England!

Well here I am, almost done my week in France and I haven't even wrote a blog on england yet! I am currently in a small village an hour away from nice called st paul de vence, waiting for the bus to go back! It feels like so long ago that I was in Denmark already. I left Ditte on Saturday, and arrived at the London stanstead airport around 6. Security was intense to get into the uk! They asked where I was staying, where I met this friend, what nationality was she etc. Crazy. Made it through eventually, and then took a train into London, then 4 tubes and I finally arrived at Emmas! Was so nice to see her, was like we hadnt been apart at all. We decided to go out because it was Saturday night after all. I didn't have any nice shoes to wear so borrowed a pair of hers, they were just too small though so it ended up being a very painful evening! We went to Mohiki, then met some people who took us to Movita. Had a great time, me and Emma always have a great time when we go out together.

On Sunday, we made crepes, then I went to hillsong London for the evening service!! So good. I can't explain the feeling I get when I'm there. This sounds so lame, but when I walked in, there was a huge banner that said 'welcome home' and it was the same banner that hillsong cape town has, and that's exactly how it felt. I had heard one of he London pastors speak in cape town, but this was a different guy, i liked him though. After the service talked to a few people, ended up going to this wonderful vegetarian restaurant in soho nearby. London was good for eating vegetarian! Everything was labelled whether It contained any animal products, was suitable for vegetarians etc. France is not so good for that! On Monday I had my first sightseeing day. Decided to go to the British museum. That was cool, saw the rosetta stone, and a preserved human body that was super old and gross! Then I walked down to the grant museum of zoology and comparative anatomy. Basically it's a tiny museum run by one of the universities there, and it's full of animal skeletons and preserved animals in jars! It was really cool to see different skeletons, the penguin skeleton looks just like a penguin! I couldn't believe how similar the chimpanzee skeleton looked to a humans!

Then I went to topshop, but saw people with primark bags and was dying to go there! Took the tube to Oxford street where it was. Wow. I have never been in such a ridiculous crazy chaotic store! You could hardly walk, there were people everywhere! The queue for the fitting room was at least 40 minutes long! Just needed to get out, so I bought a few things that I thought would fit, and made my way home!  Came home to see Emma and her flatmate, James, glued to the news. The riots were going! We basically just watched the news all night, shocked at what was happening. On Tuesday, I took the train to Staines to meet up with Georgina! Was lovely seeing her, she showed me around her area, then we went to the pennywood park hotel and spa. She said it was a nice place but I didn't realize how nice it would be until she told me that when she worked there, she served Russell Crowe, and a bunch of the Chelsea boys came in as well. Crazy! It was super gorgeous, we pretended to be posh so they let us take a look around the spa, we snuck into some massage chairs, went in a sauna and an ice cave (room with ice for walls) and took a look at the crazy pools. Can't even imagine going there. We went and ate lunch outside on the patio, I had my first pimms which was delicious.

Came home and the riots were at it again, this time only a tube station away, at Clapham Junction, a nice end of town, popular shopping street, was being looted! Teenagers in hoodies would come and smash the windows with baseball bats or chairs, anything really, and then grab stuff! The cops arrived there after they heard about it, but there were just too many looters to do much! It's so stupid because it was mainly teens, with no criminal record, who heard about it on bbm and went down because they knew they could get away with it! Which most of them have unfortunately. On Wednesday I went to Camden market and shopped around, then stopped in clapham junction to see the damage! Lots of other people had as well, it was crazy, the damage that these kids caused. I took a lot of pictures, will post on Facebook at some point. Was interviewed by the Swiss national news. One of the big stories was the furniture store in croydon that was burnt down. It was 144 years old I believe, been passed down from generation to generation. And now it's gone. Peoples houses were burnt down as well. I just don't understand how these people could just tear apart people's lives with so little thought. Very saddening.

That evening me and Emma went to see love never dies, the musical sequel to phantom of the opera. It was good, although the songs weren't memorable likethe first one! The phantom had a really good voice though. And a surprise ending!  On Thursday I decided I should probably see some of the iconic sights of London! So I went and saw the London eye, went to parliament square and saw big Ben, and went in Westminster abbey. Was sad that you couldnt take pictures inside it, but it was really cool to see still. Saw the graves  of Isaac newton, Charles Darwin, William wilberforce, Robert browning, Handel, rudyard Kipling, Charles dickens, the bronte sisters, David livingstone, and a ton of others! Beautiful architecture, you can tell a lot of money has gone into that place over time. They also had a nice collection of wedding photos from the royal wedding on April 29, which was cool to see. Afterwards, I went and saw buckingham palace, pretty boring! That evening, Emma and i went for a long bike ride through Richmond park! That was cool because there were hardly any people there, and as a result there were deer everywhere! There was a herd of about 30 on the road, they moved over slightly for us and we passed them. The bucks are quite big! On Friday I figured I should have a practical morning, as nothing past Paris was booked at that point! Booked all my France stuff, and a flight back to Copenhagen to catch my flight home! That afternoon I went to see tower bridge and st Pauls cathedral, then a few of Emmas friends came over in the evening for a barbecue. On Saturday I went to Hyde park, took some pics, went through Kensington gardens and saw the palace. Then went to Notting hill, not really knowing much about it. Turns out there's nothing there. (apparently there actually is I was just not in the right spot or something) After that long detour, I headed to brook st and saw where Handel and jimi Hendrix used to live. Then I went to savile row and saw the store where the Beatles used to get their suits from, and then I saw the venue for their last live gig. 3 savile row, on the rooftop of an apartment building. Very cool. Then I headed home. As it was my last night me and Emma decided to go out again. Went to a place not too far from her house, had a good time. Was not so fun getting up a few hours later to leave London! Was sad to say goodbye to Emma, as well as the city!