London photo diary

For British eyes only

Day two of London was completely jam-packed, I don't think Grace and I stopped until we went to bed! We got up on the early side and went to Buckingham Palace to see the changing of the guards. I'm not gonna lie, it was super anti-climatic. The weather was beautiful, so neither of us had a problem with waiting outside for a while. After we made our way over to Big Ben, the House of Parliament, Westminster Abbey and the London Eye. The London Eye had such a long line that we weren't able to go! Too much to see and too little time. Instead we went to Harrod's, the famous department store and got high tea! We got scones with clotted cream and jam and several different pastries. Although I forgot to pack my many ball gowns, I still felt incredibly fancy.

After lunch we went to the British Museum which pales in comparison to the National Gallery in my opinion. One thing I was very excited to see was the Parthenon frieze. It's a widely debated art history issue for a couple reasons - one is the actual meaning of the frieze and the second is the ownership of the pieces, whether they should remain in British control or be returned to Greece where the remaining pieces are. We then got a stereotypical dinner - fish and chips. After dinner we decided to go on a pub crawl in Camden. There weren't many people in our group, but they were from all over Cameroon, Brazil, Las Vegas, Australia! The crawl had 4 bars and a club, but we went to 3 of the bars and skipped the club. My two favorite bars were a blues club and a bar that played classic rock called Barfly. We left before midnight because that is when the subway closes and we didn't want to be stuck on the other side of London.

London calling

I managed to make it to London, though for a short time it was debatable if it would happen. Traveling took a while, but since I didn't have much time I was determined to make the most of it. I dropped my stuff at the hostel and then got a delicious lunch of brie and cranberry sandwiches and tea made from steeped mint leaves. I went to the National Gallery, one of the main reasons I came to London and saw my three favorite paintings - The Ambassadors  The Arnolfini Portrait and Portrait of a Man in a Turban. I only saw half of the gallery on my first day because I knew I would go back at some point while I was in London and I wanted to take the time to appreciate everything I saw rather than rushing through it. Afterwards I went to the train station to book my train ticket so I didn't have a repeat incident. 

After all of that I met up with Jessie who goes to NYU Florence and her friend Christoph for an inexpensive chicken dinner and a beer. I tagged along with them to go to an ice bar which was SO COOL! We got to wear ponchos that made everyone look like Snow White. We were there for forty minutes, which was plenty of time because it got chilly! I've always wanted to do something like that and it was everything I thought it would be. I split up with them after to meet Grace at the hostel. I was exhausted from traveling and we went to bed early.