Weekend in London

I've officially begun my trip!

I arrived in London on Friday morning, met up with my friend Caitlin who was my roommate/teaching partner in Nepal, and headed out. Our original plan was to go see the changing of the guard at 11am (my plane was scheduled to arrive at 7am, plenty of time!), but instead I landed 30 minutes late and spent 2.5 hours in line at customs. Clearly a much better option to be inside a windowless hallway with a bunch of pissed-off people than outside with a friend I haven't seen in a year.

Long lines (I hate lines... sometimes I change my plans simply to avoid a line) aside, Friday was a lovely day. After some much needed food - after dropping my bag at the hostel Caitlin and I started walking with no thought about direction or whether we should pay attention, as long as food was the destination - we headed for the Natural History Museum. I went there 18 months ago and remember being kind of bored, but this time I thought it was fantastic.
I did a project on Blue Whale's when I was eleven, and there was a life-size model of one hanging from the ceiling. HUGE!!!! It made the other animals look tiny tiny tiny in comparison. Even the rhinos and elephants underneath. Such an awesome animal.

From there we went to St. Paul's Cathedral, intending to walk around the outside and go as far in as not paying would allow (exactly what we did at the York Cathedral last year, we're cheap like that), but they were having a service and we didn't need to pay at all! Unfortunately no photos allowed inside but it was beautiful. After reading Pillars of the Earth last year I have a new appreciation for how much work going into building something like that. Big, bright, tall pillars, lots of intricate carvings and gorgeous paintings.

St. Paul's from the outside. There's not quite enough space to walk backwards and take a picture of the whole thing. Even across the street this was the best I could do. It does capture just how big it is though.


Some of the carvings on the outside of the cathedral. The ones inside were nicer though.
All the place was lacking was some stained-glass windows.
I do love stained glass windows.

The evening was the usual for the two of us. A bottle of rum and a bottle of coke. Nuff said.

Saturday Caitlin headed back to Yorkshire, and I met up with Julia, Hari, and Ed, who I also met in Nepal. The ongoing rain continued, so our plan of a picnic turned into spend the afternoon drinking in a pub. Not a bad backup, and it was wonderful to see everyone again. A year is simply too long!

Today I walked over to Brick Lane, and wandered around the various markets there. Ate some delicious momos (so much better than I've ever been able to make!). After reaching the end of the street I kept going, and ended up following a stream of people carrying really pretty flowers to a flower market. So many flowers of all different colours!!

Tomorrow afternoon I'm headed for Russia!