London, Day 3

On Day 3 Yang had other things to do, so I thought I'd give London another visit. This time I was on my own in UK, and it was really cool to be able to move in all three directions without having to worry about friend's wishes. I think I walked through every major neighborhood in teh city center on that day. I woke up early on that (maybe too early) because I wanted to see the historic Changing of the Guard at the Buckingham Palace which started at around or right after 11am. Basically I got on the train in Cambridge extra early -- at around 8am, but there was some development on the railroad and the train ride that should have taken me 50 minutes turned out to be 2 hours long. However, I got to experience the full rush hour life on the train. I enjoy watching people, and this time it was no exception. I tried to find what makes Britons different from Americans. Most people were reading newspapers, and very few were talking on teh cell phones. In the US it is more likely to find people constantly talking on the phone. Other than that I didn't see much of a difference. I also happened to notice that many of the passengers were patient, whereas in teh U.S. I'd expect them to be highly impatient.
The train that I took was from Cambridge to King's Cross Station in London. There are two lines connecting Cmabridge to London, and Yang told me that King's Cross is a better one because there are so many metro (subway) lines at that station

I was not late for the Changing of the Guard, and there were many people waiting at the front of Buckingham Palace. I could find a good spot on teh steps of the Victoria fountain in front of the palace, but it was kind of far.
I did not find the changing of the guard any more intersting than tourigng the city. I think this event is overrated. Too many people, and the guards in red uniform just walk past you with drums and trumpets blaring. they have nice fur hats though that extend about 80cm above their heads. After the ceremony ended, I happened to pass by another lcoation where I saw the same guards joking with each other, taking hats off, sort of being informal and boarding the white busses. It felt funny because I saw them being highly formal at the Changing of the Guard.
One fun fact about the Queen's residence -- whenever she is at the palace, the Royal Standard flag hovers above that residence. If she is not home, then the Union Jack (UK official flag) is raised.

My camera ran out of power during the changing of the guard, so i was really desperate to find replacement batteries. this was the only time I was uncomfortable during the day. I had extra batteries, but i thought I had replenished tem, but it turned out that they lasted all day.

My next stop was Westminster Abbey. This time the crowds were not that bad and I was able to use my MIT ID to get a student discount. They do know what MIT is in UK!!! That is awesome! So, make sure you take advantage of student discounts! When i was standing in the line (it moved pretty fast), I came across two girls from the U.S. I knew they were from America because 1) one of them wore the Cal sweatshirt (Cal in cursive means UC Berkeley), and 2) they were talking pretty loud. Since I like watching people, I am going to talk a little about what makes Americans so easy to recognize. Americans are typically impatient, and they are also loud most of the time. Whereas many English people and Britons respect privacy and quiet, Americans talk loud whenever, in other words, they are usually inconsiderate about others around them. I saw some kids just running through the Abbey shouting, and i knew that they were Americans because their parents were not that strict about their behavior, and because they did not seem to care much about respecting the silence. There were way too many American tourists. I like to think that more than 50% or even 75% of tourists in UK come from the United States. perhaps because UK is an english-speaking country, and also it is the closest country in Europe to the U.S. in terms of distance.

