London: I need sleeeep

I arrived at London on Sunday, Valentines Day, at 10am London time. Needless to say, having left at 9:30pm EST for a 7 hour flight and receiving only about an hour of sleep, I was exhausted, and pretty much passed out on the Tube on the way back to the airport that evening.

So there we were, in the middle of one of the greatest cities on earth, with an 11 hour layover before our 12+ hour flight to Cape Town. Naturally, we took the underground to the center of London and got out near Trafalgar Square.

Jack Sparrow, Mickey Mouse, Puppy Dogs, and Creepy Clowns. Yep, street performers were out in style that day. There was a man who was doing a pretty damn good impression of Jack Sparrow, a man (or woman, who knows), in the most shotty Mickey Mouse costume I have ever seen, a man dressed as a dog standing under a box so only his head and "paws" were visible to the world. I took many pictures, naturally, and the ridiculousness of those costumes will soon be uploaded for the world to see.

We grabbed lunch with an old friend of Kait's who had been studying in London, and his name was Jake. After indulging in a Steak, Guinness, and Mushroom Pie, we walked to the British Museum where we spent an hour or so looking at vases, mummies, and jewelry that looked like smiley faces! (again, pictures will be uploaded).

So, there was this mask created hundreds and hundreds of years ago, before Britain did any colonizing, that looked strangely familiar. I had never done much research into race relations and race humor, but clearly "blackface" was something that has been used to represent those with black skin for hundreds upon hundreds of years. Whether positively or negatively represented, it seems that a face far too familiar with crude racial humor was much older than I once thought.

After exhausting our time at the British Museum, we took a double-decker bus to the London Eye and walked from the Eye to Westminster, Parliament, and Big Ben. After some awesome photos it was time to head back to Heathrow to endure a crap-tastic 12-hour flight...

I need sleep.