day 3: london (goodbye walter, temple, st. pauls, tate modern)

Today was exhausting but exhilirating. We very sadly bid farewell to Walter, after eating breakfast in the hostel and then sitting at a cafe for awhile until it was time to part ways. I thought that a pall would be cast over the rest of the day, but we bounced back rather quickly. We switched hostels to be closer to Kings Cross--we're in the place that I stayed when I was in London three years ago, which is a bit strange. Then, we started walking towards the Thames, hopped on a bus, and made it to the Temple. It was built in the 1100s by the Knights Templar, and is the only round church in existence in London; it also figured prominently in 'The Da Vinci Code'. It was absolutely breathtaking, and v. well hidden amongst the Inns of Court (which took over the lease when the Knights were persecuted into oblivion several centuries ago). Then, we headed for St. Pauls, which was definitely worth the visit; it's the second biggest dome in Christendom (after the Vatican) and has absolutely amazing gold, mosaics, stones, and memorials to fallen soldiers both famous (Nelson, for example) and obscure (those who died in Granada), as well as artists (William Blake) and religious men (John Donne, former dean of St. Pauls, and the one who warned us not to ask for whom the bell tolls). We climbed up to the dome; I made it to the second level (approximately 400 steps), but the climb to the very top required going up an open metalwork spiral staircase, which was making me dizzy and extremely afraid, so I went back to the bottom and appreciated the splendour of the cathedral from the level on which it was meant to be experienced.

After the two churches, we went to worship modern art at the Tate Modern; I hate modern art, so much of it was lost on me, but there were several pieces that unexpectedly tugged at something deep within me (a dozen roses in red acrylic to memorialize Jackie Kennedy, some canvasses of the four seasons by Cy Twombly). At this point, we were weak from hunger since we had not eaten lunch, and so we stopped at a pub, where I had hamburger #2 of my trip. Now we're back at the hostel, and we just arranged for a room so that Claude and I have someplace to stay in Rome tomorrow. I'm quite excited to see the cradle of the Renaissance, and to have the opportunity to spread my plague to the country that was so affected by the medieval outbreak--I so far have met with failure in my attempts to infect my friends, but hopefully the Italians will have less resistance. I'm still coughing like crazy, but other than that (and the blisters on my feet), I feel ten million times better.

Vacation never lasts long enough, but we're packing a lot into a short period of time; this will ensure that I return to India a) nostalgic for relatively clean Western Europe, and b) completely exhausted. Now, though, I should go do something that doesn't involve staring at the computer!