Tag Archives: Trafalgar Square

Victoria hits London Town!

Now that I’m done with all of my course work for the semester, I shall dedicate more of my time to uploading pictures of and blogging about a few recent adventures of mine.

Sorry for the delay, as always.

 

So before leaving for Morocco, as I have mentioned in the previous entry, I took Victoria on a one-day tour of London. I will not say that I am the best tour guide in the world but Victoria seemed to be thoroughly enjoying herself which was GREAT. She gave me excuses to ogle marvel at archaeological treasures of British Museum and pose for pictures at Trafalgar Square and do other touristy things.

 

I took her to the Sherlock Holmes statue at Baker Street tube station, Trafalgar Square and National Gallery, British Museum, IceBar, Hamleys toy store and Covent Garden. There were a million other things I wanted to show her but we only had half a day.

Fortunately we were greeted by a clear, blue sky that day. We even sat outside British Museum while eating our hotdogs.

 

IceBar was such a unique experience! For most bar-loving folks, this may or may not be the first time you feel like you want to leave the place after 30 minutes because heck, it is MINUS 5 degrees Celsius (that’s 23 degrees Farenheit for you Americans!) inside and everything is frozen–including the chairs, tables and glasses. I was literally freezing my butt off and my fingers turned red after 40 minutes in the sub-zero temperature.

At Covent Garden we had the loveliest Indian food for dinner at Masala Zone. The Chicken curry was warm and nice after IceBar, the dip-and-naan-bread combo is always heavenly and the mango lassi was beyond awesome.

 

Showing Victoria around felt different from visiting these places on my own. She left a lot of decision-making to me sightseeing-wise because London is a foreign place to her and I didn’t want to disappoint. I wanted her to see London the way as close as I see it, I hoped she’d like London as much as I do. I wanted to show her the very best of this city. And I’ve only had 4 months to get to know “the best” of London. It was a bit like being put on test.

 

But I think this was a good practice for me. As I expect some more showing around in the future, I was inspired to make a decision that I will rediscover my hometown Shanghai, do a touristy thing or two. I will go to the very museums I’ve avoided all these years because they are touristy. Maybe I’ll join a walking tour of the Jewish quarter, or the Bund.

 

Thanks again for reading!

The pictures of IceBar are posted on my Tumblr page here: http://krazzykitty.tumblr.com/#50024363793

My next few posts will also feature links to the photos of Morocco on my Tumblr page, so stay tuned!!

 

P.S. Here’s how IceBar works, if you by any chance are in London and want to give it a go (:

Go to IceBar London’s website (http://www.belowzerolondon.com/icebar-make-a-booking.html) and make a reservation. Every group is given a 40-45 minute time slot during which they can enjoy the free first drinks and looking like a bunch of Blue Little Riding Hoods-esque weirdos.

Show up to the reception at least 15 minutes early on the day for which your party is booked.

Receive a ticket at the reception and get bundled up with the cloak/cape and the built-in gloves (the downside is, they are regular ski gloves NOT tech gloves, you’ll have to put them on and off several times as you attempt to snap pictures).

The first drink is included in the ticket price. Just give the bartender the ticket when ordering and you’re all set!  

        


Location: London, UK

The Royal Wedding

Going to the Royal Wedding was a very spontaneous event for my friend Liz and I. We decided to get the first train from Canterbury to London at 2 AM the day of. We each got about 2 hours of sleep and highly caffeinated ourselves once we got to London!

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                                                 (Trafalgar Square)

I could easily compare the amount of hype in the air for the wedding to the Superbowl  in the States. Everyone is really excited, wants  to have a good time, a lot of alcohol and tons of security. 

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(Our view of the wedding)

Liz and I got to London at about 8:30 and we could walk around pretty freely but as time went on it took longer and longer to walk from point A to point B. After walking down the Mall for an hour trying to find a good spot we planted ourselves on the edge of a fountain in Trafalgar Square to watch the wedding on a massive screen. We chose to watch it on the big screen rather then stand for 3 hours along the Mall just to watch the procession.

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1.Free hats from Sony    2.Horse security   3.Attempt to get to Buckingham Palace


Location: London, Trafalgar Square, Royal Wedding