today was scarf day! everyone decided to wear a scarf today and though i don't own a scarf, one was kindly lent to me by allison. with our scarves in tow, we made our way down to buckingham palace to once again try to watch the changing of the guards. this time we were successful. it was an intense process. there were people everywhere and the guards were led down the street and through the gates of the palace by a marching band. it was really neat to watch. i've never seen anything like it. after the ceremony, we started to walk back towards the national gallery. in the plaza in front of the gallery there were three women doing acrobatic tricks. they were walking on each other's heads and such. they had to have been very, very strong. we continued on and went to explore the national gallery. it too was very interesting. we saw paintings by da vinci, vermeer, rubens, etc. and we saw impressionist paintings, which are my favorite. we saw monet, pissaro, and van gogh. there were paintings there that i've only ever seen in books, but i actually got to stand in front of them and look at the original copy. it was very exciting.
we grabbed lunch from a restaurant called eat and ate in front of the british museum. andrew and allison went back to the portrait gallery and ying, paula, huy, and i decided to do some exploring. we saw some parks and a statue of ghandi and neighborhoods. london is a very clean city. there was very little litter around.
we all met back up and decided to have dinner in the park. we went to the grocery store and bought bread and apples and cheese (boursin cheese was only 2 pounds!!!... i was thrilled) and cadbury chocolate (per allison's request). we took a bus out to the park by the tower bridge and had our picnic. it was so much fun and it was probably my favorite meal in london. we got to eat overlooking the thames river and the whole meal only cost about 5 pounds. after dinner we went to see the play "medea" at the scoop, which is a free outdoor ampitheater. it was really good and really interesting. it kept you on the edge of your seat the whole time. it was a little depressing though, hence the fact that it's a greek tragedy. we then crossed back over the tower bridge when it was all lit up. it was quite impressive looking. we returned to the hostel to set about doing the chore of repacking our bags so we could head to paris.
serious faces on scarf day. (photo courtesy of ying)
smiling faces on scarf day. (photo courtesy of ying)
tower bridge at night.
a police officer outside the palace. his gun was very intense.
i feel so honored that i got credited for my photos.
ReplyDeletei'm such a big shot.