I am slacking on the blog, aren't I?! Here is a recap of the past few days:
Thursday, July 16:
Today we headed out to Hampton Court Palace for class! Hampton Court was once home to the lovely King Henry VIII (the bro who continuously beheaded his six wives).
Let the royal adventures begin....
Eh, kinda old.
This is how I roll.
Ah, yes. Hello, peasants!
This is one of the courtyards inside! Not too shabby. My apartment is just to the right of the lamppost.
The gardens in back were massive! This is a small swimming pool King Henry had installed (not really).
After class we continued to explore and ate at the little cafe in the gardens (I told you I do a lot of frolicking outside).
You would think wandering through the most famous maze in the world would be fun... no. It was agonizing. Ha!
This is a Victoria Sponge Cake! It's filled with raspberry jam and cream. Quite tasty.
Friday, July 17:
Per usual, my flatmates and I were quite lazy today since we didn't have class. (Some things never change, no matter where in the world you are!) We ventured over to see St. Paul's Cathedral. Apparent from their continuous singing of "Feed the Birds" from Mary Poppins my flatmates insisted we go see the famous Cathedral steps where the scene takes place. I've seen the Cathedral several times before, and Aubrey pointed out that I looked rather underwhelmed. Eh, been there, done that. Haha!
Feeeeeed the birds! Tuppence! Tuppence a bag!
Tis quite grand!
We also checked out the view from the Millennium Bridge, as it is right across from St. Paul's!
This is the bridge that appears in the beginning of Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows- Part 1! Luckily there was no sign of any dementors.
Then we headed over to one of my favorite markets, Borough Market, for linner - aka lunch/dinner. (Linner has become quite popular as our meal plans and internal clocks were shattered when we got to London.) Borough Market is a huge food market under some railway lines with everything from cake to fish!
Did I get vegetables?
Of course not! I went straight for the gourmet donuts. I had a lemon custard donut, and I'm still drooling just thinking about it.
I also tried a Cornish Pasty: a traditional pie filled with potatoes and minced beef. It should be called a Cornish Tasty.
Saturday, July 18:
Today I got to meet up with some old friends from Amarillo, TX! Yay for familiar faces! We headed to Portobello Market early in the morning to do a little more shopping (just what I needed, ha!).
This is Ms. Hewitt (my old piano and voice teacher) and Devon (an old theatre buddy).
Afterwards, we walked through Kensington gardens to see Kensington Palace!
This is the home of William and Kate!
Fancy smancy.
The evening ended with Ms. Hewitt buying me my first English ice cream cone in the park!
Sunday, July 19:
Interestingly, my class meets in the British Museum everyday, yet we never actually look at any of the exhibits there. Therefore, my flatmates and I decided to venture back today and look around!
This is called the Great Court! We meet here in the morning before all the tourists arrive.
With a vast collection of artifacts from ALL over the world, I have concluded is that the British Museum is basically a museum of a bunch of random stuff the British stole from other people.
Here is the Rosetta Stone... from EGYPT.
Here is some samurai gear... from ASIA.
Humorously, the European artifact collection is quite small.
After fighting through enormous crowds (it is free, after all) at the museum, we headed to Covent Garden, which is almost like an outdoor mall!
After shopping around for a while Alyssa and I were starved for linner (yes, again). For our first gourmet American meal here we had a burger, fries, and caramel milkshakes from Shake Shack!
This burger joint is based in NYC, and I went there over spring break!
Monday, July 20:
As much as I hate to admit it, we went shopping again today! I have a problem (and I'm not just referring to the weight of my suitcase). First, we went to see a quirky department store called Liberty!
I LOVE English Tudor!
Quintessentially English.
The displays inside were so cute! Liberty is famous for its floral print fabrics.
I resisted the urge to buy the $900 poodle taxidermy.
Afterwards, I ventured to Fortnum and Mason, the Queen's grocery store! Needless to say, it is quite posh.
Fanciest grocery store I've ever seen!
I've never seen so many tea options! I bought enough to last me the next 60 years.
Hmm... Someone is with me everywhere I go!
Tuesday, July 21:
This week for class we are reading A Room With a View, and studying coming of age as a traveller. The novel recounts the tale of a proper young British girl named Lucy who travels to Italy and falls in love with a boy outside of her social class. Scandalous.
For class we visited the John Soane Museum. The musuem was formerly the home of architect Sir John Soane in the 1800s. A promising architect, he was given a scholarship by King George III to go on a grand tour, a venerable tradition of the privileged to travel across Europe in order to complete their education. From that point forward, he obsessively collected antiquities, paintings, drawings, furniture, books, etc. from all over the world. He had more of a souvenir problem than I have.
The museum is neatly tucked away amongst other homes. You could walk by this place everyday and never know about the treasures inside!
You were not allowed to take photos inside so as "to preserve the integrity of the 19th century atmosphere". I found these pictures on trusty Google so you can get a feel for what I saw!
The place was crammed full. I think he could have made it on the TV show Hoarders.
In this room, the walls of paintings folded open to reveal even more paintings! Clever.
Bro even had his own ancient Egyptian sarcophagus. Because, 1. The British Museum did not even want to pay to house it, and 2. Why not, right?
Overall, things have been just dandy! Time is going by quickly! Now please enjoy this picture of me casually posing by a red phone booth!
Cheerio!
XOXO, Megan
(FYI, you can click on the images to see them bigger!)
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