Weekend at Krissy's

Hogwarts here I come!

at Portobello Road in Notting Hill 

In front of Buckingham Palace

Portbello Road

the Delicious Italian Restaurant, though the service was awful

So I know I havn't posted anything lately on here.  This past week was just really tough because I have honestly been feeling homesick, and didnt want my posts to be depressing and sad because thats never fun.  I am feeling better since my last post.  I realized that at Goldsmiths there are two terms a spring term and a summer term, so I think I am going to change my stay here to only the Spring term rather then the Spring and Summer terms-hopefully Arcadia will be accomodating to that-if not oh well, I will still be leaving once I finish my Spring term classes on my own accord. :)

Anyways this past weekend was exceptionally good.  First off the weather was great.  It hasnt rained in days which just makes me feel 100 times better.  Second off I got to spend the weekend in center city with Krissy and Lara.  It was a great time, heres a play by play of what I did.

On Friday I got to Krissy's at around 3.  We hung out for alittle in her flat, and then went and got Lara and headed out for Kings Cross Station.  Sadly when we got to the station is was under heavy construction-Kristina was very sad because she said the station is usually exceptionally beautiful when it isnt heavily scaffolded.  Anyways we stopped at one of the stands in the station and got Pasties.  A Cornish Pasty is a savory pastry-meaing it is usually filled with cheeses, meats and vegatables.  The one that we all got was the Chicken and Vegatable Pasty.  It kinda reminded me of a Chicken Pot Pie without the pot that you ate with your hands.  Anyways it was really good-after we got Pasties we went to find Platform 9 and 3/4.  Again because of the construction, disappointment continued.  The brickwall that was once Platform 9 and 3/4 was gone-and instead of having actually bricks it was more like a mural of bricks with a luggage cart going through it.  It was kinda pathetic but we still all posed for pictures by it (sadly I didnt get transported to the actual platform).

Anyways after Kings Cross we went for a short walk to the Britsh Library.  The British Library was really cool.  It was massive for one thing, but what made it great was the museum that was inside it.  They had original manuscripts for many of the great novels, from writers like Jane Austin, The Bronte Sisters, Lewis Carrol and even Shakespeare.  The library also housed the Magna Carta-which was under heavy guard in its own little section.  My favorite part of the museum was probably the section devoted to the Beatles.  They had original hand written lyrics by John, Paul, Ringo and George.  For example A Hard Days Night was written on the back of a birthday card for John's son.  It was a really interesting museum that I will probably go back to sometime to explore.

After the Britsh Library we caught the next train to Russel Square and went to the Britsh Museum.  The British Museum was also tremendous and probably had one of the most beautiful atriums I have ever seen in a museum.  The achitecture was beautiful-and I would say it would be worth seeing just to see the main atrium.  Anyway we saw many of the artifacts that are housed in the museum, such as the Rosetta Stone, Cleopatra's mummy, and an original drawing by Michaelangelo.  The museum also had beautiful sculptures made by the Greeks and Romans.

After the British Museum we decided to head back to Nido (the building where Krissy and Lara reside in while in London).  When we got back we videochatted for alittle bit with Jess-informing her about THE WEDDING, and we werent refering to the wedding of Prince Charles and Kate Middleton.  After an hour of laughs we all unanimously decided to try to find Black Swan on the internet to watch.  Amazingly Lara found it on this site-and it was a supurb copy of it.  Halfway through the movie I fell asleep-but having seeing it once before I didnt mind.  Krissy and Lara like me, loved the movie-and we talked about it, and decided Natalie Portman should win every award offered to her.

Saturday proved to be just as awesome as Friday.  The day started with a journey to one of the places I always wanted to visit ever since I was a child, Portobello Road.  Being a Disney Brat I grew up watching almost every Disney film and one of my favorites was the movie Bedknobs and Broomsticks.  In the movie there is a song called Portobello Road, and it is about this road where all the riches of ages are stowed.  Anyways it was one of those places that I knew I had to visit while in Lonodn.

Portobello Road Market is a series of stalls and shops that are all open to the public on this endless road in Notting Hill.  Most of the shops were antique shops, but I did see a lot of cool stuff.  They had everything from Vintage jewlery, to old books, antique china sets, and even handmade footballs (yes from pig skin).  While on Portobello Road I also had my first Crepe experience while being abroad.  I decided to get a Banana and Nutella Crepe.  It was delicious, next time I think I am going to try a strawberry and Cream Crepe.  Anyways we spent a good portion of the day on Portobello Road, taking pictures and having fun.  I know for sure I will be visiting it again soon.

Anyways after Portobello Road we decided to head off to Green Park and see the Queen at Buckingham Palace.  When we got to the gate it was pretty dark-but still light enough to take pictures.  The pictures actually came out very apocolyptic looking on my camera for some reason-but it definitely had a nice moody feeling to it.  Anyways the Palace was beautfiul-there were a ton of people looking at it.  It reminded me of the White House in Washington DC-just because there was a gate that everyone crowded around and the street leading up to the palace looked like the National Mall.

After we had our impromptu photoshoot we decided to go eat.  We all wanted Italian, and we found this great place near Russel Square.  I decided to go for Gnocchi, while Lara got the Lasagna and Krissy got the Bruschetto.  The food was supurb, the only downside was the service was crappy-after waiting for a half hour for our bill we decided to not tip for obvious reasons :).  Though the French Rasta Waiter didnt seem to care.

Anyways after our scenes from an Italian Restaurant we decided to head back to Nido.  Originally we were going to go to a club, but then we decided to try this place called Shake Rattle and Bowl.  It was a 50s theme bowling alley, diner and club all in one.  The place seemed really cool-but we decided to leave early just because it was kinda lame with only the three of us-we definitely want to go back to it someday and go bowling.

Overally my weekend was a lot of fun.  I am so glad that Kristina and Lara are both in London with me.  We will definitely have more adventures in the near future.