So I went shopping...? Yep, that's pretty accurate. (Easter Summary)

Yay for Easter Break! Yay for no classes or work-wait...scratch that, I still had work. My internship needed volunteers for their Easter Fair, and I said I could help out. I'm all about experiences and going to an Easter Fair in London is definitely a unique experience. It was a pretty easy job. I got to talk to more members of my internship site. It was a fun time.

After the weekend, I set out on April 1st to explore more of London. I pretty much spent the whole day going to huge stores and shopping. Not at the huge stores, mind you. Shopping there would've burned a whole not only in my pocket but my entire trousers. They were mostly must see sights that I read in the travel book I brought with me and by a British person I met working at the Easter Fair.

My day first began at Hyde Park, a place I'd only been to once since I've been here! It's literally right up the road from where I live, just behind the Royal Albert Hall and Royal Albert Memorial. I spent some time at the Kensington Palace and then walked to Notting Hill Gate. I went into a couple shops, bought a book and then took a tube to Marble Arch and Bond Street. It was in this area I went into Selfridges and Liberty, two MASSIVE shopping stores. Liberty apparently has been around since 1875 and is "synonymous with luxury and great design." After Selfridges and Liberty, I made my way to Daunt Books, an Edwardian travel bookstore with large oak galleries. I passed the BBC Broadcasting House and the All Souls Church along that way. After that, I took the tube to Hamley's, THE LARGEST TOY STORE I HAVE EVER SEEN. Sadly I didn't take any pictures of the place, but this was definitely one of those non-touristy places you should see (beware bringing your children. They will never want to leave.) There were 4 floors of toys, games, even a sweet shop. They had employees showing off all the different toys from magic kits, to simple gliders that I had when I was little (and yes, I did buy something while I was there.) After all of the adventuring I slowly made my way back home. It took me longer to get back because tube stations were under maintenance so I had to walk to a bus stop, bus to an open tube station and then take the tube back home.

Hyde Park with the Royal Albert Hall and Memorial in the distance.

Hyde Park with Kensington Palace in the distance. 

Kensington Palace

Liberty Store.

Staircase in Liberty

All Souls Church

BBC Broadcasting House

Daunt Books

Inside Daunt Books.

MIND THE UNUSUALLY LARGE GAP BETWEEN THE TRAIN AND THE PLATFORM

The next day's excursion was a LOT shorter. I went with a couple mates to St. Paul's Cathedral. We didn't want to pay to go inside and not be allowed to take pictures so we made our way to Millenium Bridge. It was a b-e-a-utiful day, the sun was out, there were bright colors all around. It was nice. I separated with my mates to go run around the Tate Modern, a modern art museum. After walking around and being thoroughly confused by modern art, I headed back home.

My time in London is winding down. There are still a couple things I want to do, The British Museum (again) the London Eye, a musical (or two). I recently made plans for An Unexpected Journey (which doesn't really make sense. I planned a trip I'm not supposed to be expecting, unless it is a journey I didn't expect I'd go on until I decided to go on it..meh, forget it) and I have one more fantastic adventure coming up next week. I'll be sure to tell y'all about them soon. Till then, later!

St. Paul's Cathedral

A beautiful day on the Millenium Bridge.

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