Sight seeing, Big Price Tags & Visiting Boroughs

So after all of the orientations, we had to do some sight seeing! CAPA took us on a tour of London, where we saw the Tower of London, Tower Bridge, Big Ben, Buckingham Palace, the London Eye, St. Paul's Cathedral, West Minster Abbey, the US embassy, Parliament, various districts throughout, and lots of parks & memorials. It was so exciting to be touristy and see all this famous stuff! After we did that, it finally started to set in that I'm in LONDON!

St. Paul's Cathedral

Westminster Abbey

Big Ben

Tower Bridge

We went to Camden town markets, which were a little eccentric! It is an outdoor market made up of tons of different little sections; clothing, bags, shoes, posters, and plenty of little junk shops. The outdoor market ran off of a street with lots of other stores too. I saw at least 5 people with blue mohawks, and maybe 3 green ones. And I mean real mohawks, like at least a foot tall. The decorations on some of the buildings was amazing; like these huge 3D sculptures of random stuff. It was pretty crowded, and after milling around each isle we decided we had had our share for the day.

Decorations on Camden Markets

Yesterday, a few of my flatmates and I went to see Harrods, the famous and HUGE department store. Everything there is designer made and extremely expensive. We also went to Harvey Nichols, an even more expensive department store. We walked through and touched the gorgeous gowns, laughed at the bizarre hats, and rolled our eyes at the price tags. In both stores I marveled at the color coordinations of the displays. Each room almost had a color scheme, which made the whole thing sort of pretty. It was also organized spaciously in some parts, like a whole lot of thought went into the set up.

We also visited the princess Diana memorial on the ground floor of Harrods. It leaves something to be desired, as it was only about a room large, with and picture of Diana and Dodi and some candles. For a place that does everything excessively, princess Diana was kind of given the short straw.

I've been within several boroughs of London, including Earl's Court (where I live), South Kensington (right near by), Bloomsbury (where my internship is located at the University of London), Piccadilly Circus and Liester Square. Piccadilly and Liester Square are like the Times Square of London. There are lots of restaurants, theaters, and clubs there, and at night its all light up and pretty. I've already ended up there a few times, so I'm sure I'll be seeing even more of it as the semester goes on :)