping this updated, but now that I have recognized that I am going to start from the beginning and throw a couple posts in because a lot has happened:

The first week in London was a complete blur. Running around and getting familiar with the city mixed with starting classes was so much. We had a couple scheduled tours that took us to all of the big landmarks that show the history of London, but I think I enjoyed our walking tours that we took around the city the most. Audrey, my roommate, and I started going on walks just to get familiar with Bloomsbury, but it has ended up being some of my favorite memories of the first week.

I've arrived!

After an eventful morning of losing things, saying goodbyes and trying not to forget anything important, I made it to the airport, through Hartsfield-Jackson and survived my 8 hour flight. It's been a long day and I'm definitely ready to take it easy.