I will never be a royal, it don't run in my bl
Being that I have so far spent 3 months in Denmark with a language that sounds a little like you've gotten your tongue cutoff, as soon as I landed in London from the airport to the metro I was hooked. I didn't have to tune out the advertisements or the newspapers or the conversations. Suddenly I understood everything. It is such a relief to be in your zone, at least remotely. Yet, all of the conversations sound extremely interesting because they are in a British accent, even their conversations about the weather sound like they are appointing the next sunshine baron. The cool thing is that it rubs off on you like glitter. Suddenly you look at yourself in the mir-ah, not the mirror and you really start driving home the As in fAAther (and lol why have Ts when they always skip them). Even though I almost died from my inability to get used to looking at the right THEN left when crossing the street, London was a magnificent experience.
I traveled with two good friends and we stayed at the most charming hostel. Nothing fancy and over the top except the beauty of the blue skies and the shining sun caressing us. We made it there with ease, navigating the tube like professional commuters. The hostel was in a fairly mixed area which was quiet yet hip. It was a walk through typical British row houses with plenty of trees and cute scenery which was as accessible as cheap restaurants of all types and stores for all of your pressing survival needs like cheap wine, midnight snacks, and cookies on the go. It was cool. So far throughout my travels I always end up staying in areas like this, and I think I like them much more than if I would've have stayed in the city centre with the other heap of tourists. When we went for lunch upon arrival, for example, it was fun gossiping about the two old ladies sitting in the semi-italian deli whose accent was so strong it was almost a completely different language and trying to figure out what to order and how. My personal favorite would be when my vegetarian friend, Erik, would order a "veggie sandwich" and they couldn't understand him due to his 'American' accent.
ood. But this type of love was actually meant for us because for Spring Break I made my way to London, where I stole the queen's crown and took over the city. From Princess Diana to Harry Potter to the Covergirl London Look I have literally been hearing about England for about the whole entirety of my life. Almost no history, art, architecture, philosophy or music discussion can avoid London in one way or another so it felt right to venture to the only part of Europe I had a duty to visit (aka we've all seen Prince Harry's pictures and we've all heard Emma Watson speak and we all know what I want what I really really want). Another reason I went was because it was so so cheap to travel there, given that it was Easter Vacation and Barcelona, Milan, or Instabul's prices were so high their eyes were real red. In reality, going to London was a dream come true. London has been a major settlement for two millennia, its history going back to its founding by the Romans. In this way, it is a leading global city with strengths in the arts, commerce, education, entertainment, fashion, finance, healthcare, media, professional services, research and development, tourism, transport, I mean the list goes on and on and so does the city. When you land in London you feel relevant. When you leave London you feel relevant. Being that I have so far spent 3 months in Denmark with a language that sounds a little like you've gotten your tongue cutoff, as soon as I landed in London from the airport to the metro I was hooked. I didn't have to tune out the advertisements or the newspapers or the conversations. Suddenly I understood everything. It is such a relief to be in your zone, at least remotely. Yet, all of the conversations sound extremely interesting because they are in a British accent, even their conversations about the weather sound like they are appointing the next sunshine baron. The cool thing is that it rubs off on you like glitter. Suddenly you look at yourself in the mir-ah, not the mirror and you really start driving home the As in fAAther (and lol why have Ts when they always skip them). Even though I almost died from my inability to get used to looking at the right THEN left when crossing the street, London was a magnificent experience.
I traveled with two good friends and we stayed at the most charming hostel. Nothing fancy and over the top except the beauty of the blue skies and the shining sun caressing us. We made it there with ease, navigating the tube like professional commuters. The hostel was in a fairly mixed area which was quiet yet hip. It was a walk through typical British row houses with plenty of trees and cute scenery which was as accessible as cheap restaurants of all types and stores for all of your pressing survival needs like cheap wine, midnight snacks, and cookies on the go. It was cool. So far throughout my travels I always end up staying in areas like this, and I think I like them much more than if I would've have stayed in the city centre with the other heap of tourists. When we went for lunch upon arrival, for example, it was fun gossiping about the two old ladies sitting in the semi-italian deli whose accent was so strong it was almost a completely different language and trying to figure out what to order and how. My personal favorite would be when my vegetarian friend, Erik, would order a "veggie sandwich" and they couldn't understand him due to his 'American' accent.
It wasn't long at all before we dropped it all at the hostel and headed out for the royal treatment. Firstly, navigating the 'Underground' in London is easy as pie. But really, the London Underground or 'the Tube' is truly underground and it truly looks like a tube. Stepping into it almost feels like going into a time machine: everything is crowded, there are not enough seats and before you know it you arrived to the next station. Unlike Copenhagen where if you miss one station you can easily walk or bike to the next, the London subway moves so fast you forget just how far apart the stations are from one another. London is a big big city. Neither the great fires, the Black Plague, WWII, nor the final battle at Hogwarts have managed to stop this monster from greatness. The first thing we had to do was to visit the queen so we headed to the fab part of life to breath the fantastic golden embellishments and the radiant tulips at the Royal Palace. It's like the Queen knew I was coming because she managed to showoff the most beautiful flower gardens and summon the blue sky with the wave of her hand. The British flag was swaying high in the air and everything seemed so valuable, much like my experience so far in Europe. I wish we would've stuck around her ground for longer but whatever we are busy too and had lots of things to do, people to see, and places to be!
