The Time One Market Closed, Another Opened

I'm sitting at my computer, looking outside my window towards the Eiffel Tower. Yes, I am back in Paris. Yesterday was our last day in London. Apparently everything is closed on Sundays in England - as was the case with Westminster Abbey and St. Paul's Cathedral, both of which we'd hoped to visit. My travel buddy just stayed in our residence all morning (she said she'd seen it all) while I took the bus to get one last look and wander around.
I began in Trafalgar Square. The concert equipment from Friday was taken down and it was raining outside, so I felt like I got to see London in its natural habitat. I liked the square more in the sun because the fountains looked greener, but it was nice to sit on a damp bench and watch people. I even saw someone with a UCLA sweatshirt!

Our big bus tickets expired at noon, so I jumped on one to take to Buckingham Palace at 10:30. My goal was to see the Changing of the Guard ceremony at 11:30 a.m. (it happens at this time every day) so I arrived at 11. It was insane how many people were crammed into the roundabout outside the palace. Probably the most people I've ever seen in one area, except at concerts. Jammed behind every railing, piles of people peek through the gates.

 (My view of the band marching. Can't see it without tip toes, eh?)

Even though I arrived a little late, I was able to line up in the third row, but I still stood on my tip toes as the procession of guards in a marching band came through the streets. It was really difficult to see - at one point, I watched the ceremony through the screen of someone's iPad they held up.
While it was interesting to see guards march around the front of the palace in unison, I wasn't really that impressed. It's something maybe that you're supposed to see, but something that didn't really matter to me and wasn't worth the throngs of people. Eventually, some people left and I was in the front row, but even then they were tiny soldiers far away.

I left a little early, once the guards switched places, to walk along the sidewalk outside St. James's Park towards the tube. I ended up just walking to Westminster to catch the tube there to London Bridge, where Borough Market is. Big Ben made one final appearance before I went underground and I said goodbye!

Naturally knowing my luck, most of the vendors in Borough Market are also closed on Sundays, which I learned after I reached the street. It looked like it would be a cool fruit and vegetable market, though, with green booths in a dark street under some sort of bridge. A few prepared food vendors were open, so I got some saffron rice just so I wouldn't be hungry.

And just so I could say I did something unique today, I stopped into a coffeeshop called Costa that I've seen all over London. I assume it's a chain they don't have in Los Angeles, so I figured I'd have to test it out. My Belgian chocolate cooler tasted like a chocolate frappuccino. 

Once I rejoined my friend in Camden, where we were staying, we pretty much packed up our stuff. Before we went back to Paris, however, we realized we still needed to explore Camden a little bit. Our host was shocked that we hadn't been to the Camden Market yet, and luckily we went for an hour or two. It was popping with tons of people everywhere. I'll say it again: Europe has markets galore!

It was filled with fresh orange juice stands, jewelry, dreamcatchers, wool scarves, photographs, and one area with tons of street food. All cultures and cuisines were represented - Colombian, Peruvian, Italian, hamburgers, mac and cheese, game meat, quinoa, Mediterranean, etc. We dove into the sea of foodies, looking for a place for lunch/dinner and finally found a wonderful stand in a handmade pasta cart. One guy would greet everyone and take orders, while slicing off chunks of dough from a huge roll, knead it, roll it through a machine several times, and then slice them into noodle strips. The girl next to him would collect the money while grabbing the pasta dough, cook it fresh, and then marinate it in the sauce she'd make. The only other two employees in the back would plate it all.

It's such an efficient process and amazing to watch them make pasta right in front of us with buckets upon buckets of flour everywhere. Not only that, the employees spoke English, Italian and Spanish and would often speak Italian to customers - so that's another reason we knew it would be good. And it was! Fresh pesto pasta with a caprese salad - probably the best pasta I've ever bought because it was a perfectly chewy texture with rich creamy sauce and strong, fresh flavors. I still like homemade pasta that my mom makes, but this was probably more authentically Italian and chewy.

I ate my meal along the Camden Lock canal, which was actually very beautiful and cosmopolitan, with its bricks and graffiti surrounding a bridge with willow trees. Teo had recommended that we walk along this canal, and now that we found it, we could see why - it's a very pretty spot in the middle of a crowded street area. It was a surprise treat that we didn't realize our London experience was missing until we got to the lively neighborhood with air filled with smoke from street carts and loud from shoppers. Camden had seemed quieter and more intimidating until we saw this bustling market and realized we were in some sort of hub.

(View from a little bridge)

We picked up our luggage and went to St. Pancras station after that (and also walked around the corner to see King's Cross from the outside, because Harry Potter). We're so used to needing to get to the airport three hours early that we did the same for the train, just to be safe. Neither of us felt we could enjoy sight seeing two hours before our train, but when we got there, we realized we were indeed really early. Luckily there was no fee this time to move our train to a earlier time, so we just did that and left an hour before planned.

The sunset was amazing during our train ride. The only hitch was at one point when we had to stop at another station for a luggage check, where the crew went through every coach and identify everyone's luggage. That was pretty scary when they told us we had to do that because we didn't know why. And it set us behind 30 minutes. When we were done, they said there had been a trespasser at St. Pancras so they had to check to make sure the train was safe. Weird!