Westminster Abbey is a place where Kings have been buried. Nearly every monarch is buried there. Queen Elizabeth I and her half-sister Queen Mary I were buried next to each other in one of the tombs. this is a little strange considering the fact that Elizabeth and Mary exhibited dislike of each other, and the fact that Mary was Roman Catholic and Elizabeth -- Protestant. Mary did rule before Elizabeth and she converted English religion to Roman Catholicism, but Elizabeth I would later reverse her policies. I also saw the throne that is used every time England crowned a new King or Queen. The coronation has happened in Westminster Abbey since 1066. This is a very long time, and it is great to be in the place with so much history.
Besides the members of teh royal family who were buried in different tombs and transcrepts there were scores of famous people also buried in the Abbey. those include Sir Isaac Newton, Charles Dickens, Maxwell, Darwin, Kipling, and Geoffrey Chaucer. Tombstones were everywhere adorning the floor of the Abbey. I walked on the tombstone of King Henry VIII, but he was actualy buried at Windsor Castle, not in Westminster Abbey. There were many sculptures and statues commemorating different aristocrats and famous poets and scientists. I'd say definitely visit Westminster Abbey! Despite its crowds, its a place worth to visit!
Taking pictures is disallowed inside the Abbey, but I was able to find a place where pictures were allowed, so I took some beautiful photos of the Abbey's courtyard with the Abbey's spires in the background. See my photos (look on page 2, bc page 1 is cluttered with too many pics of the Changing of the Guard)

After the abbey I decided to tour London's streets, so I headed down Whitehall, past Downing Street, trafalgar Square, and then down the Strand. Since I wanted to see most of the city in one day, I took advantage of my Day's travelcard. It allowed me to ride the train from Cambridge to London and back, as well as complete access to the London's Tube system and bus network. It is a pretty sweet deal. basically you can hop onto any of the double-decker busses and ride them for as long as you want. The Day Travelcard is valid for the whole day, which is pretty cool. Also, one strange thing I noticed -- The round trip ticket from Cambridge to London's King's Cross station is priced the same as one-way trip. I had expected the price to be double of the one-way ticket. At first I thought that there was a mistake... but Yang later told me that the pricing of British transportation system is very weird, and I am OK with that as long as its not too expensive. The day travelcard is like 4.80 pounds, whereas a single ride on the Tube is like 1.30 pounds. Not a bad deal, right? ANd it allows you a lot of freedom in moving around.

So I suddenly got this desire to see the Eurostar high-speed TGV train that connects Paris and Brussels with London via English Channel. Had I had more time, I'd definitely taken that train to Paris and toured the French capital and cultural capital of the world in one day. It would be so highly convenient in the way that I would not have needed to travel from Paris International airport which is outside the city to the center of Paris. The rail is a better choice because it conencts center of London with center of Paris (Waterloo - Gare du Nord). However, I didnt have time or money to do that, so i just went to Waterloo to check the trains out. I took a double-decker bus from The Strand across Thames to the Waterloo Station. It is the only International train terminal in london, and the terminal to paris is pretty heavily secured -- the trains are inside the glass tube, so the closest I could get to Eurostar train was from the outside and I took the picture through the glass wall (not a great picture, but its good enough for me).

Having seen enough of Waterloo, I took the double-decker bus back to The city and The Strand to where I started. Strand became the Fleet Street -- a name famous for law offices and news agencies. Reuters is based there, and so is BBC headquarters (though the later is on Cannon street, closer to the City of London). Let me talk more about what London as a whole is like. basically, London and the City of London are two different places. London includes the City of London and otehr neighborhoods such as City of Westminster. The City of Westminster is where royal family used to (and still does) live, and where the Prime Minister lives and works, and where the Parliament meets (in the Westminster Palace, which houses Houses of Parliament, right beside the Big Ben). The City of London is the city's historical and financial core. It is known as the British Wall Street and it has stock exchange, The Bank of England, various other Exchanges, and many banks, financial and insurance firms are based there. It has many of the modern buildings and scyscrapers. Two skyscrapers are worth checking out -- one is the Swiss Re building which is basically a rounded cone, sort of looks like a glass rocket (designed by Norman Foster). The other is the headquarters of Lloyd's, which is one of the largest insurance firms in England. The building itself looks like the guts of a factory -- it is basically made out of metal pipes that are visible in both exterior and interior.
If you walk down The Strand to Fleet Street, if you'll pass by a dragon statue in the middle of the street you'll know that you stepped through the boundary between City of Westminster and City of London. There is also a small Church standing right in the middle of teh Street (St. Mary-le-Strand). Cars move around on both sides of the church, and it's as small as the island in the middle of Times Square in NYC. The Strand is a really pretty street. Somewhere either on Strand or on the Fleet Street there is a Chamber of the Courts, which is sort of like British version of The Supreme Court. that's why there are so many law offices around it, and there is also a place called "The Inns of the Court". The Inns of the court is tucked beside the row of buildings lining up the Fleet Street. There is no formal entrance or a sign to it -- you just have to know where to go. The Inns of Courts is an area hidden from the Fleet Street, and overlooking the thames River. It is a collection of inns where Barristers (English lawyers) work, and where law students live and work and study. I read in the guide that every law student in the country has to live and work at the Inns of Court at some point during his education before he can officially become a barrister. Pretty cool? I had no idea what the inns looked like, so i just wandered around aimlessly in the crevices between buildings and came across a nice rounded church. The church was completely surrounded by other buildings, and it was not tall enough, so other buildings sort of overshadowed it. It's a really cool thing -- the church packed into teh dense network of buildings. The buildings are really pretty too, they look what a regular inn would look like (sort of like old dorms at Harvard). When I enetred the inns of the court, I felt like it was really quiet as compared to very noisy Fleet Street. I felt at peace. It's a nice getaway from the loud City.

