The Time of the Ironic 4th of July

This morning we set off to one of Teo's London recommendations - Portobello Market in Notting Hill. It was about a 40 minute bus ride, but so worth it when we got there to see the adorable little town houses with colorful doors and paint. It was a lot more quaint and local-esque than central London.

 (Hi Mom, this is a blue door in Notting Hill just for you ;)

 (At the entrance of the market, there were people pretending to be Alice and Wonderland characters. And this was no cheap make up - this was detailed with a set and props)

The market was an excellent recommendation, as blocks upon blocks of little stores had vendors outside selling silver goods, bags, scarves, antiques, souvenirs etc. It was a wonderful market; I'm learning that markets here do not usually mean food. I really enjoyed the crowds of people looking at these items for sale even though it was a little overwhelming deciding what to buy.

I ended up getting my sister an English straw hat and my mom a little flower-patterned English creamer. 

At about 11:30 a.m. we set off walking towards Kensington Palace. This is an illustrative example of one annoying part of London: everything is called the same name. For example, we initially got lost at our residence because there's a Camden Market, Camden Station, Camden High Street, Camden Garden, and Camden Town. Kensington was similar. Imagine us walking from this market without Wifi or directions, aimlessly following street signs to Kensington Palace. Then the streets are called Kensington Garden, Kensington Terrace, Kensington Garden Terrace... you get the idea. Which one do we take?! 

Eventually we did see a fancy gate that we assumed went on their street. Photography wasn't allowed, but all the houses were white and gorgeous, until eventually at the end we saw the red bricks of the palace. Kensington Park had some dead grass but was otherwise cheerful. The set of gates facing part of the palace displayed flowers, happy birthday balloons and signs and pictures of Diana. I'm assuming her birthday is near. 

Next up on our itinerary (which, by the way, we planned last night and used Google maps at our residence while we still had wifi, so pat on the back to us for that) was Harrods. We took a bus from the sidewalk near Kensington to Knightsbridge and turned the corner to see this huge store that had to be Harrods. Little green overhangs trimmed the bottom floor - the store in general reminded me of Macy's in New York City or something because of how big and beautiful it must be at Christmas time. 

I can't even explain how confusing the layout of this store is for me. It's open, with pathways walking through stores instead of closed off rooms with doors, and elevators at the heart of this nightmarish maze. They have employees all over the store with gold sashes (like in beauty pageants) just so you can ask them where to go. Designer stores, suitcase stores, housewares items... it was like every store packed into one. Finally we made it to the Tea Room, which was one of the top things I wanted to do in London. 

We only had to wait in line a little bit, and then they sat us down against a green cushion in a bright yellow room. Everything is served on Wedgwood - a pretty strawberry pattern - and made me feel super fancy. I ordered "The Wedgwood" tea meal, which includes a tea (I chose the 1849 blend from India), scones with jam and butter, finger sandwiches and a dessert choice (I chose salted caramel sea salt). 

The scones were not as rough-textured as in the US, but looked more like giant cream puffs in shape and were tasty with the thick white butter and strawberry jam. The baby sandwiches were cream cheese and cucumber, cream cheese and salmon (delicious despite my usual indifference to salmon), and a roast beef bleu cheese I gather. My dessert was wonderful (of course it has to be my favorite) as it was a layered cake-like pastry with a dense chocolate bottom, soft caramel custard in layers and lighter chocolate cream, adorned with chocolate candies. It was so rich I absolutely couldn't finish it! 

I'm very glad I could have this experience while in England - what other way can you eat lunch here? Eve though I think it's supposed to be a dish in between lunch and dinner, oh well. 

We hoped on the tube (our first underground experience) to Westminster to catch our free boat ride. Luckily our voucher allowed us to skip the long line of ticket-buyers and we boarded a huge boat on the Thames. Don't know if I mentioned it, but this river is so much dirtier than the Seine. 

Our boat tour lasted almost 30 minutes as our funny guide pointed out famous landmarks along the way. He joked about one of the alternate languages on the headset guide being American. 

