Going to see Henry-blah, blah, blah. (Hampton Court)

Recently, I've developed a strange feeling. A feeling I wasn't sure if I'd develop. I'm getting tired of London. Or am I? It could be the classes that are wearing me down (sorry profs. I could seriously live without the classes) and it was cold and windy that day (but that's a lame excuse). Our most recent class excursion was to Hampton Court, the old home of the filthy rich King Henry VIII. To be completely honest, I wasn't very interested. I found myself thinking "I've seen many castles and palaces, this one isn't that different from the others." Elaborate ceiling paintings, room full of weapons, expensive this, huge that, etc. I will say this, Hampton Court had a very large, and beautiful garden, as well as having a hedge maze. Apparently, it's the oldest surviving hedge maze having been built back in 1690 for King William III and Mary II.
The last thing that I want to admit is wanting to leave this fantastic place. As a friend pointed out to me last weekend, there's still so much of London that I still haven't seen yet. I don't even know what's down the street and to the right of where I live! This is making me all the more desperate to get out more often and adventure more! Who knows when I'll be back here? With less than 4 weeks left, I'm starting to think of home, friends, family, and all of the places I still need to see (as well as class homework I still need to work on. Grrrrrrr.)
Well, that's all for now. I'll be back on the blog when more stuff happens. Till then, later!

Hampton Court

Base Court of the palace.

Replica Wine Fountain. For real. (Can you find the two sorry souls who've had too much wine? Hint: One's sleeping and the other is puking.)

King Henry VIII

Our tour guide (such a nice woman).

The Great Fountain Garden 

The Great Fountain Garden

Made it to the middle of the Hampton Court Palace Maze

Further proof that if the zombie apocalypse occurs while I'm in London, I'm heading straight to a museum or palace. (Even if they don't work, I'll be stocked up on club-like armaments).

SNOW DAY! (AND CHOCOLATE!)

Today was a busy day for me! I woke up, got dressed, threw on a coat and headed out to a Saturday Farmer's Market I've meant to go to for a while. I bought some soups for later and a sausage roll for breakfast. I went back to the flat to freeze the soup and finish my roll and then hung around a bit until 12ish, which is when I headed off to the Waterloo area to go to a CHOCOLATE FESTIVAL! It was cold the whole day, and snowed a lot. Apparently there's still plenty of snow back in America, despite the first day of Spring being just a couple days ago. I bought a couple macaroons there (I meant to take pictures of them, but I ate them.) and sampled some hot chocolate there. I've noticed a difference in the various hot chocolates I've sampled since I've been in Europe. I've gotten a couple bitter ones. They aren't bad, but they just aren't as sweet as I'm used to them being. Just an observation that I've made, seeing that I'm such a professional hot chocolate connoisseur.
After the festival, I headed to the British Museum to see more of what was in the museum. I'd never actually been in the main area/lobby of the building, so I was surprised when I found a giant area with a cafe and the 4 shop that I've seen in the building. I had to take a break and sit down in the museum to plan out what I was going to do for the rest of the day. I decided that I would walk around London some more.
I walked from the museum to Covent Garden, looked around a market and saw giant painted Easter eggs that I think were on auction to raise money for a charity. I made my way back to the flat around 5 and I was TIRED. I pretty much walked the entire in the snow.
I'm meeting another old high school friend tomorrow. I've still got my internship and some classes going on. One more week till Doctor Who and three more until ****** *** **********! Till then, later!

The Chocolate Festival

2nd cup of hot cocoa 

Turquoise mosaic mask of Tezcatlipoca

Bust of Minerva

Main lobby area of the British Museum

Maybe????

Giant Easter egg

Giant Easter egg

Giant Easter egg

The Studio of Secrets (Secrets will be revealed)

As you may know, a couple months ago, I tried go to Hogwarts via Platform 9 3/4. Sadly, my luggage got stuck halfway, and I wasn't able to attend the school for witchcraft and wizardry. Instead, a couple friends and I went to the Making of Harry Potter Tour. The tour was absolutely amazing! It was a tour of the ACTUAL sets, ACTUAL props, and ACTUAL costumes of the movie. It was so cool walking in the same areas and seeing the same costumes as the actors, actresses and set workers who brought a timeless book series to the big screen. There was tons to see. I even got to "fly" on a broomstick and "drive" the Weasley car!