Walking down the Fleet Street you would get to St. Paul Cathedral. It is the largest cathedral in London and was built by Sir Christopher Wren who had built so many buildings in London (and the main Library in Trinity College, Cambridge). The tour guide claims that it took Wren nearly 25 years to build St. Paul's Cathedral. The building itself is in the Baroque style and it's dome is visible from far away. Though the church itself is not on the river, it is visible from nearly everywhere on the South bank of Thames and from every Bridge from Westminster to beyond the City of London. It looks like many of the Capitol buildings in the U.S. cities. I had timed my visit to St. Paul's so that I'd bypass the admission fee (like 5 GBP, or $10, thats pretty steep). If you enter the cathedral after 5PM, you can tour it free of charge, and if you are religious enough, you can actually take a service inside.

I still had plenty of time to see the rest of London, so I went to the river and hung around on the Millennium bridge. (The bridge is rumored to have been swaying once it opened on the first day due to its resonance matching the resonance of teh wind, so it had to be stabilized). It is a pedestrian bridge conecting St. Paul's Cathedral square to Tate Modern museum (which is essentially an old rectangular brown warehouse-type building that once housed the main power plant of London. From there I could see the Tower of London far away, and I felt like I wanted to walk to it. The next Bridge on my trip toward the Tower of London is London bridge which basically separates the modern part of the City from the older neighborhood. This is where I walked to the river and down to the pedestrian walkway. The rest of the time I walked along the North bank of Thames all the way to the Tower of London and Tower Bridge. It's a very nice walk, sort of like walk in NYC along Hudson coast. You have buildings soaring to teh left of you (really close) and Thames on the right. From the Tower of Londom I got on Tower Bridge (its the one that has two towers and a suspension bridge between them (the bridge can open up for tall ships)). Once I got to the other side of Thames, I just walked all the way to Westminster Bridge along the South bank of Thames. The sun was setting down, so it was a nice view on the City of London backdrop. You could see St Paul's Cathedral and the City's skyscrapers. Oh and I did pass by The SHakespeare's Globe. It's nothing special, just a round white about 2-3 story structure that has wooden truss. It's not even the real Globe -- teh Real Globe burned down a while ago, and was replaced by teh current one (on a slightly different location, and closer to the riverfront). I had a not-so-expensive dinner under Waterloo Bridge (there is a theatre district, soft of like city Opera and Ballet right by the Bridge). Since I was there in the evening, the place was quite busy and a lot of people were outside either chilling or having dinner. After I finished the dinner I visited one of the theatres to use a bathroom. The lobby was packed. When I got out of bathroom 5 minutes later, the lobby was deserted. There were not many people outside either. Everyone just evaporated into the thin space.
The sun was setting down when I decided to try the London Eye -- the Millennium Eye that is supposedly the highest and largest observation wheel in the world. I have known that the lines were really long -- when Yang and I were in London on the day of my arrival to UK, the line was really long and slow moving. This time there was absolutely NO line. This is why I decided to hop on board. Also the timing could not have been more perfect -- the sun setting down at 9PM. It was B-E-A-U-T-I-F-U-L!!! It was quite expensive, and I would have benefitted from bringing a friend to take pictures of me, but it was worth it. There were about 6 people in my cabin -- the cabin supposedly can hold 15 or more people. The whole trip around took about half an hour. The wheel rotates really slow, so you don't feel like you are moving at all. The cabin is basically a glass sphere, so you can look in all directions. I could see all the landmarks and places I've been to that day and earlier. You can see pretty far from atop of the wheel. I definitely recommend doing the same thing I did -- hopping on the Eye on some weekday evening. Weekends could be a different story. The London Eye is HUGE! London Eye is right on teh other side of Thames River as the Westminster Palace, so it was nice seeing Big Ben and roofs of the palace from above. Oh, one fun fact about Houses of parliament -- if there is a flag above the Palace, then the house of Commons is in session. I heard that the Prime Minister gives a speech to teh House of Commons every Wednesday, so I'd imagine this is when the visitors would most like to go inside. Even if the PM is not inside, the lines are pretty slow-moving and long. When I tried to get in, they told me to wait for 2 hours. I shrugged my shoulders and did not stay because there are far more exciting places in London worth visiting rather than waitin in the line for some boring debate.

