My Self-Guided London Tour- LD31-32, October 3-4, 2015

Finally, I am a cultured "Londoner."

In lieu of big plans for the weekend, I decided to finally give myself the full, self-guided, London tour.

Future visitors, take note.

Saturday, though I was behind schedule, I eventually got up, put a light bag together, and took the Bakerloo line from Edgeware Road to Lamden North station. From Lamden North, besides having a pretty cool small view of the London Eye, I found the 159 bus headed the direction that wasn't Marble Arch and took it for a few stops.

Along the way on those stops, I saw what I think may have been London City Hall. I don't quite remember, but it was grandiose and cool.

If I had taken that bus all the way up to Oxford Circus, I would have driven past most of the other major landmarks and seen nearly everything London considers iconic in a manner of minutes. However, I'm me, and I like to explore, so I got off the bus at the Westminster Abbey stop.

I get off the bus, do a 180 turn, and BOOM. There's Big Ben, smack in front of me, in full, from bottom to top. Attached to the Houses of Parliament.

Like a boss.

Now, normally, this is where you get your friends to take cool pictures of you in front of all the landmarks. Unfortunately, my friends weren't with me, since they were doing what normal students do on the weekends and were sleeping in.

Forgive me, friends, but this tourist trip is also a series of selfies.

Ben and I.

I knew what this building was at the time but while writing this blog

 I cannot for the life of me remember it's name...

Some perfect views

The wonderful thing about this little tourist square is that it holds most of the major buildings for the English government: Parliament/Ben, the Supreme Court building, the building I can't remember the name of, and also Westminster Abbey, which is actually where coronations and important things happen.

In retrospect, I should've paid to go inside.

The picture everyone wants.

Darn lighting.

I decided not to get back on the bus, since I could take more time if I walked everywhere. I walked a very short while along the riverbank, so I could get this picture:

London's and Rachel's Eyes.

(Yes, I'm a dork)

Going back out to the main street, you go by Downing Street and the famous 10 Downing street address. It's much more elaborate than I expected, actually. There's a huge gate, and it's heavily guarded by London Police. 

Sheesh, guys.

Continuing along the road brings you to the Palace Guard and Calvary Headquarters. I didn't realize at the time how close I was to Buckingham Palace, but knowing that now makes a whole lot more sense.
I didn't catch the Buckingham Palace changing of the guard, because I was watching the tail end of it here at the Horse Guard. 

Across the street is Whitehall, a building with a beautiful, grand banqueting hall and the very same courtyard where Charles I was executed (if you know your British history). This banqueting hall is likely the first place some Shakespeare plays like 12th Night were performed, and where court masques (elaborate forms of performance just for the court people) were performed. The building was made by one of the most famous architects of Shakespeare's time, Inigo Jones. 

Unfortunately, a lot of renovation is happening to the building, so I didn't really see all of it, including the infamous courtyard, but I did go inside the banqueting hall.

This is the CEILING. PART of it. Woah.

It was around 11:45 at this time. I had until 12:45, and I really wasn't sure what to do next. So, I hung out in Trafalgar Square for a short while, where they were holding a garish meeting for the NFL. This is out of place in London, where American football should not exist, and I heartily disapproved. So I went inside a Waterstones bookstore instead and lamented at all the books I couldn't buy because money is a thing that exists and is limited. Also, I do not have all the time in the world to read all the beautiful fabulous books I could ever wish for *sigh*...

Instead, I went to Buckingham Palace.

The Mall walk to the Palace really builds up the place. You walk right along the edge of St. James Park, which is the nicest, most lovely, manicured park I've seen in London yet, until you get to the palace at the edge of the road. And then, it's white and gold and white and gold and the red of the tiny little guards but mostly white and gold and tourists.

There she lives

The monument in front is for Victoria, of course. Like everything else here.

Changing of the guard is at 11:30. Missed it but oh well.

God save the Queen.

By this time, I was over my time limit and really had to get a move on.

To get to the Natural History Museum and Victoria and Albert Museums from Buckingham Palace, take the St. James park station to South Kensington. Or, if your mother is coming to visit and is staying at the Holiday Inn, take another station after that to Gloucester.

Mom decided to be super, super sweet and pick up a trip to London so she could see me for a day/afternoon! In order to see her, I put the rest of my culture crawl on hold for the day and went to her hotel instead. She looks lovely, as always. We walked up through Hyde Park together to get to my flat, which she was anxious to see, and then walked back down along the edge of the park to check out Harrods, upon my grandmother's recommendation.

