Monday, November 1, 2010

london friendsdays, week 3 + bea's visit!

london friendsday was extra special because sabrina and i had a new addition to the team: bea! bea is studying in florence this semester and goes to chapman with me, so she popped over for a few days to visit this week!

i picked bea up from the train station on tuesday and we had a pretty mellow night. we went to chipotle (not the same as american chipotle but still delicious) and watched the last song because we knew that the next couple of days would be action packed!

on wednesday morning we met up with sabrina and headed to regent's park. it was SO beautiful, i'm not sure if i can actually describe it. we walked through a few gardens (one called the queen's garden was my favorite) and took lots of pictures!

next on the list was to go to the london zoo, which is located within the park. we saw giraffes and zebras on the way to the entrance! we were so excited, especially because the part of harry potter and the sorcerer's stone was filmed at the snake exhibit, until we saw how much it was to get in.
[19 pounds? no thanks, i'd rather shop]

so, instead of speaking parseltongue to the snakes, we decided to tackle the next thing on our list: primrose hill. from the top of this hill was such a stunning view...my pictures don't do it justice. there was a map of the skyline at the top from the 1980s and it was fun to compare how it has changed...the addition of the giant egg building and the london eye really shows how much a city can evolve.

we took the bus back towards home and walked around a little, showed bea our school, and then had a classic english dinner of pasties and pies at kennedy's, a restaurant near home. of course, our night ended up at the eagle...where else?

on thursday i had to meet my class at the tate britain, so bea hung out at a cafe while i looked at some art. we were there to see the romanticism exhibit, which was interesting, but i was particularly interested in the contemporary and modern art exhibits. mondrian and damien hirst each had a piece there and there was a small lucian freud exhibit, who was sigmund freud's nephew (and who is still alive). it was really fun to see pieces by artists i have studied in my contemporary art class...i guess memorizing all of those artists and works wasn't for nothing!

[hirst]

[turner]

[freud]

after the museum bea and i met up with sabrina at oxford circus for a little shopping before we went on the london eye! i had been before when i was here in july so i knew that if we went at sunset it would be perfect, and i was right!

[the view]

[a proposal in the next bubble!]

we walked around the river after our ride on the eye and took pictures with big ben and the pretty sky, and then headed back to oxford circus to finish what we started! bea had never been to topshop and now her eyes are opened to our world. we hung out at the william blake afterwards, another pub near our house, and then headed home.

it was so fun hanging out with bea and sabrina all week and i'm excited to go to florence on friday to see bea's neck of the woods! firenze, here i come!

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