london out and about in december

Traveling by myself in London meant ticking off a lot of famous museums and galleries - either because it was a way to temporarily escape the cold and wind, or my happiness of free things. Free things will never get old. Especially since London was very expensive against the weak Australian dollar. I spent an week internally debating whether I should spend forty dollars to go inside the Tower of London, but decided against it in the end. I'll leave it for the future when the exchange rate is a bit better. (Though this will probably be in the far future. My travel pockets are very saddened.) What I did do was walk along the Thames, cross many bridges, and museum and gallery hopped. Reaching each major attraction felt like I was on a Monopoly board and it made me entirely too happy. See: Trafalgar Square below. I am still in delusion that Trafalgar Square would be greatly improved if it became a glorious crimson.

While I did appreciate the large collection of history London's museums offered, my overall take remains that England really should return everything they stole through the British Empire stage. To start with, I really think Egypt wants the the Rosetta Stone back. And, y'know, I just don't think the physical evidence of colonialism is a good look, UK.



(Photos above: Trafalger Square and the National Gallery, Natural History Museum, Buckingham Palace, Oxford St lit up by Christimas lights, and Winter Wonderland in Hyde Park.)
 

here be a london tourist post

The good thing with jet lag - if it could be ever considered a good thing - is that I have a lot of time in the mornings. The past two mornings I've been waking up at the ungodly hour of three, where I crawl out of bed into the living room and woe at my body clock. My friends have been telling me it'll take me about a week to recover. In the mean time, I will attempt to keep up some schedule so I don't reach that stage where there are too many photos to edit that I throw in the hat. My poor laptop doesn't know what to do with so many raw files.

Starting off the day with breakfast before taking the tube to Westminster. It was a grey and slightly wet morning.

Met up with my friend at the British Museum but didn't stay very long. We came to the realisation that museums are not places to catch up. Alas, I'm going to head back there today to enjoy it at my own pace. Time to pull out that high school history list of things to see!

Because tourists. When in London, y'know.

i'm in london

...and I'm so incredibly jet lagged. Two twelve hour flights and a six hour layover where I was mad enough to dash out of Beijing Airport and meet up with friends over coffee. (I had a sunset airport photo I was going to insert here, but I managed to delete it without exporting it because I'm brilliant like that.)

My friend lives in outer London, and I feel like I'm staying in Privet Drive, in one of those square brown houses. I'm incredibly charmed. That, and very exhausted. I woke up at 4:30AM this morning and read two-thirds of Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone and ate all the chocolate in this One Direction advent calendar. My friend picked me up from a tube station and presented it to me as a "Welcome to London!" gift. What can I say? She knows just how incredibly uncool I am.