I feel like I walked the entire city in 2 days (there's nothing cool behind the Tower Bridge, and behind Westminster (Houses of Parliament). All the landmarks and cool buildings are in between.

Photos Part I | Part II

Day 2 in UK (Cambridge in June)

I don't know, but for some reason I am starting to remember my week in UK vividly. Maybe it is because I'm reading my friend's blog, and maybe it's because I interact with some of Cambridge students who are studying at MIT this year. Right now I am telling myself why I had not done CME when I had a chance last year. I have had my reasons, but I think the fun that I would have had in Cambridge had I been there for one year greatly outweighs my reasons for not going. So my reasons for not going were: lack of Computer Science classes (Cambridge isnt well known for Computer Science, and CME is intended more for EE majors). Second reason, perhaps the most important one was that I wasn't sure I'd be getting the same services I get at MIT. Many of you know what I am talking about.
So a friend of mine who is in UK right now for one year of CME (Cambridge-MIT Exchange) seems to be having a great time. Cambridge students do not have lots of work, or at least it does not appear so cause they do not have hard deadlines for psets. What do they do all the time? Party? perhaps. One thing I can say is that almost everyone is active in some sort of extracurricular activities. I used to do some of the extracurricular stuff at MIT such as being a photographer for the Tech (student newspaper), and being on UA Committee on Student Life. However, my coursework at MIT has drowned me in psets, leaving very little time to do everything else. I bet students in Cambridge have much more free time than MIT students. Poor Cambridge students at MIT!

I spent the entire second day of my UK time in Cambridge visiting various colleges.
Yang is a really good host, showing me around the University and its colleges.
We started the day with a breakfast in the largest bar in Europe -- The Regal. It is an old cinema theater converted into teh bar. Inside you feel like you are in a 2-story tavern (the indoor space spanned 2 floors with a spiral staircase) The food was nice and decently priced. British Pound is very strong against US Dollar, so while things do not seem to be expensive in UK (the prices seem to be the same), considering the nearly 2:1 Pound to USD ratio, makes everyihng so pricey. For example a 5 GBP food entree is actually not $5, but nearly $10. I actually found out that I spent too much money in UK, almost 1.5 more than I originally intended to spend just because of the exchange rate.
After the breakfast we visited colleges. I visited Trinity, King's and St. John's colleges. These three are the wealthiest and most famous colleges in Cambridge. (for those of you who are illiterate with Cambridge system -- Cambridge students go to lectures together in departments, but they get tutoring and supervisions in their respective colleges. Students apply to colleges, and upon acceptance they live and study in their college. Colleges are pretty independent of each other (or so it seems), each having its own bar and facilities. Professors are also affiliated with colleges, so a professor who is a fellow at a college is mentor to students in that college. Some of you might wonder whether Stephen Hawking's fame makes him a fellow in Trinity or King's colleges, but he actually is a fellow in a lesser-known college - Gonville-Caius College.

