The blaaaahg: London: Ghosts, Double Decker Buses, Free Museums, Markets, Tea, and the Ministry of Magic

April 17-21

I never considered that transitioning back into English would be strange, but it was. Since arriving in Paris, I've spoken English everyday; I only go into French mode about 35% of the time. Still, it must've seeped into my brain enough for me to habitually say, "bonjour", "pardon", "merci," etc. all the time...and it was weird. At certain points (not so much in England; more in Ireland, though), I would've preferred French to the heavily accented English that I had probably the same level of difficulty understanding. Anyway, it was nice to feel connected to the world again. I feel like I'm in a little 19th century bubble in Paris, but I felt like I had stepped back into real life in London.

I stayed in this 19th century camp/former children's hospital/Hogwarts-esque (the beds had curtains!) hostel.

The afternoon that we arrived, we visited the Tate Modern. We were somehow jet lagged and delusional, even though the time change was only an hour different...looking at modern and contemporary artwork did not help our state of mind.

Floating Yoda

Floating street performer

The blue rooster in Trafalgar Square. It's been criticized for being too French.

The pace of London is definitely closer to that of New York. It's not quite as aggressive, though, and that made it more hilarious to me.

This was a secret spy center at one point...good disguise

Buckingham Palace; the Queen was out, but we heard some crazy stories of how she dealt with break-ins during the '70s and '80s.

Lion and unicorn with dog bodies

Big Ben

V&A Museum

Took on the monstrosity that is Harrods in under a half an hour!

We ate dinner at this very English pub. We took a set of winding stairs, ducked around corners, and then sat in the dim basement, amidst friends catching up and lots of conversations.

The entire UK is haunted by ghosts. This ghost bus, however, was not so much haunted by the dead, but unfortunately by the living. Basically, we had a crazy human actor who kept creating obnoxious disturbances, obtrusive accidents, and comical seances. The best part of the whole bus ride, though, was when he ran screaming off the bus just to reappear 10 minutes later, running up from the Tube.

We spent a good amount of time at the very crowded markets. They had everything from pottery to purses to Harry Potter shirts to Elizabeth II bobble heads.