Sunday, April 22, 2012

No Scone Left Behind


Today was one of the best days I have had in London so far. I did everything that I love today and it isn’t even over yet!

The day started at 11 AM when my friends and I headed out from our dorm towards London Bridge. Today is the London Marathon and we were hoping to catch some of the runners in action. The Marathon was a bit different this year from past ones for two reasons.
  1. The changed the course. Instead of running through North & West London, they made the course go to all the tourist sites! The course consisted of the biggest sites: Tower Bridge, Tower of London, St. Paul’s Cathedral, Parliament, Reagents Park, and Trafalgar Square (just to list a few). This meant the course was right by our part of London, so it was a quick walk to it.
  2. With the Olympics coming up, this marathon counted as an Olympic Qualifier. With that being said, the men and women were split into two different starting times. Usually the race starts at like 6 AM with the people with the best PRs, but instead the Paralympics started first, then the women, and then finally the men.
I was following the official interactive map, so I could track where the people were when running. It was predicted that around 11:30 AM the ‘elite male runners’ would be near Tower Bridge, so we headed in that direction. When we made it over to the course, we got there just in time to catch a glimpse of the ‘elite male runners.’ That ‘elite’ status basically means that these are the people that are running a consistent 6-minute mile, are professional, and probably trying to qualify for the Olympics. I saw Kenyans, Ethiopians, and other runners ZOOM by me as they made their way. The best part about these races is seriously the people that come out and cheer! I love it!
It's kind of hard to see, but on the bridge are all the fans and runners.
A piece of the course near Monument Station.
Some of the 'elite runners.'
More elite runners zooming by.
From there, we tubed it over to Piccadilly and ran over to Fortnum & Mason! My Great-Uncle generously wanted to treat friends and me, so he offered to help pay for proper afternoon tea at one of the most posh places in London. You may remember Fortnum & Mason as the place where I saw the Kate Middleton and Queen! When I heard this news from my Great-Uncle, I called and booked the tea ASAP! That was almost two months ago…and today I finally fulfilled this dream!
Old Picture: The Queen's Purple Bentley outside Fortnum & Mason
Kate, Queen, & Camilla at their official visit to Fortnum & Mason.
The tearoom is on the fourth floor of the building and when you walk up, you are greeted by a lot of staff waiting to take your jacket and give you champagne. After being seated, we were handed a menu for food and another menu for the tea. There were over 1,200 DIFFERENT TYPES OF TEAS! HOW DOES ONE CHOOSE?! We ordered the ‘afternoon tea’ deal and each one of us got a different type of tea. I started off with a Black Tea called “Regality.” When we were given the tea, it was the first sign of how classy this place was. They pour you your first cup of tea and then give each person a separate cup of boiling hot water. For a tea connoisseur (which I will admit I am becoming), this is HEAVEN! That means when we finish our first pot, we do not need to ask for more hot water! We already HAVE a pot of boiling hot water waiting on our table to replenish our teapot and tea-leaves!
The Tiffany Blue tea set. 
Our table + bar behind us.
My first cup of tea!
After sipping tea and chatting, our food is brought out. The food came on a three-tier stand. On the bottom plate was the finger sandwiches that ranged from the famous cucumber ones, to egg salad, salmon and cream cheese, and some with meats. The second plate had SCONES!!! Both plain and raisin scones! The third tier had the deserts that were adorable and GORGEOUS. We dug in and went strong. Looking back, we should have paced ourselves.
Overwhelmed with food....
A variety of desserts.
Finger food.
After finishing the sandwiches off, the waiters (that HAWK over you) came back over and asked if “we wanted anything.” We hesitantly asked if we could have more sandwiches and they replied with, “of course! Anything else?!” Once it was confirmed that it was true that we get unlimited food and tea, it was almost like the dam broke. We ordered more scones, even more sandwiches, more deserts, and then more sandwiches. To top it off, when we finished our first pot of tea and the refilled pot, we each ordered a whole new flavor. I got the “Piccadilly Tea,” which was once again a black tea.

