Better Late Than Never: London

I think the worst part of visiting London was getting there: the 30-minute-long bout of unconsciousness that I refuse to call "sleep," the alarmingly crowded 5 AM bus ride to the airport, getting in several hours before I could check into the hostel and allow wonderful, exquisite, actual sleep to claim me nearly before my head hit the pillow. And the best part of London was everything else. Although Ireland is a very close second, London ended up being my favorite trip throughout the entire semester (despite the rain and, at one point, high-speed winds that made walking forward impossible and rendered my umbrella nothing more than a funny little prop). 

 

It wasn't quite as easy to find gluten free food in London as it was in Dublin, but that isn't saying much; there was still no shortage of options for me. There was even a 100% gluten free café, and the pastries and sandwiches there were amazing. And it was in London that I could order, for the first time in 6+ years, onion rings! That alone honestly made the entire trip worth it for me. Yup. Onion rings. 

 

So on our first day in London, Kelly and I went to the Wellcome Collection, a museum of oddities, medical artifacts, and all things bizarre. Incidentally, when the Biosciences group visited the anesthesia museum in Bonn a couple weeks later, I happened to notice the print on one of the drugs in the glass cases. Clearly stated were the words: 

 

Produced by Burroughs, Wellcome & Co. 

(The Wellcome Foundation Ltd.) 

Made in London, England 

 

And just above these three lines of print, the name of the drug: Cocaine Hydrochloride. 

 

I don't recall seeing anything in Dr. Henry Wellcome's collection in London that was related to cocaine or other now-illicit substances, but judging from the sort of things I did see there, I would not have been surprised if I had. In any case, making that connection between these two museums in two entirely different countries I visited was really cool. 

 

While in London, we went on a "Jack the Ripper" (no relation to Jack the Aussie) night walking tour. I also went to the Natural History museum and its gift shop, where I spent far too much money. I got to see King's Cross station and the Harry Potter store inside, where I spent far too much money. And we went to Camden Lock, a vast, captivating sea of market stalls and street vendors selling their creations, where I spent far too much money. 

 

We also went to the top of the skyscraper that Londoners affectionately call "The Walkie-Talkie" due to the building's unusual shape. At the top of the Walkie-Talkie, there's the Sky Garden, a club that I must say is hilariously undeserving of its ritzy status. As we walked into the lobby on the ground floor, the attendants busily separated those who would be allowed to wait in line to go up from those who would be turned away. This was not nearly as intricate of a process as it sounds. Only those dressed "smart casual" would be allowed up. And what's smart casual exactly? Apparently, it all boils down to whether or not you're wearing sneakers. Thanks to that famous London rain, I wasn't wearing my Converses that evening, so I and my muddy, clunky Doc Martens were permitted into the Sky Garden. I said before that it's undeserving of its ritzy status, but I'm still glad we went there for a couple reasons. If nothing else, I walked away from the Walkie-Talkie that evening with plenty of great pictures of London's nightscape, and the confidence that playing video games in my pajamas with my cat nestled warmly in my lap is vastly preferable to anything "smart casual."