One of the things that blew me about London was its emphasis on vast open spaces. Really, there was probably not a single hour that passed in which we didn't engage in swiftly designed public parks and squares, the embrace of natural elements and the come-and-go of the sun. Throughout the UK there is an inherited legacy of first class public parks and landscapes. Today, every town has a park that they can be proud of and many of these are also historically important. Besides weird urban legends, a fish and a chip, and industrialization, the British also invented and shaped the concept of public parks and in turn influenced the creation of parks in North America and Europe. Recognizing the need for places to relax, unwind, and to exercise, the top landscape designers of the day, like Joseph Paxton and John Claudius Loudon, were commissioned to lay out these new parks. During the mid to late nineteenth century, public park and landscape design was a hot topic and dominated professional journals and sections of newspapers just like gardening and interior design pages in today’s consumer magazines. This is pretty refreshing because it makes the experience of the city one giant leisurely walk. We would enter a royal park from one corner, get off on the next and see a church, a great scenic view of the water; we would pass another park and into the financial district. The city becomes a mosaic of public and private.
The Easter sun was so beautiful the first day that it was no problem spending it outside wandering the streets of London where size certainly matters when you take a grasp of Big Ben and the London Eye. It's Big and it's Ben, a place I had always wanted to see since defeating The Phantom in Kingdom Hearts and even before then when wondering about the magic of childhood in Peter Pan or perhaps even before that after following @Big_Ben_Clock on Twitter and dying after every post. Regardless, going to that whole area by Westminster Abbey is like stepping into an iconic and historical set.
Talking about icons, seeing the Tower Bridge was pretty exciting for me too. Since Fergie proclaimed her London Bridge was falling down circa 2006, I became increasingly interested for bridges overall. Now that I've seen it wide and direct I think that Fergie probably let it down a little too early (typical). The London bridge fell down for a reason I guess because the Tower Bridge was much much better. It's quite a sight. I specially liked the paint job which looks like it is ready for the next Victorian/Renaissance festival. Even though London has this nice bridge and we went around it, up it, and across it, I am still not over it. One of my favorites parts of the day was getting to the bridge from a terrace/plaza by the city hall and glancing at the majesty of it with the perfect backdrop of softly placed clouds and the calming water.
While I mostly talk about London through cheesy tourist pictures with exciting world icons, the vastness of British history and the ultimate quest of trying to find the ministry of magic per these pictures mostly:
It is also relevant to point out that London first and foremost, in today's context, is a huge metropolitan hub for European development, economy, and society. The word that fits here is impressive. The amount of investment that comes in and out of London is only matched at best by the amount of people that come in and out of London every single day. You feel that energy driving the city, driving you. There are huge architectural developments taking place and the sheer magnitude of its financial and business center is astounding. Modern architecture is a norm now and the impressive form and scale might not compare to the ginormous projects in Asia and the Middle East, but rather provide a substance that keeps London righteously on its map. My favorite was the City Hall building and the modern square surrounding the harbor. Some of the stream-lined vistas and daring architectural elements went a long way. Like for example a building that was a giant spire, another huge skyscraper that bulged out on the center, and one steam punk building that was so righteous. In the other side of the river where the financial center is there was a nice intertwine of old and new, modern and modernist, tall and low, and of national identity and national progress. Walking through these areas felt rushed, the same way you would feel in an action movie: business men moving fast and sweeps of architectural structures coming into you in all sorts of typologies. Here, it felt like what we think of a city would feel like. And since so far I have been to Copenhagen (who is known for a tiny little mermaid), Stockholm (who is known for the underground subway stations), Amsterdam (who is known for picturesque low rise houses built-in right into the canals), and Berlin (who really knows the definition of destruction), London came to me out of the blue uninvited. Bu thankfully it came because I really liked it.
Naturally we saw so so many things and had a great time exploring the city. We went to the national gallery, sat around a huge public square with vibrant city life, sneaked into a side church, went to the amazing modern art museum, and even found the time to buy ice cream. At some point I felt like I was living though the pages of my Art History book, recognizing buildings, pinpointing Picasso and Degas paintings and fan-girling about every single moment I thought of anything related to what Harry Potter would've done. It was all a dream, check it:
St Martin-in-the-Fields known for being a prime example of the British quest of a national classicist architectural style and the cool new window design:
The idea of the covered commercial street which helped morph to the modern market/mall:
Shakespeare's Globen Theatre because a plague on both your houses and the ides of March:
Tate Modern which is my whole entire modern Art History education housed under one roof and perfect for sneaking selfies in front of unidentified art:
The huge St. Paul's Cathedral because you lose if you are a city and aren't in that S.t Paul Cathedral wagon:
And also other moments of wandering through Corinthian columns and the like:
The last truthful moments in the city we decided to venture a little bit outside into Queen Elizabeth's Olympic Garden, which was pretty out there and stood as a gem for relaxing, playing, and enjoying the sun. It's a huge complex that has brand new developments, a huge mall, and a sports compound integrated with an aquatic center, mountain biking trails, fun playgrounds, a weird twist structure, two arenas, and nice views of the water. It was built for the summer Olympics that took place in London sometime back. It was the perfect ending for a pleasant day and a formal presentation that yes, London is great and yes I like being queen.
In the end, after barely 2 days of traveling I was extremely sad to have to leave the city back to Denmark. London definitely deserves more attention than that, my bad.
Im just happy that my Study Abroad map includes all these wonderful places