I must admit the scones were so good. Every good Englishman has their own way of eating a scone, but I have become to favor a certain method. I cut the scone in half and lather both sides in clotted cream first and then top it off with jam. We had the option of blueberry, strawberry, or a lemon jam. Obviously I tried them all.
Warning: Picture may cause you to drool.
To make matters better, we were shown the dessert cart. Yes…there was more dessert. The waiter took us over and explained each dessert. Since we couldn’t choose, we just got a whole amalgam of food and tried each other’s. By the end of this, we all felt like we were about to hurl. We had just stuffed our faces endlessly for THREE HOURS. We wanted more, but our body would have literally rejected it even if we tried.
Ginger cookies from the dessert cart: a tea pot and hat cookie!
Dessert Cart!
The actual tearoom was beautiful. It had just reopened after a couple million of dollars of construction. The color theme was Tiffany Blue with gold accents. The teapots, cups, saucers etc were all blue and had oriental designs on them. Obviously, you need to dress smart to attend tea, so everyone was looking their finest. Even if you are the unclassiest person ever, this place makes you proper. I made sure never to put my elbows on the table, to speak softly, and sit straight. The waiters were just so classy and were always on top of it. I seriously felt like a Princess. I have never been waited on so religiously. I can see why rich people love it so much. I mean - even when we left, the male staff helped us put our jackets back on! They even gave us a departing gift of free Jubilee tea! Also, the whole time we were there, there was someone playing on the grand piano. They played classical music AND Disney music, which allowed us to have a great 'sing along time.'
The Diamond Jubilee Tea Room
The aftermath...
Free tea!
The gang at tea time!
The gang near the entrance to the tea room.
The room got more crowded as the afternoon went on and it got pretty lively. Like I said, everyone was dressed super nicely. There was a huge range of people there: from families with young children, to tourists, to old women chatting about their lives. My dad asked if I have ever run into like super posh British people. While they were probably there, I didn’t hear them or see them. I have though seen those people before at other tea places. I love sitting next to a table of old women who just schmooze about “Lord Whatever” or “Sir….” I have watched them religiously and tried to mimic their ‘tea behavior’ since I want to leave an au natural!

Teatime is just one of the most relaxing places ever. You literally just sit there for hours (three hours in this case) and you just talk. Obviously gossip is a must, but after that you just talk about whatever. I love teatime so much it kills me. You don’t even need a scone or cupcake to make teatime happen, but those things never hurt! I have beginning to catch myself thinking, “I just need a good cup of tea,” which is great since its cheap, easy to make, and super relaxing. Now, I just wish I could say that in my head with a seriously good British accent…

After we finished tea, we wandered around the store a little bit. The place is obviously filled with gorgeous plates, silver wear, and cooking ware. It is like Bath & Body Works if you made it super upscale. I wanted every tea set they offered and quickly became obsessed with the jubilee tea things. I am a little worried since I do not know how I am going to get a teapot, cups, and saucers home (as I am obviously splurging and buying a classy set here).
"So that's what Kate got in her gift basket!"
The three of us decided that we needed to walk off our food even though we were borderline comatose. We walked towards the Thames and ran into the marathon course! It was still going on at 3:30 PM! We found a spot on the rail and started cheering people on. I LOVE how people put their names on their shirts, so you can personally cheer them on! The best part about the London Marathon is the costumes. A lot of people will wear wigs, costumes, or have props when they run. I saw guys in rhino outfits, some couple dragging a sled behind them, and a man playing the guitar as he ran. The best part is seeing the elderly running it and beating kids more than half their age! It started to rain, so a lot of the observers pulled out ponchos and stuff and handed them out to the runners. It was just awesome. Watching these people limp to the end line even makes you want to run a marathon………………..maybe.
People running at around the 23rd mile.
Around 23rd mile!
Smiley Face Costume.
The old men still going for it!
Rhino #1 
The yogurt took the time to high five us all.
The woman told us she was "HAVING A GREAT DAY!"
Some guy running the whole thing barefoot!
An oompa loompa!
The major sites of London running by!
A tea pot! How is he running with no hands!?
Alice and the Mad Hatter!
This couple dragged the sled the whole way!
There's a tiger on your back!
A telephone?!
Rhino #2
The masses at the end. This is down the street from Buckingham Palace.
Masses near Trafalgar Square!
We walked through the crowds at Trafalgar and attempted to catch a tube home. Well, the tube was so packed that they had to prevent people from entering. It was laudable, as the tube people had zero idea how to handle the masses. GUESS IT’LL BE FUN WHEN THE OLYMPICS COME AROUND!

