Sorry I didn't post yesterday, got home and was so tired after unpacking etc that I went straight to bed.
Yesterday was pretty annoying to be honest. I was aware that First Great Western (who run the trains from Cornwall to London) were having a strike this long weekend, but had been assured by the man at the train station that the 8.15am service to St Erth (where I would change trains) was going ahead. So nothing could go wrong, right? ....WRONG. Rocked up at the station with about 50 other people. It got to 8.15....no train. After 15 minutes we pressed the assistance number and were told by a voice the train had been cancelled. Everyone was really pissed off and we then formed a queue and everyone borrowed my pen to write down what journeys they would have to take instead. I'll admit, yesterday was the first time in a long time that I've thought "sod it, I want to go home!" Doesn't happen very often, for the most part I'm having a great time. But after waking up four times because I was so itchy from the bites, I was not in the mood for a train strike.
Lucky for me I ran into the girl who had been sleeping in the bunk above me the past two nights, and it turned out she was heading back to London too. So we spent the remainder of the day working as a team to run to platforms, secure seats on the very busy trains due to the strikes and secure luggage space. She even leant me a jacket as - unusually! - it was very cold on the train. It wasn't until we finally arrived at Paddington at 3.30pm (about two hours later than we thought we would) that I realised neither of us knew each other's names. Funny how you chat all day sitting next to someone and don't know the simplest thing about them! It turned out her name was Alana. She was on a two week trip and came from Canada. I was so glad of her company yesterday, she made my day bearable!
Got back to Paddington and got the tube and bus back to the flat. It's strange how quickly seven weeks went. I remember leaving feeling like I was never coming back, and here I am already! Cecilie met me at the flat as she had been staying the last two and a bit weeks, and gave me the keys. I did fairly well. Three lots of people have rented my room over the last seven weeks and the only thing missing was my top sheet. Bit weird, but never mind! That's pretty good considering! Everything else was still where it should be.
I spent the night doing two loads of washing, cleaning everything, vacuuming and unpacking all my stuff back into my room. So by the time 9.30pm rolled around I was absolutely wrecked and watched some TV in bed. Then I crashed about 10.30pm. I only woke up due to itching once. Mark gave me a huge bottle of aloe vera which I doused myself in as well as the steroid cream, and I placed some frozen peas on the worst areas before bed.
Woke up at 8.30am and lay in bed for a bit. I was in a wonderful predicament this morning - what should I do?! As itchy as I am and sometimes I do feel homesick, I must say it's pretty bloody amazing waking up in London and trying to pick what off of my London List I should do. Life is so hard ;)
The weather said cloudy but no rain, so I chanced it and didn't take an umbrella. My first port of call was the Columbia Road Flower Market, which runs from 8am to 2pm on Sundays only, about a 20 minute walk from my flat. The market probably stretched for about 100m, and I walked down the road taking in the sights, sounds and smells. There were lots of sunflowers, hydrangeas, orchids and heaps of other flowers. The hydrangeas reminded me of the ones in our backyard at home! I had a chuckle to myself at the vendors all shouting over each other in their 'Norf London' accents - "free for £3, two for a fiver!"
I then walked via Brick Lane market to Aldgate East station, where I caught the district line to South Kensington. I watched 'The Young Victoria' movie and learned quite a bit about Queen Victoria the other week whilst in Wales, so I was keen to finally tick the 'Victoria and Albert Museum' off my London list. Affectionately called 'The V&A', is the world's largest museum of decorative arts and design, and houses over 4.5 million objects! From the movie I know that both Victoria and Albert loved art and design, so this is a very fitting museum!!!
The museum is huge - 12.5 acres to be exact. I found the best way to explore was by walking around aimlessly, and this seemed to work well. I started off in a section about the history of fashion, dating from 1750 to today. It was interesting reading all the blurbs and seeing how all the fashions have evolved. My personal favourite was the 1920s, and I loved looking at those dresses and picturing the likes of Mary and Edith from 'Downton Abbey' wearing them.
I walked through lots of galleries, seeing designs and sculptures from all over the world - China, Southeast Asia, India, Israel and the Middle East, Europe. My personal favourite were the two cast courts. These two rooms contained huge plaster reproductions of statues and sculptures from Spain and Italy mainly. These were popular in the 19th century around the time the 'V&A' came about, as people couldn't really afford to travel at the time so coming here and seeing Michelangelo's 'David' for example was the closest they would get to Florence. I also liked the 11m long glass blown chandelier adorning the main entrance!
After a great couple of hours (I love the free museums here!) I went walking. First I walked down to Green Park and past Buckingham Palace. Now it makes sense why Victoria's statue is out the front - she was the first monarch to live there! I'm so excited for September 13 when I get to go inside the palace. Watch this space! I continued on to Big Ben, and then walked through to Trafalgar Square. It made me feel a little sad walking through all these areas and seeing all the places I visited with Erika, Brendon, Mum and Dad. But in Trafalgar Square there was a fantastic group busking and playing popular songs on violins! I kept walking up to Oxford Street, and here I popped into Primark to buy a new top sheet, and then did some grocery shopping.
Whilst trying on a shirt in Primark I caught a glimpse of my bites and they've actually gotten worse :( Must admit they look so awful that I got a bit of a shock and had a bit of a sook. I think I just need to accept that at least for the near future I'm going to be itchy and sore on my legs, arms, back, hands and feet. It's just not fair that it happens just before I'm headed to Croatia for the first proper summer weather I'm going to experience since February. Can't be helped, guess I just wear my summer clothes and not care when people look and whisper (which, no matter how much I tried to tell myself otherwise, kept happening at the 'V&A'). Can't be helped, time to toughen up and push on!
I walked back and now I'm in the flat packing for Croatia. I'm so excited!!! Jamie will be here later (he's been in Sheffield this weekend trying out for the Europe AFL team, but didn't get in :( ) and we are catching a bus to Gatwick Airport tomorrow morning.
See you all in Croatia - it's forecast to be 33 and sunny all week!!!!
Love to all
Claire
Xoxox
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