Right, well I’ve finally found a computer where I can upload photos, so here comes a long entry! The last two days have been so amazing, and London is everything that I imagined it would be. The highlight so far has probably been seeing my friends again, especially Luke (one of my adopted brothers from Tokyo), who I haven’t seen in well over a year.
On Friday, we met up at Victoria station (near where I’m staying) at 12, and went for a rambling adventure to Covent Garden. It was the best thing ever to see him again, and we ended up having lunch at a quaint little pub called the Lamb and Flag after taking red phone box photos.
I had fish and chips with peas, and Luke had a ploughman’s lunch, and we both had a local ale with it. The food was quite good, and the pub had a nice atmosphere.
We spent ages just talking and catching up, before heading back out to the National Gallery in Trafalgar Square. It started raining as we left. We had a look at Nelson’s Column, then Luke decided that I HAD to sit on one of the gigantic lions at it’s base, because that’s what you do when you go to London. So, in probably one of the least graceful moments of my life, I was boosted up onto a slippery, dripping wet, giant lion’s bum.
Needless to say, my pants were completely soaked by the end of this, so we went into the National Gallery to see the art and to dry off. I really enjoyed the National Gallery – I saw two lily paintings by Monet, a couple of Rembrandts, and one of Van Gough’s sunflowers, although I preferred the painting of the crab that was next to it. Luke knows a lot about art, so we walked around commenting and observing. I think my favourite of what we saw (the gallery is huge so we didn’t see everything) was the British paintings by John Constable. After wandering around for ages, we had afternoon tea in the cafe, before going out into the rainy Trafalgar Square to meet Jasmin and Owen at 5.
Jasmin had got me a ticket to go with her and Owen to see Blood Borothers at the West End, a musical about twins who are separated at birth and end up dying on the same day, moments after they discover they are brothers. Before the show, we grabbed a hot chocolate (again, a matter of being inside to dry off), and caught up on months of news, before finding a place for dinner.
We found a great Thai place off Charring Cross Road, and I had a yummy tom yum soup. The musical was at the Phoenix Theatre, and it was just incredible! The woman who played Mrs Johnstone had the most amazing voice, and the whole production was just spectacular! I jumped out of my seat when the gun shots went off in Act Two, but to be fair, we were sitting right next to the speakers.
After the show, we started to walk back to the Tube station, but it wasn’t raining, so we ended up walking along the Thames, taking photos of the London Eye, Big Ben, the Houses of Parliament and Westminster Abbey. The city is so beautiful, especially at night.
We walked and walked, and ended up just walking back to Victoria station from Westminster, as it wasn’t too far. I got back to the hotel around midnight, so was pretty tired, but it was an amazing day!
