Day Two with the Queen

About the past few days in London. I got up super early to see the changing of the guard at Buckingham palace. It was kind of a let down. They don´t let you get closer than 10 feet from the guards, and the ceremony was pretty short. I tried to snap some good photos, but they yell at you when you try to walk close to them or stop in the middle of the street. It was also pouring rain—I grabbed an umbrella from my buddy, but I was still soaked within ten minutes. Fortunately, the rain let up quickly and the rest of the day was sunny (for London).

After visiting the Queen, I took a walk to Convent Gardens. This is one of the main shopping/market centers in London. It looks alot like the West Village except with MUCH older buildings. I had a nice cup of coffee, and I talked to this weird 40 year old musician from North London who preceded to hit on me for the duration of my cup. Then, she asked me to match her staff while she went to the bathroom. She must have dropped a deuce given that she went missing for 10 minutes; she blamed it on the queue like a good British dame.

Later the same day, I went to the Portrait Museum. The paintings there span hundreds of years. The modern photos/works of recognizable celebrities were particularly interesting. They also have this room of several hundred portraits of the same woman (all copies of an original work, which was lost many years ago). Created by the internationally acclaimed artist Francis Alÿs, Fabiola is an installation of hundreds of portraits of a fourth-century Christian saint. Very eerie to look at. The National Portrait Gallery = Mini history lesson plus art depicting predominately dead aristocrats.

I also went to the Tower of London, a medieval castle in the heart of London´s financial district. King Henry VIII´s armor was impressive, and the crown jewels look cool. I think the jewels are replicas because the security didn´t seem impressive enough to guard the world´s second largest diamond and some of the most precious royal regalia in the world.

After a long day of walking, I took a good nap, ate a burrito at shop similar to chipotle, but with less side effects, and headed for the pubs. We went to a swanky club called Home House. It is similar to SoHo House in NY. Very expensive. I took a nice leather coaster with the club´s alligator logo.

On Sunday, I finally booked my around the world ticket. I had decided to hate British Airways for making it basically impossible, but when I flew them today, they served me good scotch and a sandwich. For now, I will forgive them.

I cooked dinner on Sunday night. Steak with pan fried onions, garlic and butter, risotto and asparagus on a bed of salt. It was received well.

This morning, I headed to Gatwick for my flight to Barcelona. Nothing to report. Landed safely, napped the afternoon away, had some middle eastern food, and spent time in the hostel. I felt too tired to go out, but I am planning a day sightseeing, beach, and drinking for tomorrow.