We caught the bus and now I am back in my room in a food/tea coma and trying to digest everything. I swear to the lord I am currently in a ‘tea high.’ Going to Fortnum & Mason was one of the highlights of my time in London and now that I have had the best, it shall be so hard to go back to my old ways of random little teashops! “Wait…I need to pour my own tea?! And I don’t get another scone when I finish this one?! Whaa!”

This will probably be my last post for a while since I will be starting to do my work (hopefully…).
I have a few more sights I want to see and it consists of: Hampton Court, Kew Palace/Gardens, Highgate Cemetery, the Lucian Freud exhibit at the National Portrait Gallery, and visiting Bath & Cambridge.

Now it’s time to hit the books…
Thank you Uncle Alby for the opportunity to go to Fortnum & Mason!

Saturday, April 21, 2012

A Very Royal Week

This week has been mostly spent relaxing after my traveling, blogging about the cities, and catching up with friends that I haven’t seen in a month. In between the sleeping, eating, and writing I did venture out to Kensington Palace. The palace has been closed for some time now after a two year and £12 million renovation.
Me + Kensington Palace the first week I arrived in London in December.
Just a quick history of the palace: The first royal inhabitants were the ‘William and Mary,’ who given back power after the Glorious Revolution. From there, the palace became a favorite for the royals since its gardens and location. The next big royal that lived in Kensington was Queen Victoria, who was born and raised in the palace. After being passed down from there, Diana and Prince Charles moved in. Prince William and Harry were born there and spent a lot of their childhood in the palace. After Diana died, a lot of Londoners went out to Kensington Palace to leave their flowers, pictures, and notes. Now, Prince Harry is bumming around in the palace until Kate and William officially move in! Kate is seen a lot of times walking her puppy Lupo around the Kensington Gardens and Hyde Park.

Since so much money was put into the Palace, I was really expecting a lot. Welllll…….I was kind of let down by it. After touring the Hapsburg palaces in Vienna and seeing Prague Castle, I was expecting to see the regality of the English Monarchy in the palace. Instead, I was led through this really high tech experience that left me more confused than anything. Usually, when you tour a palace (from my personal experience) you get an audio guide to lead you around or in each room has a sign telling its history. Kensington Palace had none of that. Instead, each room had weird flying birds hanging from the ceiling or a TV screen showing weird dreamlike sequences. The interior was pretty, but nothing compared to palaces I have seen in the past. I think the problem is that the palace had none of its original furniture or furnishing, so they couldn’t ‘re-set-up’ the rooms to seem like they were in Queen Mary II’s time or Queen Victoria’s time. 

The palace was split up into four different halls you could tour. One of them held famous dresses worn by Princess Di. It was pretty cool to see the actual dresses, accompanied by the original sketches and photos of her wearing it. Two other halls were those of King William III and Queen Mary II, but they did not resemble at all what they would have looked like back in their day. To top that off, there was almost no history given to the rooms. It was really weird. The most well done hall was that of Queen Victoria’s. It had her original wedding dress, toys, mourning clothing, desks, and papers. This section had more history on the walls to read than any other section. I did learn that Queen Victoria is super small and stocky.
King William III's Wing
King William III's Wing
View of Hyde Park from Kensington Palace.
King William II's royal clothing.
London is the center of the world!
Queen Victoria's Wedding Dress
Queen Mary II's wing.
From the palace, we wandered through the gardens, which were nice, but nothing compared to those we saw in Vienna. Does this sound spoiled? I don’t want it to, but now that I’ve traveled I have just caught myself a lot more comparing things. I mean, the palace wasn't awful, it just wasn't as 'royal' as I thought it would be. 
They were selling these in the palace store. Do I Dare?
Kensington Gardens
Kensington Gardens
We ended the day with having tea at The Orangery, which is the posh tea place next to Kensington Palace. Since King William III (of the William and Mary duo) was from the Netherlands, he was technically ‘William of Orange.’ Due to that fact and color, The Orangery has honored him by making their cakes orange themed and orange colored! I got Lady Grey tea and a scone that had pieces of oranges in it. Top that off with clotted cream and jam and I was a happy camper.
Tea at the Orangery
Something not so royal that I did was going to the library! Friday was the first time I went to the library this term! I haven’t needed it and I can write my papers in my rooom soooo….
Instead of going to the science library at Guy’s Campus, I walked over with Shay to the one at Strand Campus, which is the main one. Maughan (pronounced Mawn) Library is where they filmed a lot of Harry Potter. Dumbledore’s office is in the library and I would’ve taken people to go see it, but you can only enter the library if you are a Kings student! HA!
Maughan Library
Look familiar? Well it should...
It's Dumbledore's study!
Basically Maughan Library is this HUGE building that I would’ve gotten lost in if it wasn’t for Shay. Each major has its own wing, so since I was with Shay, I sat in the film wing. We had to walk through a long hallway, up 3 flights of stairs, through a trap door, and then walk up more flights in order to get to her section. I had to fight to get a table and once I did, I stayed for around 4 hours. After beings stuck on a paper topic for my Health & Society class, I finally decided I was going to do a comparative literature paper on Medical Cannabis. It’ll be a fun read, right? Now I know useless facts about marijuana that no one cares about, but basically from my finding I could strongly argue that pot should be legal.
Random fact: Did you know that in California last year, they made approximately $1 billion on taxes from medical cannabis?! If our government just legalized it and taxed it, we could be making a WHOLE lotta cash. Just sayin’!!
Another fact: It was discovered that consume cannabis was found to shrink brain tumors! They even found the exact pathway. Don’t tell me that isn’t crazy!!

