July 12th fell on a Thursday back in 2012. L dropped me off at the train station after work (timing was tight - she had to run back to the office right as we were about to leave to grab some documents proving that she was single in preparation for her upcoming marriage to her German beau. #internationalmarriageproblems? - but luckily we made it with a bit of time to spare). As we zipped down the Autobahn, she told me about how nervous a bunch of the other people in the office were about her driving. Yeah...
The Thalys train takes just over three hours to reach Paris from Cologne. The bright red and pink seats were a little jarring. And because Thalys services France, Germany, Belgium and the Netherlands, all the announcements were made four times: in English, French, German and Dutch.
It was already dark by the time we reached Paris Nord station, since it was past 10pm by this point. A few months prior to this, a few of us had been joking late one night about how it'd be pretty cool to spend Bastille Day in Paris. That toss-up plan was about to materialize - S and L were set to arrive in Paris the following day.
*Street art photo previously featured as part of this post.

Then we did lots of walking around, popped into The National Gallery and looked around quickly, then headed to The British Museum.
It was kind of humbling to see all these amazing relics - so many pieces of legacies of humanity collected in one piece. Due to time constraints we weren't able to explore everything, but we did get to get out the ancient Egyptian and Greek exhibits, and some miscellaneous modern artifacts.
^ Not sure what was happening here, but look at all the police! Very differently uniformed from those in Belgium. Next we headed over to Westminster Abbey, where the Royal Wedding took place in April, 2011.
The architecture in London - in Europe in general, really - is phenomenal! So many photogenic buildings.
After wandering around some more, past New Scotland Yard and through a park, we checked out Buckingham Palace. And seeing as how we were three Canadian expats, we couldn't exactly leave without taking a photo of Canada Gate... (Awkward tourist photobombs continue)
Harrods, a quintessentially British department store, was next on the itinerary. The inside is amazing, definitely very next-level. The chocolate section was insane, the seafood area was really cool, the coffee selection was impressive, and it was just all around awesome. 
I don't actually remember what we had for dinner - probably grabbed something quick from Pret A Manger and booked it over to the Apollo Victoria Theatre for Wicked. First time seeing a West End musical (well, first time in London, period), and wow, what a first! The entire cast was phenomenal, and put on a great show. Rachel Tucker's voice, just wow.

S had to work on Friday, so I started my second day in London alone with a quick breakfast at Pret A Manger. (Those places are everywhere!) Then I headed over to King's Cross station in search of Platform 9¾ (there's a trolley half-smashed into the wall apparently), but alas, wasn't able to find it.

I didn't really have a set plan for the day, and figured I would just wander around and see what I saw. Unfortunately the weather wasn't nearly as nice as the previous day, raining off and on for the majority of the morning. I passed through Regent Square Gardens, and then Tavistock Square.
The park is filled with a number of memorials, including the likes of Virginia Woolf, Louisa Aldrich-Blake and Gandhi. (Reading Hind Swaraj and Other Writings for a class this year.) Apparently Tavistock House was Charles Dickens' last residence in London.

It's kind of amazing, the sheer amount of history at every turn in London. I went and checked out the Wellcome Collection. The displays were remarkable, ranging from a thought-provoking syringe + blood tube wall display to a library of the human genome to droppings and fleece samples from Dolly the sheep to tools from antiquity.
Some historical highlights included Charles Darwin's walking stick, Napoleon Bonaparte's toothbrush, literal chastity belts, and a fragment Jeremy Bentham's skin. ^ a little gory, but at the same time, kind of cool. Learned about Bentham's Panopticon in a critical theory class last year, and it plays a role in my current WIP.

Next up was the Grant Museum of Zoology, at UCL. The diversity of organisms is truly striking, when you really think about it. They also had a bunch of skeletons just casually chilling on the second floor banister (below).  
Did I mention it was a day filled with museums? The Petrie Museum of Egyptian Archaeology was up next (also part of UCL). L was headed to Egypt later on in the summer, but since I couldn't go, getting to see some artifacts on display was the next best thing.

