The first day we did a lot of walking around to see some of the major sites. We were staying at a hostel the first two nights and then we stayed 3 nights with friends of my aunt who were so gracious to host us.
I saw Big Ben, The London Eye, Trafalgar Square, The River Thames, Oxford Street, China Town and probably some other stuff on the first day. It was an excellent introduction to the city.
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| Hint: This building foreshadows future events ;) |
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| Obligatory telephone booth pic. |
We decided we were in the mood for bubble tea. Bubble tea by itself makes me happy...but we found a 2 for 1 deal at one bubble tea place which made us super happy. Everything is super pricey in London, but paying half-price for a bubble tea literally made our day. I know I've been talking about this bubble tea for a whole paragraph now, but I think it merits this much attention.
We walked to Oxford Street and paid a visit to Primark. Primark is pretty much equivalent to Forever 21 and at least as overwhelming as the Forever 21 you can find in Time Square. But I needed to buy a pair of cheap heals for our visit to The Shard, so we braved the store.
And for another British chain experience, we went to Nandos for dinner. Nandos is definitely one of the better food chains I've been to...and by that, I mean it's actually super delicious.
By the end of dinner we went back to the hostel and basically crashed because we had actually been up at 4.15 that morning to make the flight...so it had already been a long day.
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Our second London day was beautiful and very outdoorsy. We started the morning with the Changing of the Guard at Buckingham Palace, and then spent the entire afternoon in Hyde Park. It was such a beautiful day, and the park is absolutely gorgeous so we decided to get some food from the grocery store and have a picnic lunch. For me...a perfect way to spend an afternoon.
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| While overwhelming, the crowds were, in a way, just as entertaining as the actual ceremony. |
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| We got there early so I was able to stand close...but not quite close enough to get a good picture. |
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| This fountain is open for children to play in. We sat with our feet in the water and watched the people for a while. It stood out to me as one of my favorite moments during my time in London. |
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| The Peter Pan statue! |
That evening we went to a Korean restaurant that Hannah really likes. One of the things I really liked about London was the variety of food available. As much as I love Italian food, living in Italy didn't provide for the same amount of variety that I'm used to. It was really nice to eat a ton of different kinds of food while I was in London. (More on that to come)
Also, I got a few lovely London At Night pictures.
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We started the third day with a trip to the British Museum. I was debating whether or not I wanted to go...I feel like I've been to so many museums and churches in the last few months that I was getting tired, but I thought it would be worth it. Surprise...it was!
Also, there are free tours throughout the day of different sections of the museum so we decided to do a guided tour on the section about Ancient China. I wouldn't say it was the most fun tour I've ever done, but it was interesting, and a nice addition to our British Museum experience.
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| We found this friend at the museum. Isn't he cool? |
In the afternoon, we had our afternoon tea. It was great.
Just look at how adorable that is.
Later that evening, we found an outdoor festival of sorts and had pitas and beer for dinner. It was a super lovely atmosphere and we could see the London eye from where we were sitting. We also had a lovely romantic stroll along the river. It was a pretty solid evening.
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The fourth day, we had booked an art walking tour. After the street art tour in Barcelona, Hannah and I have become street art walking tour enthusiasts. No really though, they're super cool. This tour was at least as good as the Barcelona one and then we were right by Brick Lane, so naturally, we had Indian food for lunch.
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| This friend was painted in only 8 hours! It's hard to tell, but it's actually HUGE. At least 20 feet tall. |
The question mark on that building has a story. While at first glance, it doesn't look like anything too special, it was created by a street artist and the police. Street art is often illegal, so sometimes there are people who come around and paint over street art in the brown color of the question mark. Long story short, the street artist, over the course of several days, got these people to create the shape of the question mark by writing "buff this" "and this" and "here" where they were going to paint over it. I know I didn't explain well, but if you want a better explanation, I'd be happy to talk about it for a very long time! It's so cool :)
In contrast, however, many artists in London have gotten permission to create their street art. This means they could publicly work on the piece, and didn't have to worry so much about how quickly they could make it. This particular one was created by cooling the aerosol cans so it would create more texture.
This one is especially amazing in person. It was created by putting a layer of plaster over the bricks, and then carving back into it to create texture and a picture. It's amazing!
...and then to add more art to the day, we made a quick visit to the National Gallery in the afternoon. It was really cool to see some Van Gogh, Botticelli and my favorite da Vinci piece, Madonna of the Rocks. I think what I like most about art museums is seeing artists and pieces that I recognize, and I almost have enough art history to recognize stuff! There were a fair number of pieces and artists that I knew though, so that was cool.
Then we went back to China Town for dinner, and bought West End theatre tickets on a whim. We saw The Pajama Games which was a lot of fun, and made for an excellent evening.
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Our final day in London was Camden Market day. I'm a huge fan of outdoor markets, and there are a lot of great food stands there. We had Turkish food and a crepe for lunch. Yum!
Then we revisited Buckingham Palace because we learned that the guards can choose to walk back and forth 15 paces whenever they get tired of standing still, so we thought it would be a fun game to go see when they got tired. We were right, it was a fun game.
We also made a quick trip to the Victoria and Albert Museum. We were pretty proud of our frequency of museum visits this trip. There was a really cool theatre exhibit there, and we made a quick stop to see some Raphael paintings. Definitely worth the visit.
Then...our big moment that we had been building up to: our final evening. We went to The Shard, that gigantic building, for a fancy cocktail, and then to The Globe to see Titus Andronicus. It was so amazing, and such a fun night!
We both wished we had more time at The Shard, but it was still an amazing view from the 32 floor, delicious and overpriced cocktails, and we had gotten dressed up for the occasion so it was fun to feel fancy.
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| There was a rainbow. Could it be more perfect?? |
Let me just say that seeing Titus Andronicus was actually the perfect end to our time in London. It was such a fun show, and so so cool to be in The Globe theatre. The performance was amazingly done and we were just so thrilled to be there.
So that's it. Five days in London, but I'll say that I would definitely like to return some day. It's a great city!
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