To Europe and Back : A Summer Abroad: DAY 7: School Sponsered Pub Crawl?

Today was pretty ordinary. I slept in until 12PM today, which was nice but I feel like I'm missing things when I do that. I had my second day of my Historic Costume class, which went pretty well. I've learned the instructors here are extremely vague... about everything. My poor professor explained our assignment about four times and I still had no idea what she was asking us to actually do.

Right after class, there was a planned cultural event at 7PM called The Hidden Pubs of London. We met Tony (Cultural activities planner/ all-knowing London guide) at the Main building to venture off to the first site. The first pub on the tour was called The Cittie of York, established in the early 1400's. From 1690-1805 the pub was turned into a coffee shop. After 1805 it reclaimed its status as a pub and has been such ever since. The interior of the place was really cool! The barrels behind the bar are original and at one point held all of the wine to serve. Here my roomates and I shared a round of 'cider and black', which is traditional daught cider with a splash of black current liqour. It was quite tasty!

The second pub wasn't exceptionally interesting. It was called the Knights Templar, named so because the Knights apparently owned the land it was on at one time. Both this pub and the next one were originally bags are are pretty grand on the inside.

The third pub was called The Old Bank of England, again, a bank converted into a pub. The site of this pub had some really great history. Located on Fleet Street, this pub is on the exact location of where once stood a barber shop and a bakery in 1888. The barber had a shaft that led from his chair to the basement, so that when he slit the throat of his clients while giving them a "shave", all he had to do pull a lever, and they were gone. The woman who owned the bakery next door was the lover of the barber, and both buildings shared a basement. She took the remains of his victims and cooked them into her pies. Some of you may know this story from the Johnny Depp film Sweeny Todd - The Demon Barber of Fleet Street, based on these events. The pub was pretty cool inside, but I wish it was still the same building! Creepy!

By the fourth pub I was over it. The drinking age here is 18 and it was pretty obvious the goal of some of my counterparts was less of a cultural experience and more about getting drunk in public, legally. It was called the Olde Cheshire Cheese. Interesting name... It's famous because many famous people would frequent there including Mark Twain, Charles Dickens and Theodore Roosevelt.

To be totally honest, I was more concerned about the McDonalds next door and where to find the nearest tube station home. I got my snack and made my way to the train. I was pretty excited to come across St. Paul's Cathedral again. It's just as pretty at night, if not prettier. I successfully made it home and am completely exhausted. It's now 2AM and I'm going to sleep. Enjoy :)

American Intercontinental University main building on Marylebone High Street

1st pub, Cittie of York established in 1440s

It's a little blurry, but check out those barrels! HUGE!

Forgot what this building was, but it's cool!

This shop was esablished in 1690. They sold mouse traps to women of who had huge hair, similar to Marie Antoinette, to keep rodents from burrowing nests in thier hair while they slept.