#art

Came out of the theatre tonight to find this man, artfully playing his traffic cone for money. Stay classy bro. 

The best laid plans of mice and men....

Another big trip into the city today! Our plan was to head over the the London Eye, walk around for a few hours, tour Buckingham Palace (open on a rare occasion when the royal fam isn't home from their summer place yet!), and then walk the London Bridge at night. Good plan. 

However, there were major closures on the tube today for engineering work, and so Rena and I spent the first two hours of our journey going back and forth between three or four tube stations trying to find a way to get down to Westminster. After much confusion and much riding in circles, we finally made it down. We walked along the southern bank of the Thames for a bit, had lunch at the National Theatre's cafe, perused the book market under the Waterloo Bridge, and then headed over to the Palace! By the time we were done it was dinnertime, and then it was late, so we never did make it to the London Bridge. Another day!

The Eye from the pier.

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The Golden Jubilee suspension bridges.

Rowers on the Thames! (Note the rather large boats...)

Ben from the South Bank.

On the bridge!

Posing with my homies. 

The amazing view from the bridge.

Visit to the Palace!

Back side of the palace, facing the gardens.

Tea and (gorgeous) pastries after the tour of the palace!

Ben from Westminster.

Stumbled on this Japanese festival in Leicester Square!

Friday

Day off today (I have no classes on Thursday or Friday). Went on a walk east down Mile End to explore. There wasn't much to see, but I did get to chill in Mile End Park and read a book for class.

The fountain in Mile End Park. 

After lunch, Rena and I headed back over to Brick Lane to keep exploring. The whole road north of Mile End is a smorgasbord of cool thrift and vintage places (including an underground vintage flea market!!) as well as cute cafes and restaurants. Discovered a small square off the main road with a little gathering of food trucks, so we stopped for some amazing shredded BBQ beef for Rena. I however, was set on a reunion with Beigel Bake.

Rena and The Caboose!

UPDATE: After testing out the second Beigel Bake I determined that the southern most one is infinitely more heavenly and amazing, and am therefore dubbing it the 'real' Beigel Bake. The northern place, however, does have good plain bagels, and are really cheap to buy in bulk.

Once again, we need to come back to Brick Lane so many more times before we fully explore all its secrets.

First British rain!!

Finally! It rains in London!!

A robot on campus.....

So there was a giant purple robot outside my window today he was big a purple and he played music and said undecipherable things about recycling or something. His head came right up to my window.

#collegelife

Remember to recycle kiddies. 

Thriftin' and eatin' (all the important things...)

East End thrift shop today with Rena! About a 20 min. walk from campus, this places was hard to find (it's down a little back alley off of Mile End) but totally worth it once we got there! 10 quid to fill a bag, and fill we did! I got two pairs of jean overalls, a white leather skirt, a leather jacket, and a flannel lined jean vest. And I even convinced Rena to buy a little jean vest :)

The place was FILLED with leather jackets and jean overalls! Why? Who knows!

Stuff a bag for 10 quid (this took some finangleing, but fortunately Rena is the queen of fitting into tight places...)

My FABULOUS jean vest lined with super cozy flannel.

Next, it was off to Brick Lane for some bagels from the famous Beigel Bake on Brick Lane! It took much wandering and much more walking to finally make it to Brick Lane, but we stumbled on the cutest little neighborhood of vintage and thrift stores on Chesire Road! We must go back to explore!

The cute store fronts and graffiti art on Chesire Road off Brick Lane.

Beigel Bake itself, however, is AMAZING. It's literally life changing. I had a bagel with salted beef and mustard and it was indescribably wonderful. Rena and I loved our bagels so much, after chilling in a nearby cafe, we came back for a second round to bring home.
(Funny story: after buying our second round of bagels, we discovered that there are actually TWO Beigel Bakes, two store fronts apart on Brick Lane. We are actually not sure if we went to the right one or if they are the same owners or what, but we will have to go back to see if this other Beigel Bake is just as amazingly wonderful...)

Beigel Bake! (The right one??)

Look at it. It's perfect. It's literally perfect. 

Rena in the adorably rustic Kahaila Cafe nearby!