Tower of London, Rugby Game, & Guy Fawkes Day

This week/weekend was a great one! A busy one, but great none the less. On Friday we went to the Tower of London to take a tour and see the crown jewels inside. It was 12.50 pounds (with our student discount!) to buy a ticket in, which equals out to something like $20. I was hesitant at first because it seemed like a lot of money to go look at some jewels...but it was AMAZING. I was so glad I decided to go after all. There was a lot more than just jewels; they had the various rooms, some with actors in them portraying famous kings and queens of the time. A lot of people were kept prisoner there in the past, so a lot of the rooms were dedicated to that. It was just so beautiful and interesting, and not at all small like I thought. It was really a town in itself there. Not to mention seeing the crowned jewels was fantastic. Wish I could have gotten pictures, but no cameras allowed!

Then on Saturday was the Rugby Game and Guy Fawkes Day. Both fun, both VERY London. Rugby was an unfamiliar sport to me, so I had to look up the rules and general themes before we went. Basically it's a whole lot of tackling. It's like football amped up on caffeine and triple the violence. In football, after a tackle the play stops and they reform or whatever. In rugby after a player is tackled, they get up and immediately pass the ball and keep going. There are no time outs or breaks...it is some crazy stuff. Sometimes you would see a player get hurt and they would just hang in the back for a while until they felt better, the game wouldn't even stop. Like I said...crazy. 

Alright, and lastly was Guy Fawkes Day. This is a huge celebration in London, and I suppose equal to what would be 4th of July in the States. Guy Fawkes was a revolutionist who tried to kill King James I on November 5, 1605 by using explosives to blow up Parliament Building. He was obviously unsuccessful, but every year they celebrate on this day with bonfires and fireworks, in celebration of his failure. We went with a large group of people from our program, and we got free dinner and a free ticket into Battersay Park to see the bonfire and fireworks. It was a great deal with free dinner (and yes, you can can guess that we ALL got appetizers, sodas, large meals, AND desserts). It was fantastic. And the fireworks equal, if not better than any fireworks shows I have seen in the states. There were just crowds and crowds of people everywhere!!! Took us an hour to get out and to the tube station.