Day 28: Free in London Part 1

We all woke up quite early this morning to firm up our plans for the day! Basically, we had the entire day to do whatever we want to do in London that we haven't had a chance to do yet. We decided on the following schedule for the day: Wimbledon, National Gallery, British Museum, and Oxford Street shopping.

Wimbledon was beautiful! Although we weren't able to see the courts because we didn't take a tour, the grounds were absolutely amazing. Since the only thing to really do is take a tour, we just wandered around for a bit, hit up the gift shop, and headed out. It was amazing!


We headed back to Bede just for a few minutes, Segolene met up with us, and then we were off to Waterloo station to meet up with Louisa to head into Central London! First things first, we were all STARVING... so we went to McDonald's! It was my first time actually having McDonald's in England, so it was a pretty cool experience. The chicken sandwich I had was definitely more fancy than one they would serve in the US, the fries were a lot less salty, and they gave free McFlurrys to students if you show your ID card -- now that is something I don't think would ever happen in America!


Trafalgar Square was so pretty today because the weather was so nice and sunny :)


We headed into the National Gallery and broke off into two smaller groups of 5, because we thought it would be easier than the big group of 10. The National Gallery houses over 2300 paintings from the mid 13th century to 1900. Most interesting for me, we saw Claude Monet's
The Water Lily Pond, and The Thames Below Westminster; Renoir's The Umbrellas and Boating on the Seine; Georges Seurat's Bathers at Asnieres; and Van Gogh's Sunflowers, Van Goghs Chair, and A Wheatfield with Cypresses. It was very cool!


We headed over to the British Museum next.

It is a museum of human history and culture in London. With over 7 million objects, some of the most famous include The Rosetta Stone (COOL!), Egyptian mummies, and ruins of the ancient Greece Parthenon.

The Rosetta Stone!

Greek Parthenon areas

In the area of the Parthenon, there were three people who were maybe part of a dance troupe (?) that did a routine as if they were wood nymphs. We talked to a British Museum guard and he said that they come every couple of years and put on this spectacle... and they have no relation to the museum. Bizarre! Check out the video... it was totally crazy, but really cool!

Our final stop was Oxford Street where we went to Primark and Selfridges. I felt like I was finally able to manage Primark -- which is definitely something to be proud of, I think! Selfridges, a chain of high end department stores, was absolutely amazing. Selfridges is the UK's second-biggest shop, with 540,000-square-foot of selling space. From upscale cupcake bars, to fancy grocery stores (specializing in American food! Lucky Charms are a delicacy here apparently...), to beautiful jewelry stores... Selfridges was definitely an impressive experience! :)


We headed back to Bede for dinner and for a muuuuch needed nap! We are all getting so exhausted trying to fit everything in these last couple of days, but it is, of course, absolutely worth it! For the evening, we went into Central London and went to Rumba in Picadilly Circus. It was a lot of fun! They played "New York" and "Whatcha Say" back to back... which was pretty much the best thing that could ever happen. Also, Nadia and I got the DJ to give Emma a shoutout for her 19th birthday (last weekend, but hey!). It was absolutely incredible to be in beautiful Central London at night, with all the pretty lights :) Something I will never ever forget!