Hmm, so I think I have seen some of other colleges as well, but the three I remember most are Trinity, King's and St. John's. Passing through the gate of Trinity I could not help but notice the college's founder, King Henry VIII staring down at me. I got a chance to visit Trinity's chapel. It looks really nice inside, and there is a sculpture of Sir Isaac Newton. He is a Trinity alum and also served as a fellow in this college. Trinity has some other notable alumni like Sir Francis Bacon among others. When I stood before the Newton statue, I felt like this place was magical -- so much talent has originated there. It certainly felt powerful. I guess somewhere on Cambridge campus an apple hit Newton in the head and made him conceive F=ma. That must have been some sort of magical apple. I have not seen a single tree on Trinity campus (at least on the city of Cambridge side of the river). Colleges like Trinity and King's have buildings that surround a large courtyard. The grass in these courtyards seems to be sacred -- no one is allowed to walk on it, and signs "KEEP OFF THE GRASS" are everywhere. Grass is everywhere, but trees can be found on the other side of the river as Trinity campus appears to encompass both banks of Cam river.
When I was in Cambridge, it was during the final exams (Tripos) period. I had timed my arrival to UK to coincide with Yang's last tripos, so that I would not interfere with his studies. However, some students were still studying and taking exams while I was there. This is why many colleges did not allow visitors at the time. They were closed to the public. However, I was a special vistor -- so Yang could actually get me into the colleges (he has friends in these colleges). I tried not to look like a tourist, even though I had a great urge to take many pictures inside the colleges. I only took few photographs, and at times when very few people were around. However, I found out.. some of the nicest views of the colleges are from the river, and you do not need to get access into the college campus in order to take pictures -- just take pictures from the boat on the river (I don't remember if Trinity's courtyard actually faces the river, but King's really does).
St John's has a really huge campus. It has buildings on both sides of the river, and there is one really famous and pretty bridge connecting some of the buildings. It is the Bridge of Sighs (sort of like the bridge of the same name in Venice). Unlike the other bridges, it is the indoor roofed bridge. There was another unique bridge across the Cam -- the Queens' College bridge. It was built with wooden planks arranged in such a way as to form a really weird truss. Rumors are that the original bridge was build by Isaac Newton, and he used some sort of a complex truss that no one was able to figure out. It was a wonder that his bridge actually was stable. later some people tried to replicate his work and disassembled the bridge and assembled it back. However, no one was able to assemble it the same way, so current architectural design is slightly different than that of Newton's.

We tried punting. Yang was a student at Magdalene College, which is right on the Cam river. In Cambridge most of colleges (especially older ones) are located on the Cam (a small river that runs across Cambridge). Most of them have their own punt boats. Some of you might wonder what the punting is. It is not grunting and punting in response to some menial task. It is not rowing either. So, punting means pushing the boat with a long pole against the river's bottom. Cam river is pretty shallow almost everywhere, so it is easy to use the river's bottom to propel the boat. The boat is very flat and long (more streamlined). The punter stands on the back tip of the boat and pushes the boat against the riverbed using a pole. The same pole is used as a rudder to steer the boat left or right. Yang was punter for most of our tour of colleges on the river, but I did try punting more than once. It was a little scary because you know that with electronic equipment on me its very crucial that I do not fall into water. I am not afraid of water at all -- I don't actually mind getting soaked once in a while, as long as my hearing aid and cochlear implant are tucked safely in a dry place. However, I wanted to hear the sounds of Cambridge, so I did not take them off.

