london, part 1

the last week of our study abroad was spent in london, and it was probably my favorite. i fell in love with the city right away. there was so much to do and we ended up having lots of free time to see the sights and explore. on our first day we walked around and saw one major landmark after another: the london eye, big ben and the houses of parliament, westminster abbey, buckingham palace, and more. it was pretty amazing. in our free time we went shopping on oxford street and at covent garden, ate as many ben's cookies as possible, and saw some shows on the west end. i saw wicked and singin' in the rain, and both were wonderful. as for the food, i can't say i was a big fan of fish and chips, but london has really great ethnic food and i had japanese, indian, and thai that were fantastic.

as a group we visited the british museum, which is home to some pretty incredible stuff, like the rosetta stone and the elgin marbles from the parthenon. we also visited some smaller private collections, like the wallace, that were really neat and had a couple of artworks that are very well-known. i loved getting to visit both large, major museums and small, private collections because they are totally different experiences.

another highlight of our time in london was definitely when my friends and i had tea at the orangery at kensington palace. kensington palace is where victoria and albert lived and it's located within beautiful gardens right next to hyde park. we felt so fancy having tea there; it was really fun and memorable. i love how in europe there are palaces everywhere. it makes me wish we had some in america! one of the coolest things when we were sightseeing was that there were all these ladies in sundresses and fancy hats lined up outside of buckingham palace and when we asked them what they were there for, they said they were waiting to go into the queen's garden party. no big deal! it's my new life goal to get invited to one of those. anyway, i took way too many photos to fit into one post, so more on london to come!