Saturday in London

Today I woke up at noon and would have liked to sleep even more, but I had planned on going to the Portobello Road Market so I made myself get out of bed.

The first thing I did was take the tube to Baker Street to see the Sherlock Holmes Museum, where there was an extraordinarily long queue so I decided that I didn't really need to go inside after all. Madame Tussaud's cost 5 pounds to get in, so I skipped that as well and walked to Hyde Park, where there was some sort of concert series going on so I didn't go very far into the park because there were really huge crowds.

From Hyde Park I walked to the Victoria & Albert Museum, where I finally did something that I had intended to do today. There was a cool historical fashion exhibit, and in the renaissance section I came across a unique photo opportunity:

The Four Graces, by Antonio Canova and Grace Smith 

After the V&A, I wandered around Westminster and probably passed several royal landmarks that I didn't recognize without someone to tell me what they were. There were also some street performers.

I eventually ended up back in Leicester Square and Soho, where I walked around Chinatown looking for "The Lucky Cat," which I did not find, and looking at discounted tickets but not buying any. I did go into a store I'd seen yesterday and hadn't had time to visit.

Dad, I considered buying you a gift but the Anderson practicality in me ultimately won out. I'll buy you some m&ms in America and I'm sure they'll taste the same.

I finally limped into the Queen Elizabeth at around 7:30 pm, and even though I've failed to do any of the things that were on my schedule for today, I feel either accomplished or exhausted or a little bit of both. My exhaustion makes me feel accomplished, I guess. Here's a list of famous people I was sure I saw from yesterday and today:

The conductor of the BBC National Orchestra of Wales, Thomas Sondergard (I'm still convinced it was him. I have a photo of him saved on my hard drive because he's so dreamy. It seriously had to be him.) Said photo can be found to the left.
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Ser Loras, a knight from "Game of Thrones"

Piers Morgan

The lady on Sherlock who thought she had dated a ghost.



I didn't mention it on Thursday because it was right after I'd posted and gone back to the dorm room, but I met 4 other American tourists in the dorm room that evening and we bonded for a few hours before everyone else started returning and I fell asleep. I met Leo first, he was the only one there when I returned and he's Korean-American and from Indiana. Then Taylor and Kristen from New Jersey showed up and were closely followed by Shanika from Brooklyn, New York. Leo and Shanika are both in Paris now - they left on the same night bus yesterday. They're both backpacking through Europe on their own. According to Shanika, Amsterdam is actually more fun than Venice. I don't recall where Taylor and Kristen were going to be yesterday or today. I was the only one who will be visiting Scotland. It was really nice to chat with other lone travelers, though - there seems to be a certain kind of person who is willing to travel alone and I get along with those people really well.