London!

Hello Everyone!

I hope all is well wherever you're reading this from! The past bit of time since I've written here has been absolutely incredible. I spent last weekend in London and it deserves its own blogpost. 

I took the train from Bradford to Leeds, and then Leeds to Kings Cross Station on Friday afternoon. The plan was to spend the night at a friend's who I was meeting once he was off work. Naturally, I decided I should go to the easiest attraction to get to from the tube... which happened to be Piccadilly Circus. Needless to say, I did a lot of shopping. That area of the city is absolutely gorgeous and fun to explore, despite how crowded it is. The evening was spent at a friend of a friend's glitter filled birthday party featuring musical performances, lip syncing performances, cuddle puddles, and a lot of blues dancing. I am disappointed in myself for not having taken any pictures of the party. Blues dancers of London, you will be seeing me again very soon and I can't wait! All of you that I have met so far are fantabulous. 

Piccadilly Circus

Saturday I went shopping in the Camden Market, which were stuffed with people, stalls, and incredible smelling food. Needless to say, I also bought a lot of stuff, including some souvenirs for people back home. I met up with Katherine, a lovely friend from back in Winnipeg, and had an incredible time catching up, eating sushi, and eating ice cream made with science from Chin Chin Labs. They make the ice cream in front of you using liquid nitrogen and a Kitchen Aid mixer. To top off their lab theme, they kept all of the toppings in beakers and test tubes. All other ice cream is now ruined for me. It might be the best ice cream I will eat in my life. 

Market Hall in the Camden Market

Camden Lock section of the Camden Market

Chin Chin Labs in the Camden Market

Ice cream toppings

The best ice cream I will ever eat

That night I went out with Katherine and a number of her flatmates. We were too cheap to pay to get into a proper club so we ended up at a casino, with a club inside of it, and took over the dance floor. On the way home we stopped at a 24hr bakery for what was surprisingly incredible baking, I had the most satisfying donut of my life and I will stand by that statement until someone proves me wrong.

The group of us near Leicester Square

The next day was packed with a ton of sight seeing. Despite having had a late night, Katherine and I made a point of seeing majority of London's major sights in one day. She makes a fantastic tour guide. I don't remember the order of everything or the names of each specific park/place... So here is a bunch of pretty pictures of things, including in and around Buckingham Palace, the parliament buildings (Big Ben!), the London Eye, Trafalgar Square (outside the National Gallery), the Tower of London and probably other things I've forgotten!

 They shut down the street for tourists

Picnic in Trafalgar Square with Katherine

Red Carpet at the London Film Festival in Leicester Square 

We saw Brad Pitt and Shia LaBoeuf

I spent Monday wandering around the St Paul's Cathedral area and walked across Millennium Bridge to Tate Modern (the modern art museum) in the morning. Before heading back to Bradford, I grabbed lunch with Katherine and went to the National Gallery. I could easily get lost in there, despite there being a chronological order to the paintings. 

St Paul's Cathedral

Millennium Bridge

Millennium Bridge

Salvador Dali at the Tate Modern

Description of an installation that was solely a mirror on the wall

Really cool installation, I should have taken a picture of the artist's name

Trafalgar Square on a busy Monday afternoon

That was London! Thanks again Katherine for being an incredible tour guide! The weekend was amazing and I can not wait to return. 

And an honourable mention to James and Adam for taking the train to Leeds with me when I was on my way... and because I didn't mention them before. You guys are fantastic. Thank you for letting me hide at your flat and play video games/your guitars. 

I'm not planning another trip for a bit, but if I happen to randomly leave Bradford or something really exciting happens I will try to write about it sooner :) 

xx

Emily

PS Sorry the postcards are taking forever! I've written them! I just have yet to actually go to the post office.