The Usual Stroll Through The City

Yesterday, Colleen, Roxanne and I decided to cross more things off our bucket list. We started our day by going to The Changing of the Guards at Buckingham Palace. During the winter the changing of the guards happens every other day. The amount of people that were at Buckingham Palace was crazy! Colleen and I couldn't meet up with Roxanne until after since it was so packed. The ceremony takes about 45 minutes. The band and guards march in from the streets and go into the main gate. Once behind the gate they do the changing of the guards and the band plays. The band did a whole Grease medley. It was so cool and thinking about the fact that the Queens band was playing Grease was very entertaining. I got a pretty good position for pictures after pushing through many people. It was definitely the most extravagant Changing of the Guards I have seen. Since my time a abroad, I have seen a 3 or 4 different changing of the guards ceremonies and in different countries. I loved the uniforms the Queens guards wear. They looked like the guards from The Wizard of Oz. Overall it was a really interesting thing to see.

After that we walked to Big Ben and the Houses of Parliament. Stopping on our way to take Telephone booth pictures since we hadn't done that yet. We found a good telephone both where you can see Big Ben in the background. We met a group of people doing the same thing. They made taking our group picture much more fun. Parliament tours are only on Saturdays. We bought our tickets and had about an hour before our tour we walked across Westminster Bridge got lunch and then headed back. We had to go through security which felt more like airport security than anything else. It was a guided tour which was nice. Funny thing was though, our tour guide was the same guy who gave us our Jack the Ripper tour. We thought it was when he started talking and we had to ask. It was such a funny coincidence. He said he does other tours as wellso maybe we will see him again. It is amazing the amount of knowledge he has to have to do so many different tours! We walked all through Parliament. We went through The House of Lords and The House of Commons a long with the stairs the Queen enters from and all the other rooms. It was really interesting listening to all the history. The Queens thrown is in the House of Lords. It was beautiful! I couldn't stop staring at it. Unfortunately you can;t take pictures inside Parliament.

 After leaving Parlement we went to find Abbey Road. we tried to take the tube but there was a hold on the line so we ended up walking and it ended up being further than we expected. Abbey Road is the road the Beatles took their famous picture on. Once we found it we tried to get some pictures. It was dark out at this point so after a few attempts we decided to come back during the day. Getting pictures is much harder than you would think. It is a very busy road and there is no stop light or anything. You basically have to run across the road so you don't get hit by a car. It was definitely an experience. Hopefully next time it wont be so busy. Colleen and I then made a pit stop on our way home at Kings Cross to get a picture at Platform 9 3/4. We kept saying we were going to so we finally did it.

Today, I decided to get up and go to the art market. It is only open on Sundays and I really wanted a canvas painting because I had gotten one in Paris and wanted to add to my collection. The market was different than most other markets. It wasn't in a confined area. Rather the artists just set up along the fence on the street. Most of the paintings were expensive but I found one for a decent price. After that I walked through Hyde Park. It was such a beautiful day out. I walked back to Big Ben and across Westminster Bridge and took pictures from that side. I had seen a few pictures that had Big Ben and Westminster Bridge that I wanted to replicate. I walked down the river walk and through the Christmas Market before heading back to my flat to write a paper.

Over all it was a successful few days. I am slowly crossing things off my bucket list. Tomorrow I have a full day as well with a bonus API event, a show, and a day away from writing part of a paper. It should be pretty fun. It's amazing how much I have to fit into my final two weeks. I am slowly but surely picking away at my assessments. They will be done by next Monday, I can guarantee it. I am beginning to get such a bitter sweet feeling about leaving. I am excited to go home and see my friends and family but every time I walk around the city and do more things, I fall in love again and am heart broken that my time here is slowly coming to a close.

Cheers,
Allie