(London Bridge finally- the fifth one in 1,000 years!)

Our ticket enabled us to go by boat all the way to Greenwich, but we got off at the Tower of London since Greenwich would apparently take another hour and we wanted to see some other sights. 

I'm learning that everything touristy in this town costs 20 pounds. The Tower was no different, and it was closing in an hour. Yet the museums are free?! What. 

So anyway, we admired the castle-like brickwork, watched the Tower Bridge be lifted, and went in line to see the crown jewels. 

The line to see the crown jewels was unreal (not actually that bad, I'm learning some can be worse) but the entire exhibit was a dark room with an assembly line of being in a school of fish moving to see a gold scepter. We stepped on a flat moving escalator, like those in the airport, to see the crowns. The diamonds were so beautiful and the crowns emanated power. We noticed the christening items were gone and had signs that said "in use" because of Princess Charlotte's christening tomorrow, we presumed. Despite the ushered crowds in the dark hallways, I did like going in these castle towers to see gems. No pics allowed inside, unfortunately. What does my money buy me?!

We had time to go in the white tower, too, to see knight armor, cannons and an indian headdress. 

Once the tower closed, we took our new best friend, the tube, to St. Paul's. It was stuffy inside the tube, even though it's perfect summer weather here. Breezy and sunny! However, once we got to the cathedral, we saw that not only is the admission 18 pounds, but also that it closes at 11:30 a.m. every day?! What?! New theme of London: "What?!"

And we learned that it's closed for sightseeing on Sundays, so sadly I won't be seeing the inside for myself. I guess I've seen a good amount of churches in Europe thus far. The outside was still nice...

Below is the bonus pic of the day: classic Brits, watching an outdoor screening of Wimbledon in a square outside St. Paul's Cathedral. Can you get any more English? Maybe add some tea and a union jack. 

By crossing a bridge (which was featured in the delightful Harry Potter films), we walked to Tate Modern which (thank God!) was open and free - we lucked out there. 

However, unfortunately, the main gallery in the center of the building was under construction. I remember hearing that usually the whole room is a modern art piece, but this time it was just empty with a sign saying it's changing soon. The information desk said an exhibit is only here six months of the year; we left, but I was still glad we attempted to see it - nothing we can do about that. And it was still very big and open.

By walking along the south bank towards the London Eye, we scouted out where we could eat. Eventually we just went into a random bar/restaurant/something and I had fish and chips because in England, French fries really are called chips so I had to. A lot of restaurants advertise fish and chips in huge print, so I figured it must be a popular choice here. 

(I found humor in the ratio of vegetables to all other food. Sadly, this is more vegetables that I've been having in Paris and London. How are people here at all fit?)

The fish was actually probably the best fish and chips I've had, because it was crispy and not soggy, and wasn't separated from the fish but actually cooked onto the fish well. 

To end our evening, we caught the night tour bus near Westminster Bridge after hurrying from dinner. The last tour begins at 8:30 p.m. even though the sun is barely starting to set. It was very beautiful because it had a different route than usual, through the west end by the Marble Arch, Soho, Oxford Street, Piccadily Circus, etc. 

 (Marble Arch - old entrance of Buckingham Palace)

I thoroughly loved this night tour, because I love cities at night - especially with dazzling lights. This area was described as the young area that stays open late with shops and pubs and squares. It reminded me of Times Square because of the lights - and I savored the view from the very top of the decker bus. I could've ridden it all night!

(This is blurry on purpose because I'm artsy...)

We got off the night tour early because we didn't want to be out late in the dark, going back to the residence on the bus and walking back from the bus stop. But we did stay to see the sunset in front of Big Ben. 

That's it for now, London! You're growing on me, though sometimes you're overwhelming. People are much stranger here - they have dyed hair and piercings and like skulls and books. I can't believe I came into this country without a real plan and sometimes without direction and managed to survive. I was definitely lot more independent and responsible here because it was just me and my friend navigating this cosmopolitan capital.  

