A Scavenger Hunt, A Selfie Stick, and an Oyster Card

Navigating the London Underground is the quintessential initiation test for any tourist. It seems confusing at first, but once you get the hang of it, it’s easy to feel like a pro. Thanks to the Oyster Card, which lets you just scan and get on any underground Tube you want (cue the music for “I’ve got a golden ticket”), there’s no fuss about paying or trying to figure out what kind of ticket you want. However, I learned it is pretty key to swipe that thing fast—Tube people know where they are going, and they are going there fast.

It was our mission to find three key landmarks for the day—the National Theatre, the London Eye, and the Globe Theatre, all using the  Tube system to get around and get back. This taught me two important lessons about getting around London. One, my classmates are very smart; in my directionally challenged world, it was the first time that being a “follower” was not a bad thing. They learned how to read the maps within a few trips and before no time we were fitting right in (almost) with the regular clientele. Second, the Tube system is incredibly efficient. I am sold on never driving a car again; we got around large areas of London in short time.

Here are some photos from our experience, which were made much easier using our selfie stick, though it unfortunately died halfway through the experience.

The National Theatre:

 

 We will be seeing a play called Everyman at the National Theatre on our trip, so the bottom two pictures are playing around with the poster art for the play. The original version of this play was a midieval morality play, but the one we will be seeing at the National is a modern interpretation, which will make for one interesting cross-over; I'm very excited to see how it is done.

 The London Eye:

 The London Eye is spectacular. We did not ride it today, but the area around it was a wonderful experience. The Globe is about a fifteen minute walk from the Eye down the River Thames, and there are street performers, giant bubble blowers, food trucks, and people galore. We also got to enjoy some perfect spring weather, which was a wonderful asset for our first sightseeing day.

The Globe Theatre:

 

The original Shakespeare's Globe burned down, so this is a reconstruction, but it is still amazing to see what Shakespeare's plays would have been performed in. We will be seeing two of his plays here this month: As You Like It and The Merchant of Venice. 

And that was our trip! Before ending, I want to leave you with an interesting anecdote about my London Tube experience—I saw British vernacular at its finest. After a very long day of walking, our final trip down the tube was the most interesting. A beef-cake of a gentleman was taking up three spaces on a very crowded car—he had his backpack in one seat beside him and his coat in another. The rest of us had to stand up so that these fine articles of clothing had some space to ride, and none of us were brave enough to say anything. Until, that is, a middle-aged firecracker of a British woman got on and let him have it. Among many colorful things, she actually called him a “wanker” and used the word “bloody.” After that, she not-so-calmly explained to him that she had in fact paid for a seat, while his backpack had not, and therefore it was extremely rude of him to object when she moved it so that she could sit down. The showdown lasted the next two stops as Mr. Beefcake demanded that she use the word please, but he got off first and the victory definitely went to our dear spunky lady. Cheers to her.