Tower of London and Tower Bridge

Today a small group of us went to the Tower of London... in the rain! Yes, we are finally experiencing "real" London weather!  But we bared down with our umbrellas (except for one of us, who forgot to bring one) and decided to press on.  I got to take the Underground, or the Tube, for the first time today.  Woot! But we got to the Tower (which is actually more of a fortress/castle than a tower), got our maps, and wandered into through the gates, greeted by a few Yeoman Warders, better known as Beefeaters (they still exist!). We headed for the nearest door to get out of the rain and began our tour.  It was very cool to be in a place with so much history (and gore!).  There were towers used for imprisonment that had carvings etched into the walls, which was pretty neat.  We climbed A LOT of spiral tower staircases. They are a little scary because you never know what's around the corner, or when the next exit will be! We walked along the outer walls and saw a lot of rooms and towers.  We then saw a famous diamond, which was HUGE and very sparkly! We also saw all of the crown jewels and coronation items. I wish I could have taken pictures! They almost looked fake because they are so ridiculous and huge.  I saw my first guard on duty as well! So of course we took pictures with him.  And there was another one walking in front of a row of doors outside.  We weren't sure what he was guarding.  We went into the Fusiliers' Museum and saw a lot of military history at the White Tower, including suits of armor and weapons of the past.  We also saw some torture and execution devices, which were quite disturbing.  After we saw everything there was to see, we ventured over towards the Tower Bridge and took some pictures.  We decided to walk across it, and ended up paying to go up inside so we could walk across the top.  It was pretty cool, and had some nice views (even if it was cloudy). When we got to the gift shop, I found my first London Olympics memorabilia.  The best part was it was on sale AND I had received a coupon when I started the tour! So that was a score! By then we were hungry from skipping lunch and tired from walking all day, so we caught the train home.

Tonight I booked my trip to Prague, Czech Republic for a long weekend in November with some friends with some help from Groupon! And last night my wonderful cousin Kaitlyn booked her ticket to come see me over Thanksgiving! I can't wait!  And I need to start planning my trip over my fall break and other weekends as well.  The rest of the night I've spent doing homework for my sociology class, funnily enough about the US election and American policy, as compared to the UK.  I'm the only American in my class, and last class, he just bashed America, so this could be an interesting experience.  Other than that, my other two classes start tomorrow and Wednesday, and I hope they go well.  I'm not much of a fan of this reading and weekly research thing.  Much different than my science courses back home!
And of course, I got the new Mumford & Sons album today, and I love it! We found out that they will be in London in December right before we leave, so I could go see them a second time this year, which would be awesome!  We will have to see how much it costs... But I also can't wait until tomorrow when I can watch the season premiere of How I Met Your Mother!! I have missed it so much.  I have been suffering from a bit of a cold I think, with a sore throat, cough, and sinus issues. I hope it goes away soon, because I don't want to have to slow down! So much to do and see (plus maybe some school) and so little time!