Fast-forward to today- Today is actually the Queen’s 86th Birthday! Happy birthday Elizabeth! Anyways, to celebrate her birthday, the army/navy does a gun salute to her. There was one in Hyde Park at noon and another at 1 at the Tower of London. Since we live closer to the Tower of London, we decided we would go to that one. To make matters even better, a boat was coming down the Thames, so the Tower Bridge was going to open! We killed to birds with one stone, as we got to see the bridge open and navy do a 62-gun salute!

The history of the gun salute dates back to the early days when ships coming into port would discharge their guns before entering to prove that the guns were empty and they were not threatening. Usually there are only 21 fires for a royal celebration, but since we were at the Tower of London and it is a royal palace, 20 more were tacked on. To make the complete 62, 21 fires were done in honor of the ship tradition of emptying their guns. Since Hyde Park is neither royal nor on the water, there was only a 21 gun-salute there. So, being at the Tower of London, we got the benefit of the doubt.

First, we got to see the Tower Bridge open. We initially thought we missed it, but noticed that they started to stop traffic on the bridge. Finally, the road started to open and we saw a boat go through! For being such an old bridge, I was super surprised when I saw how fast the bridge opened.
The Bridge beginning to open...
Slowly...
....More...
Tada!
After that closed, we waited around until the gun salute. The beefeaters were walking around in their really posh outfits they only wear on super special occasions. On a day-to-day basis they wear a blue and red uniform, but today they were wearing their red and yellow ones! At 1 PM, we were all super surprised when the first gun went off. We were not expecting it. We also started to laugh since everyone screamed and then prepared for the second firing. Guards were yelling and then a huge BOOOOOM would go off as the gun was fired. Since there were 62 shots, this lasted for more than 10 minutes? 15 maybes.
Looking classy in Red and Yellow
Looking fly in uniform.
Smoke from the fire gun salute.
It is kind of hard to see, but there are three guns pointing
off into the direction of the Thames.

More firing...
I was wondering as this was happening how far one could hear these shots. Imagine if you didn’t realize it was the queen’s birthday and suddenly you just started hearing gun shots? Yeah, that’s scary. Until you realize its only a gun salute.

After the firing was complete, the navy men had to clean up the shells, but the guns back on the trucks and drive them off.
Navy men after the gun firing.
Lining the path where the navy trucks were going to leave on.
Navy trucks driving off the guns.
Driving off the guns.
Navy trucks driving off the guns.
We left the Tower of London and then ventured to Borough market to get my veggies. I also picked up the paper today since it was a special edition with the Queen and Kate since it is the Queen’s birthday. Mmm, good reading.

Tomorrow is going to be SUPER exciting for two reasons.
(1) I am having proper tea at Fortnum and Masons!!!!!!!!!!! Gotta get all dressed up!
(2) The London Marathon is tomorrow! They actually run really close to my dorm, so I may wake up early and cheer people on. Supposedly the race is crazy since so many people get dressed up and stuff.
Will keep you posted!
I love LONDON!!