Wandering and Discovering

There is a quote that I really like about traveling by G.K. Chesterton, "The traveler sees what he sees, the tourist sees what he has come to see." I didn't come to London to see the 5 top sites that people come to see. I came to experience life as Brit! Can I tell you when you come upon those magnificent sites on accident, they are even more exciting than having them in your planned agenda!!

Saturday, September 19th I set out to explore what was around me. I wanted to know what was close by and get a feeling of the streets. 

I started out by heading over to my campus. It only took about 3 minutes to get there! That is going to be so nice :) I ran into my first telephone booth..so those of you who asked for pictures of that..here you are. The school was fascinating to me; I don't think I would have known it was a school. It looked like the other streets I was wandering, except there were less shops. Since it was Saturday, most of the buildings were closed, and since I don't have my student ID card yet, I couldn't explore those much yet.

At the end of the street there you can see the
Student Union (SU) Shop

This is the LSE Library

As I continued wandering the streets, all of a sudden I was seeing signs that said "Very Private" and there was a large beautiful building that was gated off. I looked for a sign. After about a half a block, I realized I was off of campus and had found the Royal Courts of Justice. I have no idea what happens there but it was "very private" and very beautiful.

































Since most of campus was closed, I just kept walking on. I would be spending a great deal of time there anyway, I figured I'll come back on Monday and get to know my way around. As for the rest of the city, I was glad to find out there are these awesome maps everywhere. That proved helpful!!

I decided to head back over toward Covent Garden for lunch. There are just so many people in the city of London! People from everywhere, all experiencing different things! It is just amazing.

 Once I was in Covent Garden Market, there was...a Market! This is called the Apple Market. I asked one of the vendor's how often they are there. She said they are their Monday-Saturday but not all of the vendors are there everyday. This side of the market is more of the arts and handmade stuff. I loved some of the artwork..I may have to get a little bit of artwork here. Then on the other side there is the Jubilee Market. That has other stuff that isn't necessarily handmade-there were purses and t-shirts and nick-nack things. All of it really cool...but there was SOOO much. I got a bit overwhelmed. I'll have to go check out the Jubilee Market another day.

 Then I heard some live music and went to see what it was...this happens all over! There are tons of people on every corner or by restaurants playing for the crowds. This group was awesome!! I decided I wanted to go eat lunch near where they were playing. I went to look at the menu and see if it was way out of my price range..it wasn't if I got a sandwich. They even had a seat for one outside. I got seated and ordered at Davy's.

Here's some video of the live music I got with lunch. I never got their name...which was sad!

After I finished my lunch and the Quintet stopped playing, I began making my way further west and south. I found St. Paul's Church, tons of shops, this awesome intersection..I don't even know how many streets were intersecting but it was cool! I then found a gelato shop. Of course I stopped!! I got some mango and lemon gelato and continued walking.

St. Paul's Church for the Actors

My mango and lemon gelato

This amazing intersection...

 I looked down a few roads not sure which way I wanted to go. Then I saw this view:

 I decided I wanted to go down this street. I wasn't sure what that building was at the end of the street but it intrigued me and so I wanted to find out. There were multiple theaters on this street and tons of food places. It was a pretty fun street to walk down as I ate my gelato. I made it to the end of the street and there were tons of people. There were a bunch of steps at the bottom of that tall building and many people sitting on them. I went up the stairs and found that this building was a church: St. Martin's.

I turned around to look across the street...and there was Trafalgar Square!!! I didn't recognize it at first because there were sooooo many people and there were tents set up. I double checked to make sure that it was actually Trafalgar Square. And it was. I left the church and crossed the street. There was a huge Japanese Matsuri tournament going on. I could barely walk around. I decided that I'd come back to Trafalgar Square when a tournament wasn't going on right in the center of the square. I started walking over to one side when I looked across and saw the London Eye. I decided to walk that direction.

After walking a few blocks, I came to this awesome bridge! Across the bridge was the London Eye. What an awesome (in every sense of the word) vision. I didn't cross the bridge yet. I will do that a different day.

I walked back off the bridge and followed the Thames river further south/west. I walked through a couple small parks and saw some awesome buildings. One of the buildings I found was the Ministry of Defence. The building itself wasn't really that cool but the name of it was...Some streets were super busy while others had only one or two others walking with me.

I turned a busy street corner and there was Big Ben! Right in front of me. It was a majestic site. I couldn't believe where I was or what I was experiencing. I looked around and saw what other people where talking about and saw the expressions on their faces. We were all thinking the same thing.

Big Ben with the London Eye. This is one of my favorite
pictures that I have taken so far.

Like I talked about right at the beginning, it is so much more exciting to find these things on accident or when you are just wandering. I wasn't planning on going to see the London Eye, Trafalgar Square and/or Big Ben. But I saw all of them by discovery. I know I will be planning to see things throughout my journey here but I will also be discovering life day by day.  I know some of those days are going to be harder than others-I'm not here on vacation-but I know that I have the support of my friends and family back home and I hope to be meeting new people here quite soon.

Speaking of that...I am going to a Ball next week 29/9!! I should meet some people there. The ball is Cirque du Soiree with attire being formal circus chic. If anyone knows how to dress formal circus chic, send me a message :)