I Didn't Want To Go To Chelsea

Just got back from London last night, and I can certainly say that city is amazing. I arrived late Wednesday night, stayed 4 full days, and left Monday afternoon, so only like 4 1/2 days, really, but it felt like quite a while. Enough that I felt a little bit at-homeish there. I stayed with my friend Matt (both future, and ex- roomie). Anyway, rundown of activities followed by pictures.

Wednesday night: Arrived late at Luton Airport, drove in to the city on a bus for an hour. I was exhausted, but giddy to be driving on the wrong side of the road and seeing signs in English. After meeting Matt in central London, we rode out to his dorm in Camberwell. Along the way I found a Liverpool scarf on the ground, so that was my free souvenir for the trip.

Thursday: Went to the National Gallery, saw many cool paintings. Saw Trafalgar Square, Piccadilly Circus, King's College (where Matt goes to school), had a pint at Ye Olde Cheshire Cheese (where Dickens wrote things) and then played a trivia game at a pub on the King's campus. The pub had glorious views of the Thames.

Friday: Went to Borough Market, the most incredible place in all of London. Stall after stall of the most delicious food. All high quality stuff, relatively cheap, plus free samples. We walked around eating free samples and buying things for about 3 hours. I bought a lamb burger with blue-veined Stilton cheese, a berry smoothie, a chorizo sandwich with peppers and rocket, and apple-raspberry juice. Free samples included the most delicious mushroom pate I could imagine, many olives stuffed with various things, balsamic vinegar syrup with orange peel, fancy cheeses, delicious pesto, sausages, jams (strawberry jam with champagne was my favorite), and much more. After Borough we walked across the London Bridge to St. Paul's Cathedral, walked back over the Millennium Bridge (a fun footbridge connecting the two sights) to the Tate Modern. Saw the Globe Theater on the way. After bouncing around the gigantic Tate for a while, we walked along the Thames and laughed at many H.M. Bateman prints for awhile. We crossed Westminster Bridge and saw the Houses Of Parliament, Big Ben and Westminster Abbey. We ate Thai food and stayed up until 8 in the morning chatting about whatever we could think of.

Saturday: Went to see Stonehenge. £30 total, 8 hours total on a bus, for a couple of rocks. But it was incredibly cool. And fun headsets provided (unintentionally) funny commentary. We also saw Salisbury, which was a beautiful little town complete with soaring cathedral, and Southampton, which was one of the uglier towns I've ever seen. But at Southampton we did see the port where the Titanic set sail. It was a very S day.

Sunday: Went to the British Museum and saw all the things that the Brits stole from the rest of the world. It was pretty impressive. Then went and had a picnic in Hyde Park! It was a beautiful day and we played (and invented) many games, and ate a lot of junk food, all in a beautiful park. After eating fish and chips, we were all too exhausted to do anything more, so we hung out and talked.

Monday: Saw the Changing of the Guards, which was horrifically boring, I wish I would have gone to the Victoria & Albert Museum instead, but ah well, I'm allowed one mistake. Saw 10 Downing Street and had a beautiful walk through St. James Park. Ate an English breakfast, which was delightful, as I had been missing proper breakfasts. It consists of one sunny side up egg, two thick slices of English-style Bacon, sausage, beans, and toast. I still had a little time left, so I rode the Tube (they do actually say 'Mind the Gap' a lot on the tube) over to Blackfriars and had one last pint before catching my bus back to the airport.

Observations: It was really expensive. The pound spends exactly like the dollar, except it's worth twice the amount of the dollar, so everything is double the price of what it would be in the States. Public transit was again amazing, the buses (all double-deckered and fun) and the Tube provide an impressive network. The food wasn't as bad as I had heard, but then again I didn't eat that much English food. The weather couldn't make up its mind. It kept switching from raining and cold to warm and sunny constantly. But my last two days were gorgeous weather, so I was pleased. Mayoral elections were going on while I was there, and they do a far far better job of getting the word out and getting people to vote. The U.S. could learn a lot. The City itself didn't look like any other European city I had been too. Maybe because it's so much older. It didn't have the monolithic 6 story apartment building with shops on the first floor thing going on. All the building were different heights, skinny, different styles and colors all crammed in. The streets were a mess, not on a grid at all. Plus with all this was thrown in a lot of modern architecture. So it looked both older and newer than Budapest. Which I guess it is. Anyway, here are the pictures, if you're still reading. They aren't in any order.

Buckingham Palace and the Victoria Monument:



Big Ben:


Houses of Parliament on the Thames (that's Matt on the right there):


Tower Bridge:



Whitehall Street:



Stonehenge:


Salisbury (the river is the Avon):


St. James Park with the London Eye in the background:


Westminster Abbey:


And thats that.