Pretty hungry by this point, as it was late afternoon by now. Since I was already on campus, I went to the UCLU's (University College London Union) Print Room Café. The prices were quite decent, so I didn't think the portions would be too big, and ended up ordering the nachos and grilled halloumi. Definitely got a weird look when I went to pick up my food. It was delicious though. 
What can I say, halloumi's got me hooked. Although I haven't been able to find any back in Canada yet, unfortunately. Salad rocket/arugula is pretty big over in Europe. Went to some really big bookstore after this, but the name escapes me at the moment. Then I headed over to the National Gallery, which is home to loads of priceless paintings. Only managed to pass through a small portion of the rooms before having to leave to meet up with S. Seeing Van Gogh's Sunflowers in person was pretty cool - it's a lot smaller than expected.
We took a bunch of photos in Trafalgar Square and then headed for Indian food for dinner. (The British really love their Indian food!) It was a good thing that the food was delicious and filling, because S gave me a fairly crazy walking tour afterwards. I'm not entirely sure where all we went, but we crossed the Thames and wandered along the river bank for hours. There were street pianos and a giant purple cow stage (udderbelly... idek). The Tate Modern looks fairly cool at night, the trees all lit up and everything. Fireworks went off at one point.
Millennium Bridge looks awesome at night (below). It's awesome how from basically any point in the city you can see numerous landmarks. That really cool dome in the centre of the photo is St. Paul's Cathedral, which is a piece of really remarkable architecture.
After some timing mishaps with the bus, we finally got back to Bloomsbury. Getting to the hostel, I'd panicked a little when it seemed like I hadn't brought my plug adapter, and ended up charging my phone through a computer in the lobby for about half an hour. There was a bookshelf that functioned on the principle of take-a-book-leave-a-book, so I read for awhile. There was a copy of Catching Fire with the UK cover, but the inside inscription indicated that it had belonged to someone from Endeavour Hills in Melbourne, Australia.

It's more than a little amazing how travel brings the world together.

Found this one in London, England with S & A. The Beatles! The Queen! A red double decker bus! Very British. Banksy
This, too, was spotted in London. This is located beside a tunnel/walkway; saw it on my last day in London on my way to the Tate Modern.
Also London. Found this one while I was just wandering around; can't remember the exact location, but I think it's near Tavistock Square.
Karate tofu! No ideas about the context for this, but hey, tofu is delicious! Bonn, Germany.
What is the plan? Encountered this one with C, J, K & M after a picnic.
Bonn really plays up the whole Beethoven thing (seeing as how it's his birthplace and all - although rumor has it the guy wasn't exactly fond of the place...)
This one's from last year, actually, spotted in Toronto while on an art store/bubble tea expedition with A, E, N & S.

It's actually kind of insane the amount of art there is near train tracks and the U-bahn. Some of the stuff on the barricades looks like it might've been fairly dangerous to put up, really. And there are a lot of really cool pieces near train stations that I wasn't able to snap photos of from the moving train. I've heard that there are some pretty awesome works in Berlin, but alas, wasn't able to make it out to east Germany this time around. Hopefully next time!

Have you spotted any really awesome street art recently? Where?

So getting to London involved: street car - bus - plane - train - and then I was at Victoria Station, where S came and picked me up. (Originally he'd considered coming to get me from Gatwick - and holding up a sign with my name and then pretend not to recognize me on purpose - but decided that he only values our friendship at £18, so it wasn't worth the train ticket haha.)
So all summer, S has been pulling 'I told you so's all over the place. Before leaving for London, I asked if I should bring shorts to London, and he was all like, "no, it's London, we don't wear shorts here." I arrive, and of course this is the one day when it's boiling hot in London. -_-

We ended up doing a quick walk by some of the major points (Buckingham Palace, a park, the London Eye, Big Ben, etc.) and then booking it over to Piccadilly Circus so I could go buy shorts. Sticky jeans are no fun!
London is just so alive. So many people (and so well-dressed and polite too!), so much activity, so much cool stuff to see. It was actually pretty impressive how far we managed to walk in one day.
British telephone booths! (Although I've seen identical ones in Canada as well.) I don't imagine these see as much use nowadays, what with the prevalence of cell phones and what not. (Or handy, if you're German ;) I went inside one for a photo and it smelled like urine, unfortunately.
We ended up just grabbing dinner at Covent Garden as well. Alas, can't remember the name of the place we ate at. It was pretty good though! (Although I'm not a huge fan of rocket/arugula.)
Trafalgar Square! This would be a place where we would end up many times over the course of the next couple of days.
All in all, the London trip started off with a fully packed, insanely awesome first day!

Next stop: London!

"Something has changed within me, something is not the same. I'm through with playing by the rules of someone else's game. Too late for second-guessing, too late to go back to sleep - it's time to trust my instincts, close my eyes and leap!"

...so little time. Certainly not nearly enough to explore them all. ^ Hastily scrawled this list sometime during my first week in Europe. A random list (think word association), filled with places I'd heard wondrous things about, and figured in passing that it'd be nice to visit.

Obviously I was well aware that it wouldn't be possible to hit them all this summer - but I didn't even manage to come close to half. Which is okay. Can't deny that I'm still a bit disappointed about missing out on Berlin & Switzerland/Munich (& Dusseldorf, ever the elusive one...) in particular though, as those ones were more concretely planned in my head. Toe is still a gory mess...

Either way, I suppose for round 1... I've done okay.

We're just getting started :D