Being Bookish at the British Library

I'm here at the British Library which is by far my new favorite spot in London. This place is sort of like the British version of the Library of Congress, except it started as the King's personal library. Today it is part museum, part coffee shop, and very much the most pleasant library I've ever been in. (Not to mention free net access!)

The library is currently hosting an impressive exhibit called "Sacred" that showcases manuscripts of Jewish, Christian and Muslim texts side by side and shows how they borrow and adapt form each other's artwork and imagery. It might be my favorite exhibit yet, see http://www.bl.uk/sacred. The library has an impressive collection of texts and artifacts and the exhibit was very well done. Ethan would have liked it, as it is a nice capstone to our trip-long first-person exploration of various Mosques, Synagogues and Churches.

Irungu's house is fun to relax in. Since there is no net access or television, after work everyone just lounges about on the couch or floor reading. Nina and I are both catching up on Harry Potter, while Solomon studies for his job and Irungu reads some heavy fiction. This morning I tracked down the best cheap lunch place in London, conveniently named "The No 1 Cafe" (located on Tower Street between Covent Garden and Soho). Their speciality is potatoes so I had a giant spud with cheese, beans and lettuce for £2.65. I got the lazy-cashier discount and saved 15p because the chap behind the counter didn't feel like changing my £20 note. Always a win! I had a pleasant lunch with my companion Harry Potter in Nina's hidden garden from yesterday.

My camp friend Erica is doing well and it was great to see her last night for some good Italian food in a hidden pedestrian mall. She spends her days working at a small firm by Bond street where she shuffles around millions of pounds of other people's money. She has been maximizing her prime European location by spending lots of weekends traveling around. Last week she was in Iceland and soon she will be heading to Krakow. Its impressive to see her all professional and sophisticated after our days back at summer camp. We both decided we miss camp and we are jealous of our similarly aged camp-friends who somehow are still working there.

Tomorrow I'm off to Berlin. Later!