Learning to Love London
As I said in my first post, I haven’t been settling into London as well as I thought I would. Going solo to Bath helped boost my confidence, but I still feel a little out of place and lonely. But I haven’t let it slow me down. I’ve been all over the city, going to the places I’ve always wanted to visit.
On Thursday morning I woke up a little later than I expected. I had planned to get to The Globe Theatre for one of the morning tours, but when I got off the tube around 10:45, I realized that if I didn’t get to the Globe before 11:30, I might not get there in time. Plus, I realized I had gotten off at the wrong stop, on the wrong side of the river. I practically ran/fast-walked across the bridge by Enbankment station past Waterloo, past the Tate Modern, past the Millenium Bridge, and all the way down to the Globe Theatre. It was twice the distance I had walked with Alena and Virginia on my first day in London, at least. Miraculously, I made it there just before 11:30 and literally got the last ticket for that tour. The tour itself gave me major Shakespeare in Film nostalgia. I thought about all the plays we studied last semester being performed on that stage and all of my friends that also love Shakespeare. The theatre is actually really new. The original Globe burned down after a blank from the canon shot into the thatch roof during an over-zealous production of Henry VIII. They rebuilt the theatre just a year later, but then the city elders came over a couple decades after that and tore down all the theatres. To be fair, the theatres were surrounded by whores, gamblers, bear baiting, and drunks back in those days. Anyways this Globe, the third Globe, was actually completed in the 90s. They built it as close to the original specifications as possible and even built it the old-fashioned way: by hand, no power tools. That was impressive. It would have been so easy to cheat. I’m hoping I can go back and see a play there at some point. It’s only 5 pounds to be a groundling. It would be hard to stand for a three hour Shakespeare production, but how cool and authentic of an experience would that be? Too bad I won’t be here for next season. In honor of the 2012 Olympics, they are doing all 37 of Shakespeare’s plays. I’m so jealous of anyone who gets to attend those.
