Happy Saturday to all! It’s almost been a full week, which means my stay at this hostel is ALMOST OVER. Woo!
Today… today I went to the British Library. I didn’t stay for long, though—I missed the last tour of the day by about ten minutes. However, tomorrow, at three, is another tour opportunity, so I think I’m going to do that.
Even though I didn’t stay long, I wandered around the building and did my best to keep my jaw from hanging open. That place is HUGE! Seriously.
I wasn’t sure if pictures were allowed inside the building or not. A lot of the rooms had signs saying specifically “No pictures in here,” but what about outside those rooms? I ended up just taking one picture (without flash) to show you the size of the middle.
Aside from this massive column of bookshelves, the rest of the library looks very modern—at least the parts available to the non-paying public is. They have a lot of special reading rooms that you need a pass to enter, and some of those looked pretty cool. This building is fairly new, though. The British Library used to be in the middle of the British Museum, but it outgrew that space and moved out before 2000. The Library has a copy of every book published in the UK and many published around the world. It also houses (and I got to see these) valuable and notable books from history, such as Shakespeare’s First Folio, the Lindisfarne Gospel, the original Beowulf manuscript, a handwritten Jane Eyre, the diary of Lewis Carroll, pages from Leonardo Da Vinci’s notebook, a letter written by Sir Isaac Newton, ancient copies of the book of Hebrews (written in Greek on papyrus—my favourite one!), several copies of the Magna Carta, and notes written by the Beatles. Those are just the ones I remember! I’m definitely impressed by the size and history of this library, but the public spaces didn’t seem very comfortable. The information guy wasn’t too helpful, either, directing me to the toilets when I asked about tours.
Oh, I did my laundry this morning, too. In accordance with the laws of laundry, I lost a sock. I have no idea where it could have gone. Seriously. I took it from the bathroom, stuck it in a bag, zipped the bag, carried it to the laundry room, did the laundry, stuck it back in the back, zipped it, carried it back to my room… and somewhere, it disappeared.
It was one of my freebie airline socks, so I’m not mourning the loss too much. Still… how could it have disappeared!? I searched everywhere, but no luck. One free sock left.
In addition to the Library and laundry, I talked to a ghost in my room. Yesterday, I was sitting on my bed, chatting with my brother, when this little fist-sized shadow darted from the cupboards by the bathroom into the bathroom. It went really fast, and didn’t scurry or fly so much as zip. Woosh! Yay! I went into the bathroom later, but I didn’t see anything that could have caused that shadow. Nothing had been flying around by the light, either, to cast a shadow.
Then, this morning, I was minding my own business, fast asleep, when BANGBANGBANG! Three big bangs jolted me out of my slumber, accompanied by shakes to the bed. It felt almost like Macy had jumped on the bed three times above (bunk beds, so when one person moves, the other bed moves too). However, Macy was fast asleep and not even moving—I didn’t know if she was even in the room, since it was dark out and she hadn’t returned by the time I went to bed.
I checked my phone and saw that it was about 6:55 AM, so I rolled over and went back to bed. Still, that had been awfully unnerving.
Then, not too long before I started writing this entry, I saw the shadow zip into the bathroom again, so I introduced myself and asked it not to wake me up again please. I’d be happy to play with a ghost when I’m awake, but when I’m asleep… I’d really prefer sleep over ghosts. It would be cool to have a real ghost in my room, though. As long as it’s a nice real ghost.
Anyway, I thought I’d leave you with these three Tube posters. I like this advertising campaign.
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