Lazing on a Sunday Afternoon

Hello again, as you can see from the odd mix of slideshow/still photos on my last post, I am still getting the hang of WordPress, but I’ve been told that all the cool people blog here, so I guess I’ll stick around. Yesterday Skidmore took a little day-trip to Cambridge and had a lovely walking tour of the colleges/grounds/chapels with a charming gentleman who made the whole experience vastly more interesting than the dull afternoon we spent in Canterbury. I came back quite exhausted so today, aside from a trip to the shop for some groceries, and perhaps some laundry later on, I am lying in bed reading Women in Love by D.H. Lawrence, which I quite like so far, despite the hefty dose of nihilism that emerges after about page 150. Anyway, here are some pictures from Cambridge, among which you will see a pub where the US Air Force used to hang out, the Cavendish Laboratory where the electron and the DNA double helix were discovered, one of the Cambridge college chapels, a lovely little garden, and a river on which punting is taking place:

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That’s all for now. Cheerio! x

An Afternoon in the Royal Parks

Now I will attempt to post the entry that I tried to put up on blogspot but wasn’t able to because I exceeded the limit for photos. I will continue to post here until I run out of space for photos as well 🙂

Hello dear readers, it’s been a while since I posted but at last I have some truly worthwhile pictures to show you, so here goes. Last weekend was uneventful aside from a trip to Brick Lane to buy books for school and for pleasure, so no pictures there. However, this weekend is the beginning of my “reading week,” during which I don’t have any classes, so I have begun my (relatively – I do have essays to write) free time with some exploring. Yesterday I walked to Oxford Street for some retail therapy at Primark, got some great boots for only £5, and waited in line for the fitting room for probably longer than I was actually picking out clothes… in any case, a nice afternoon but nothing worth photographing. But this morning the sun was shining aggressively through my window and I decided to take a proper walk. Of course I took an umbrella, as one must do in this city, but thankfully I did not need it. It stayed quite sunny all afternoon, with the exception of some ever-present clouds. I set my sights on the royal parks – St. James’ Park, Green Park, Hyde Park, and Kensington Gardens – and wandered out into the wind and the sun. Here I will begin the photo-tour portion of this blog post.

I crossed Blackfriar’s Bridge:

And walked along the Thames on Victoria Embankment:

And reached St. James’ Park just past Westminster Bridge:

They really have some spectacular birds there:

And it is so much lovelier in the sun:

I then went on to Green Park, passing by Buckingham Palace, which I only took one more picture of:

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And then I reached Hyde Park, which was by far my favorite:

I stopped for tea and a scone at The Lido Cafe by the banks of the Serpentine (where Percy Shelley’s first wife committed suicide, just for your information – in the Serpentine, not at The Lido Cafe):

At some point, I ended up in Kensington Gardens, which was also lovely – it was green enough to fool me into thinking it could be spring:

I stopped to sit in this little gazebo-type thing, because I have an odd attraction to gazebos:

And I took the most artsy-fartsy hipster photo I have ever taken to date:

I actually quite like it.

So there you have it, a Saturday afternoon in the royal parks. I will have to go back when the weather is warmer, but I still think they are lovely in February. I may go to the Tate Modern in the near future (though more likely a weekday than a weekend – I’ve heard it can get awfully busy) for a proper visit that is not interrupted by a fire alarm, so perhaps I will be putting up a post about that soon. Until then, or until whatever else it is I get into here, cheerio! x

Hello world!

Or rather, hello internet… Okay, I’m still getting used to the WordPress format, but I’ve relocated my blog here because silly blogspot won’t let me post photos anymore. Ridiculous, I know. But I’m in London running around and exploring and I’ve got to put my photos up somewhere so my friends and loved ones are not bowled over by a massive barrage of them when I return to the states in June. Right then, more later. x