After breakfast we took our heading to Kensington Gardens. It is just next to Hyde Park, you can't really tell where the line goes. It was about 7min walking. Kensington Gardens surround the Kensington Palace. This is the place where Queen Victoria was born and where Princess Diana and Prince Charles lived and Prince William and Prince Harry grew up. Right now there is a royal dress collection in the building.
It was weird to walk there and think if I lived there I would like to go jogging there. I mean, the park was full of joggers. They came from every direction every time of the day. I'm telling you, football isn't he favourite sport in Britain, it's jogging. I would have loved to join them. Then I heard that it was Princess Diana's favourite place for jogging as well. Though she did it with a bunch of securities.
Weather was marvellous again and I just wished I had time to just sit on the grass and relax there. Or maybe go to picnic. Though I wished that the next day the weather wasn't so nice- I really hoped to see the real London weather. I mean, I had my raincoat in my bag at all times.
I took some pictures, walked around the Round Pond and went back to Queensway tube station. We drove the Circle line to Notting Hill Gate (which was just one stop away) and wanted to go on with the Circle line. Somehow we managed to get into a District line (that went to Wimbledon) train and went on the wrong way. We realised that when passing the Earl's Court station. So we got off at West Brompton, took another District line train that went to St. James's park. It was silly, but at least we saw the place where the underground came up to surface. I mean, in most areas it is really deep under the city. It goes under the river Thames.
So we got off at St. James's Park and went past Guards Museum and the house where the royal guards live to the Buckingham Palace to see changing of the guards. Square in front of the palace it was full of tourists. In some parts (where better view opened) you couldn't even walk.
Changing the guards mean that every day (or every other day, not sure) at 10 am old guards of the queen get exchanged by the new ones. There is horse cavalry there and an orchestra. When one of the boys asked our tour guide, what music do they play, we got a surprising answer. I thought it was classical music or traditional English songs, but no. I mean, they could play it but it depends on the mood of the bandmaster. They could even play ABBA. Didn't expect that for sure. By the way, the queen was at home that day, because the royal flag was up. Didn't see her though.
Then the whole thing started. The cavalry came,then the new guards. During the exchange the band was playing. You can imagine my look when I suddenly heard the notes of the “Dancing Queen”. It was really... can't describe it really. Heart-warming, maybe. Then they played “The Winner Takes It All”, “Mamma Mia” and “Waterloo”. How cool is that! Then there were some other songs, that I didn't recognize including one I'd heard in a washing powder commercial. After it was over we went back to the tube station and drove to Knightsbridge, the richest district in London, where most of the consulates are, including Estonian which was just near to Royal Albert Hall. However, we were going to visit the most famous and expensive department store in the world- Harrods.
Our guide told us that if we go in as a group we won't get in. You also might not get in, if you wear sneakers or trainers or don't look rich enough. So we all went in as different doors as we could find. I got in and there was no problem.
Walking around I started to realize why it is so extravagant. When passing the perfume section one of the salesman gave me an perfume example. I mean, in usual stores they have testers and you spray it on yourself and that's it. In better stores they have those little papers, so that you wouldn't have to spray all on yourself at later smell like you have taken a bath in them. But you see, over there they have their examples on a ribbon, that has the perfume's name on it. And I have to tell you, I could smell it on the ribbon two weeks later. Anyway, mine was Givenchy's Ange ou Dèmon, Jasmin Sambac. It was quite good, actually.
The food department over there didn't seem like a food store at all. There were paintings in the ceiling and it felt as if I've stepped into a old-fashioned kitchen in a big mansion. Wanting to proof, that I'd actually been there I bought a jar of chocolate chunk cookies.
The first floor was in Egyptian style. I saw a memorial to Princess Diana and this guy, whose name I can't write. There were guards on every door and everything was so pretty. About Harrods it is said you can find or at least order everything from there. I believe the sentence was: You can have everything there from a pin to an alive crocodile. I mean, the queen orders her table silver from there. It is possible to order private planes or jets there. Like wow.
When I got out ( I don't know which door, so I had to walk around the building to get there, where we were supposed to meet) I saw that the half of our group was already there. It turned out that many of them didn't get in at all. Well, luckily I got (even though I wore sneakers).
