Well, we survived London! It was absolutely hectic at times, but awesome. Let me jump right in . . .
As soon as we got off the bus and onto the London streets, it was overwhelming. Within five minutes of being there, I heard someone behind me mutter something explicit and rush past me because I wasn't walking fast enough, and obviously as a tourist, had no idea where I was going. There were so many people walking incredibly fast that you would think everyone was late for something. The beginning of our trip almost seems like a blur because of how fast-paced everything was. With this first impression, I was nervous.
Following our tour guide friend Anna, who had been to London before, we headed to the underground where we would get tube passes for the week. The sheer mass of people was even more noticeable there, with people running every direction, down hallways and stairways all over the place. With our new cards, we followed signs to the correct train, and jumped onto our first railway ride of the trip.
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| People waiting for the train in the underground |
Once we got off at our stop, we went to eat at a great Italian place (run by some really nice Italians), then explored the area. Our hostel was in Paddington, so very close by was Kensington Gardens, the Natural History Museum, and the Victoria and Albert art museum. We walked through Kensington Gardens to see the famous Peter Pan statue and the Albert memorial, a large gothic inspired, church altar-like memorial dedicated to one of the most beloved princes of England. Pictures don't accurately show just how large and grand this thing is. All the details and beautiful gold ornamentation were incredible.
Our next stop was the V&A Art Museum only a few blocks away. Having looked up a few things about it prior to our trip, I knew there was a lot of great stuff to see, but as I always do, I got lost in the museum and ended up only seeing about half of what was there. Fortunately, I somehow wound up in a contemporary ceramics exhibit and then a theatre and performance exhibit; both were fantastic.
Afterward, it was beginning to get dark so we decided to walk to Oxford Street, a large and insanely crowded shopping street with about a million visitors per day (thanks, Wikipedia). But before we got there, we had some nice, quiet moments walking through Hyde Park. The silence and darkness in the park was a much needed contrast with the busyness of the day. Then we got to Oxford Street, where there were more people, noises, and brands than I could wrap my head around. Lots of the shops were really expensive, but Anna suggested finding Primark, a cheap and awesome clothing store that's sort of like if Target and Forever 21 combined inside of a two story building. Beautiful. Anna also suggested getting some cookies from a place called Ben's Cookies, which we brought back to the hostel, deliciously ending our first day in London.
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| I didn't get a photo of Ben's Cookies, but Google has my back in showing just how great these cookies were. |
Our second day, the weather was beautiful! Sunny with hardly any clouds in the sky, and not too cold. Just a short distance away from our hostel was Baker Street, the location of Sherlock Holmes' museum and his famous address. Though I'm not particularly interested in Sherlock Holmes, it was interesting to see how fans flock to this place with such excitement. Afterward, we walked through some nice scenery in Regent's Park. Then we headed to the Picadilly Circus area. Picadilly Circus reminded me of photos I'd seen of Times Square, with huge, lit up billboards, people rushing around, and heavy traffic. Double decker busses were everywhere, and the amount of honking was intense.
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| Picadilly Circus |
We made our way to Trafalgar Square, a large, open area in front of the National Gallery, and it was (of course) filled with people. This was a great opportunity to take some sneaky street photography shots. When you're surrounded by hundreds of other people taking photos, it's easy to be sort of camouflaged. The square itself was also fun to photograph, with a cool view of Big Ben off in the distance, multiple fountains, and some statues (specifically the incredibly tall Nelson's Column). After doing some research, I found out that even before its completion, Trafalgar Square has had a huge problem with feral pigeons because of vendors in the area selling bird seed. Apparently, the birds' "droppings disfigured the stonework and the flock, estimated at its peak to be 35,000, was considered a health hazard" (thanks, Wikipedia). Around 2001, the government started making laws to stop the problem, such as banning sales of bird seed in the square, and using predatory birds to catch the pests. As someone who doesn't like birds, I'm grateful that the square was nearly pigeon free when we were there.
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| Trafalgar Square |
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| The National Gallery |
We went on to see some more local sights, ending up in M&M World, which gave me mixed feelings. It was amazing how such an empire could be made from a simple candy, but it was almost disturbing to see so many people buying into it. Why does a person need M&M luggage or M&M pillows?? Very weird. But just like everyone else, I was there looking at all the products, and even made a squished commemorative coin (the cheapest thing in the store).
We moved on to China Town, a small area of side streets filled with Chinese lanterns and Chinese restaurants. The atmosphere was lovely with all the vibrant colors, delicious smells, and outdoor shops. We decided on a Chinese buffet restaurant for lunch (sooooo good), then walked through the West End. It was almost torturous to see signs for musicals that were too expensive for us to attend. Phantom of the Opera, The Book of Mormon, Les Miserables, Lion King, Kinky Boots! That was a tough moment to be a poor college student.
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| China Town |
Though I've failed to mention it so far in this blog, I can't emphasize enough how badly our feet were hurting after just two days in London. We had a huge list of things to see and we were determined to make it through as much as we could, which meant a lot of walking. After our overwhelming first day with the underground, we were very apprehensive in using it again, but by day 2, we needed some rest. We began taking the subways almost everywhere, and it didn't take us long to get used to all the different routes. I actually really enjoyed taking the underground; it's such an easy way of transportation (once you get used to it!) and we have absolutely nothing like it back home.
