Sorry for the long delay again. I actually had my first few assignments due at the end of last week and was bogged down doing them. This past weekend though I came across last minute cheap tickets and booked a trip to Amsterdam with 5 other friends. Amsterdam is by far one of the coolest places I have ever been. The reputation of the city is all about the drugs and partying but what's hardly mentioned is the fact that it is one of the most beautiful cities in Europe.
The trip was a lot of fun. I got to experience a hostel for the first time ever. I also managed to get a bit of culture while there making stops at the Van Gogh Museum among other historical places. One of the coolest things that we did was going to get Indonesian food. I have no idea why Amsterdam has good Indonesian food but one of my friends heard that going in so we decided to try it. I took a picture of the incredible spread that was brought out for us in what was one of the best meals I've had in awhile.
We also managed to find a pub full of English people to catch the England v Sweden game in the Euro Championships. The game was a fantastic game and it was a lot of fun watching it in what was a semi authentic place.
After getting back to the UK I had a field trip on Monday. This field trip was all through the historic financial area known as the City of London. This part of the city is the oldest area and is one I haven't explored much as of yet. I snapped a few pictures and afterward two of my classmates and I decided to check out some of the cool pubs we had seen along the way. We pub hopped from a cool pub near the Tower of London, to one in the alley used as Diagon Alley in the Harry Potter films, before settling to watch the evenings football games in a pub that is in an old exchange house. Here are the collection of pictures I took.
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| Bank of England |
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| Diagon Alley |
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| Again you can see the dragons which is the symbol of the City of London |
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| Again |
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| The Lloyd's Building. The companies inside change frequently so they designed the building with all the utilities, elevators, toilets, etc. outside so that the inside part is very customizable. |
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| A part of the Old Roman wall. |
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| View of the Tower of London from Tower Hill |
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| View from Tower Hill |
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| Again |
Just of clarify the City of London is not the whole city but rather one of the borough just like how I live in South Kensington. They even have their own "mayor"called the Lord Mayor of the City of London, who is appointed every year and lives in what is known as the Mansion House. He is always a member of one of the old guilds in the City of London that still exist such as the candle makers, etc. While London as a whole has had a mayor for less than 20 years the Lord Mayor of London has existed since the year 1189 which makes it a pretty cool historical office.
The rest of this week should be pretty dull for me as I have quite a bit of work but I will update when I can.
Mickey
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