London Darling!

Hello! Well let's just start off by saying, London was amazing! I adored it! Okay, so we started the day on the bus to London which took just under an hour which is great. When I first stepped off the bus, we went to see Big Ben, London Eye, Houses of Parliment, and Westminster Abbey. BEAUTIFUL! Outside the Houses of Parliment were tons of camps set up protesting various things. Many of them were there protesting the war in Afganistan. I must say, to me it was amazing to see all those people protesting. I admire them so much for having that kind of determination, I can only hope someday I will be as passionate about something. After that we walked down to the River Thames. There we met London Louise! We all jumped on a boat and saw the sights by boat tour which was really exciting and gave me an interesting perspective. My, oh my was it beautiful. We saw so many things however, my favorite, I must say, was The Tower of London. I am just so facinated by it! I will no doubt be going back for a tour of it. We ended our boat journey at Greenwich. This is the place where the line is that divides the eastern and western hemispheres. That is why many people come to Greenwich and I did have my picture taken with one foot on each side of the line but I was much more interested in another part of the city. Just down the hill from the line of the hemispheres, in the same park, is Greenwich Palace. King Henry VIII spent many hours chasing deer in the woods there, Greenwich was his favorite palace. It was amazing to think that the very ground I was walking on had once been touched by Henry VIII and his courtiers. Of course, his daughters Queen Mary I and Queen Elizabeth I were both born here as well. While we were there we also saw the Naval Museum which was quite interesting. After Greenwich we went on to Brick Lane. It was amazing! Ramadan started the night before so the area was bustling with party goers in gorgeous clothes! We stopped at a great Indian restaurant where Louise and Heather both used to eat a long time ago. They had some really good curry there! It made me think of Sahib's back in Minneapolis haha I wish he was still open! After that we took a little walk to London Louise's house which is lovely. Its a three story, terraced house in a perfect location! Lousie is amazing and it seems like we have a lot in common! We both love theatre, museums, history, baroque music, politics... the list goes on and on! She's also just a really good person to talk to! It turns out that not only did she know my mum (which I already knew) but she also met my dad! She said of him, "nice bloke, strong accent but very handsome..." haha (: we had some really nice chats. The next day I woke up to some excellent porridge! That's right folks, I know love porridge again! Then we spent the rest of the day at the Natural History Museum haha. My favorite parts were probably the dinosaurs, ancient mammals, and the path of humans. I got to see the skeleton of Lucy!!! For those of you who don't know, when I was eleven I was in a play about Lucy playing the part of Lucy the skeleton! I must say, at the time I did quite a bit of research on her so it was really cool to see the bones in person. I really enjoyed it but I can't wait to go back to London to see some more of the city. Then we had to say goodbye and take the bus back to Oxford :( I can't see why anyone would ever want to leave! (cough, cough, mum and dad, cough!)
Emma xx