Borough Market and Hyde Park

So this blog will mostly be about yesterday since I didn’t have time to write yesterday and we didn’t do all that much today. Yesterday was actually a really nice day here, sunny and warm, so we thought we would take advantage of the nice weather and go to one of London’s famous markets: Borough Market. The Borough Market lies near the bank of the Thames and is massive—much bigger than any of us thought it was going to be.

Borough Market

There were dozens of stalls selling everything from desserts to fruit and fish and beef to jarred preserves. We did a walk through once trying to take it all in, exclaiming over nearly every stall selling all kinds of delicious looking food. My friend Megan and I stopped by a stall selling fresh-pressed fruit juices and got a bottle each. Mine was apple and raspberry and it was great! I want to go back just so I can get more. 

First Bratwurst!

After we had walked through the whole market, we thought we might as well get lunch since this would be a perfect place for it. Megan and I were on the same wave-length again and stopped at a German stall selling these massive bratwursts—another great decision since they were delicious.  We ate in the courtyard of the nearby cathedral, Southwark Cathedral—one of the oldest cathedrals in London which was a perfect setting for lunch by the market-side. And after lunch we all thought we might as well make the experience and meal complete and grabbed some dessert from another one of the stalls. 

Southwark Cathedral

Dessert stall!

Though we stayed at the market late into the afternoon it was too early and too nice to go back so Emma, me, Lisa, and Lisa’s friends headed to Hyde Park. I need to find other words besides beautiful to describe things, but that’s what Hyde Park was. We walked through the Rose Garden first and with all of the flowers in full bloom and the sun shining down with barely a cloud in the sky; it could not have been a more perfect for it. 

We sat near a fountain for a while before continuing to walk and happening on the giant pond where you can rent paddle boats and canoes. There were also a ton of birds—pigeons, swans, geese, ducks, and a bunch of other water fowl that I couldn’t name—and they are fearless. You can literally walking within six inches of them and they won’t move. And pigeons here have no sympathy for your personal space—they will fly within centimeters of your head. But we took the path that runs along the side of the pond and walked all the way around before taking a different branch and making our way back to Oxford Circus as the sun began to set. Emma and I want to go back to Hyde Park to ride bikes soon—or on the next nice day, whichever comes first. 

Hyde Park with Lisa!

Today wasn’t as exciting or nice. It was cloudy and a little misty again. This weekend is London’s Open House weekend where a bunch of places that aren’t usually open to the public are open for free tours so Emma, Megan, and I tried to hit as many places as we could. Unfortunately, every place we went to had lines that were miles long and not moving. We tried St. Paul’s Cathedral, The Gherkin, and Tower 42, but we weren’t successful at any of them and after hours of walking around we decided to cut our losses and go back to the dorms to hang out instead, which turned out to be fine as everyone was tired and was content to just sit and talk anyway.