Greenwich Mean Time

Today I went for another adventure. Although this time, it was pretty much the opposite of a beautiful day. It was a gray cloud light rain day. I decided to go to Greenwich as it is something I wanted to do before I leave here. I went to an indoor market and then headed to the Royal Observatory.
At the Royal Observatory you can find many attractions. The most famous is the Prime Meridian line, the center of time.
So there I am in both the Western and Eastern Hemispheres at one time. The Time galleries were interesting. It all kind of makes sense now.
Another part of the Observatory is an Astronomy Exhibition. It includes London's only planetarium. I was going to go but it was sold out for the showing at the time I was there and didn't want to hang around for 2 hours. Although looking back, maybe I should have. The Royal Observatory is on the top of a hill. Some argue the highest point of London. You can see a good view of the city.
In this picture you can see the closest building. This is the Queen's House which just happened to close 5 minutes before I got there for some sort of event. There is also a wartime museum. By this time I was getting wet and cold so went in search of a Starbucks. Evidently everyone else in London had the same idea. It was a good end to the day though.

A beautiful day

Today I had the day off because I am going to a conference for work on Saturday. It was a gorgeous day, warm and sunny both, so I decided to take advantage of this. I started my day with flip flops and a tank top which was amazing. It hasn't been nice enough here for that since one day back in July. That was a good day. So I went into London and went to Dutch pancake house for lunch. Of course I got the ham, cheese, and pineapple pannenkoeken.
then washed that down with the glorious poffertjes.
Sadly I was unable to eat all of either of these. I really wanted to but knew my stomach just wasn't quite big enough. It was so much food but incredibly delicious. I would say authentic too except the menu said the poffertjes came with maple syrup. I asked for icing sugar instead.

Then I walked out side opened my handbag and to my misfortune found this. UGH!! Broken sunglasses on what could be one of the sunniest days here. But I wasn't going to let that ruin my beautiful day.
To my great fortune I was headed to the sunglasses capital of the world. This is huge market. It has anything you could ever want. There were even some Central Asia guys selling some good food. I had a small sample as I walked by of Gozleme which is a Turkish pancake. Anybody see a theme for the day? I couldn't eat anymore, I was so full from lunch. Anyway, there are more sunglasses in this market than I have ever seen in one day. So that was helpful but now I had to choose one.

I searched and searched for the right pair. Me and sunglasses in general don't exactly get along. It is hard to find a pair that doesn't make me look like a bug. A random salesman of whom seemed to be of Central Asia decent helped me pick out the perfect pair. And according to him they were Gucci. Since they were only 6 pounds, I am a little skeptical. But they looked decent and I was desperate. Here I am with the new sunglasses.
I went along with my day walked through the markets and then went to the park to read. It was so sunny. It might be the only time I have felt warm in the past 11 months. It was glorious. I even got a slight sunburn which should be a tan by the morning.

It came time to head back to the rail station to head home. I was exhausted and hungry. I didn't really know where I was going when I walked away from the park. I knew the general direction I needed to go. I wanted to see a little of London that I had not seen before which indeed I did. I came up to the part of the city with the expensive name brand shops. It was pretty cool to see all of the shop workers in suits and waiting by the door.

In all these stores I felt a little out of place, but thankfully I had my Gucci sunglasses. And the brand name written on the side hadn't even worn off yet. However, I am thinking it will only be a matter of days.

Bump it!

There are many distinct differences between Americans and Europeans. When I was home in March I saw many bumps which reminded me of the prevalence of this hairstyle in America. Then I started wondering if anyone in England did their hair like this. I have been watching closely everywhere I go to find a bump in someone's hair. I recently went to Bluewater shopping center. This is a huge mall and has many American stores. It has a Hollister. I went in thinking surely I would see a bump, but there were none to be found. This weekend I attended a conference led by Americans in London. There were people from all over the world at this conference. I finally saw a girl with a small bump. I thought well I guess my theory is incorrect. There are a few in England. Later this same girl walked by me speaking to her friend. She was definitely American. haha. I guess it is a good thing that I can spot Americans from far away even if it is just because of their bump. I am not going to lie, but I am pretty happy I have not been in America for the past year and a half and have missed a small portion of the bump popularity.