East and West

Started the day off at the National Portrait Gallery and the National Gallery, both at Trafalgar Square in the West End. I liked the Tudor section at Portrait - English history is pretty fascinating (with all the intrigues that occured during those times) and high school socials studies came flooding back all at once. At the National Gallery, I saw paintings by LOTS of famous artists! It provides a free floor plan that points out the highlights of the gallery, like da Vinci's Madonna of the Rocks, and Van Gogh's Sunflowers and so forth so I just followed that through the four big wings. One of my favourites was a set of four paintings by Beuckelaer (don't know if I spelled that right, but can check later) called The Four Elements, and also the landscape paintings by Claude Lorrain. All in all, it was cultural morning!

The tube that morning was horrible! Packed with no ventilation, really humid and hot. Yuck! Turned out there was a football game (Brasil vs. Argentina) and people were flocking to Arsenal on the same train line that I happened to be taking.

I was searching for Jamie Oliver...

I met Ancilla in the afternoon in London's East End. Wish I had seen a few episodes of East Enders to know what to expect! I was searching for Jamie Oliver's restaurant, Fifteen, but we didn't find it. We checked out a market on Commercial St. filled with East Indian, Middle Eastern, and African sellers hawking cheap clothes, shoes, textiles, and souvenirs. Didn't buy anything, but this market had a really different vibe than the one I got at Notting Hill. Lots of ethnic diversity in the East End. I can compare it to parts of East Vancouver. I had some really strong umami cravings as there really hasn't been much protein in my diet over the last few days (food here, and well just about everything here, is pretty expensive) so we bought some chicken masala takeaway (a little tin for 4 pounds, or $8!) from Brick Lane, or Banglatown as it is also known. It was deelish!

Dropped by Tower Hill as it was on the way and took touristy pictures of the Tower of London and Tower Bridge. Than at the hostel, we said goodbye to our friends that we met, then set our alarms early for the next day. Off to a new city!