Salsa, Egyptions, Portabello -- personal

First off -- if you like history at all, the British Museum is great! I went planning on only spending a couple of hours, so I picked only two of the exhibits: Ancient Egypt and Ancient Greece. I actually got to go on a free guided tour of the Ancient Greece exhibit which was nice, since I probably learned more than I would have just on my own. I'll save you a play-by-play, but offer just a couple of interesting highlights: I don't know why I never thought of this, but a lot of the sculpture from ancient Greece and Egypt would have been brightly painted. Of course, being ancient all that's worn off, but that really made a lot of sense once I thought about it. And can you imagine what the Parthenon looked like all colorful? Which brings me to the second interesting fact: the British Museum has sections of the Parthenon. An archeologist brought it to Britain -- with permission from the Turkish government -- I think sometime in the 18th or 19th century, before anyone else was really interested in preserving it. He actually sold it to the British government. The Greek government, naturally, would like it all back. They're even willing to trade other sculpture for it, or even designate that portion as "British Museum in Athens." The guide said basically the British government just hasn't taken the time to really address it. Anyway, just thought it was interesting.
Some other fun things from the past few days: hung out in Regent's Park Sunday afternoon and heard a free jazz concert with a Latin jazz band. Bought a camera. (woo-hoo!) Took a long walk through Notting Hill and did a little souveneir shopping on Portabello Road which has some really neat antique stores and boutiques mixed up with the requisite "I heart London" tourist stores. The Notting Hill area is really nice -- lots of great old residences, tree-lined streets, and beautiful tiny gardens in front of the houses. I took a bus back and rode by The Marble Arch (not McDonalds) and the Peter Pan statue in Kensington Garden. I wanted to get out and go look at the statue, but I was blocked in by a huge stroller.