La La La London

London, London.  Well, I suppose I should dedicate my first British blog post to the first English city I’ve had the pleasure of visiting (this doesn’t include the Manchester airport I “visited” for five hours during a layover…I learned quite a bit about British culture, which to me seemed to include Doctor Who, emos, and fried eggs).  That city is, of course, London. 

I’m not going to go into intricate detail about everything I did/saw while I was there, but I’ll mention some of the highlights.

The London bus tours, while super touristy, provided me with an awesome overview of the city.  I was able to get photographs of lots of different monuments, tourist attractions, historical sights, and more.

I visited the British Museum, which is waaaay to huge to walk through in one go around.  It was MASSIVE and awesome, full of geographically themed rooms.  But, above all else, I wanted to see the Rosetta Stone.  If you know what this is, you'll know how nerdy excited I was to see it.  If you don't know what this is, shame on you.

There were other historical/touristy places I wanted to visit in person: the London Eye, the Palace, Parliament, etc. but I didn't have a lot of time in London this time around, so I think I'm going to save those activities for another trip.  I'm sure I'll be back.

One of my favorite stops was the British Library.  Yes, books.  But this library isn't your everyday student lounge.  Yes, there were students lounging, but the library also has cool exhibits.  And the Lord must be looking after me because guess what exhibit they had...which was ending today....an exhibit on science fiction and fantasy literature!  Yes!  I know!  Super exciting!  They had all sorts of old texts on display, as well as new ones, ranging from More's Utopia and Wells' The Island of Dr. Moreau to Moore's V for Vendetta and Gaiman's Sandman series.  The topics were alternate realities, distopias, aliens, space wars, fantasy realms, and more.  I read almost every single little plaque that graced the walls and display cases.  And blessing of all blessings, the exhibit had a life-sized Tardis.  YES.  A LIFE-SIZED TARDIS.  *faints from happiness*  Scarcely had I been in England for two days when I stumble upon a life-sized Tardis.  Despite multiple signs telling me no photography, I decided to tempt a possible arrest and took my picture by it.  

Another awesome stop: Harrods.  Wasn't going to go at first, but then met this lovely Scottish guy and his Australian wife who raved about Harrods' Food Hall.  And I LOVE food.  So I couldn't pass that up.  Man, was I glad I didn't.

And there's more.  There's so much more.  I wanted to eat EVERYTHING.  Even the sushi and I don't even like sushi.

Okay, and while we're on food, I might as well include some more food pictures and talk about food.  I ate some pretty delicious food in London, none of it really British.  Well, except for this:

And this:

Both were delicious of course.  

But we also had some other, non-English dishes.  They were also delicious.

My stomach has been quite happy, I must say.  Salads with artichokes and tomatoes.  Margherita pizza.  Salads with avocado and bacon.  Chicken tikka with rice.  Pappadoms with four (count 'em four!) different sauces/chutneys.  Four (count 'em four!) different breads with oil/vinegar dipping sauce.  Vegetable and leek soup.  Cheddar and tomato sandwiches.  All right.  I'm going to stop now.  I'm making myself hungry again.

Well...that's London.  It was busy and crowded, like New York crammed into half the space.  Some taxi drivers were nice.  Some were incredibly rude.  Everyone bustled about like they were late to a luncheon.  There was nothing on television (I'm watching the World Sheepdog Competition right now).  The food was delicious.  The Tardis was AWESOME!  But I think, overall, I'm going to like Cambridge better.  Which is good, since I have to live there for the next two years.  :)