In which I go to market, see modern art, and study in the park

Saturday is a special day, it's the day you get ready for Sunday... and go to MARKET!!! More specifically Borough Market, for some of THE MOST delicious food of my LIFE... Oh goodness gracious. I was in food heaven. It was a common consensus after we left that we are all going back again FOR SURE.
We started off next to the tallest free standing column in Europe, commemorating the London Fire of 1660. Then we walked to the market and ATE FOOD. Oh my deliciousness.

A cool column...

 Is this the most delicious grilled cheese of my life? Possibly YES. SO GOOD.

My excitement could not be contained over all this YUMMY CHEESE!!!!!!!!!!

This was definitely a little weird.. Kangaroo fillets and meatballs... SUPER DELICIOUS... I kinda want to try some, just so I can say I've eaten it... ;)


 What the??? RHUBARB CRUMBLE. OH BABY, take me now. I was in heaven. I LOVE rhubarb. Rhubarb pie literally lasts a day in my house.. this lasted 5 minutes, because I savoured every delicious delectable bite...

Classy Wine for that Classy occasion... OH baby... ;)

Then it was off to the Tate Modern. A FREE modern art museum. It was cool :) Here's some of my favorites:
 I really like realism. Not gonna lie.


This one was kinda neat. I could probably recreate something similar, but it was striking.

This was one of the pieces that just leaves you going.. huh??? I don't understand it.

I TOUCHED THE BUTT!!!!!!!!! bahahaha I couldn't resist the Nemo reference. it was too perfect.
AFter the museum, we had to finish our London walk, and as we were walking along the Thames, we came across this: 
This is only the greatest thing ever: A USED BOOK market in London. I found some cool stuff, but it's Paul, the kid with the backpack who was the real winner. He found an old copy of wait for it... "Three Men in a Boat: To Say Nothing of the Dog" by Jerome K. Jerome.... This is probably only interesting to my family, but I was SUPER jealous. So it is now my goal to find that book while I'm here.. :) I WILL PREVAIL. I have unwavering optimism and determination haha.

This was a Syrian protest we had to walk past to get home. They were right across from the Russian embassy. Yah, I live around the corner from the Russian embassy. NBD. Then I went to Hyde Park to study. It was quite lovely and relaxing and wonderful. There's nothing like studying in a BEAUTIFUL park.

This is where I was sitting. Beautiful. I Love my life.

In which I go shopping, see a Tower, and much hilarity ensues.

Thursday: Class until 2:30.. UGH. then Shopping at Primark, which is the Forever 21 of England. It was INSANITY. But fun. I got some cute clothes, so that was cool. Otherwise, not much happened. So I'm including Friday, in which many things happened.

Friday: Our group went to the TOWER OF LONDON!!!! It is super old. There were bits of the original Roman wall from like 50 A.D. that are still there. We saw the Crown Jewels which were really cool. For those of you who watch Sherlock, and have seen Season 2, I really don't know how he broke in. You're NOT allowed to take pictures... But whatever. we saw a lot of cool historical objects. We played a game called "Pass the Pound" where you give someone a pound when they feel sad, or say something cool, or anything that you can come up with a good excuse for. But you just pass the same pound around, so no one really keeps it. Yup. I got told by a British man that I was scary. It was pretty funny. And now.. here come the pictures!
 

Wait, is that me TEBOWING in front of the crown jewels.. Yah. I'm legit hahahahaha

A really big book. All it has is all of the military orders of all the weapons and stuff that they bought.. That's a LOT of weapons.

This is the picture that scared the British man. We're STRAIGHT up scary. Me, Jace and Paul. BAM.
 So we're getting ready to take this picture, and the girl who's taking it is like you guys need to get a lot closer... Trust me. It was funny.

But really... THIS is the picture that should have scared the crap out of that man. But I feel like I fully captured the spirit of this creepy lion thing.
Some knights are just more... manly.... than others.. BAHAHA.

Those cannon balls were INCREDIBLY heavy. What. the heck. Who knew?

Jace is a ladies man.. what can I say...

Us in all the hats of the British military. Epic.

