absolutely tanked

but not drunk tanked, just incredibly tired. alex estimates that we've walked about 2-3 miles today, but not in distance, just from walking ... and running to and from destinations, thru tube stations, thru westminster abby...

oka okay so the day started off with us running thru waterloo station ala jason bourne from the bourne films. no joke. we had 3 mins from the railway train to get to the london eye for our 'flight' b/c we booked a time online. actually, b/c we're such geeks we may renanct the running except this time film it b/c seriously, it looked crazy, we were jumping around and dodging people left right and centre. quite ridik. also found out how incredibly out of shape i am!
well it turned out the time we booked, as long as we validated our tic by 1030 we could ride it whenever we wanted until 9pm. the morning was super, b/c the weather was extremely hazy, thought we would've wasted an eye trip on poor weather, luckily as we got closer to the city the sky was clearing up, just not as clear as we wanted it ot be at 1030. b/c we had our tix from the bus tour, yesterday, we decided to wait out gorgeous weather and take a river tour on the thames instead.

that turned out excellent. our commentator had the great british wit, droll humor, and very knowledgeable about all the buildings around us. the boat dropped us off at the tower of london and we were going to take the tube over to westminster, when we came across a naval memorial and park. quite a surprise, yet extremely sad. the memorial was for rememberance of all the naval soldiers during ww1. all the boats and the sailors names were inprinted into the walls of the memorial with rememberance day-like wreaths around. it's incredible the amount of boats that were used the war and how many had been lost. as i walked around reading all the names, a bell pealed in the background and my entire body got goose bumps. standing in the memorial (open space with surrounding name walls), albeit sad, was peaceful despite being right next to a road.

next we went to westminster abby, holy cripes, that thing is huge. like hi, can we build any higher?! quite an enginnering feat, i'd like to see man build something that crazy WITHOUT the machinary we have today! this was around noon time, we were starving so we went into a corner store to grab food, btw the corner stores sell liquor! love it, but did not buy it. we sat on the lawn in front of the abby eating our lunch. i dont know if it's b/c i've been to italy a couple of times and the vatican a couple of times, that though the abby was impressive, i still felt that nonchalant, de-sensitised feeling... i was impressed, but i didn't get the same WOW moment i got when i first walked into the vatican. anyways, abby awesome. up next, portobello market!!

portobello market is great, it's in notting hill. the area is beauuuttifful. the architecture is different, a lot more modern facades to the buildings, but still has that georgian-english field. the market stretches on for blocks selling everything from clothes, jewelery and compasses. it was lke walking thru an antique road show episode or just a super huge and awesome garage sale.

after the market we went back to the london eye to try to get on it before we had to go to picadilly circus for our play.

sigh sorry, brain getting tired, details of the day starting to get more difficult to jot down, but we do have plenty of photos and videos!

we just got back from seeing the play, the 39 steps (hitchcock movie turned into a comedy play...), it was funny, but i was so tired i think i might've noddded off intermitantly.

oOOooo i found the best ramen so far, not that i was actively looking for it, but we went to a restaurant called waggamamas (waggamamas.com or something like that, go google it), but it was a great eating experience, cheap, and yummy all at once!! i would go back again and again. i have pics of that as well, those will follow shortly...

okay i can feel my eyes sinking further into my face. i can't believe i lasted 32+ straight hrs yesterday, today was literally non-stop 13 hr day, tomorrow may be even longer. going to st pauls, harrods, tate modern, design museum, albert and victoria museum, and seeing a play at the globe theatre.

ciao.