I got a tan in London?

"Onomatopoeia"..when you think of the word do you really know what it means? Well this was the word of the day at work from my Hungarian co-worker and Spanish manager who were arguing on how to pronounce it and its meaning. I honestly could not remember its exact meaning for the life of me when they asked...or how to spell it, which they asked me to do. Thank God for the two Americans that I know that always come in to the restaurant who happened to be sitting at one of the tables with a laptop. We all looked it up on dictionary.com together to find..."The formation of words in imitation of sounds; a figure of speech in which the sound of a word is imitative of the sound of the thing which the word represents". Of all words..but that's a typical day at work (that and getting asked by the Latvian cook about American "slang" words).

The past week and a half has just been mostly about enjoying London some more. Last week on one of my days off I went to the Tower of London right next to Tower Bridge. I read that you should do these "Beefeater" tours which are free when you buy a ticket to the Tower. Beefeaters are old Royal guards who had to serve in the Queen's army or air force for at least 22 years and then they have the option to live in the Tower of London and give these crazy tours. Our guide was really animated and told of all the famous execution stories of the Tower and Tower Hill, which is across the way from the Tower and the site of most of the executions, including Henry VIII wives. I recorded one of his stories about James Scott, a royal who was accused of treason, who was executed by a drunk executioner and then afterwards his head had to be sewn back on to his body so that the royal artist could paint a picture of him. Supposedly all royals have to have a portrait done of themselves before they die and James didn't have the chance before then soo this was the only way to get his done. Besides that he told of Anne Boleyn and a couple other of Henry VIII's wives who were executed there, which all of the stories were really interesting. Supposedly during Anne's execution she wanted to read out of a bible before she died and she was taking too long for the executioner, so he had a little boy slap her on the cheek. The minute she turned her head he sliced her and it was supposedly so smooth and quick that her lips were still moving afterwards. Our guide/beefeater also took us into the chapel of the Tower where a couple of Henry VII's wives are buried. It is also the site of a mass grave of over 1000 bodies that were discovered there in the early 1900's. I heard someone ask our guide as the tour finished if he ever saw any ghosts there...and he just sternly said, "I don't believe in ghosts". For sure ghosts there...has to be. From there I stood in a long line to see the crown jewels which includes crowns and trinkets from 100's of years. It also includes the largest diamond in the world on top of one of the baton things. The collection was beautiful, I've never seen jewels like it in my life. From there I had a chance to see the changing of the guard and witness someone trying to make a guard laugh...it actually is hard. Then I just wandered around the tower to the multiple dungeons and an exhibit on Henry VIII's armor (I guess he was a really good sportsman in his youth and did a lot of jousting). After exploring a little more, I sat by the river for a bit observing London's most famous bridge, Tower Bridge, and then went home.
The next couple of days I went and enjoyed Hyde Park (the largest park in London) observing all of the pick up rugby/soccer games, strolled down the massive Oxford Street which has famous stores such as Selfridges and TopShop, and laid around in a small park near my house. Hyde Park also holds the Princess Diana memorial, which most Brits think is crap, so i had to go see it myself. Its a small oval fountain, which when I saw it no water was actually running...and I think I'm going to have to agree with the Brits on this one, it definitely doesn't do her justice. Its too bad. Also, Last Saturday before I went to work, Jamie and I went to the Portobello Road Market in Notting Hill which is the most famous market in London with mostly antiques and other trinkets. It was a beautiful day and had plenty of time to look at everything (except to the one vendor that told us to "move on" from her booth...we definitely got a kick out of that, I guess we didn't realize we looked like people with no money? lol), as well as grab some awesome food from the markets there. Also, the Wednesday before, Brendan, Jamie, Ellen, and I went to the science museum at night where they held an "adult only" night. So, pretty much you get to act like little kids without having little kids around. It was a really cool event, equipped with a couple bars, a pub quiz, a DJ, silent disco, and all the experiments open for you to play with. On top of all of that...it was FREE, best part for my little budget.

Besides all that lately...and sorry for my lack of updating...I am leaving London on May 11th to discover the rest of Europe!! I have decided to take a tour through Contiki for 18-30 year olds all throughout Europe. It departs from London and heads to Paris, Burgundy region in France, French Riviera, Pisa, Rome, Florence, Greece (for 3 days), Venice, Verona, Vienna, Swiss Alps/Lucerne, Munich, Rhine Valley of Germany, Amsterdam, Brugge, then back to London on June 8th. So, pretty excited about that. I'm going to post a calendar up on my website so you can see where I am everyday during it.

Anyways I have some new pics up..pretty random of London and a couple from where I work! Keep me updated on all of your lives..I'll be home soon!