Great group picture... We're cute. I LOVE THE OLYMPICS. Also, notice the new shirt and shoes! :)
So at this point, the day is only HALF over. I know, right? So then we got some pretty delicious pizza for lunch and set off on a walk around London. We walked through the financial district, saw the Gherkin, a church that got bombed, and went to the London Museum which had a lot of really interesting high tech exhibits. It was fun, although by the end of all that my feet were dying. That's what I get for wearing new shoes.. :P  After a DELICIOUS dinner of ribs and chips- so happy after some of the OTHER things we've eaten...- I went SALSA dancing with a local spanish/Portugeuse branch. It was SO GREAT and I got to meet some super cool people. SO MUCH FUN.

Didn't realize we hadn't gotten a normal picture with one of our cameras.. so we got this one. SO MUCH FUN. It was a great night.

The Cliffs of Dover.. and thereabouts.

Wednesday (June 27th)- This was our first trip outside of London and we went to DOVER.. So exciting. We were able to see Dover Castle where Henry II lived. For those who don't know, Henry II was married to Eleanor of Aquitaine (which I may or may not be related to, it's disputed), and father to Richard the Lionheart and Prince John, (of Robin Hood fame).

City of Dover

The Castle! 

Inside the castle they had all sorts of cool replications of medieval furniture and stuff. It was a lot of fun.

This was the dining room. They had speakers making noises recreating what it might have sounded like back in the day.

Jace and I being Royal. it's in my blood.

After Dover Castle, we went down into the "Secret War Tunnels". They're not quite so secret anymore, and we got to take a tour of them, although they didn't allow any pictures. BUMMER. They were integral to saving the British army during World War II. The allied forces had been forced onto a small stretch of beach in France called Dunkirk, and over about 4 days, they were able to evacuate about 330,000 allied troops, and if they hadn't, it's hard to say what would have happened in the war. There's a good chance Germany would have won. 30-40,000 French troops were left behind and two weeks later Paris fell to the Germans. But the miracle of Dunkirk meant the British men were alive to fight another day. 

We then headed over to the cliffs of Dover. They were pretty, although we really couldn't see them that well since it was foggy. But it was still cool. After the cliffs we headed to Canterbury Cathedral, spot to the infamous murder of Archbishop Thomas Becket by the knights of Henry II. We saw the ACTUAL MURDER SPOT. Of course Canterbury Cathedral is thousands of years old. I found out after we'd been there that my great-great-grandparents Frederick and Alice Silk were married in Canterbury. I'm not sure if they were married in the Cathedral, but it was still cool. We also saw the current Archbishop of Canterbury, and for those of you who know your stuff, you'll know that he's the man who married William and Kate. Yup. IN THE FLESH. Super cool. Now i'm like 2 degrees away from Will and Kate. Boom shakalaka. 

Canterbury Cathedral. 

That cross on the ceiling is 6 feet long.

The candle shrine to Thomas Beckett since his coffin/memorial was destroyed by Henry VIII when he changed the Catholic Church to the Anglican church. 

The Black Prince. A boss fighter, mass killer of French people, and all around scary dude, but super religious. so there you go. 

This picture is for Trevor: it's his dream car, so I just had to take a picture. 

We all got money for dinner so we went to NANDOS!!!!!!!!!! 

 This was legitimately SO DELICIOUS. Oh my goodness. It was Portuguese chicken, and right now, I am CRAVING it. It was so good. I got the lemon and herb chicken burger with chips, and will definitely go back again. YUM. 

And that was the end of a very satisfying day. 

London Calling: First 4 days

So recap on what I've done in London... I have now been here for ONE WEEK

Saturday: I arrived at Heathrow around 8:10ish and was finished with customs by 9. Then started the CRAZIEST drive of my life. I hired a driver (so fancy) because taking the tube by myself at night in a foreign city for the first time was not something my mom (or I) really wanted to experience. I got to the London Centre around 9:30, unpacked, got oriented and went to bed.

Sunday: Church today! It took us an HOUR AND FORTY MINUTES to get to church. This was due to a train being down, and us having NO clue as to where to go.. It was great. But I'm in the Crystal Palace ward and it is so great. There are a lot of Africans in our ward, and I'm definitely a minority in my ward. But it's great. I don't have a calling yet, but I'm super excited to get one. We had super gross pea soup for dinner.. It was awesomely awesome. That night we went and walked around Hyde Park. It was great.

