Day 3! Jet lag is hitting hard today, but still had some fun in the city! And let me tell ya, I lucked out on the weather!

After sleeping for the first time in 24 hours, I woke up feeling semi-refreshed and headed down for breakfast in the hotel.

The hotel had a large buffet of a classic English breakfast (missing some elements, but I’ll get a full one eventually)!

I was pretty hungry when I woke up, so I started off with a nice plate of beans, tomatoes, mushrooms, a hash brown, a fried egg, and toast… a much different breakfast than I’m used to (one I’m sure my mom would never go near)!

I was still hungry though so I got a bowl of fruit and yogurt and then had to finish it off with one last piece of beans on toast.

I’ve definitely made fun of beans on toast before and it seems really odd (especially for breakfast). But I now understand the appeal and enjoyed it!

I said I woke up “semi-refreshed.” After breakfast I ended up taking a quick nap. Hopefully in a day or two I’ll start feeling a bit more oriented!

The nap was just what I needed and I set off for my morning’s adventure.

This is what the area around my hotel looks like during the day! The architecture in London makes me feel like I’m in the Disney movies I watched as a kid. It looks familiar and feels very homey and very much screams European architecture. As I said in Thailand when wandering around the cities/towns up north, it FELT like I was in Asia and a very similar feeling occurred wandering around the streets of London! Definitely a much different experience than walking around a city in America.

I hopped on the tube and made my way to Green Park station where I went up one of the longest escalators I’ve ever seen and headed towards my first destination, Buckingham Palace!

You can see, there’s a TON of people hanging around outside. I wasn’t really expecting this many people here because I just randomly wandered over to check the palace out… but I accidentally walked right into the changing of the guard!

I’ve heard that the changing of the guard is over hyped so I wasn’t intending on seeing it. But since I was there I thought I’d wait a few minutes to see what it’s all about.

Crazily I arrived about 10 minutes before it began so I didn’t have to wait long. It honestly was very serendipitous 😂

I’m glad I stuck around, but I think I can agree with the sentiment that it’s overhyped.

I left the changing of the guards on the earlier side and started meandering my way back to the hotel! The walk was about 45 minutes, but I made it a bit longer by stopping at a few other spots on the way back!

Outside of randomly stumbling into the changing of the guard… another stroke of luck was the weather! My entire morning was rain free which was perfect! Definitely chillier than South East Asia will be, but it was great walking weather.

The next stop was Trafalgar Square:

It’s a very pretty square that commemorates the Battle of Trafalgar (Napoleon (teamed up with Spain) trying to invade UK). The area was currently under construction/renovations so I couldn’t get a closer look. So I started walking to the next spot.

But, fun fact about Trafalgar Square! If you look closely at the lions their hind legs might not look right… that’s because they’re actually the legs of a dog! Apparently the carcass of the lion was decaying so the artist had to use a dog as a stand in. Thank you mom and dad for the fun fact 😅

I was really enjoying the architecture while walking to my next spot! Everything is built so close together and you can tell a lot of the buildings are quite old even though they’re surrounded by new offices and stores! Also looks like I caught Borat’s office in the bottom left 😂

I wasn’t paying attention and ended up taking a wrong turn and walked into a little park called St James Square. As Bob Ross says, “a happy accident” (also a very odd statue that was located in the park).

After a few more minutes of walking I made it to my next destination, Piccadilly Circus!

Piccadilly Circus is definitely the London equivalent of Times Square. There are a lot less LED billboards screaming at you but I think the buildings around the screens make up for it and I’d say I like it even more than Times Square!

For one thing, it’s a lot cleaner.

After admiring the spectacle I started making my way back to Russel Square. While walking a string of red caught my eye and just down the side street of me was China Town!

Every new city I go to I try to see their China so it was nice to stumble upon it.

At this point my legs were pretty tired, however the walking isn’t done yet for the day!

For my next stop I went to the British Museum, which had been highly suggested to me by everyone who’d been to London and a VERY big plus, it was free!

I really enjoyed the museum… however walking through I couldn’t help but think that this was a sort of trophy case for colonialism & imperialism. A big example of this is the Benin Bronzes:

Nigeria has asked (demanded) for these to be returned and they have not. So take that as you will but not a bad thing to do for a few hours.

I then walked through Russell Square (the park in the area where we’re staying).

I was exhausted after walking around all day (have I told you I’m exhausted?) and went back to my hotel room and took a nap!

My dad came back from teaching his class and woke me up, we had a quick snack for lunch — not picture worthy, and then we went to the Charles Dickens Home/Museum.

Now, my father is a grammarian and LOVES his books and he’s a fan of Charles Dickens. For me, I was forced to read a book or two of his for school way back when and I’m getting into reading more now that it’s not required. But we both really enjoyed it!

We made our way through all the different parts of Dickens’ home, learning all about his life and his work. On each floor of his house there are volunteers who are very knowledgeable with Dickens’ work and life and were great to talk to and learn from!

I didn’t take too many pictures because I didn’t want to spoil the museum for you all (it’s on the smaller side), but if you’re ever in London I’d recommend this one for sure!

Speaking of not taking pictures… I totally forgot to take a pic of dinner. But you’ll have to take my word that it was yummy and with good company!

For dinner though, I joined my dad and a couple of his colleagues in Holborn at a Mediterranean restaurant called Hiba. We all got different wraps and I got a chicken shawarma wrap which is always my go to at Mediterranean spots!

After enjoying dinner and conversation I again joined my dad and his colleagues in the hotel lobby. While they were all grading I was doing research into other things I want to do while in London and also working on this blog post! And of course enjoying a pint (a Camden Hells Lager)!

They are all super fun to chat with and it’s nice meeting people who my dad works with!

A fun picture to end off this post. I find it amusing how other countries try to assimilate American fast food into their architecture and culture (I definitely posted a McDonald’s from Thailand).

I’m very excited for tomorrow, about to cross off a bucket list item… but you’ll have to wait till tomorrow to find out 😉

Talk soon!

– Elie