London Calling*

London. City of my dreams, the only city I've romanticized and dreamt of living in. I'd love to wax poetic, but I may just end up translating from my journal, so this post will be a bit choppy and unrefined.

• Out of bed by 8.45, out of the house by 10.00 (making sure I had enough time to buy a London A-Z and because I didn't really know what I was doing), to Waterloo Station by 11.00.
• Wandered to the London Eye (which is even more impressive in person than I remembered it being, holyyyy) and across the bridge to Parliament and Big Ben.
  
• I ended up wandering down Whitehall (hello, Mycroft!) and found myself at Trafalgar Square. The next street over was The Strand (!!! ♥ *swoons*), so I followed that for a little while; took many a picture of theatres and The Savoy and establishments that I know of from my obsession with Victorian London. Turned down another street somewhere and...
  
• And this is where my notes/memory is fuzzy in regards to the direction I took. I can't remember which came first, Piccadilly or The West End. (Bad London fangirl.)
  
• Ended up in the West End and Piccadilly Circus.
  
• Back to Trafalgar Square (via Pall Mall, another street that gave me Victorian London fangirl shivers) for pictures, followed Whitehall again, but turned down a street to get to the Embankment, which was lovely.
  
• Back across the bridge, back to the Station (so I knew where I was. I do that a lot, follow the path I know before branching out.), and went in search of a cafe in Waterloo.
  
• Cafe del Marsh, where I had a cappuccino (to warm up) and a Mozzarella & Tomato panini. The guy behind the counter was very nice and as I was the only one in for a little while, I got to hear his conversation with his dad via skype. Then a whole bunch of regulars came in and I listened in interest. I love little coffee shops where everyone knows each other.
  
• After I brought my dishes up to the counter ("Do I bring these back to you?" / "Only if you're kind. Thank you, darling." Which made me happy. Made me wonder if people do see Americans as rude or courteous, because we have a habit of being both.), I followed the street and found a used bookshop and a vintage shop.
  
• Obviously I bought something in the bookshop, sadly nothing in the vintage shop. I almost bought another copy of The Complete Oscar Wilde, because my version doesn't have some of the short stories, but decided against it. Ended up with Red Herrings and White Elephants: The origins of the phrases we use every day.
  
• After shopping, I went back to the Station to get my bearings, then back to the Eye and then followed the walkway by the Thames to Lambeth (and, ironically enough, towards Vauxhall, which was one of the stops on my train journey). Absolutely gorgeous.
• Caught the 3.06 train back and am now uploading photos to Facebook and having tea to warm me up.

All in all, it was a lovely day. I have Mondays off, so I figure I'll go exploring a new bit each Monday. Next up, I might just be adventurous enough to make my way to the British Museum or the Sherlock Holmes Museum or Baker Street (Bus 453 to Baker Street Station, I found out) or something on my list of things to do and see.

Here, have my pictures for the day and my soundtrack for a good chunk of my exploring. It somehow makes me think of both The City and The Boyfriend.






*Unoriginal title is unoriginal