Anyway . . . the next morning, we got up early to get in line for the Natural History Museum. We wanted to go on our first day in London, but the line was out the door and down the block. This time, we were early enough that we got in right on time. It was a great place for photos! So many cool animals and displays, as well as an AWESOME dinosaur exhibit. We saw fossils, life size replicas, and even an animatronic t-rex.
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| Plaster dinosaur skeleton at the Natural History Museum |
The rest of the day was spent seeing the most famous of London's landmarks, starting with Buckingham Palace. Once we stepped out of the underground, it was obvious we were in a fancy part of town. Instead of tourists, there were men in suits with briefcases, and women fast walking in high heels. We tried desperately to find a quick place to eat and rest, but each place was packed with these business people, or tourists like us. After a long time of searching, we were fortunate enough to find a nice wrap place with a window bar. Though it was cramped with other customers, we were happy just to find a place to sit down. It got me thinking how terribly Londoners must hate tourists because we're such an inconvenience. We take up space and gawk around while they're just trying to go about their day. Sorry!!
Onto Buckingham Palace. After walking through Green Park, we came to the gold and black gates of the palace. Surprisingly not as big as I expected it to be. Thinking back on photos of the most recent royal wedding, I found it hard to imagine that crowd fitting into this seemingly small area. We didn't wait around to watch the changing of the guard, but it was enough just to see the classic, serious guards with furry hats doing their job in real life.
Only a short walk away was Big Ben and parliament. It was another one of those mind blowing moments where I wondered, "How did I get here??" Seeing such a famous thing right in front of me was surreal. Everything was exactly how you see it in photographs, except with more people. The clock was beautifully detailed, elegant, basically amazing. I would describe Westminster Abbey the same way. So much ornamentation and incredible architectural work, my photos don't do it any justice.
We took a short bus ride over to the Tower of London, which is slightly less interesting in the winter, when there aren't fields of bright, red poppies surrounding the place where a moat used to be. The large, beige-white, castle-like structure has a long history, and it's even a UNESCO World Heritage site, meaning that it's officially labeled to have special cultural significance. With more help from Wikipedia, I found out that the castle has had many purposes since it's founding in 1066, including being a prison, the royal home, an exotic animal zoo, a public records office, and the location of the Crown Jewels.
Just around the corner was the London Bridge, one of my favorite parts of the trip. At this point, it was getting dark, it was misty, a little cold, and so grey that it felt like I was seeing the London Bridge in the most authentic, British way possible. I also feel like I got some nice film shots of it . . .
And now our final day. Our first stop was St. Paul's Cathedral early in the morning. Coming up to it, you walk through this big alley type thing with shops and restaurants, and you can see the cathedral and its dome, massive and beautifully old, towering over everything in the background. It makes a really interesting contrast.
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| View of St. Paul's from the alley |
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| View from the other side of the Millennium Bridge |
From there, we walked over the Millennium Bridge to the Tate Modern art museum. I was so excited to see these pieces, the first by the Guerrilla Girls, and the second by Salvador Dali. It's always crazy to see stuff in real life that you've only seen before in text books.
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| Salvador Dali, Autumnal Cannibalism (my picture is horrible, so please take a better look here) |
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| Guerrilla Girls, Do Women Have To Be Naked To Get Into the Met. Museum? |
The museum also had this cool installation on two sides of it's main hall. I think the museum website describes it best: "Empty Lot is a large geometric sculpture created using scaffolding, a grid of triangular wooden planters, and soil collected from parks across London including Peckham, Haringey and Westminster. Nothing will be planted in the soil, but it will be lit by lamps and watered throughout the six month display. The unpredictable nature of the work, which may grow and change from one week to the next, provokes questions about the city and nature, as well as wider ideas of chance, change, and hope." When we were there, some of the planters were overflowing with different kinds of greenery, while others had nothing in them at all. A lot of interesting discussions could be made about this piece, like the infinite possibilities and uncertainty in life, the effects on nature with human interaction, the ever-increasing issue of sustainability on this planet, etc. Thought provoking artwork for sure.
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| Empty Lot |
After we left, we went past Shakespeare's famous Globe Theatre, then to Borough Market, where food was my number one priority. There were so many amazing smells, it was hard to pick something for lunch! While in London, we visited other small markets, but this one was definitely my favorite (probably because I got a really awesome falafel wrap). I wish we had places like this back home, where we could find lots of great, different, fresh foods all in one place.
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| Borough Market |
The next morning, we were on our way back to Mullsjö. Though it was overwhelming at times, I loved the big city rush of it all. Going on the underground and busses, trying to maneuver through crowds of people everywhere, it always seemed like something was going on, even when it was quiet. The buzzing energy of the city is absolutely special.
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| View from our hostel |
Not much has been going on around here since we got back, but we're getting ready to go on our Easter Break (Påsklov) trip to Helsinki, Finland! I'm sooooo excited to go somewhere new and with such cool people (shout out to Sabrina and Mariko for basically putting the whole trip together). Hope everyone is having a great Spring Break, and happy Easter! (Glad Påsk!)
