This morning I woke up after an insanely exhausting trip to Dublin, and I started right into my to do list. I went to the national portrait gallery and I got to see some beautiful works of art. They have an entire section on my favorite monarch, Queen Victoria and the portraits are incredibly well done. I also got to see the portraits of two of my other favorite women, Dame Maggie Smith, the best leading lady in all of acting if you ask me, and of course my personal heroine and future best friend Catherine, duchess of Cambridge aka Kate Middleton. It actually doesn't do her justice, but it's a nice portrait.
Then I went to the National Gallery to see some beautiful classic pieces of art. It's insane how big and well kept these places are, the paintings are just stunning.
I was about to pass out from heat stroke so I bought some bubble tea, but it didn't last me long. It's in the high 80s here, which wouldn't be horrible if even one building in London had proper air conditioning. My room doesn't, restaurants don't, stores don't, it's a nightmare of extreme heat.
I went to the lab to finish up my photography assignment and then Megan and I decided to head to Kensington Palace. It was super great! I am obviously majorly obsessed with Kate Middleton, but Queen Victoria is one of my absolute favorite historical figures.
We started in the fashion rules exhibit which included many of Diana, Elizabeth, and Margaret's dresses. They were insanely gorgeous and well preserved. Oh to be a monarch....
We walked through the king and queens apartments, and there was a sign that said tap bell 3 times for the librarian. Of course I tapped it and these three actors came out in costume and started interrogating me about a job. They asked me if I could sing (of course not) or if I knew any jokes (probably not) they eventually decided I was fit to be a physician with a servant and an old maid, I get to live outside of London and raise pigs and eat mushrooms. Sounds like a good deal to me.
Next we saw a whole exhibit on Queen Victoria which was just amazing, I'm obsessed with the movie Young Victoria so I really enjoyed getting to see where she grew up.
We went to dinner at the Muffin Man, the heat required me to get a banana milkshake, and the tomato mozzarella basil panini was pretty great.
We went on a night photography shoot around Westminster and St James' Park. We learned about long exposures and we did some pretty cool shots practicing with flashlights.
This morning I went to class and we looked through our photos and made plans to do another shoot tonight. Now I'm standing in like at the Wolverine Movie Premiere and hoping to get a glimpse of the glorious Hugh Jackman.
Well, I got to see his manly mug, and it was so worth it!
Then we went to see Macbeth at Shakespeare's Globe, which had one of my favorite Hobbits, Billy Boyd, playing Banquo.
We went back and did another night photography shoot as well, and got some sad news that our Tuesday night spot was closed permanently, now we don't know what to do!
Wednesday morning Megan and I went back to Le Pain Quotidien for some more scones :) they were super good, but we decided they were better last time.
During class we went back over our night shoot and my teacher did not say one nice thing about my pictures, I swear she doesn't know how to give compliments. Oh well! I loved the light trails in my pictures, but we are going back out on another shoot tonight!
I read for a bit in Kensington gardens and then we headed out to Covent Garden for a quick dinner before Charlie and the Chocolate Factory: The Musical.
My friends and I all got tickets, but somehow in my infinite wisdom I bought the wrong night. The man working the ticket counter took pity upon my soul and became my hero by actually giving me a better seat BLESS YOU RANDOM AWESOME STRANGER. The show was absolutely adorable! The original cast was incredible, and I really hope this show goes to Broadway, when they sang Pure Imagination, tears were close to falling.
We went out to do a few more night pictures, and we made a ton of drunk friends. All drunk people seem to LOVE getting their pictures taken, but unfortunately our photography class doesn't want people for this assignment. Some older men offered to model for us, that got creepy quickly, and then some guy told us we needed permits to take pictures on the street (we didn't, we checked) So we called it a night.
This morning we went to a special Salgado exhibit at the Natural History museum and his photographs are incredible!
Then I grabbed a quick sandwich, took a cold shower (it is so hot here it's not even funny anymore) and headed to Platform 9 and 3/4. Unfortunately I couldn't get the trolley to actually push (a mechanical error I'm sure) But we got cute pictures nonetheless.
We headed up to Camden to visit the Jewish Museum, which had a special Amy Winehouse exhibit. This was incredibly fascinating, and gave me a whole new look into her life.
We grabbed some Chinese from Camden market, and then headed back to Kensington to split a Banana Walnut Maple Syrup crepe, Megan and I are doing a great job of eating our way through London! Now I'm off to another night shoot!
My time is coming to a close way too quickly! Just a few more blogs and I'll be home!
Love, Alexa
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