It Is Raining

Today I was looking forward to lounging in Hyde Park with a good book. Alas, it is not to be so. This is my first rainy day in London and I'm almost glad I woke up at 11 a.m. so that it's halfway over. I am not a fan of rainy days.

Yesterday was a beautiful day. I woke up nice and early and went to have lunch with Helen (Clara's friend) in Covent Garden. We ate some delicious Cornish pastries while watching "The Tom Show" perform on the street. I'm a sucker for street performers - I gave him four pence...

Tom the street performer and a view of Covent Garden Market.

After lunch we strolled around Covent Garden and then put our walking shoes on and hit the city (I didn't actually change shoes, this was just a convenient turn of phrase). We blasted through Covent Garden and then hit Trafalgar Square, Horse Guards, Southbank, Chinatown, Leicester Square, and Piccadilly Circus. All in all, a good day. I thoroughly enjoyed the street performer and opera singer in Covent Garden, taking the a picture with the iconic lion in Trafalgar Square, seeing more street performers on the south bank, realizing that there was a cache of delicious but inexpensive Chinese food (my favorite), seeing the set up for the premier of Eat, Pray, Love, and knowing how to get home all by myself from Piccadilly Circus.

The Iconic Lion

The Queen's Life Guard at the entrance to Horse Guards.

Colorful lanterns in Chinatown.

I went all the way back to my dorm, got my running gear on, and then headed back to Hyde Park to do some jogging. In hind sight, I should have found a running route to Hyde Park and not taken the tube but I didn't want to press my luck. Also if it took more than thirty minutes I would have been done for but tomorrow I'll give it a try. So I ran around for about thirty minutes and saw a good deal of people and the water and geese and swans and whatnot. A lady actually stopped me to ask if I'd run past the Princess Diana Fountain as she was looking for it but could not find it. Unfortunately I had not. If I do, though, I'll take a picture and call my mom directly.

I thought about heading back to Leicester Square for the premiere of Eat, Pray, Love but I don't think sweaty and breathless me would have made a good impression on Julia Roberts. Heads up though, this is where I would suppose the cast of Harry Potter comes for HP7. Chea.