Apsly House and Buckingham Palace

Buckle your seatbelt folks, this is going to be a long entry! I haven’t posted in about a week so I have a lot of things to tell you about! We have had a busy week…I can’t believe how much I have already seen and done since I’ve been here…it’s crazy. A few days ago we went on a class field trip to the Apsly House. If I didn’t stand out like a tourist before, I definitely did this day. Our Professor gave all the students headsets to wear so that that linked to his microphone. I spent the morning with an earpiece in walking around with a dazed expression on my face…if that doesn’t scream “tourist” I don’t know what does! Anyway, the Apsly house was beautiful. All the walls were covered in paintings and all the rooms still had their original chandeliers. It was cool because the way they had the house displayed you could really get a feel for what living there might have been like. After the Apsly House we walked around some Garden’s and saw some statues that we are studying in our mythology class. My favorite part of the day was Buckingham Palace. I felt like I was in a movie because I’ve seen it so many times on a screen…I can’t believe I got to see it in real life! I was pretty excited to try and get the guards to smile, I’m telling you…I could have done it! But they moved the guards behind the gates so they were too far away—sad day. Oh well, it’s there loss really, they missed out on my awesome Laffy Taffy jokes!

The next day class was cancelled (boo yeah!) so that we could spend several hours at the Tower of London. The London Tower is currently the oldest building used by the British Government . In its time, it served a fortress, palace, and prison, and since 1303 it has housed the crown jewels. Lady Jane Grey, Anne Boleyn, Sir Walter Raleigh and Henry VI were some of the most famous people head captive in the Tower, and the first two were actually executed there. We saw the torture chambers, the living quarters, the great halls, the prison, and more. It is so crazy to think that I walked down the same hallways that some of the most famous nobilities of London also walked down. We also got to see the crown jewels, and oh my gosh!!!!!!!!! They were so cool! And big! And beautiful…but I am finding out here that everything is beautiful; perhaps I need a larger vocabulary. How about stunning (that’s what my computer’s thesaurus suggests at least haha)? Yes, the crown jewels were absolutely stunning. So basically the Tower of London was the bomb—I learned a lot of history and just really enjoyed walking around and absorbing what life might have been like back then. We had a few hours until dinner when we left the Tower of London so we went and walked through the Tate Modern Museum. Um, all I am going to say about that is I definitely do not like modern art. The only piece I liked out of 5 floors worth of pieces was a Landscape by Monet, and if you ask me, it was sadly out of place. So yeah, Brianna + Modern art is a bad combination.

To end the day and make it practically perfect, I had the most amazing dessert. Some of us had been studying for a while and decided we needed a little break so we went to this little waffle stand down the street. It was life changing people! But don’t worry because you will all be able to try them…I am convinced they will be in heaven! Well that’s it for now…I decided to break this post into two different entries. So more info on the way!