oh hell yes trials are over and it was the LONGEST THREE WEEKS OF MY LIFE PAKCED WITH NON-STOP STUDYING. it was add maths after sejarah after perdagangan after accounts after lit gosh.........,,, but anyway I'm thankful to have survived through them just fairly unscathed (note fairly) and am now free to finally blog the rest of my holidays!! I'm going to have to skip a few days and blog on the final day of London because I can't seem to find the SD cards for the pics in the British museums and Buckingham palace!!! :-( So i decided to just start with Greenwich, the town in London where the calculation time stems from. I remember studying about this in form 2 geography and who would have thought in a million years I would ever be able to visit the place at 16?!
Considering that its been a while since I have moved on from my travels, I do not vividly remember much details but the vague ones that still stick to the back of my mind will hopefully trigger certain memories as I am writing this post.
to keep in mind throughout the entire post:
i. I absolutely RESENT the clashing of my bright blue cookie monster shirt against the orange and black coat I was wearing so please mind that
ii. Although my hair felt fine on my head, I now realise in the pictures what a horrendous mess it was.
Anywhooo, I remember that we headed to the town of Greenwich on a boat because as we arrived at the Greenwich peer I felt slightly nauseous.
here are some pictures of us waiting on the pier for the (i forgot what you call it cause it's not a ferry but it's like an electronic ferry idk I must sound like a moron) (so let's just call this a water...vehicle) water vehicle.
and so finally entered the vehicle and it was so beautiful inside!! It was akin to an aeroplane but with MUCH wider space equipped with a bar and a cafe and everything. It was so high-class it made me feel like I stepped into this Victorian era film with poofy dresses, white washed faces and rosy pink blush. It was magnificent.
Well, for the first 10 minutes anyway.
because I soon fell sea sick and was having a horrible headache which left in a state of:
HAHAHAHAHAHAH I'm thankful no one reads these so that this pic will forever remain purely in my memories
lo and behold after a somewhat interesting but treacherous ride, we arrived in greenwich!!
had a nice worker by the pier grab a family snapshot of us!!!^^ (annoyingly my mum couldnt keep her eyes bloody open)
we just casually walked around and the biggest building we saw was the Old Royal Naval College so we entered cause the sign said welcome HAHAHA
Upon entrance, there was this board which was full of messages from people all around the world and of course, I felt obliged to leave them one.
im so sorry for being the embarrassing child, Malaysia.
also there, we met a lovely lady who couldn't stop raving about their painted hall. and (almost forcefully but cheerfully) guided us there. her constant persuasion: it's free. My dad likes art like this so he was pretty excited and my mum, sister and I just decided to tag along cause it sounded interesting.
and when we arrived..I understood. I could comprehend the lady's excitement because the place was STUNNING. Pictures do NOT serve it justice. Honestly, in the pictures you are about to see below, you would just scroll through them thinking "mm nice." because it appears as any other historical artsy picture. Keep in my mind this is not a picture. These are paintings. PAINTINGS. And they are fabulous.
and the interior is so cute and christmassy too!!
they place mirrors all around the tabletops because the ceilings were painted too!! THE ENTIRE ROOM FROM WALLS TO FLOORS TO CEILING TO WINDOWS WAS ALL P-A-I-N-T-E-D. How cool!! forgive my uninformed ass on art but coming from someone who doesn't know the first thing about the beauty of art, I have to say it was beautiful.
and so we soon exited the place after marvelling for a good 30-40 minutes and visited the National Maritime Museum.
and so after a little wander through we decided to head up to see the Meridian line - clearly the main reason why we came to this town anyway.
to get there, we had to stroll through this gorgeous park and I swear. I felt like I was in Gilmore Girls. Ok, its an American show but being in a small, cute town with such beautiful nature.... I had the feelz ok.
and so as we reached the museum + greenwich line area we bought tickets (we got the ones inclusive of the digital guides so I was having a little Warner Bros Studio Tour moment with them as I taught my parents how to use them)
before actually showing you the greenwich line however, the guides take you to every little inch of the museum. While I found the vast majority of it intriguing, there is only so much information on the beginning of time one could relish in. And I soon got exhausted.
the museum as a whole, I would say, was a very enlightening experience. I have never really bothered to place such heavy thought on where in the word time started - how did they come up with such a theory? Why the 12 and 24 hour systems? We even got a glimpse to the four stages of clock structures from stage I to the ones we have today.