For moving on we didn't use the Tube anymore. This time we got into a double decker and went straight up. It's like driving an ordinary bus that has two floors. But it's the point that matters! So we went to Marble Arch (huge Arch on the Hyde Park corner, separates the Park Lane, Bayswater Road, Oxford Street and Edgware Road). Basically we had more then 5 hours to be there, on the Oxford Street, the biggest shopping street in London. I wanted to see the whole street but I was so tired that didn't even manage to Oxford Circus.
I mean, I went to this shop- Primark- which was really cool shop. Nice clothes and extremely cheap. But the thing is I had to stand there 20min in the line just to try clothes on. That was really murderous. But I got a lovely T-shirt (£4.89), velour jacket (£4.89) and belted jeans (£9.79)...the exchange rate is about £1=18 EEK. I wanted to buy, oh so many stuff, but was really afraid, they won't fit into my bag. And I bought some more key chains.
There is this free newspaper, that were distributed- The London Paper. So I got two or three of those (1 per day). I mean, if you sell something, you're sad, if people don't buy your stuff. But they gave those away for free and were still sad if you didn't take one. I had to tell one guy, that I already had one for three times. He still wasn't convinced.
Me, my cousin and his girlfriend, we went to Pizza Hut to get some snack. The pizza there was way better than the one you can eat in Estonian pizza restaurants. And I ordered a glass of apple juice and I must tell, in Estonia for the same money you get three times less. The glass was huge.
I checked out few more stores, then went back to our hostel. Had a warm shower and went back to Hyde Park. Actually, to Kensington Gardens. They were very pretty, but I couldn't go far, because it was closing time. So I sat a bit the park and watched the Sun go down. It was that moment when I realised that London is the place I want to be. Everything was like so familiar and I felt as if I was at home. I've never felt that good in my hometown Kuressaare. I was exhausted and a bit angry with my cousin, but it didn't matter. It was that moment I knew I will be back. As soon as possible. And for a way longer time than 5 days.
My thoughts were interrupted by the Sun. The park's gates will be closed when the Sun goes down (in summer 12 pm). So I stood up and walked to the gates. If you're too long there then they just close the gates and if you can't climb over you have to spend the night at the park.
After about 30min we went out again, took a double decker and drove to Piccadilly Circus. There was this quite big black guy, quite young. Had earphones on and just danced. It was another thing you don't see amongst Estonians (except when their really drunk). And there was another guy, sitting just right in front of some building and screamed. Everybody looked, that maybe something had happened, but if they saw that nothing, they were like “OK, whatever. If the dude wants to scream, so be it.” He was quiet for a while then screamed again. When back to the square, it is the place where young people usually meet.
There were street artists there. One of them came up to me and said that I'm so pretty and he really wants to paint me and he'll give me 50% off the price. Unfortunately we had only 10 minutes, so I had to say “No” to his begging.
We saw our group already on the other side of the road and couldn't go because there was red light and lots of cars. So we waited. When we finally got over,they were gone. We saw a tube station there and went down quite quick, but couldn't find them. So we went with the Bakerloo line to Oxford Circus and then with the Central line to Queensway.
Back on the Queensway street I bought myself a Liverpool FC scarf. Then we saw a Starbucks cafe and went there.
It has never happened to me, but I'd seen what real divas do in this situation. I got confirmed I was no diva... luckily. In there I ordered peppermint tea ( it was too late for coffee). And just as the waiter started giving it to me, his hand slipped and it all fell to my lap. It was hot, but more than that it was wet. He started apologising with a great panic and all the other waiters were also quite exited. I didn't see if any of the customers saw anything. They started showing me, where the toilet is, really anxious. When I told, it's OK, my hostel is just around the corner,it didn't help. So basically I was the one with the wet lap, calming them down. But I got my tea, said it's OK, for like the 100th time and we went away.
Just out of the store I started drinking it, and well, I think the water was still boiling. There was a warning sign on the cup, but I was thirsty. So nothing really tasted the same for the next two days, cause I'd burned my tongue pretty bad. I guess it just wasn't my day.
But what I know for sure is that the next day we had to go home.
xoxo K.
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