Unfortunately, our touristy days are quickly running out. I have an interview for my tentative internship placement tomorrow morning and then I might start work late this week. We still have regular classes at night though, which are easy to forget about, but still in existence.
Yesterday, we all woke up early and made our way to Buckingham Palace to see the Changing of the Guard. I have to say that I was slightly disappointed after the big deal everyone makes of it. I thought it was a bit overrated, but I still had a fun time. It was freezing, but it was cool to hear and see the royal marching band play and see all the bobbies (their term for policemen) patrolling. It was really crowded, so we were standing outside for a while, so it was cold, but I was glad I did it. I, personally, don’t think it’s a must-see though.
We then took the Tube over to Trafalgar Square where we grabbed lunch at a really cute chain café. As many of you know, I am a bit of a picky eater, so a few people (you know who you are ::cough, cough:: Aunt Donna and Uncle Jeff) are very curious as to what I am eating over here in England. I am still a bit upset that turkey is nearly non-existent here, but sandwiches are much more popular here than they are in the U.S. in terms of where they are sold and in varying forms. There are the café sandwiches, a ton of places sell pre-packaged pick-up sandwiches for real cheap, and sit-down places like in the U.S.
There are many American places here. There is almost always a Starbucks or McDonald’s nearby, although I try not to frequent those. Pub food is delicious—you can almost never go wrong with fried fish or breaded chicken and chips. And I love Italian food, which is everywhere here, so that’s good. The grocery stores have the equivalent of microwave meals and cereals, so there is no need to worry about my eating—I am doing just fine, despite my pickiness.
Anyway, we had sandwiches at a cute café and then decided to take further advantage of our tour pass from the day before by going on a walking tour of the history of the Beatles. I’m not a huge Beatles fan, but I really enjoyed the walk, which took us to Soho and on back streets I probably never would have found. If you’re a big Beatles fan I would recommend the tour, it was an interesting perspective on the music world in the ‘60s.
After that, I broke off from our group and went back to the Buckingham Palace area to walk around the park right next to it. I walked through it and walked up to some of the statues a famous landmark that I forgot the name of, but was very cool to see. I then headed back to the flat and ate Italian food for dinner, so it was another touristy, but enjoyable, day.
Today, my flatmates had their interviews in the morning, so I got the luxury of sleeping late before we headed out for the day. We decided it would be a fun idea to walk around Kensington Gardens some more and see the parts of it we didn’t see the other day. The park is over 200 acres, so there is quite a bit to see. Almost the moment after we left the flat, it started pouring rain. With no Plan B, we decided that maybe we could check out the National Gallery of Art in Trafalgar Square, which we didn’t get to explore the other day.
The National Gallery was really cool. They had a lot of Monet’s and Manet’s works, but they had Van Gogh’s Sunflowers, which was incredibly cool to see in person. Those were their most modern works, so I meandered through some of the older stuff, much of which was very religious based. I’m beginning to notice that many of the museums here look huge and intimidating from the outside and inside they really do not have as much stuff as they appear to have. The National Gallery is huge and it looks like it would take days to get through all that art, but in reality the inside of the museum is nothing you couldn’t see in an afternoon or a few hours, or in one hour if you’re a very fast viewer like me.
We ate a late lunch/early dinner in the museum café and delighted in very delicious, but slightly expensive, pastries afterwards. Then, unfortunately, it was off to International Issues in Journalism class. It was interesting tonight, but it does make the day seem shorter.
I’m very excited for the inauguration tomorrow, and kind of sad that I won’t be in the states for one of the most important days in American history. The Imperial College Pub is going to have it on TV, but much of it will probably take place when I have class so I’m very worried about missing it and having to watch it after the fact. It’ll be interesting to see how it is viewed internationally, which I will definitely blog about later.
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