this all looks like something from Back to the Future honestly HAHAHA
and after a good session of just roaming around the museum, we finally got to the meridian line!!
here is a random picture of me standing on the meridian line!!
thereafter marvelling at something that I only used to see in my form 2 geography textbook in real life, we exited the place (which, might I add, was atop a beautiful hill) making me feel as though I was in the railway children - the english lit book we used for form 3 literature.
also, did I mention how adorable this town is? I swear if I were to retire, I want to spend my last days on Earth here. Such a "ye olde" feeling to it and I sincerely felt as though I was in a movie.
So, we came across this nice dim sum shop but then decided to think it over because we were in Europe for God's sake - who comes to Europe to have its dim sums?! Walking along further the street we saw Jamie Oliver's restaurant - my sister and I really wanted to try it but did not even dare probe our parents on the issue because as I have mentioned in my first post on London travels, the food here prices extraordinarily high; even their mcds meals.
After a continuous walk around the town, we also stumbled upon a cute market radiating the most heavenly aromas. We decided to check it out and this then became our lunch spot.
we ate on random chairs that were found in the market btw!! It was such a cool experience. I can see that this is pretty normal for the locals though. The local teenagers would all be grouped up in their own cliques and eat under the arch entrance of the market, adults on the little wooden benches provided and seemingly lost tourists like us were scattered all about. It was truly a beautiful sight.
chinese fooood ^^^
of course we had to get some considering
a) as I mentioned above, we were in the mood for Asian cuisine.
b) comparably, how would it taste?
BEST BURGER AND FRIES EVER. THEY MELT CHEESE FROM A CHEESE BLOCK IN FRONT OF YOUR EYES AND SERVE IT TO YOU WITH AN ARRAY OF SAUCES I SWEAR TO GOD I COULD USE ONE OF THIS RIGHT NOW.
The only shot of Chinese food before we dug in ^ Flat. As expected. But pretty ok overall. We opted for rice over chow mein noodles.
mini pancakes with nutella, small marshmallows and cadbury chocolate!
you know sometimes I can really understand why the best of literature stems from England. The awe of the place and the charisma of it serves as a muse big enough for the least intellectual individual.
after a hearty and fulfilling meal, we looked for some drinks to wash it all down and I finally!!!!! came across a superdrug which sells Zoella Beauty products. I purchased them at a 2+1 half price offer and was happy to have had a chance to try them.
my purchases!!!
and the drink I got upon some random recommendation on instagram. Well it sucked. Guess its a good thing I don't see this around malaysian supermarkets.
after shopping, we then headed to Tower bridge which crosses the River Thames and is on a different line on the tube to Greenwich town so we had a short ride there. (actually, I'm not sure if I'm mixing this up with a different day but there was one day where we walked all the way to the destination but seeing as there are no pictures of us walking to the Tower bridge I presume I'm right HAHAH)
I wander thro' each chart'd street
Near where the chart'd Thames does flow
And mark in every face I meet
Marks of weakness, Marks of woe.
I kind of have to debate with William Blake on his poem now because as I've had the chance to personally people watch across the Thames River I have to say his claims from the year of 1794 is not applicable literally today.
That of course, is speaking from a skin-deep observation for there were smiles all around but maybe they mainly stemmed from oblivious tourists, masking the truth of these Londoners.
ok back from the deep session, we carried out taking photographs and just waiting for the big Tower Bridge opening.
look at the map of this place!! It looks like something out of a Harry Potter film.
They were selling tons of tiny marshmallow covered chocolates which were soooo good. But priced at 5 pounds ie. RM35 each, haha I guess one should suffice.
and also,
London's night life...my oh my..
The opening of the Tower Bridge was spectacular!! They first halt the cars then raise the platform of the bridge from the middle to allow this gorgeous ship - alongside other tinier ships to pass through. There are no pictures of that but let me assure you even my description doesn't do it justice. I took a video though, I might compile another vlog from the few clips that can be saved from the dslr.
and thus, ends our final night in London, her showing us how ravishing she can be, making my heart tug more at the wonder of when will I ever be back there to bid London hello and admire her beauty.
Till the next post where I bid au revoir to London and say hi to Paris,
