Day 3: London

Today I set my alarm nice and early to be able to go to Buckingham Palace and catch the changing of the guards ceremony at 11. James had some running around to do and Kat is back to work so it was gonna be just me and the Queen of England today. With the help of some one-on-one convincing I actually got out of bed and, in the rain, headed to Buckingham Palace. I told myself I could just do it on Friday but I figured the rain meant less of a crowd for me so I hopped on the tube and headed to Green Park. Less people? Nope. Not at all. And everyone had umbrellas to boot. Visibility for little old me was at an all time low. Precipitation was at a high. 11am rolls around, nothing happens. 11:30am rolls around, the crowd starts dispersing. Did I miss something?!? Apparently yes, I missed everything. With everyone scattering I was able to get closer to Buckingham, saw the guys in the fuzzy hats THEN out of no where about 14 guys with golden helmets on horses fly by Game of Thrones style and I figure that was something notable, it lasted all of 10 seconds and I was left wondering why I was wet and cold and not warm in bed. 0/5 stars.

From here I headed to South Kensington to meet up with a friend from Montreal, Michelle, and do some museum hopping! I got to South Kensington a bit early so had some time to poke around. Funny story, when I had the teaching contract lined up in London (that I later declined) I had to choose what area I would be living in prior to moving here. I asked some known Londoneers and others that had visited London to ask for suggestions as to which area I should live in and they all suggested (and so I chose) South Kensington. JOKE. IS. ON. ME. This was my first experience in South Kensington and, don’t get me wrong I would love to live here, just obviously the people that had suggested it to me are not real friends at all and clearly wanted to set me up for failure because South Kensington is for the very very very rich.

…lovely area though.

I met Michelle just after 1pm and we headed to Natural History Museum. Today must have also been national field trip day as everyone between the age of 5 and 15 within a 100mile radius was also at the Natural History Museum on a class trip. I wouldn’t say it was my favorite Museum, I am more of a fan of history museums. There were a lot of skeletons, rocks and taxidermy. Some neat finds though. After checking out all the exhibits we grabbed lunch and coffee before I headed over to quickly meet up with James and get my glasses from him (forgot them and needed them for the show tonight!)

It was now nearing 5pm and even though the Victoria and Albert museum closes at 5:45 I had some time to kill before Katiana was done work, and the museum is close to Royal Albert Hall so I spent just under an hour here. This was much more my scene! Millions of ancient and contemporary artifacts grouped together by time and place. I was nerding out until getting kicked out. (Will go back tomorrow to finish the rest). I stopped at Honest Burger in South Kensington and got dinner before meeting up with James and later, Katiana.

We walked to Royal Albert Hall and peered into Hyde Park since it was closed at this time. At around 7:15pm I headed into the hall (I was seeing the show alone because Kat could only snag one ticket for tonight). How special that I got to see my first Cirque du Soleil show, Amaluna, AND it was in London AND it was in Royal Albert Hall AND it’s the production that my best friend has been working on!!!! All very exciting. The show was AMAZING. The talent is unparalleled, the risks taken (yet not since these artists are so good at what they do), the costumes, the directing and choreography, the creativity behind it all. Wow. Bravo.