Friday was a beautiful day, and the "adventure" I mentioned in my last post was that Lynn and I decided to go visit Regent's Park, one of the Queen's royal parks. We took the tube from Russell Square to Regent's Park and spent a while finding the entrance to the park, and finally, we were surrounded by grass, trees and all kinds of flowers! Regent's Park is pretty big, with the London Zoo in it, a boating lake, tennis courts, lots of gardens and fountains and at least 10 football fields, so as you can imagine, it was an awful lot of walking, but it was worth it.
a beautiful daffodil
jumping picture in front of a fountain
lynn with the poo-shaped bush :p
pretty flowers!
Lynn and I also decided to pay about 5 pounds each to row on the lake for half an hour--it was worth it! There was a good 10 minutes where the geese would not stop honking and they all gathered in the center of the island in the lake and started flapping their wings and honking like there was no tomorrow.. it was quite interesting.
on the boat
lynn wanted to take a picture with the duck
geese chilling under the willow tree
I thought this was especially cute - 3 ducks with their heads in the water and their tails in the air :)
Yesterday, Saturday, was not as beautiful in terms of weather but it was still a nice day to go out and enjoy the many different stands at the Portobello Market in Notting Hill. There are a huge range of things that are sold at this market, from antiques to vintage clothes, jewelry, old cameras, food, records, and more. Of course, I only spent money on food because I went with a bunch of guys, so I didn't want to make them stop at every other clothes or jewelry or bag stand. haha. There was a bruschetta stand that everyone said they heard great things about, and although the service was a tad slow, the end product was really good so I guess you could say it was worth it. I also had a toffee pudding cupcake from Hummingbird Bakery which was delicious, although kind of sweet, even for my notoriously sweet tooth. Derek and I split a cup of churros, and I also had a cup of fruit to finish everything off.
the beginning of the market
my cupcake in its box
me and my bruschetta
our churros covered in sugar and cinnamon with chocolate on the side to dip
I was definitely full by the end, and we decided to check out some of the places that were featured in the movie "Notting Hill" starring Julia Roberts and Hugh Grant. It was pretty cool, besides the fact that most of the 'landmarks' in the movie were not really there anymore. For example, the blue door that used to be Hugh Grant's character's flat was apparently removed and donated to charity and replaced by a plain black door. The book shop that he worked at is no longer in its original place (which is now a shoe store), but there is an actual Travel Bookshop that is based on the movie, but isn't the real shop.
the black door that replaced the original blue one
the impostor travel bookshop :p
After the market, we decided to head down to Putney Bridge to watch the boat race between Oxford and Cambridge on the Thames River. It started to get pretty chilly and we got there a bit early since the actual race started at 5pm, but we passed the time by taking pictures, walking around and exploring the carnival, and eating cotton candy. It was an interesting experience, and when the crew boats finally came into our view, everyone started cheering and it was pretty exciting, but once they passed, everyone started to migrate towards the tube stop and it was extremely crowded. I had a balloon and I was afraid people would pop it because it was so squished in the tube trains. I also had to pee really badly so the fact that home was so far from the tube stop and everyone pushing against each other was almost unbearable for me. I don't understand why I always have this issue of having to pee really badly at the worst times.. I should probably watch what and how much I drink more closely...
if you look closely, you'll see the two crew boats in the distance
the big screen at the carnival
a bridge on the Thames River
And that pretty much sums up my weekend. Today, I just went to Starbucks with Lynn and we sat out in the park and read for class for an hour or two. For once, I've kept my blog up to date! Ha. That's truly an accomplishment for me. 'Til next time :)
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