First of all, there’s only one way to describe my current state of affairs: weird. It’s strange to be back home, especially knowing that I’ll only be here for about a month before I head back to school in Chicago. Maybe then my living situation will finally feel more like “home”?

Anyways, let’s get right to it — London is a fantastic city. It’s remarkably clean and well-preserved for its age (well, at least the parts of it that I was able to see… I’m sure this is not universally true) but it is just teeming with people. The transition from New Zealand, sparsely populated, to London, with its packed train cars and hundreds of thousands of daily commuters, was difficult at first and more than a bit overwhelming. That said, the public transportation in the city is excellent — both in terms of its coverage and its usability: I bought what’s called an ‘Oyster’ card for the week and that was all I needed to get around anywhere within the downtown area. Leave it to one of Europe’s oldest cities to get this right.

For the sake of length and my memory, I won’t go into too much detail about what my girlfriend and I did around the city, but I will just mention a couple of things and then leave it to the photos. The highlights: the Tate Modern Art Museum, Buckingham Palace, Parliament, Big Ben, Greenwich Market, Westminster Abbey, Imperial War Museum, London Eye, Leeds Castle, Canterbury Cathedral, London Eye, Brighton, Palace of King George IV, Oxford St., Harrod’s, The National Theatre, and Billy Eliot, the musical. Whew. And I’m positive that there are at least a couple of things I’ve left out.

Just a quick aside here: I had the chance to see August: Osage County at the National and it was really something else. Well written, brilliantly acted and some really memorable moments. And to think — it was written by an NU alum! If you have the chance, see this. Unbelievable. I need to see more theatre.

Quick and dirty! Photos are below.