Hyde Park and Buckingham Palace

The birds here are not afraid of people. When running through a group of them the ones you get closest to nonchalantly take a few steps out of the way. The rest just stand there watching and hoping you have food. I find this kind of cool and scary at the same time. I hear that geese can be aggressive and mean but I still couldn’t resist getting as close as I could to them and the swans, this distance being about a foot. I had never seen a swan in person, let alone gotten close enough to touch one, until Megan and I went to Hyde Park on Friday. The swans were my favorite of the many birds flying around. I couldn’t believe how much snow accumulated as I heard it hardly ever snows. So we decided that Hyde Park would be beautiful covered in snow, and it was. It was a bit cold, but totally worth it.

This bird had so much attitude! 

This is my favorite picture of a swan that I took

We went to a café by the lake in the park called Serpentine Bar and Kitchen. We both bought a chocolate croissant and hot chocolate, which were a bit pricy but ended up tasting delicious. The warmth of the café was also totally worth it.

After warming up we made our way to Buckingham Palace. Can you imagine 1. Living in a castle (which is my dream by the way) and 2. Having your home guarded by men who are not allowed to smile? I certainly can’t. The Palace was huge and the architecture gorgeous. The gate was adorned with golden lions and other beautiful details. The lawn was covered with a perfect sheet of snow. We asked a man to take a picture of the two of us standing in front of the gate. I simply couldn’t believe the grandeur of the site. Unfortunately we couldn’t get close to the guards because Megan had some jokes at the ready.

We will definitely be going back when it is warmer out to see it again.

Have a wonderfully marvelous day, cheers! ~Laura 

The Weather

I had heard that British people love to talk about the weather. I have found this to be true. Apparently agreeing with whatever they say is one's best bet. If they say "It's rather cold out today!" Just agree. Even if, like me, you have left two feet of snow and below freezing temperatures behind at home. Contrary to what is said about constant rain, we have had a few sunny days; Although, it is cloudy and grey most of the time here. It is even snowing right now which doesn't happen all that often, or so I'm told. It is supposed to snow 4 out of the next 5 days. But I'm sure nothing will stick, and whatever does will melt quite quickly.

My favorite quote about the weather to date happened Monday in my 9:00 class. I had walked 10-15 minutes to get there and it had snowed in the early morning but then stopped. There was no snow accumulation on the ground but some on the cars. Upon the start of class my tutor said this, "We'll wait a few minutes to start, because many people are not here. I'm sure it's weather related." I chuckled to myself as in Vermont we get many inches of snow at a time yet have had maybe one or two snow days in the past 10 years which have all fallen during break. But people here are not used to the snow; It's like the first snow fall back home. People forget how to drive in it and it seems to cause more accidents than the rest of the winter.

The other thing about the weather is I don't think anyone really knows when it's going to rain. One day last week it was supposed to rain, and it hadn't yet since I'd arrived. The weather people predicted rain starting around 1:00. It didn't rain then so they pushed it back to around 3:00. This kept happening until all evening and it didn't rain until that night when I was already asleep. Alas you never know what the weather is going to be like around here so it is always a good idea to have an umbrella! Which of course I don't have with me today...

Have a wonderfully marvelous day, cheers! ~Laura