Wizards and Wanderings

One of my roommates, Carla, has a phenomenal book called 24 Great Walks in London. The book gives routes for 24 different trips in and around the city. Yesterday we decided to take one of these walks. Five of the six of us from flat five took off from the Earl's Court tube and set over to begin out tour near London Tower. We walked through Trinity Square and also walked by the Mercantile Marine Memorial which pays homage to the 24,000 men of the Merchant Navy and Fishing fleet who died during WWII. 

Nearby is also the site of the ancient scaffold were more than 125 people were beheaded. According to a story told by our beloved Trudy, a ton of spectators died when the stand they were all standing on collapsed just moments before someone was executed. Apparently the man who these people were there to see killed started laughing at the irony of the situation moments before he was beheaded. Thus comes the phrase, "laughing your head off."

Then we walked past some other small places of 

interest including the All Hollows-by-the-Tower Church, and St. Olave's Church. Olave's has an entry gate guarded by skulls and barbed wire, which leads to a garden of sorts. While we were out taking pictures of each other under the skulls, a group of british business men were walking by and jumped in the frame with us. As they were walking off the said, "I hope that doesn't end up on YouTube or something." We always seem to find ourselves having humorous encounters with the locals. 

After passing by some other small places like the Crutched 

Friars pub, and wandering through a mix of directions that led us through some parking garages and cute alleyways, we were finally at our most anticipated stop, the Leadenhall Market. This was used as the location of Diagon Alley in the first Harry Potter Movie! On a regular day though, it is just  a marketplace.

We also went down Bull's Head Passage to place that was used as the entrance to the Leaky Cauldron in the film. I was a little disappointed because now it is just some random glasses shop and it used to be a pub. 

Our first Thursday in London concluded with a trip with practically the entire Missouri group to a club near Pickadilly called Zoo Bar. It actually reminds me of clubs we would have back home, and there were a lot of Americans there. I'm thinking I will just stick to the pubs. They are a lot more laid back and cheaper!

Oh, I cannot forget to mention that I booked a trip to Greece! I will be traveling with three of my roommates to Athens and Mykonos Island the last weekend in June. It's going to be BRILL!