So I (the Princess in this story) woke up this morning in excruciating pain. My lower back was KILLING me. I rolled over to get out of bed, put my foot down, and my leg didn’t work!!! It just kind of collapsed under me, which was really weird. Luckily the bed was right under me, so I just kind of laid back down. Naturally, I assumed that I had some sort of Sciatic Nerve meltdown, given Michael’s recent bout with nerve damage. I realized I was laying on something on the bed, which turned out to be some kind of loose spring (or Pea… in this instance), which had apparently attacked me in the night. Since it was about 7:30, I decided to go back to sleep for a little while and see if it would correct itself. It didn’t. So, around 9:00, I got myself up, got ready, and headed out. After about an hour, it worked itself out, and I am 100% now!

My first stop was the bank. Opening a bank account in the UK is a rare treat. It took the whole week to get it open. And I am an employee. I won’t bore you with the details, but make sure that if you need to open an account you have an address in the UK. And it is not like you can lie and say you have one, because you have to prove it with utility bills or a lease. I was able to get around it by having my boss write the bank a letter stating that I live at such and such address on company letterhead. What a hassle.

I have been excited about visiting the Borough Market all week. It is open every day for buying fruits and vegetables, but it comes alive Thursday – Sunday. Of course I was in Leicester yesterday, but the Market was my first fun stop of the day. It was worth the wait. They sell everything from fruit to fish. As mentioned, on the weekends they also sell food from stalls and so forth. They had every imaginable type of food, but the focus seemed to be on meat pies and these fish wrap things. They had a lot of vegetarian options – a whole stand of different types of veggie burgers. walked all around the market before choosing my lunch, even though I was starving, because the last time I was at a super cool market (Granville Island in Vancouver) I was too hungry to wait, and ended up eating some horrible nachos. How you mess up Nachos I don’t know, but they managed to do it perfectly. Anyway, I WAS thirsty and figured I couldn’t go wrong grabbing a quick drink while I walked around. I saw a little stand selling “Fresh Cider from the Country.” Yum, right? WRONG!!! Cider is NOT apple cider. It is fermented apple juice. I took a huge gulp, and just about spit it out. I haven’t had alcohol for over 5 years, so it didn’t go down easy, and I had to throw it away after the one unfortunate gulp. I bought a bottle of water instead. I decided on pumpkin ravioli for lunch, served with tomato sauce and cheese. It was delicious – they made it fresh that morning, and cooked it for me on the spot. I found a little corner and people watched while I ate. All told, I spent about 2 hours there, taking photos, and looking at all the good food. So far it is my favorite place in London, and I plan to go back tomorrow.

After lunch, I decided to go on to Covent Garden, which I arrived at by walking along the Thames, then across Southwark Bridge, and along the Victoria Embankment. I came upon “The Temple.” This is the church of Inner and Middle Temple, two of England’s four ancient societies of lawyers, the Inns of Court. If you want to learn more about the Temple, or the Knights Templar, you can look here:

Temple Church

I continued up to Covent Garden and saw some street performers, including what I call the Mud People. They were in Spain, and now they are here. They are these people who coat themselves in some kind of paint (in Spain it looked like mud, here in London it was a silvery paint), and then they try to hold perfectly still. I think the goal is to look like a statue and scare people by moving suddenly… Covent Garden was a lot of fun, and I bought a Pashmina, which is a big scarf / cape type thing. It is perfect for the weather here because you don’t really need a coat, yet it can get chilly without one. The Pashmina works to keep your neck warm, and is also a fashion statement for a lot of the girls wearing them. I would say about 75% of the local girls wear them, and they have them in literally every color! Covent Garden has every shop you can imagine, from H&M to Zara, to tons of local shops. This will be a really fun shopping area as there a lot of unique items here.

I’m off to get some dinner now. There is a Mark&Spencer’s Simply Food right across the street (kind of a grocery store, with a focus on take out foods and fruits and veggies). Then I am relaxing at home with a movie tonight. I think I did my fair share of activeness today, having walked at least 10 miles!!!