Today's word is Cacophony

Being that I had the entire day all to myself I decided to do some fun stuff (remember I'm an English teacher), so today's activities were The Borough Market, the British Museum and middle eastern cuisine.

First, the market. I have to admit that when I read the description of the Borough Market, I was not that jazzed about going. It's a food market and even though I like to eat, I'm not really a fruit and veg kind of girl, but I went because that's where the group was going and I wanted to at least experience it.

Wow. What a magical place. Stall upon stall of the most incredible foods you can imagine--granted I wouldn't eat most of them, but that's beside the point. Just to see them was a feast. Fish of every species laid out on ice, fruit piled high and smelling sooo heavenly. There was every kind of bread you can imagine. Loaves and loaves of it in baskets and stacks and bundles. Cheese wheels that were bigger than bike wheels formed the base of pyramids that stood three feet tall. There were foods I'd never even heard of and couldn't pronounce. All sorts of scents filled the air--you never knew what was waiting around the next stall. In some there were people cooking, in others there were samples. It was just spectacular.

But the sound was what suprised me the most. I can't even really describe it. The noise was just so unique. It was all voices--there were very few cars in the area--and the voices were all happy. You didn't hear shrieks or yelling or unpleasentness. It was just every day life, but with a total blending of sounds and accents and languages. The volume would rise and fall--like waves. It was absolutely magical. I can't wait to go back.

The British Museum was crowded, too, since it was a summer weekend. It was blisteringly hot by the time we got there, so we took it at a leisurely pace. No big hurry and chose to only see certain exhibits because the place is so massive you'd kill yourself trying to do it all in one day under the best conditions. In the heat, it's like a sauna and with a bad knee, it's almost like a form of torture anyway.

As I sat in the Parthenon Galleries, groups of tourists would come and go and once again I was bombarded with sound. This time it was not as welcomed since I was trying to listen to my audio guide, but it was still fascinating. There was an enormous group of Japanese school children in uniforms--plaid skirts, solid jackets with white shirts and ties for the girls, dark pants, white shirts and coats with ties for the boys. I was dying to know if they were local or if they were on a tour because they looked like traditional English school kids, but spoke in Japanese and sort had that touristy look about them (moving in a huge pack, lots of backpacks, several tired teachers, etc). Then there was a group of what I think were Italians who were also quite loud. What struck me with them was how drop dead gorgeous they all were. The girls were stunning. Then there were other mixed groups that would be standing there that you would think "American?" and they'd speak and it would be some language that I couldn't begin to identify. I think at one point I was probably the only person in the gallery that spoke English as a native language and I found that more fascinating than the Elgin marbles that I was supposed to be admiring.

Dinner was at a yummy place just up the street call TAS. It was very crowded. We had to sit in the lower level because all of the upstairs tables were booked. The din was just at the level before you can't hear yourself think. English accents, more Italian, some Pakistani, an American here and there....it was just a smorgasbord of sound that really accentuated the meal, which was much better than I ever dreamed it would be. I tried hummus for the first time. I'm not going to run out and buy some any time soon, but it was pleasant.

So, tonight, I'm sitting here looking at my postcards that I've stuck to the walls from the day and I realize that I have a sort of mini soundtrack in my head and it's a mix of all the sounds from the day playing over and over in a loop and it's quite soothing. This is what London is all about.