Yesterday (Sunday), Maggie and I walked over to Regent's Park which is only a few blocks away from where we live. It is an absolutely beautiful park with all of these gardens and fountains. So many people were outside for the beautiful weather walking their dogs, laying in the grass, or pushing their kids in strollers. I think this Sunday was THE most beautiful day in London thus far. Slight breeze, clear blue skies, and sun sun sun. We went to one of the little cafes situated in the park and got breakfast (more like dessert). We then made our way to the opposite side of the park where the London Zoo is situated. We made our way through the zoo seeing the monkeys, the gorillas, the penguins, etc. FINALLY, around 1:30 we made our way over to the Giraffes. There were three giraffes there; Maggie, Molly, and Alicia. A little after 2, the zookeeper came and led us up to the enclosed platform where we would 'meet' the giraffes. Once up there, he handed us each handfuls of carrot sticks and those giraffes knew it was time for lunch! I couldn't believe how eager they were, they just stuck their heads right over the rail and practically put their faces into your lap! It was fun to tease them just a little bit and see their long, purple tongues come out in an effort to get that carrot in their mouth. After finishing up the whole entire bucket of carrots, the zookeeper then tied huge tree branches to the viewing platform for the giraffes to eat the leaves and gnaw on the bark. While they gnawed, he told us some interesting giraffe facts. Like, did you know that giraffes have four stomachs and that females can grow up to fifteen feet tall? The average giraffe lives to about twenty, but the London Zoo had one that lived until 32! The funniest fact he said was how giraffes days are usually eating, standing around to digest, and then eating again. I laughed pretty hard at that; thinking how it is just another thing that adds to the list of why I am like a giraffe.
After getting our fill of giraffes, we made our way out of Regent's Park and hopped onto the tube to head over to Shoreditch and Spitalfields Market. Spitalfields Market is just one of London's many famous street markets with many independent vendors selling food, jewlery, clothing, and crafts. We took our time winding in and out of the different tents and tables, enjoying the sun and the peculiar things that people were selling. We were pretty hungry after all of that visual shopping, so we stopped at a cute little Patisserie and got some sandwiches and smoothies for dinner which were delicious! We made it home at about 5:45, only to get a text asking if we wanted to go see Abbey Road. Knowing that we didn't have class the next day, and although we were exhausted, we knew it would be worth the trip. So, no sooner than taking off our shoes were we putting them back on and hopping onto another bus to head to Abbey Road! Abbey Road is a peculiar thing. Abbey Road studios looks like any other recording studio building, besides the loads and loads of graffiti that have been painted on its fences and sidewalk. The Abbey Road crosswalk itself is just that: a crosswalk. It is still open to traffic, so it is pretty entertaining to stand there and watch chunks of people try to do the famous Beatles walk across the crosswalk without pissing off too many London drivers. Of course, we got our little taste of fame as well when it was our turn to walk across. It was the perfect way to end such an exciting day.
Today was another beautiful day. I woke up to more sun and blue skies! Maggie and I had planned to go to the Olympic Parks today before finding out that they are not open to the public. A lot of people on our Dialogue took day tripes to Oxford, Stonhendge, and Bath, but we figured today would be a great day to just take in parts of the city that we didn't get a chance to truly appreciate. We started with breakfast at Garfunkel's, which I think is supposed to be an American-style diner. I got a Belgian waffle with ice cream because, hey, you only London once! After yummy breakfast, we took the bus over to Camden Town to see the famous Camden Markets. This was probably one of the coolest things ever. Camden Market stretched on for blocks and blocks and had all these separate little areas like the horse stables, the lock market, etc. Right in the middle of the market was an old-fashioned canal; one where people had to actively move the gates open and shut to let boats through. It was really cool to watch in action! A little deeper into Camden Market, we discovered the food area. It was a bittersweet idea walking through that food area. We regretted so badly just eating breakfast at a dinky little diner because the food at this market looked absolutely incredible! Chocolate covered bananas, crepes, falafel, burgers, smoothies...basically anything you could dream of was there for you to eat! I enjoyed just inhaling the delicious scents of all of the foods, and decided that we must return another day to give it a taste.
After Camden Market, we made our way to the South Bank near the London Eye to check out yet another food festival! Sadly, this one wasn't as impressive as the one in Camden, so we just grabbed a beer and joined the throngs of people laying out in the grass taking in the sun with the beautiful view of the London Eye. We took our time crossing over Westminster Bridge to get awesome views of The Eye, The River Thames, as well as Big Ben and Parliament. It was a completely different perspective seeing Big Ben and Parliament today, than our first rainy day in Londontown. We trekked through Parliament Square, up to Trafalgar Square, through Trafalgar Square to Leicester Square, through to Oxford Street to Picadilly Circus, to Regent Street, and FINALLY about three hours later we made it back to Hampden House. So, if anyone was wondering, it IS possible to walk almost all of London as long as the weather is cooperative and you have a lot of patience for the annoying pedestrians you have to deal with along your way.
Tomorrow it is back to class much to my disappointment, but this week is a short one! Only two full days of class and then we will be off to Stratford-upon-Avon!
Until next time!!
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