Bye bye, have a beautiful time!

Photo album Day 8!
https://photos.app.goo.gl/QrQ4Has5dZzXZU7VA

All my friends have gone. Class is dismissed. Anna picked up her bestie from the airport yesterday, and they headed off to Ireland this morning. Eli started his drive up the coast toward Scotland – he’s probably about settled in by now. Tanya flew off to Denver yesterday for a conference, and Ivey found a buddy pass seat last night. Dionne, Anastasia, Shabana, Maria, Ahngeli, and Rachel flew off today. Sarah and I spent the morning together before she hopped on her own flight after lunch. And then there was just me.

Sarah and I walked to Paddington together, then I caught the train to the V&A while she moved off to Heathrow. I found my way to the Medieval and Renaissance galleries and started wandering through. Since it was approaching 2pm, though, I wanted to get to the Anglo-Saxon section and then move on to the Natural History Museum across the street. After much wandering and asking like six different people, I came to the conclusion that they really don’t have much for me to actually study, so I finished up the gallery quickly and went upstairs to find the Theatre gallery.

Come to find out, you’ve got to wend your way through like six other galleries to find it, and it’s actually hidden away in the dark part of the Tapestries gallery. Good for me, since I got a chance to study the workmanship there, but also really confusing, and also a bit discouraging. The gallery itself made up for it, though. They had costumes from a bunch of different productions throughout the last century, stage mock-ups, a “please touch” lighting display (no sound board though =[ ), and two rooms dedicated to directors(?) that I didn’t have time to wander.

Please excuse the nearly six billion pictures of Elphaba’s dress. I’ve been looking for reference pictures for that particular outfit for quite a long time. These aren’t enough, but I’ll make do.

I also lucked into hearing part of a tour guide’s talk while I was in there. She was leading folks around the costume displays and talked about the history of the prima ballerina Margot Fontayne’s tutu, as well as her intense friendship with her Russian dancing partner. She also mentioned this particular tutu is fascinating because of the lack of sequins, which can hurt a partner’s hands during lifts (actually, she mentioned bloody handprints on white dresses, and how that wasn’t good for the show). I didn’t stay too long, but what I did hear was worth lingering for.

After the V&A, I headed to the Natural History Museum. Up until now, I’ve tried to make my forays about research, and into understanding more about the people I’m studying. My project is, after all, focused not only on the Exeter Book Riddles, but also on clothing and bird lore, which means the people who made these things and believed these things must also be a part of my study.

Today, I realized that, to go somewhere else via Tube, I’d potentially miss a gallery. Some museums are open late, but generally they close the older galleries for preservation of manpower and objects alike. I was getting hungry (a half a tuna sub and a parfait doesn’t last very long, apparently?) and I knew I’d need to take some ibuprofen and sit soon. Then the proverbial clouds opened up and light shone on the building across the street – NHM – and I knew what I’d choose.

Dinosaurs.

I mean, the museum has all sorts of other things, too, but dinosaur bones, y’all.

So across the street I went. Good thing, too, because there was a huge crowd of folks queueing to get in the door. I don’t know if Fridays are obscenely touristy every week, or if it’s just today, but sweet holy gods there were a bunch of people there. I ended up taking shots of the pieces around (and sometimes over) people just to get some pictures. I’d have liked to go through the upstairs and see the birds and the Darwin hall, but by then my feet were killing me, I needed to eat and take meds, and my head was fit to burst through my skull.

The museum itself is very much oriented toward a younger audience. The displays around the bones and mammal specimens were all brightly colored and “Did you know”-y. Not a bad thing for sure, but it did mean I could move faster and glance through the texts while the children gathered up around each display. The mammal hall was pretty cool, and had some creatures I hadn’t seen before, but I was mostly interested in the mammoths since I don’t see those displays often at all. There was also a big cats display with a very male lion, a cheetah (miles and miles of leg), a jaguar, and a tiger. Their fur was pretty faded, and the display acknowledged it, saying they were some of the oldest pieces but it was important to keep them out rather than either add new kills to the endangered list or remove them from the education circuit.

The polar bear was both bigger and smaller than I expected. We usually see them on nature shows on the icy plains, so there isn’t a lot to compare them to. I think a grizzly is a bit bigger, but not by much, and the brown bear just a tad smaller. I tried to get a full body shot, but the glass supports weren’t really conducive to that, sorry. The selfie, too, is there for perspective rather than “hey I was here” sentiment. I tried to just use my hand (as I did with some of the dino fossils later), but it wasn’t enough to get a full understanding of the size of the bear.

The whale display was cool, surrounded by herbivorous creatures, and mostly in the air while they were in a weird circuit on the ground. I’m always astounded by how big blue whales are. The one at the NHM looks to just be a light cast rather than the full skeleton, though I couldn’t find a plaque to confirm it. The body is just too big to hang all the bones from the ceiling and still have a grasp on perspective, I would guess. Even the sperm whale was dwarfed by its immensity.

After mammals, I moved to the dinosaurs. They were huge and made me happy. Again, lots of kids and folks getting in the way of my shots, but everyone was really excited about the chance to see dino bones/casts. Also, I don’t know if they had bought an animatronic from Jurassic Park or designed one themselves, but I definitely took a video of a moving t-rex.

After the NHM, I hit up Nando’s again for an early supper. I love their food, and it’s just the right amount with a drink for around 10£. Earlier this week I managed to get it under 7, but I was hungry today. I took my pain meds, ate all my food, and headed back to the train station via Tesco Express.

I’m staying in the same hotel until Monday morning, so I wanted to pick up a few things to leave in my room or take on my day trips for snacking. I got some healthy things and some not, as well as a surprise for a friend, then decided to go ahead and finish souvenir shopping while I was out. I picked up a bag to check on the way home – a bit pricey, but it’s faux leather and has wheels and is covered in kitschy London iconography, so I think it’s worth it – as well as a few other gifts and postcards, which I’ll send out tomorrow. They won’t get there until after I do, but at least they’ll be postmarked UK!

Tomorrow, I head down to the hotel buffet for included breakfast (a wallet saver, let me tell you!) and then come back up to decide my day. I think I’d like to go to the British Museum and the London Museum, but we’ll have to see how I feel and what I can handle. I’m absolutely worn out, so it’s also entirely possible I’ll go to Hyde park and take a nap in the “sun”.