Athena Sobhan

I am officially all caught up on my posts and all ready to talk about this past week.  

I also dedicated this week to taking time out to explore around London myself.  I made a decision that I would take time to really explore the city for myself rather than always going out with other people.  Not that I have any issue going out with people and exploring,  I just want to be able to see the things I want to without having to wait for others.  Plus its something to do, rather than just going to and from class every single day, which has gotten a little monotonous at this point.  

One of the places that I decided to explore more was Covent Garden.  I had been to Covent Garden before to watch shows like Matilda and The Play That Goes Wrong for my theatre class, but ended up only going out there at night since the shows were in the evenings.  I decided to check out the area during the day.  Covent Garden immediately became one of my favorite places to just walk around and explore.  There so many shops to just look (not buy cause some of them are too expensive) and little stands that sell an array of things such as homemade scarves and hats and other accessories.  Covent Garden also had a variety of restaurants to choose from.  I chose an Indian restaurant for lunch since I had yet to try indian food in London (oops).  The food was pretty good, though I was a little disappointed about getting the spiciest thing on the menu and it not being spicy at all, but was still flavorful overall.  

Another place I got to explore this week was Camden.  I went out to Camden right after class on a beautiful sunny (to London standards) Thursday.  There are tons and tons of souvenir shops to visit, but I mainly went towards the stands with the clothes.  Lots of nice coats for a discount, but I didn’t find anything I really liked, I enjoyed looking at them more anyway.  They had lots of Harry Styles shirts that I was tempted to purchase, but decided against it, thinking about how awkward it could be if I wore it on the day that I happen to bump into him (still hasn’t happened but I’m not losing hope!!).  Later I found the food market with a variety of food stands to taste test and purchase from.  Though there were some rude people from one stand who asked where I’m really from, after I said I was from the US, which kind of offended me, but I didn’t let it spoil my day.  One of the stands that I did like was one for fresh cider and mulled wine.  I never actually heard of mulled wine and have only had cider from the bottle, but both that I tried were lovely especially since it was quite chilly outside, despite the sun being out.  I ended up getting a lamb dish and some dutch pancakes, which were both amazing, and at a low cost.

On Wednesday, I went out to see A Midsummer Night’s Dream with my theatre class.  It was a reimagined, more modern version of the classic show, which was absolutely hilarious and extremely entertaining.  At one point, they did say that Sir Ian McKellen would be the guest star of the evening, but to my disappointment, it was actually a joke, but the way they executed that was was so convincing that I (and many others) fell for the gag.   

Friday was the day trip to Sailsbury and Stonehenge.  It was a beautiful day, with clear skies, which made this trip really enjoyable.  Though it rained for maybe 10 seconds max while in the bus, the rest of the day was bright and sunny.  We first stopped at Sailsbury Cathedral, which is an 800 year old cathedral and its absolutely magnificent.  There aren’t too many stained glass windows inside, but the architecture and the size was enough to impress.  The cathedral also holds one of the most complete copies of the magna carta, which was really cool to see since I had seen one of the copies already at the British Museum.  We got time to explore both the cathedral and the town briefly before heading out to Stonehenge, which was a 15 to 20 minute bus ride from Sailsbury.  Though there were some clouds, it was still a gorgeous day to go visit the stones and ask myself… why? Why are they there?  Who put them there?  So many questions for a mysterious set of rocks.  We got the opportunity to walk around them and take pictures of them in different angles, and interact with the sheep surrounding the area.  I had a little too much fun baa’ing at the sheep and staring them down (though I was terrified on this one sheep who was staring me down and following me with his eyes).  Then, we ended up heading back to London after finishing up with Stonehenge.  

That was basically my sixth week in London! I promise to now continue to keep up with my blog and not procrastinate on anymore posts!! Cheers for now and here’s to another awesome week in London.