On Holiday in London town

AHH you can drink in the street!
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Wanting (perhaps desperately needing) to speak English and be with our friends on Thanksgiving, Bec and I jetted off to jolly England last Thursday. I must say that despite being freakishly expensive, I love London and I wish I could've stayed longer. We got in around 8 thursday night and had a delicious thanksgiving dinner of fish and chips (and of course beer). I've never seen people drink like they drink in london - no joke. You can take beer anywhere, on the street, in the tube... pretty much everywhere except the pub and then you go and buy more beer. We knew a ton of Southwestern people who were all studying in the same program there, so it was great to hang out and see everybody, a little like being home.

thanksgiving dinner
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The next day we somehow got up bright and early and went to the Tate Modern museum, which is definitely one of the coolest museums ever. They had a lot of different modern art, some installation pieces and contemporary stuff and a really cool Guerilla Girls exhibit. After touring for a few hours we slid down from the fifth floor and made our way out. That's correct, there was a five story SLIDE in this museum - how cool is that?? After some traditional British cuisine, aka more pub food, we explored Hyde Park and Kensington Gardens, which are huge and really beautiful. I am told the green space is to keep the brits from committing suicide. Sadly, I don't think this is a joke considering they have one of the highest suicide rates in the world. Also, when we arrived one of the subways was closed because someone had tried to throw himself under the train. This was also the same weekend that the russian spy living in london, Alexander Litvinenko, was poisoned by his own government, although perhaps London is always this eventful. Anyway, that night I explored Trafalgar Square and walked down to see Buckingham Palace where the queen and her family actually live in the winter. This means I was only meters away from the royal family and had I x-ray vision I would've seen the Queen of England in her pajamas, perhaps having a spot of brandy. Monarchies seem very bizarre to me.

also the same weekend that the russian spy living in london, Alexander Litvinenko, was poisoned by his own government

Bec and Brantley
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The next day was just as busy, but definitely the most awesome. This is because we went to the Camden town market in the morning and I honestly could've stayed there all day. It was outdoors and the weather was mostly terrible but there was so much to do and see, tons of shops with clothes and jewelry and food from every part of the world. I had some delicious Indian food and enjoyed a bit of shopping along with some authentic moroccan tea and hookah. Why can't we have markets like that in Paris?? After that we did all the usual touristy stuff like Westminster Abbey, Big Ben and Parliament. I forgot to mention that it gets dark at 4pm there. Can you imagine? no wonder they drink so much.

5 story slide, Tate Modern
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That night my friend Rakhee and I went to this really cool art exhibit, a danish artist named John Korner. It was definitely a great expo and it was cool to get out of tourist mode for awhile. We ended up meeting up with friends and going dancing - really awesome reggae club, among others. I also got to ride one of those cool double decker night buses. I got home and slept for 30 minutes before getting up and throwing all my stuff into my bag and rushing out the door to make the train. Later at the train station I looked down to find that I was wearing two different shoes, one of which didn't belong to me at all. Ahh...good times in London.