Wake up in the morning feeling like P Diddy

G'day mates!

Blimey! These last few days have been quite a whirlwind! Irene canceled my flight and I had to leave a day earlier and had about 15 mins notice. Needless to say, we didnt have time to weigh my suitcase at home and ended up paying quite a bit in overweight luggage.  They gave me a tag that said "Rachel Farley- OVERWIEGHT." It made me sad.

The flights were fine. I flew to Washington DC and then into London. Instead of sitiing next to the attractive young couple behind me, I sat with a middle aged couple that complained about the lack of leg room the whole time. I promptly spilled diet coke on the man. His wife let me borrow a pen.

I got into London at about 6:30am London time (1:30 am real time).  Then, I took the 2 underground and 1 above ground train. I got 2 different young men to help me with my bags. Then i finally made it to my London home. The Evan's house.

Its beautiful. I have my own sink. And bed.

It was time for church by then. The Evans go to a cute little church populated mostly by elderly people. Naturally they have tea after church and I made friends with 2 old, hard of hearing British ladies, so that was fun.

After lunch the Evans' son Peter took me to a near-by palace that was called Elthan or Emlthan or something english like that. It was very old but had been reconstructed in the 30's in an art deco style. It was very interesting. I accidentally walked on the ONLY rug that people are not allowed on.  We were also not allowed to take pictures in the house which is fine because the outside was even better. I mean betta. (I have to keep biting my tongue to stop myself from speaking in a fake British accent.)

It was quite a magical place.

And of course they had a whole herd of gypsy horses. Duh.

Everything here is so British. Seriously. With names like Charing Cross and West Wickam. And everything looks different. Older. All the houses have terra cotta roofs and wood, brick, or stone siding. Each house has its own little stone wall around it. 

Today I venture into London on my own. The public transportation here is so easy. and expensive.

seriously. so british


Anyways, after walking around a little I went to the National Gallery:

They clearly stole the design from our capital building.


It was free which was awesome (i disregarded the suggested donation).  It was fantastic. I got to see so many painting that we studied in art history. It really cool to see a painting live that you saw in a book first. After several hours I went and found a little cafe to have tea. By that I mean lunch.

Then I walked around the city center a bit. Poked into a few shops. There was a topshop and i got really excited. Then I walked across some bridge, not the London bridge, some other bridge. But it was in London.

There was a little festival or something going on on the other side. There was a ferris wheel and a merry-go-round and people blowing enormous bubbles. Oh, and micky mouse was there too.

There were also lots of street musicians. These guys were my favorite. They were the closest thing I've heard to ska in a really long time. They covered Ke$ha and MGMT.  Ke$ha sounds better with brass instruments.

They were also all pretty cute and I had a quick fantasy about meeting them and then being asked to come to their show tonight and to hang out after. Then I remembered those kinda things only happen to Mary-Kate and Ashley.

After puttering around some more I went to the National Portrait gallery. I wish I had gone there first because I was starting to hate art by the time I was done and there were some really amazing paintings.  John Singer Sargent has a few paintings there and I was so excited. Then I came back home. The end. Cheers.