The City of Cambridge is a really beautiful town. It has a medieval look. Most churches in teh city were built in gothic style. Many of the college buildings were also built in gothis style, especially chapels. Some of the colleges had buildings from Elizabethian era (sort of like a castle tower with 4 spires at corners). The university itself is spread out in the city, and there are no distinct campus boundaries. Each college has a self-sustaining campus which is bounded by either buildings, walls, or fences. Most colleges close their gates in the evening, so to get inside, you needed to have the key, and the only way you could have a key is if you are the resident of the college. I guess this is really inconvenient to visit a friend in another college. Both you and a friend would have to meet outside in the city (a very popular meeting location is in the King's parade, just outside the King's College main gate). This is unlike MIT where your ID card can get you into some of the dorms.

Pictures of day 2 are online in my photoalbum

Europe thoughts & London Day 1

Allright -- I think I am settling on blogger/blogspot as my ultimate blogger choice. It seems to be less cluttered than other blog sites...
Anyway, here goes my first official blog entry. It's Sunday right now and I have done nil work yesterday or on friday eve. I think at MIT we have this habit of procrastinating -- the general notion is that MIT students like to party on Fridays and Saturdays (note: party does not mean drinking liquor, it also sort of means hanging out with friends, et cetera...)
Anyway, some of you may know -- I am seriously considering going to Europe this January/IAP... however, some of my friends are not sure of their winter plans. If you would like to join me, email or IM me... I would like to try skiing in the Alps at some point, or maybe just stroll through the nice riverfronts of Seine, Danube and through narrow streets. true, I have been to UK in the beginning of last summer -- though it was a weeklong trip -- I saw so much during that time. I got to experience Cambridge, UK (north of London), and Windsor Castle west of London. I think I have pretty much seen all of London in 3 days. I think if you go to London for more than 3 days, you can basically not go sightseeing anymore, just hang out at london's pubs. Definitely visit The George pub, and walk around the inns of the court. It is a nice place in the city, just off The Strand (a famous London street filled with news agencies and law offices). You will not find the entrance to the inns of court easily -- you have to really know where it is. It sort of looks like a small archway to some yard, and once you go through it, you'll be in a different world. A pretty quiet world, i must admit (after all don't all law students need some peace and a quiet place to study?) If you are lucky you could bump onto barristers (if you have no idea who a barrister is, you should watch the movie "A Fish called Wanda").

