London!

Saturday morning, I was up relatively early to catch an Easyjet flight to London.  I met up with Hannah for lunch at the Borough market.  I was late to meet her, because I was caught in the total gridlock of pedestrian traffic that happens when the sun comes out in London.  I got so lucky with the weather, it was about 15 degrees and sunny the whole time I was in London! 

Tourist-ing

After lunch and many free samples from Borough market vendors, Hannah and I explored a large portion of the city on foot.  We crossed nearly every bridge on the Thames, going back and forth between the major sights of London.  Since it was such a short visit, I didn't have time to go inside any of the sights, but it was such a beautiful day, it was better to be outside anyways. 

Tower Bridge from the shore.

I couldn't get over how green everything was in London, and how many flowers were blooming.  Also, there were so many people out enjoying the great weather.  Every single piece of green space in the city seemed to be covered with people playing football (soccer), picnicking and relaxing.

Spring!

I've never been to England before, but somehow the city of London felt familiar.  Maybe it's that it's the first anglophone city I've been in for a while, or maybe that I've seen the city in so many movies and TV shows and the last Olympics, but it really didn't feel that foreign.  The city is very well set up for tourists, with lots of maps and signs on the streets, so you never really feel disoriented either.

Big Ben, blue skies.

There daffodils seemed to be just in bloom, and there were thousands of them in the parks.  I've got to say, a sunny spring day like this really goes a long way to lift the spirits.  (I'm sure spring is coming soon, Ontario!)

More spring!

Once we got too tired of walking and it was dark, we stopped for some mulled wine at an evening market, and went out for South American food with one of Hannah's friends. I thought of Pat, since they had his favourite: empanadas!  Afterwards, we took the tube back to Hannah's place in North London.  She lives right next to the Arsenal stadium in a really great apartment with two other room-mates.  We watched some hilariously terrible British reality TV and then called it a night.