The English are a lot more eccentric than Parisians, but it is also exciting watching specks of people on the street hanging out at night in Trafalgar Square or in side streets. Happy 4th of July, from the country we declared independence from - très ironic.

The Time People Said "Cheers!"

Welcome to London! This morning I got up at 7 a.m. because it was so bright outside. After getting ready and eating a breakfast of orange juice and croissants provided by our hosts, we set off to explore London. I had pretty low expectations just because of how stressful it was to get to our residence last night and I was just frustrated with having to travel on my own (with a friend) and figure out how to get places in a city I've never been to. It made me very appreciative to have Teo in Paris who knows everything.

Our host showed us where the bus can pick us up, and one of those famous red buses dropped us off in Westminster. Soon enough, we turned a corner and there was startlingly tall Big Ben, which I learned is just the bell's name and it's actually called Westminster Tower.

We walked across the bridge to the London Eye, just to see the tower from another perspective. Walking back, we passed by Westminster Abbey but decided to wait until later to maybe go inside. Part of it was under construction of course, just our luck. Another part of the church was open so we walked inside briefly just to see the rows of benches and interior.

 Westminster Abbey reminded us of Notre Dame because of the gothic style - hopefully we can go inside later on the trip but I think it's 20 pounds admission.

Near the Abbey, we found a stand that was selling tickets to the Big Bus Tours, which are those double decker buses. The way it works is that you buy a one or two day pass and you can just hop on and off these buses any time - and you also get a free boat ride. They give you either a live tour guide or an audio recording on the buses to tell you about places you pass by, so we bought a two-day pass that will help us see London more efficiently (hopefully).

Our first stop on this bus? Buckingham Palace. Naturally we compare everything to Paris, so this was the Versailles. I loved the brightly colored flowers that lined the roundabout outside and surrounded the statue. Peeking through the beautiful gates we could see a tiny soldier at the Palace waiting outside in his red suit and black fluffy hat (great terminology here).

 (You can see the guard by the arch on the right)

I loved looking beyond the gates all around at people laying on the dying grass, enjoying themselves or having a picnic. This reminding me of Paris. We turned down into St. James's Park, which was one of my favorite parks. It's so pretty, with wire green gates containing habitats of ponds and willows and lily pads. There were ducks and geese everywhere, and so many people laying in the sun. It was just really happy.

We even stopped at one point and a ranger type guy gave us bird food in our hands and the pigeons landed on us to eat it. It was scary but cute as they flapped in our faces. Don't worry, we put on hand sanitizer afterwards.

It's a lot cooler here than it was in Paris - even though it was quite sunny in the morning, it wasn't stuffy and smokey. We did cool down with a little ice cream with a "flake," which was a shaved block of chocolate. Even the parks here are more metro/city than in Paris and reminded me of sitting on the grass watching fireworks for Fourth of July because of the dead grass.

There was also an adorable little cottage tucked in the garden that used to be the bird keeper's old house. A lot of things about London make me miss my mom, because she loves English culture and travelled to London for a month.

Now we were just exploring what was nearby, and found ourselves walking through a gravel area and huge grand buildings that turned out to be the household cavalry I believe.

After strolling under an arch, we found ourselves next to a soldier on a horse! I heard a British man walk by the mass of tourists and say, "What, they don't have horses in their own countries?" which I thought was hilariously true, but I still petted the horse cautiously anyway. Because I'm a tourist and I can do stuff like that now ;)

We kept telling ourselves we'd get on the bus and just drive around to see the sights, but then we kept seeing signs to places that I'd heard of! My travel buddy doesn't really know much in London so I suggest places to go, but it's annoying when I don't know how to get there. Luckily we kept running into things, like Trafalgar Square.

It had tons of metal gates and chairs and construction-looking material, but we learned it was because they were setting up some type of outdoor concert. Later we saw that they were playing a filmed opera on a big screen. Maybe tomorrow it will be pristine again, but it's still one of my favorite places in London.