My schedule in London was like this:
Day one:
Yang met me at Heathrow Airport and then we took the Paddington Express train to King's Cross train station where we left my luggage at the baggage storage place. I would be spending nights in Cambridge, UK, where Yang is a student. Then we started the adventure in the city. We took the Tube (yup, thets what Britons call the London Subway. The word "subway" actually means something else -- it is the underpass under a busy street. Think SUB-Way!), got off at Westminster Station. It was Saturday or Sunday, I don't remember, and we ended up walking up into the crowd. There were soo many tourists -- you can tell by just observing if theya re holding a tourbook. I was surprised to see that many of the tourists spoke Russian and were reading Russian tour books. The street was really really crowded, basically people breathed one ach others' necks. It was a total chaos! It was ahrd enough to even take pictures of the Big Ben and the Houses of Parliament (also known as Westminster Palace). I had to hold my camera up to take any clear shots, and pictures with me in it and big ben in the background were ruled out. Yang and I decided not to go on the Westminster Bridge because of the human traffic congestion.
We walked on the riverfront of Thames on the Westminster side. I did not sleep much on the plane, but I did not feel so sleepy ebcause of the excitement. For those of you who don't know me -- even if I am dead tired, but excited, I will not collapse into sleep in the middle of the street. (a side note: your day becomes 5 hours shorter if you fly to London from NYC), so if you leave U.S. early in the evening, you'll land at heathrow in the wee hours of the morning (wee hours for me is anything till 8am). basically, you can then claim that you have not slept for 2 days straight, though that would be cheating a little because your two days is 5 hours shorter)
Anyway, I always digress from the topic, so getting back on the track! Yang and I crossed Thames on the bridge connecting Charring Cross train station on Westminster side to the south embankment (waterloo side). We ended up walking all the way to Westminster Bridge on the south bank, passing by London Eye (a.k.a Millennium Eye is the largest observation (ferris) wheel in the world). I was getting tired and hungry, so we bought some ice cream. I didn't feel like this ice cream was any special (it was a soft yogurt kind of ice cream). The best street ice cream I have ever had is sold on the streets of moscow (just look for vendors with freezer ice-cream carts, and ask for "plombir" if you are in moscow).
When we got to Westminster bridge, there were still many people there, and we walked to Big Ben and houses of parliament. The crowds were not that heavy on the big ben side of the bridge (maybe because of bridge construction going on on that side and tall fence was obstructing the view of the wiver to the west of Westminster Bridge). I finally was able to ask yang to take a shot of me with Big Ben in the background! Woo hoo!
After crawling through the crowd around houses of parliament and reaching Westminster Abbey (the ultimate rest place of Kings), we found out that it had just closed. I think we got there ar around 3/4PM. I would visit the Abbey alone during one of my several trips to London later on.
My next destination was the Trafalgar Square and National Gallery of Arts. We walked down the Whitehall (a wide boulevard that passes many government buildings such as department of treasury, defence, and Downing Street. I even took the picture of the Downing Street sign! The street itself was fences and abrricaded and there were several armed guards at the outposts. There were also many people standing by the fence -- everyone wanting to catch a glimpse of Tony Blair or Gordon Brown. If you look through the fence, you can see the black brick building that is 11 Downing Street -- the official residence of the Primer Minister of UK. Not far from the downing Street there were two horsemen in the red uniform and polished hats/helmets. Those were Horse Guards. There is a Horse Guards Parade held once every summer to officially celebrate the Queen's birthday. The parade grounds were just a short walk from the Whitehall past the archway flanked by horse guards (there were 2 or 3 guards). (A fun fact: This parade ground will be the site for beach volleyball during 2012 olympic games in london.) When we reached Trafalgar Square, I thought I'd see the square's main attraction -- Nelson's column. However, to my dismay, the column had been cordoned off and covered with construction rack and draped in some sort of blue cover depicting the column underwater. too bad...
Also, Trafalgar Square is the final stop for many of the London's double-decker busses, so expect to see lots and lots of red busses around teh square. they almost form a complete circle around teh square.
We had lunch at Subway's sandwich shop just off trafalgar Square on the Strand (they have same subway's in UK as in the States). Actually there were too many people in the shop, so we ended up eating by the fountains on the Square and making sure that no pigeons come close to us (hehe... actually by mayor of london's decree, feeding of birds in Trafalgar Square is disallowed).