Harrods is... both underwhelming and overwhelming at the same time. I am NOT used to seeing top brands everywhere, all in the same place- even in Los Angeles. In LA, they're at least surrounded by things I can actually afford, and are all in different stores. But here... Nope. Harrods is the definition of extravagent spending and poshness. It was overwhelming because of how much of a maze it was- 6 floors and a basement with beautifully decorated stairways and escalators and rooms upon rooms following one after the other of the absolute top designer clothes and shoes and whatever else you can possibly think of all in one roof with prices I was too scared to check. It was underwhelming because it wasn't what I expected. I expected to be able to actually go shopping here, as though it was a mall similar to the ones in the States. Instead, I was hit with this dazzling pound sign of glory. However, the second floor has a bookshop, a chocolate shop, a few rooms completely dedicated to Christmas, and a gifts section. It is my favorite floor, and the only one I could see myself actually buying things in.

Thus disappointed, we went back to my Mom's hotel room for dinner, chilling, and a very early bedtime by my standards.

We got up early this morning, got breakfast, and then it was time for Mom to go already. Sadness :( It's always fun to see my Mom, and especially now. I've been away from home for longer stretches of time, since I've been away at school, but never for this long while I'm this far away. I haven't actually missed home as a place, and I haven't missed LA as a place either. What I miss are the people there- I've missed my family, and friends, and spending time with them, etc. But even then, I have Annie and Elsie a hop skip and jump away, for when I miss high school friends, and it's hard to miss college friends when you're living with your sorority sister, sorority Big sister, and one of the sweetest people to exist at USC. So, it was just my family missing, and seeing my Mom got to fill in that gap for me a little bit. Also, it was fun to receive my Dad's jealous texts- he wished he could be here too.

I left Mom fairly quickly because I made a sudden decision to continue my London touring from yesterday, but to take it up a notch. I wanted to see St. Paul's Cathedral, but it's Sunday, which means I had a chance of actually attending a service there. I succeeded.

The Anglican Church is basically the same as the Catholic Church. Henry VIII only created it and split from Catholicism so he could divorce one of his wives. That said, it was a lot like going to Catholic mass, but in a HUGE, huge space. For me, it was awe-inspiring to be worshiping in such a large area. For non-religious people, I still recommend attending a service. It's an awesome chance to see the traditions of these cathedrals, and hear the organs, and sit right underneath that huge, iconic dome.

From the front

There's a school called Middle Temple that I was hoping to go to after the service. We've been hearing a lot about it in my Theatre History and Dramatic Criticism classes as places where playwrights went to finish their education. Along the way, I walked down this familiar street for any Sweeney Todd fans: 

Couldn't find the Demon Barber though...

For the record, I still want to find Drury Lane and get a muffin sometime while I'm here.

Also on the way, I ran across the Twinnings Tea shop!!! It's very small, and very narrow, but it's full of tea and it looks like heaven.

Anyway, I did eventually find Middle Temple, but it was very closed off to the public. At least I saw the outside of it.

The original plan, from here, was to take the Tube to Hyde Park and finally see Kensington Gardens and Palace. However, I'm a moron, and this is when I discovered I couldn't find my Oyster Photocard and went into 200% panic mode.

I grabbed lunch to try to calm myself down, but then retraced my steps all the way up to the cathedral to no avail. Dejected, disappointed, and a failure, I bought a normal blue Oyster card and shuffled myself back up to the Landward to sulk.

I didn't get much time for this. Alexa and I chilled for a while, then the boys invited us to tea at their place. They were wonderful hosts, but then Kees, a classmate of ours, came over to rehearse some scenes so naturally we had to host him at our flat. I had dinner, did some more homework (while I could concentrate... some Pinterest happened too), and here we are.

It's been a full weekend, but I'm actually disappointed by how much I didn't do, even after I did so much. Some of my friends saw shows, for example, that sounded amazing. Also, I missed out on Kensington Gardens, the Tower of London, Tower Bridge, the British Library, and exploring museums, all of which I still want to do around the city. Also, I forgot that a big part of my homework is memorizing lines and running monologues. If I have to do my monologue in class tomorrow... well, God save me as well as the Queen.

It's going to be a full, work-heavy week. Yikes.

Fight on, friends.