Pleasant surprises

I had been meaning to go back to London for quite some time now since I hadn't been able to yet this year, and with one weekend to fill before my Irish bus adventure began, I decided to fill it with someplace easy and close-ish to my eventual destination. Though I had been mostly looking forward to fulfilling my live musical void by seeing the long-awaited Lion King (which was sold out... I had to settle, instead, for Blood Brothers...not quite as magical I don't think) the highlight of my visit to the city was visiting the British Museum. A venue that hadn't quite made it to the top of my To Do list my previous 4 visits (I know, right?) I had a strong urge to visit it this time with little knowledge of what to expect. I found myself surrounded by astounding ancient artifacts, Egyptian, Roman and Greek, that, to me, seemed like the ultimate culmination of ancient wonders that I have seen in the last year. In one visit I was able to relive seeing the Parthenon and Acropolis in Athens, the Pantheon in Rome, and the pyramids and temples in Egypt.

But the absolute coolest moment was when, randomly stumbling through a doorway on the bottom floor of the museum, my attention was drawn at an artifact towards which a multitude of cameras were aimed. "Is that it?" a woman behind me asked. "I think so. Let's just take a picture of it and then get out of here." replied her companion. Curiosity taking over, I moved amass toward the glass case ahead of me. There before me stood a stone. It took a second for me to realize it, but as soon as it did, the breath was taken out of me. The Rosetta Stone. One of the most important ancient artifacts in existence. In front of me. I felt so foolish that I didn't know it was even in this museum. Kind of like the time I was standing front of a tomb in Sevilla, Spain without realizing who it belonged to until I looked down at my map. Christopher Columbus. Wait, what? Yeah...kind of like that.
The rest of my time in London was filled with yummy food, a depressing musical, tube-riding and English. Lots and lots of English. It was a short and sweet introduction to the beginning of my holiday.