Still feeling lots of energy, we went into the National gallery and National portrait Gallery. All national museums in london are free of charge -- just like in Washington DC. I did not want to pay money for short stay, so it was all good. We focused mostly on Impressionist and Rembrandt paintings. I really wanted to see the famous portrait of Elizabeth I and of William Shakespeare. However, the shakespeare portrait was actually on tour in the U.S. (at the same time I was out of the U.S.). Howe sad! And i could not find the Elizabethian portrait that i have seen in art books. Many of you don't know but i admire good art, especially impressionitst paintings and landscapes, and artists who like to play with light, like Rembrandt. (to be honest, ever since I saw Paul Cezanne's landscape paintings, I have always wanted to visit European countryside. If you have seen it, try to remember Chateau Noir -- which depicts a house perched on the side of the hill, lit brightly by the sunset. I'd like to own such a house sometime in the future...
From Trafalgar Square, we decided to walk all the way along Pall Mall to the buckingham palace -- the royal residence of monarchy. Pall Mall is a street that is pretty heavy with traffic sometimes (traffic goes in opposite direction unlike U.S. traffic), but I heard that this street is closed off on Sundays, so people can stroll on it from Trafalgar Square to the Buckingham Palace and back.
To my disappointment, the palace building itself is not very attractive. It certainly empowers you, but only because you know that he Queen resides there and because there are guards in the red. The extrerior of the palace is nothing out of extraordinary. It's just a dull grey building. Ah, now that I am bored by buckingham palace, let me talk about taxicabs in London. A lot if not all of cabs in the city are black "Hackney carriages". They all look like mini coopers (slighly larger version, but the shape is the same) with a TAXI sign perched atop them. Virtually all cabs in London are black cabs like that. This certainly brings the old look to the city. The cabs look old, though on closer observation, one can tell that they have modern fittings and possibly modern engine.
Our next destination was Hyde park -- the largest park in London, not far from Buckingham palace. It looks just like central park with lakes and stuff, and sort of reminded me of some of the eduard manet, claude monet, and Renoir paintings where gents in tuxs and long hats and dames with umbrellas stroll down the masonic trails. While people around us were dressed in plain clothes, I still felt like i was in the impressionist paintings. Maybe it was because I was in Europe. Oh, and you can definitely compare that to boston Commons if you haven't been to Central park in NYC.
I also wanted to see the Speaker's Corner that one of my TAs liked to talk about. He told us that he actually tried giving a speech there. Apparently Speaker's Corner is famous for public gatherings there on Sundays (I think) and some member of the public would give a speech on any topic, and otehrs would listen. Of course, I think the speech should be something interesting and entertaining, otherwise, the only audience you would get would be pigeons. I am not talking about trying to explain how transistors work -- most of people in London don't give a shit about very specific topics.
Since we were there on Saturday, the place /corner was empty. So we decided to go to Leicester Square to get something to eat. We took the Tube there. Leicester Square is a center of theatre disctrict in the city. there are many musical theaters and movie theaters in this part of the city. It was quite crowded, and we ended up eating at one of the steakhouses. I forget the name of the place, but yang said that it was a steakhouse chain (they have 2 steakhouses in leicester square alone). the steak was quite good!!!
From there we headed to Piccadilly Circus which was a short walk. I wanted to see what the Times Square of London was like. Seriously the Times Square in NYC beats Piccadilly Circus! There is only one building with neon/screen boards (and most of it was covered in TDK). Feeling a little drowsy, and seeing that the time was after 9PM (UK time, not ET time), we went down to teh Tube and back to the King's Cross station where we boarded the train to Cambridge. The train was really really quiet unlike trains in the U.S. It was also much smoother ride than on any of teh commuter trains in the U.S., but ocassionally the car would swing from side to side. I wouldn't know because my head was so heavy and I was basically sleeping on the train though I really wanted to look out the windows. It was too dark outside anywya, so i did not miss much.
OK, I think i got carried away with this post. It should have been a much shorter post, but once I start anything, its very hard to stop, be it writing, or painting, or playing computer games. Of course, this is why i don't even start playing computer games!

More posts will follow (Days 2 through day 6-7). Really I am not writing this for myself -- I'm hoping that it will be a good tour guide for those who plan to visit London for a short time.
Oh and I have pictures of Day one online at
London Day 1

The start of my blog!

A good friend of mine had just started her Blog so that her friends would be able to read about her fun times in Cambridge, UK. I feel like it would not be fair for her to be the only writer while the rest of us are readers. Also, blogs are a great way to jot your memories into, and the written form can persist in this form for a while. When i get older, i would still be able to look back and read the blog about my college years.