(I almost cried while listening to American pop music on the train, because I guess I miss American culture)

We arrived back to the hotel around 11 pm. Though it was fun being tourists in London, a city I've always wanted to visit, we are glad to be back "home" to a place that's familiar and more relaxed. For no specific reason, I was super happy when we got off the train - maybe because of the scary luggage check or just because I missed this city. Teo said earlier that the point of the long weekend is to feel like Paris is home. If you leave for the weekend, you're glad to return, and if you stay in Paris, then you get to know the city very well. He was right, of course! I love the city of lights and I'm ready for more.

The Time of Our English Holiday

Yesterday I took the Eurostar with another girl on my program to go to London! We arrived three hours early to the station, which was more than enough time to go through Gare du Nord. This was my first time on one of these trains, and I discovered it looks just like an airplane inside, but it glides smoothly on land instead of air. We spent the two hours looking out the window at the green French countryside - patches of different shades of green forever, along with wind turbines.

When we arrived yesterday, we went straight to the little apartment we are staying at. We rented a room through Airbnb in an older couple's apartment in Camden with their dog. At first we got off at the wrong bus stop and then we went to the next stop; though we didn't have a map, we knew it was in the area. Lugging our suitcases behind, we tried to look at maps and find the street since we had the address. We even went into an office building that helped us Google map the place since we don't have wifi, but it was still hard to find. We didn't really think this through.

Camden was a very happening neighborhood, with people in the streets, in the market, and walking around. It's not at all like Paris, so we were kind of shocked - definitely more shocked going from Paris to London than from the US to Paris. Instead of quiet, classy and clean areas, this was super metropolitan with dirty streets and loud people lounging on the sidewalk. 

When we finally found the courtyard area and got inside, we were pretty nervous to be in a new city. I really can't stress how different Paris is from London, when we thought they'd be pretty similar. Paris (or at least the neighborhoods we've seen) is just very relaxed and serene, but here it is crazy with excitement and hurriedness. 

Then we tried to get dinner at about 7 or 8 p.m. We didn't want to go too far since we didn't know the area, so we attempted to buy food at a coffeehouse called Costa which I think is a common chain here. However, they didn't accept any of our credit cards or debit cards, so we left, worried we'd be money-less. Then we tried another restaurant place and I devoured a "mini" pizza with pineapple and ham. 

We were very exhausted, a little scared and kind of overwhelmed by the city, but began to settle down a little at night. Another girl from our program joined us to stay for the night, too, and we went to sleep. 

The Time Art History Was Useful

Today our walk and lecture were integrated, so at 10 a.m. we took the metro to Bastille. A statue marked the place where the revolutionaries stormed during the French revolution.

This area still has many furniture stores today. Teo also said that Bastille is a really hip, young area of Paris with a lot of nightlife. I think it's interesting that each neighborhood of the city has its own flavor or signature. Bastille was a bit more modern than the other neighborhoods, which is still less modern than American cities. It just seemed a little more metropolitan and new. 

For lunch, we stopped at a daily market that, like the market by our hotel, blew my mind. It was blocks of flowers like peonies and fruits like cherries and peaches. An inside portion contained a seafood market and cheeses and milk and other animal products. It's pretty strange to see a huge counter of ice with crabs and oysters and scallops. 

We decided to get cheese breads at the bakery nearby, because we couldn't cook the seafood obviously. I had a ficelle lardon that the baker warmed up - she was very friendly to us and let us use her bathroom in the back. Even though it was so tiny that my legs touched the door and we didn't know how to flush it, we were grateful that she was so nice to us. I also found pleasure in watching her regular customers come in and speak French to her, as she cut a slice off a huge loaf of ciabatta or tossed them a baguette. 

The next part of our walk was in a park that was transformed from old railroad tracks, so it was suspended above the city as a long path with plants all around. A clever way to add nature to a city, in my opinion. 

The last thing on our sweltering walk (it was in the 80s I believe!), was the train station Gare de Lyon. Teo said around the 1800s, the train stations were like palaces or often nicer. This was true - I could've sworn the inside was in a movie at some point, because of the architecture and high ceilings and trains lined up ready to take off. Like many parts of Paris, the picture doesn't do it justice. 

By peeping into a restaurant inside the station, we spotted a painted ceiling with gold adornments. 

After the station, we were on our own for the afternoon and evening. A group planned to go to Musee D'Orsay so we took the metro and dragged ourselves in the heat through the Louvre's exterior, across the river, to the D'Orsay museum. The museum, it turns out, is also inside an old train station with a huge clock watching over the sculptures below. Each floor has a different era or artist, so we split up to prioritize the ones we wanted to see. 

My favorite floor (which was five rooms) was the impressionist, maybe because those are the ones I learned about in modern art class fall quarter. Nonetheless, it was amazing to see Cezanne, Van Gogh, Monet, Manet, Gauguin and Courbet, who were some of the main artists from the class. I loved witnessing their unique styles as they progressed through time. 

It's unfortunate that we'd been walking for four hours prior, because my feet hurt so bad while I was looking at the museum. We stayed for two hours - of course we didn't see everything but I'd say I saw a lot and everything I really wanted to see. At the end, I walked around fiercely trying to find Olympia and finally found the last painting on my mental list. 

I was also surprised to see how big these paintings were! In my class, we didn't know the scale, but in person many of the most famous ones were the size of a wall, like Manet's Luncheon on the Grass.    

For dinner, we stopped at a nearby cafe, away from the tourist areas. The four of us ordered salads because we needed some vegetables and had just nibbled breads for lunch. They were actually good - mine had ham and swiss cheese on it too. Oh, and I almost forgot - we stopped at Amorino's for flower-shaped gelato down rue du Commerce.