Sushi & Art

Our last free day in London involved even more shopping somehow, including a new favourite of mine: a juice cube (mine is blue). Its a cute little external battery that you charge up, and then just throw into your purse, and you can then charge your phone from it, without having to find a plug in (something that was very handy for LBF, since my live-tweeting of various talks tended to kill my phone battery rather quickly). 

Then we went to Yo Sushi for lunch, which is still a super fun way to eat sushi. 

Then I ditched these guys, who were headed to the Natural History Museum, to meet Kate at the Tate Modern. I enjoyed the Natural History Museum the last time I was in London, but in terms of dinosaurs, after going to the Royal Tyrell, its just not that exciting, and I already did my huge amount of geeking out over their collection on Charles Darwin last time. But I really wanted to go back to the Tate Modern. I even did a spread on it for Hashtag. 

Its such a cool building.

After that, we headed back to the hostel to grab our stuff and move it over the hotel, which was literally next door (I have awesome planning skills). Then about 25 of us went out for dinner at Pizza Express, before collapsing in utter exhaustion. I was sharing a triple with Alix and Melissa.

However, sleep was not to be, due to a large number of screaming, singing, shouting, and banging Spanish teenagers running loose all over the hotel. Apparently people who were downstairs in the bar saw a large number of other guests complaining to the reception and asking where the teachers were (it was obviously a school group). The students must have gotten in trouble, because they were quieter the second night, but still made their presence known. That, and the fact that the mattress was attempting to impale me with springs meant that I never slept well while staying there.

London: Day Two

Woke up and had a leisurely morning, before spending a considerable amount of time debating about whether or not buying a ticket for a tour bus was worth it (I ultimately decided against it). However, my feet were kind of tired after yesterday, so I did decide to take public transit (especially since it would have taken me about an hour and a half to walk to the Natural History Museum). Finally left the hostel, only to realize that my phone was once again basically dead, and spent two hours reading in a coffee shop while it charged. Then took the tube (4.50 freaking pounds!) down to the Natural History Museum, which was super cool.

It was drizzly and gross all day, so I decided not to take my proper camera with me - so all photos from today are from my phone. 

The line for the museum was very long, and I spent about an hour in the wet nastiness waiting to get in. However, once in, it was very interesting inside. 

The museum is home to life and earth science specimens comprising some 70 million items within five main collections: botany, entomology, mineralogy, palaeontology and zoology. The museum is a world-renowned centre of research specialising in taxonomy, identification and conservation. Given the age of the institution, many of the collections have great historical as well as scientific value, such as specimens collected by Charles Darwin. The museum is particularly famous for its exhibition of dinosaur skeletons and ornate architecture — sometimes dubbed a cathedral of nature — both exemplified by the large Diplodocus cast which dominates the vaulted central hall. The Natural History Museum Library contains extensive books, journals, manuscripts, and artwork collections linked to the work and research of the scientific departments; access to the library is by appointment only.

Like other publicly funded national museums in the United Kingdom, the Natural History Museum does not charge an admission fee.

I love this country for that. Seriously. 

I also figured out that I shouldn't visit museums alone, as I tend to get a bit in my own head and end up mimicking the faces of the stuffed animals and replicates (I stuck my tongue out at a Komodo Dragon and puffed my cheeks at a blowfish).

This is what I sent Logan about this fish: they found this fish in 1938 off the coast of Africa, after if had supposedly gone extinct 85 million years ago. They since found a colony living in deep water off the coast of the Comoro islands.
And this is why the ocean is terrifying.

I finally left there around five, and took the tube up to the Tate Modern, an art museum (the photos below are from yesterday, since it was dark by the time I got there today). 

Tate Modern is a modern art gallery located in London. It is Britain's national gallery of international modern art. It is the most-visited modern art gallery in the world, with around 4.7 million visitors per year. It is based in the former Bankside Power Station, in the Bankside area of the London Borough of Southwark. Tate holds the national collection of British art from 1500 to the present day and international modern and contemporary art.

The central tower was incredibly tall from the outside and the space inside was huge. It was a really really cool and interesting experience. Some notable names whose works I saw: Monet, Picasso, and Dali. Spent quite a while wandering around there. Art museums are probably the only tourist thing that most of the time I would actually rather visit alone. 

I also really, really hate a lot of the people who go to art museums. Do not stand a foot away from and directly in front of the painting, other people would like to see it to you inconsiderate ass. 

Anyways.

After that, I headed back up to Kings Cross via bus (a mere £2.40) and grabbed dinner at McDonalds. Clearly I am eating very well on this trip (I was going to go to a restaurant because I really wanted a veggie burger but they didn't serve chips with their burgers, only salad. What even). McDonalds here is way nicer to vegetarians though, as they have veggie sandwiches and wraps which are actually pretty tasty (the sauce is gross, but I got it replaced with mustard, and it was excellent). The pops are kind of hilariously and depressingly smaller here. The large is the same size as a medium in Canada. 

After that I moved over to Starbucks and spend quite a while just reading with a coffee, before deciding to head back to the hostel, where I am currently hanging out in the basement typing this all up.