Lovely London

And Bath, Oxford, and Brighton too, I suppose. 

From Barcelona, I flew into London to meet up with Shannon and Matt, who were staying with their friends Rob and Alison. I hadn't planned to meet them in England, but I wasn't really ready to head out on my own yet, and I felt it would be silly to miss the chance to see my friends again. Plus, Barcelona was stressful, as mentioned, and I thought that England would be a brief respite from some of the most difficult parts of travelling. I was right. 

Just under two weeks in England let me relax a little and regain my confidence. It was definitely the break I needed; staying in the same place, establishing habits of a sort, and not constantly worrying about my stuff being stolen was immensely helpful for me. Plus, returning to a place I had already visited (again - Paris was good for that too!) makes for a different kind of tourism; there's less pressure to see and do it all. And staying in an apartment was great - we cooked, could use the Internet consistently, and even got to watch Netflix! It was a really good decision, and I'm glad I went. Many thanks to Shannon and Matt for letting me join them, and even more to Rob and Alison for letting me stay with them!

Now, the downfall of visiting a place I've already been is that I didn't take terribly many photos. There no Eiffel Tower in London after all. Regardless, my first night I went for a walk around town and snapped a couple of shots from one of the many bridges on the Thames. 

The moon and Antarc - wait, no, that's Big Ben. 

And the London Eye. It's supposedly vastly overpriced but I do like the sight of it, all lit up for the night. 

The next day, I met Matt, Shannon and Alison at the Borough market, which is a collection of food stalls and vendors near London Bridge. We ate delicious sandwiches and olives, and then bought some treats from a macaron shop for later in the day. We tried to tour the Cathedral, but were instead monopolized by a very enthusiastic volunteer with some unusual thoughts on, well, really a lot of things. He would go on for a bit against the monarchy, then remember himself and talk briefly about the cathedral before going off on another tangent. It was an interesting conversation, or monologue, and when we finally managed to extricate ourselves from it we popped down to the Globe briefly before hopping on the Tube to go to the Natural History museum. That was followed by Harrod's -
where I could have easily spent far more time and money - and then dinner at a Jamie Oliver restaurant. Afterwards, we headed home for a quiet evening in. 

The evening had to be quiet as we were up very early the next morning to catch a train to Bath. We spent a lovely day in the city, hitting all the tourist spots and taking a delicious tea in the afternoon. 

The sacred spring!

The main pool. 

Sleepy duck! 

Quaint canals and parks - basically exactly how I think of England. 

We also stayed late for a comedy walk around the city - no history, just jokes. It was a lot of fun, and if you're in town you should check it out!

Bath was just a day trip, so we headed home that night, then repacked and went to Oxford the next day. Oxford was quite nice; I've noticed that I have a fondness for college towns, and that's basically what it is, albeit a very, very old one. 

 The Radcliffe camera! Taken from a weird angle to hopefully hide most of the scaffolding erected around it...

Christchurch gardens. 

The interior courtyard. 

The dining hall! Possibly familiar to some of you from the Harry Potter movies...

The main courtyard, with the view mostly ruined by a lorry. Dammit. 

I think these are parts of the actual residences at Christchurch? To be honest though, I can't really remember. 

Huuuuuge lily pads at the Botanic Gardens!

Garden Gate. 

We also spent a decent amount of time at the Eagle and Child, a pub in town where Tolkien and Lewis would often write... It's not as touristy as you might expect, and was pretty cool!

The day after we left Oxford, Shannon had to fly home, so we breakfasted with her and then sort of lazed about for the day. We only left the apartment to get groceries, and we spent the day hanging out, playing video games and watching Netflix. It was awesome, and I'm very glad we did it!

The next few days all blur together a little, and unfortunately I barely took any photos, but we went into London every day and did the normal tourist things: the Tower of London, British Museum, the zoo, eating Indian food, and generally sort of bumming around. We also went to a comedy show, and got free tickets to a circus-type act that was pretty cool. 

Sunday, we went to Brighton, a little seaside town about an hour from London. It was quite nice, and the weather was great!

Look! You can almost see the whole building! (The pier actually goes on for a while, and there are even roller coasters at the end... Which we were completely surprised by.)

I hope they remembered sunscreen!

For Anita: this carnival game-thing was filled with haribo prizes. I have no idea how it worked though. 

The palace! It was designed to look Indian, and the inside is incredible. 

I assume this is the old pier?

The next day was Canada day, so we headed to the party at Trafalgar Square, which unfortunately did not have any poutine at all. We hung out there for a bit, then went for a walk through Hyde Park. 

The Canada gate! Fitting, given the date. 

It's a crossing button like seven feet off the ground so horse riders can use it!

The detail on this might not be great, but there are two things you should try to see here: the statue marked "Physical Energy Statue" - huh? And the "senior playground" in the bottom middle. What's a senior playground?

We walked back to Trafalgar Square to watch some of the musical acts perform, including the Tragically Hip, but there was something wrong with the audio set-up and we left halfway through the set because they sounded so bad. It was still a fun day, and it was neat celebrating Canada Day in London! 

The next day was my last in England, so we headed to an exhibit at the British Library, which has all kinds of literary treasures, from Shakespeare's first folio and the Magna Carta to the napkin the first draft of the Beatles' "Yesterday" was scrawled on. There was some neat stuff! After the Library, we walked to Camden, which has tonnes of little shops and stalls all over the place. There was some pretty cool stuff, and so many food vendors that looked delicious that both of us were disappointed we weren't hungry. We wandered around for a couple of hours, then headed home and cooked a pasta dinner. 

The next morning, I caught a flight to Vienna, and it was goodbye to England for the time being. I had a great time there, and I'm very glad I went! Now it's back to touring Europe, which is much harder, but I guess I shouldn't complain about my long trip overseas, eh?