Greenwich

The day began with class at 10am. During our orientation sessions earlier in the year in Athens, we gave a presentation on a place in London that we were most looking forward to visiting. I did my presentation on The Tower of London. The second part of this assignment was to actually visit the place and give a second presentation on our visit. Class time was spent watching everyone’s presentations. They were all really interesting and with only a week left, I kept finding more that I wanted to do and had not done yet. You could seriously spend a month here and not finish everything. There are a million awesome things to do here, not to mention all the day trips that are available. I could have made a brand new list of things to do. After class, we had some time for lunch before our class took a day trip to Greenwich. A group of us ate a market that sets up behind the university. It’s so delicious! Everything is fresh and homemade with natural ingredients. I feel like a true Londoner eating at markets. I had a delicious burger and some great ice cream. We then made our way to Greenwich. It was quite beautiful and on the Thames. We had Sean as our tour guide and he showed us the city as well as the notable areas. Several movies have been shot in Greenwich including Pirates of the Caribbean 4, and The Duchess. Greenwich was also a royal palace at one point, then a hospital for naval soldiers, and finally a naval college. We went into the chapel, which was simply beautiful. We also saw the Painted Hall which, as it sounds, was painted with beautiful pictures all over. Quite spectacular. Johnny Depp filmed a scene in there for Pirates of the Caribbean.  Greenwich is also the host of three Olympic events, and while we were there, the construction of these sites was happening. These people need to get a move on; there was hardly anything there. We did see where the equestrian event is taking place, which was interesting. Greenwich is also home to the meridian, aka where time begins. I was really looking forward to being able to see this, but because of all of the construction, we weren’t able to.

Greenwich

The ceiling of the Painted Hall

Site of the equestrian events in the Olympics

There was also a little market there, so after our tour we took a look around. There were some really interesting items. We made a few British friends, I suppose but they laughed at us because we only bought one spoon for £2, when the whole set was for sale for the same price. Whatever, I just need one. After leaving Greenwich, Emily, Lindsay, and I went to Oxford Street for a bit of shopping. Once again, it was completely insane, but we stopped in a few stores to see what we could find. Although I didn’t find anything great to buy, it’s always an experience going there. For dinner, we returned to Nando’s for one last meal there before we leave. It’s so sad that we are leaving so soon, and I simply don’t feel like I have done everything I want to. I’m not ready to leave!

Week Five: Day Four: BLC 22