Regardless, I love love the fountains in Trafalgar Square because of the pretty seafoam green color. It's so iconic with the huge column, roads weaving around the square with red buses and the classic architecture of the National Gallery. We popped inside for a bit since it's free, and saw Van Gogh's sunflowers and a Seurat painting. It's incredible that the museums are free here - unlike Paris.

It was finally time to rest our feet and hop on the tour bus - dashing straight for the top with the breeze and the view. It was just beginning to get cloudy, but it felt perfect to sit down, listen to the history and information from headsets and see London. The bus can take you all over, but ours specifically left the City of Westminster and went into the City of London, as we drove by the Prime Minister's house, St. Paul's Cathedral, and eventually under the Tower Bridge. I'm pretty sure we also passed by or through London Bridge but I don't remember. I can still hear the royal-sounding music that plays in the headphones in between information.

It was a pretty long ride, and we hopped off at Westminster to try to find some lunch - it was now 3:30 p.m.. The tour said that there were some restaurants near Covent Gardens, so we walked up where we'd been in the morning, towards the garden area. We were keeping our eyes peeled for a garden, but apparently there isn't actually a real garden at Covent Garden, except a little one behind St. Paul's Church, which through us off. Once we finally believed the maps that we were indeed here, we found ourselves in a stone plaza with tons of people. It was like a festival with an indoor market, tons of cafés/bars/pubs/whatever, and a huge crowd gathered around a magician in the plaza.

I wandered around the area for a bit, soaking in the excitement of crowds enjoying the golden summer evening. Once more, very unlike calm Paris, it was loud and fast and upbeat.

For lunch (at this point also our dinner), we settled on one of the outdoor café type restaurants near the square. I had a very saucey crab linguini and a diet pepsi because I needed something refreshing. Remind me not to order soda again, because it was very diluted and came with lime which made it acidic.

We felt like we'd packed a lot into just one day in London. We have one more full day to go before we leave on Sunday afternoon. However, we agreed to do one more touristy thing: the London Eye. It was super expensive for one ride (20 pounds), but worth it because you have to do it. It's on the other side of the River Thames, so we crossed the bridge with white strings (officially called the Hungerford Bridge and Golden Jubilee Bridges apparently).

The line was only 30 minutes despite rows of people, as 20 of us piled into one of the little compartments while it was moving. The ferris wheel doesn't stop to load carts, but just moves very slowly and continuously so we had to jump on.

 (Tangent: it upsets me that Coca-Cola bought part of the name so there were Coca-Cola signs everywhere. Stop advertising to me!)

 The views from the top were gorgeous, especially since the sun was not quite setting but almost. It made the perfect contrast of yellow and blue skies on the cloudy day. The ride lasted 30 minutes and it was really pretty to see from all directions almost 1,000 feet up. The views remind me of Harry Potter!

 (Do I get bonus points for this super touristy selfie?)

It was on the way back from the London Eye to Westminster for the bus that I caught my favorite photo of the day: 

(Yes, that's Big Ben and a wonderful sky. Yes.)

On a more random note, here are some other things I noticed about London...

• I thought the driving on the wrong side of the road would be confusing, and sometimes it is, but the crosswalks are actually marked with words saying "look left" and "look right" - probably because so many stupid people have walked into the streets. 
• The accents... make me so jealous, I wish I could talk like that. Also, there's obvious slang like "holiday" and "cheers." 
• I have accidentally said some French words - mostly "merci" and "pardon" and then I catch myself and it's awkward. 
• People stare at us when we talk intimately about Paris like we live there, because we have American accents. 
• Can we talk about the lack of public bathrooms (or, should I say "toilets") and drinking fountains? And both are overpriced. 

(Big Ben on the way back to the bus.)

I hope you enjoyed reading about my London naivety, and especially about my adventures at these common tourist attractions. I'm actually less tired today than I usually am in Paris. Despite my initial worries about being lost or confused in a new city, I'm enjoying the differences of bustling London. I love all of the parks, opposed to gardens as they're called in Paris, where people can hang out all evening long. I still like Paris better so far, but maybe it's because I've just been in the less local areas of London. Looking forward to tomorrow.