Notting Hill

This week has been pretty uneventful. Classes were fine, nothing too exciting. Today, since my classes are over at noon on Tuesdays and Thursdays, I decided to take a long walk and explore my surroundings. I set off toward Hyde Park, which is just around the corner from my building. I wandered through the park, following The Serpentine, which is a long, curved body of water in the middle of the park. I was actually following signs for a Peter Pan sculpture and it happened to be right near the water. Convenient because the water was absolutely beautiful, whereas the sculpture was not so thrilling. It was quite small and anticlimactic and I almost got attacked by a flock or two of birds on the way, but worth it in the end as I got some great pictures.

St. Albert's Memorial--There are a ton of things dedicated to him around here!

Inside the park

The Serpentine, close to where it begins

The slightly disappointing Peter Pan sculpture

Fountains that seem to be where The Serpentine begins

When I got past the fountains, which were sooo pretty by the way, I wandered out into the city. I stuck close to Hyde Park because I wasn't 100% sure where I was, but I knew generally where I was headed. I'm still in awe that there can be such a massive, beautiful park in the middle of the city. It's as if there are two completely separate worlds here, though you can move from one to the other in a matter of minutes. So cool.

Anyway, I started wandering along the sidewalk until I came to a point where I could no longer see the park. This happens sometimes so I just continued walking until I decided I should probably turn and try to get back to the Park. I turned left because that's the side the park was on before, and I found myself faced with a long road of flats. I thought perhaps the park was at the end of the flats so I continued walking that way (no, I did not know what was at the end of the street because when I say long, I mean can't-see-the-end long). I only knew that I was in Notting Hill because I found a bookstore called Notting Hill Books (!!!) with, wait for it.... a blue door next to it!! Super exciting. Anyway, I meandered down further and further until finally I came to the end of the road and lo and behold, another road. I had no choice but to turn right (I couldn't turn back because I walked by some people outside and I couldn't walk by them again; at least night right away), so I turned headed down another street. It was much shorter and I decided to turn left when I came to an intersection. As I wandered farther down the road, I noticed a busy road up ahead and decided to see if I recognized the name. As I got closer, I realized it was Kensington High Street, which is right by me! We go there all the time to do grocery shopping and other errands. That was where I was trying to get to, but I had no idea that I was so close! It was quite the adventure.

The bookstore and...

...the blue door! OK, not QUITE the same as in the movie... but close!

I just thought this was cute.

The road on which I was semi-lost

When I got to High Street, I called Katy because she wanted to go get hair dye for herself, so I walked back toward our building and we met on the corner. We successfully found it in a Walgreens-like store called Boots. I bought some light brown hair dye that washes out after about a month... should I do it?? I'm super curious and somewhat willing to color my hair because it'll wash out soon... but I've NEVER colored it before so I'm not sure!

Better get to bed now, we're waking up at 6 AM tomorrow to head off to Liverpool! You'll hear all about that in a few days!

:)

Jackie