One of the cool things that I saw was the concept art. These were the first initial images and models that were created that later on, became the movie sets, the creatures, the items. The tour had videos playing all around and the one here said that this department doesn't get enough credit for the work they do. It's by these people that the world of film is first visualized and then transformed into what we see on the screen. At the end of the tour, they had wand boxes with the names of everyone involved in the movie. There must have been over hundreds of them. It was a fantastic tour. I took a TON of photos, so choosing which ones to put up were difficult, because everything was so fantastic.

I've been teasing one more big trip left before I head back to the states. I'm SUPER excited about it. I'll be sure to post about it when I go. Till then, later!

(Do I need to do copyright stuff for all this? None of this is mine. Belongs to Harry Potter and Warner Bros. and J.K. Rowling and all the correct people.)

Leaving for Warner Bros. Studios at Platform 9 3/4.

The Making of Harry Potter Warner Bros. Studio Tour

Costumes in the Great Hall of Hogwarts professors

The Mirror of Erised

The various wands in Harry Potter

The Goblet of Fire

Various props from the Harry Potter films

Various props from the Harry Potter films

Hogwarts Bridge

Harry Potter's house from The Deathly Hallows

Drinking a Root Beer Float Butter Beer 

Lord Voldemort in creepy baby form from The Deathly Hallows Pt. 2

Aragog from The Chamber of Secrets

"I think that was one of the Queen's corgis..." (Windsor Castle+a heck of a lot of walking)

Today we had a day trip to Windsor Castle, which is still being used by the Royal Family today. We took two trains down to Windsor and Eton Central that took us about 25 minutes to get there. The castle was flying the royal standard, which meant that the Queen was actually there. Pictures weren't allowed inside, so there aren't that many pictures to show. Early on, I was up at a gate that led to a restricted section of the castle grounds. I was trying to take a picture of what lay beyond it when a woman walking a corgi came up to the gate. At first, I didn't give it a second thought. I thought someone was had just brought their dog to the castle, but then she pulled out a key, opened the gate and went through. I was like, "...Was that one of the Queen's corgis, and did I fail to get a picture of it?" I'll never know whether it was or not, but I thought it was funny, because the entire time, I was debating whether or not to take a picture.
All in all, Windsor Castle was a short visit, so I walked around the town area. I got myself hopelessly lost to the point where I thought I was going back to the castle when I was actually moving farther and farther away from it, so I had to double-back and recover ground that I had already walked. I will say this, it was a nice walk in the beginning. On my flight to London, I was sitting next to British man, and I asked him, "What should I do while in London?" He told me to get out of the city, away from the touristy, city areas and go out into the residential areas, to see the difference between the two places. This is where I found myself walking in the most when I was lost at Windsor. I was walking down residential streets with actual houses, not apartments or really tall buildings with 21 flats. Actual neighborhoods composed of actual houses. It was a fun change to see. Nearing the end though, I was getting frustrated because I had an actual destination that I wanted to get back to, and I was taking all the wrong paths. I finally got back to the castle, took another wrong turn, backtracked, found the train station ridiculously close to where I originally was, and went back to London.

Coming back, I wasn't about to count my day done yet. I changed lines and went to the British Museum and did a quick round in some of the galleries in there. I went to the Greece and Egyptian areas, and got to see the Rosetta Stone. I also saw pieces of the Greek Parthenon that's in Athens. It brought back fond memories of being in Greece, seeing the Acropolis and learning about the history of Athens. I saw there was a Pompeii exhibit coming later at the end of March, so I'm planning on going again. After the museum, I went around a couple shops and found myself at a pub with fish, chips and cider. I've arrived at the conclusion that alcoholic cider tastes better without the alcohol. I can taste the fruitiness that I like from drinking cider in the past, but then I taste the alcohol and it's disgusting. From here on out, I'm sticking with my old, reliable, and cheap (and when I say cheap, I mean from the sink) water for the rest of the trip.