The beautiful people in our church group. Michael, Janie, me, Christina, and Annelise.


Monday: we started off bright and early with class. It was fun!!! Haha... not. I got fish 'n'chips for lunch.. It was pretty delicious. After lunch we had a lecture and then went on a walk of our neighborhood. After that, a big group of us went to get gelato. SO GOOD. I'm probably going to gain 10 pounds from gelato alone.. :)


Yummy! Although they didn't give us any sauces.. That would have made it truly delicious.

That picture behind us was made completely from stamps.

Creamy Milkchocolate hazelnut, say what??? SO GOOD. It tasted like nutella, except BETTER. YUM YUM.
In the evening we trooped down to St. Pauls to see the London Symphony Orchestra perform Berlioz Requiem. It was truly beautiful, soothing, calming... yah. Almost fell asleep there. It was an hour and a half. Now, I like classical music as much as the next person, maybe even more so than the next person. But Berlioz is too soothing by far to listen to 2 days after flying from the states and expect to stay awake the whole time. :)
 



Our whole group at St. Pauls, and the Orchestra inside. I can't wait to go back. It's beautiful.










St. Paul's at night, all lit up. Can you believe this was taken on my phone? Yup. Thank goodness for iphones. After the concert we walked across Millennial Bridge. It looks like this:

TUESDAY: We had a free day on tuesday until 4 when we had a lecture, and then off to the Globe for Henry V. So in the morning I did reading (bummer school), and then in the afternoon a group of us went to Picadilly Circus, Trafalgar Square, Big Ben, London Eye, and then on a Boat ride down the Thames. It was SO MUCH FUN. We also had the best waffles ever. SO GOOD. Why we don't have waffles like this in the states is a mystery. So delicious.
 
National Gallery!!!!
 Trafalgar Square!
 A knitted phone booth. So awesome!!
Then in the evening. Henry V. I must say, the actor who played Henry...? SO ATTRACTIVE. Actually, there were many attractive men. It made the aching in my legs more bearable ;)
 Yah. SO ATTRACTIVE. MMMM...

That was my first FOUR days in London. And I've already done so much, and yet there is still so much to do. Just wait for the second half of the week... It gets better.

Reykjavik... Say WHAT???

So I'm now a world traveler.. I've been to TWO foreign countries. Like a Boss! I flew out of Denver at 5:15  pm mountatin time and landed in Reykjavik at 6:45 Icelandic time. I got through customs/whatnot and took a bus to Reykjavik. I walked up the hill to Hallgrimskr but it was still closed. So I walked along the street to the Harbour, found random statues and just meandered my way around. Then i went back to the church, explored a little and went to the top and took some beautiful panoramic pictures.

 

view from the bus on the way to Reykjavik. 

 

Krona! Icelandic Money. 

 a Very neat row of houses

On the plane ride over, there were a bunch of these things.. My favorite was when the last one said, and over half the country believes in fairies. 

 

Hallgrimskr and Leifur Erikkson

 

View of the Harbor from a cool statues

Look! Harry potter in Icelandic!!!!! BAM.

 ceiling of the church. Those are gothic arches.

 

View of Iceland from the bell tower

 My delicious meal of homemade ryebread, some buttery spread, smoked trout and cottage cheese. mmm.. yummy!

Things I learned in Iceland
1. I can't do math WHATSOEVER.
2. I need to convert my money to USD (like with a converter app) BEFORE I withdraw from the atm... Oops.
3. Reykjavik is quite small, but pretty. All of the buildings are old, but not in a well-reserved old, but in a rusting stained, falling apart sort of way.
4. It smells like salt water and smoke fish.
5. I am super awkward talking to foreigners and I'm pretty sure they all laughed at me.
6. People in Reykjavik use old fashioned perambulators (baby carriages) to push their babies in. Unfortunately I forgot to get a picture, but it was quite cute.
7. Even if the houses are rusting, the backwards are like fairy gardens. I felt like a super creep taking pictures of people's backyards, so I refrained, but they were quite pretty.