It was a call that was so sublime, but the room is so quiet, oh*

Oh, was it good to be in my City again. Not that it wasn't nice to be there with Lauren or with my family, but it's been just about a month since I've been there by myself. Just me wandering London. And it was so nice to do it again.

I'm starting to wonder if London is somehow sentient. I took a street I know I've never taken (the only path I hadn't trod from the center of Piccadilly Circus) and after a right, then a left, then a split-second decision to go right again, I ended up in a part I've recently been thinking of exploring again (Covent Garden). To be fair, the center part of London isn't that hard to navigate, but I wasn't thinking about where I was going, just walking. And my city spits me out somewhere I've been saying I should go again. The same happened a little later on as I meandered through Soho without knowing exactly where I was--and out I popped at the other end of the street I started on. I'm just saying, maybe the City knows where I need to be, even if I'm not consciously thinking it.

I spent at least two hours sitting in Trafalgar Square, thinking and writing and people-watching and taking pictures. I went on a bit of a black-and-white photo kick, actually. I took a lot of b&w pics of iconic places. And a lot of videos. I'm thinking about editing the videos together into a love letter to my city when I'm back this summer. Should be fun.

Piccadilly Circus

One side of Trafalgar Square, looking towards the Strand and Northumberland Ave

This is really cool. My book Secret London: An Unusual Guide says it's Britain's smallest police station. "Allegedly, the secret police box was installed by Scotland Yard in 1926 so that the cops could keep an eye on the demonstrators and agitators who routinely gathered in Trafalgar Square (still London's most popular protest site)."

Sitting on the rim of one of the fountains, looking back at the National Gallery

Who's that cool cat in the aviator shades in a black-and-white photo?

The Eye from Westminster Bridge

Parliament and Westminster Bridge from down near the Eye

I think I definitely like b&w much better than the colour setting. You may be missing the candy-apple red double deckers and the contrast between the buses and the black cabs, but most of my b&w photos turned out awesome and classy. Whereas, in colour, you can see all the imperfections that an amateur photographer with a sometimes-many-clicks camera has in her pictures.

What a lovely day. And now to sleep and spend all tomorrow studying for my oral Arabic final tomorrow evening. What fun. Wish me luck!


* Everyone should go listen to Breath of Life, the new Florence + the Machine song. The song is quintessential Flo, powerful and building and crashing down into nothing only to build again. Beautiful. But you guys should know what I'm going to say: the lyrics. The lyrics are amazing. Everything. It's so intense and perfect.