I'm running out of time here in London, so I've started jamming in as much as possible whenever possible. This will probably cause me to start blogging more and more! More adventures coming soon (a big one will be due in April)! Till then, later!

Paddington Station

Windsor Castle

The Round Tower. Photo taken from the Middle Ward

St. George's Chapel. Photo taken from the Lower Ward

British Museum

Pieces from the Greek Parthenon

Rosetta Stone

Fist bump

Dinner of Fish & Chips and Strongbow cider

From Jewelry to Burgers to the London Eye (Discovering different things)

Seriously, the V&A (Victoria & Albert Museum) still surprises me. There are entire wings that I still haven't seen! Countless treasures and so much to see! My most recent excursion to the V&A was in the 20th Century, Gold and Silver, Jewelry, and Theatre wings. Also, off topic, I've started cooking my food again! Y'all probably don't know this, but a majority of my dinners have been pre-prepared meals from the grocery store that I can just chuck in the microwave for 6 min. I recently discovered the Juicy Lucy, a cheeseburger with the cheese INSIDE the burger. So I bought a ton of meat that was on sale and set out cooking a meal for myself. 2/3 Juicy Lucy attempts went down in flames. First try, I underestimated just how much meat is in one package of meat, so I had to split it into two halfway through. Second try, I used less meat but the integrity of the burger was weak and had to spit that one too. My third try was perfect (with the exception of digging out the leftover ketchup from the bottle with a knife)!

A My First Radio Cassette Recorder Model CFM-2500 at the V&A

Jewelry sculpted by a Sir Alfred Gilbert at the V&A

Drum Watches at the V&A

"Show Business" a board game where the player navigates the ups and downs of show business.

Closer look at the game.

Costumes from The Lion King in the Theatre and Performance wing at the V&A.

Mask from Oresteia. (and the last thing I want  to see when I wake up in the morning.)

Mini model of the set for Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street.

Attempt #3 at the Juicy Lucy burger.

So today I had a Health and Safety Induction for my internship today. So far, I really like working at my site. It's a great opportunity to work in a whole new atmosphere, plus, a great resume builder. After the meeting, I began the long and £3.00 journey back to the flat. It was a the London Bridge stop that I realized that I didn't really want to go back to the flat. Instead, I headed out the nearest exit. It'd been a long time since I simply just walked around London. No aim or real place I wanted to go. It was great fun just being on my own again and exploring the city. I saw a couple corner buildings that were just standing all by themselves. You could imagine what it would've looked like with other buildings lining the street. I went into a couple shops and got ideas for souvenirs to bring back. In the distance I was able to see the London Eye (the giant ferris wheel). I decided to head in that direction where I knew a tube station would be close by.  I cut through Leake Street, a tunnel that brought me right to the London Eye. It was sketchy looking like heck. Every square inch of the walls were covered in graffiti, and this isn't the bad sort of graffiti, but the artistic graffiti. Like sell this for £1,000 artistic.The London Eye is massive! It was awesome to stand beneath it. I was getting hungry, and I had told myself that I would buy food at one of the food places on my route back. I felt as if I hadn't been adventurous enough and went to an all you can eat buffet close to the Eye. I stuffed my face like a stereotypical American and filled my stomach. It felt nice to eat until I was full and not eat just to get by.
After filling up the tank, I headed to the tube station and made my way back to the flat. Overall, I'm really happy that I took the long road back. I can easily imagine myself sitting in my flat room on Youtube or procrastinating about my homework. London showed that it still had many surprises and unexplored paths for me. I'll be sure to keep the adventures coming. Till then, later!

One of the corner buildings I was talking about.

Yes, those are icicles.

Second corner building I was talking about.

The walls down Leake Street. 

The walls down Leake Street.

The London Eye