Summertime in London

A nice warm evening view of the city from my flat

It looks like summer has finally hit London, with weather reaching into the 80s for several days in a row this past week. This weekend, we were blessed with particularly great weather, and I was happy to be out and about with my Fulbright friends soaking up the sun.

Rebecca came to town Friday night to stay with me in Brixton. We met for dinner at my favorite local spot--Brixton Market. This time, we tried a Portuguese restaurant that was pretty good. Since we were both tired, we decided to hit the cinema instead of the bars, and so we caught a showing of "Man of Steel" before heading home for the night. Perhaps I am worn out from my year of crazy adventures or perhaps I am just getting old, but I hate to admit how much I enjoy a simple evening like this. After a crazy week of teaching, it was just about all I could manage!

Saturday morning we got up bright and early, though, and we met up with Christy and her friend Lara in central London. We met them at Kings Cross, so we decided to queue up for a touristy pic at platform 9 3/4. My photo isn't very flattering, but I'll post it below just because it was so fun!

After succumbing to that tourist trap, we headed straight off another one--Camden Market. Camden is actually a fun, funky, hipster neighborhood, and the market is full of all sorts of goodies. The only thing is you sort of realize after checking out a few stalls that they all pretty much sell the same thing. That being said, we enjoyed a leisurely walk around the area, and Rebecca and Lara even found some cute dresses. My favorite part of our trip to Camden was seeing the locks in action on the canal. The canal locks are manually operated, and we happened to catch a family going through the locks. It was fascinating to see how it worked, and I couldn't believe people are just allowed to operate the locks on their own!

Rebecca, Lara, Christy and I at Camden Market

The locks in action!

Our next point of interest was a visit to Kensington Palace, which is a royal residence right in Hyde Park. Many royals have taken residence here, but my two favorite are Queen Victoria and Princess Diana. Before touring the palace, we indulged in a super fancy tea at the Orangery, which is a pretty well-known, desirable spot for a high tea. We all decided to go for broke and ordered champaign tea, so not only did we get lots of goodies and a pot of tea, but we also got some pink sparkly, too! The tea I ordered was fashion-themed, so it was extra cute!

Inside the Orangery

Lara, Rebecca, me and Christy about to enjoy our tea!
Thanks for the photo, Rebeca!

Kensington Gardens

Kensington Gardens with the Palace in the background 

Handsome artist painting the palace.

Peek-a-boo!

Queen Victoria in front of her palace. 

One of my favorite things about city life is how when the weather is nice,
everyone leaves their flats and gathers in the public parks (often called
"commons") to lounge around and have a picnic. Such fun!

After stuffing ourselves full of goodies, we headed into the palace for our tour. They recently opened up a new exhibit about Queen Victoria, so there were some interesting pieces to see, namely clothing and small items belonging to Queen Victoria and her beloved Prince Albert.

Young Queen Victoria

One of her dresses

Queen Victoria and Prince Albert--what a love story!

One of her mourning dresses. After her beloved husband died, Queen Victoria
spent the rest of her life in mourning, mostly keeping to herself in Windsor
Castle, which upset many citizens who wanted to see their queen.

I guess you'd have to turn sideways to get through the doors!

I quite liked these modern pillows. Here's Princess Diana.

William and Kate, the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge

Queen Victoria 

This was part of a display, but I thought it was quite fitting to my experience
here with Fulbright as it draws to a close.

The stairway where Queen Victoria was never allowed to walk alone. 

View from the palace out to the gardens and Hyde Park. 

This was part of a display about courtly gossip.

Another highlight of the palace visit was seeing some of the amazing royal dresses that the Queen and other members of the royal family have worn throughout the years. Each dress was incredible--so fashionable for each era in which it was worn. 

One of Queen Elizabeth II's dresses--my favorite of all
the dresses displayed.

Some of Princess Diana's '80s dresses

Later that evening, we met up with more Fulbrighters, the Pielow family, for dinner near Convent Garden. It was so nice to catch up with them one more time! Unfortunately, I was a bit tired and hot and forgot to get a group photo of all of us. I guess that means we'll all need to plan a big reunion soon then! After dinner, Rebecca and I parted ways with the rest of the group and went off to meet Yasmin, who did a Fulbright exchange a few years ago to California. Yasmin has been super welcoming and has befriended us, so we really wanted to get together with her one more time before we headed home. Again, I forgot to take a photo--so unlike me!

We woke up Sunday morning to another beautiful day, and decided to get going nice and early. Rebecca had some shopping she wanted to do, and I've never been one to turn to down a good shop, so off we went to Portabello Road Market to see what treasures we could find. We later met up with Christy and Lara for a couple of hours, which was fun. Christy showed us some of her favorite spots along Portabello Road, too!

George Orwell's lived here once!

Cutest house ever!

Treasures galore!

The Hummingbird Bakery had a special 4th of July
display! We had to stop in for some cupcakes! 

GBA!

Wimbledon themed cupcakes! Go Murray!

Love the painted houses of Notting Hill

True...

Rooftop garden! Fab!

I want to live here!

Eventually, we had to say goodbye to Christy and Lara, which was sad and a bit harder for me than I let on. Christy is on her way back home to Boise (she's actually on an airplane as I type this!), and I'm not quite sure I was ready to see her go. Ever since we met back in Denver in May 2012 at our first Fulbright event, Christy has been a great friend and support to me. We've really bonded over this experience. She was the one who I always called mid-crisis or breakdown when I need a boost, and I'll really miss having her be just a train ride away. Luckily, Boise isn't a very long plane ride from Seattle, so I know we'll be seeing each other as often as we can. But her parting was just another reminder that this magical year really is coming to an end. And although all of us Americans who have become such good friends can and hopefully will see each other again, it's never quite going to be the same. I'm still working on being ok with that.

Well nothing makes me feel better than a little shopping, so I was more than happy to head to Oxford Circus with Rebecca to go through the giant, cheesy tourist shop. And of course, I found a few more hokey things I just couldn't live without!

Look who we met!!! 

Later than afternoon, I had to say goodbye to Rebecca, too. Again, this was hard, and my defense mechanism was just to pretend it wasn't happening. Reba and I have become such good friends, and she was a great travel buddy this year. There was a stretch this spring when we spent every single weekend together for about a month and a half. And since she lives in Alabama, I know getting down to see her is going to be a bit more tricky. Still, I plan to make it happen, and sooner than later! So when saying goodbye, we kept it quick and instead of goodbye, made sure to say "see you later." I really do hate goodbyes.

More goodbyes are coming, seemingly every day now. And they suck. So I've decided to reframe my thinking and take on this attitude of "see you later" each time instead. In the mean time, instead of worry too much about my impending "see you laters," I'll just keep on enjoying each summer day during these last few weeks here in London.