Goodbye, London!

I went on my last trip to London a few days ago.....I wanted to say goodbye to the city. Although I doubt I would ever live in London (expect if I got filthy rich and could live in one of the nice parts), I have grown attached to the city and I wanted to say goodbye.  My planned trip was a short one. I just wanted to cross two things off my list that I hadn't been able to get around to so far. These two things were the Museum of Natural History and Regent's Park/ Primrose Hill.

When I set off the weather was supposed to be partly cloudy with 0% chance of rain. Well halfway through the train ride it started to pour. Luckily by the time I got into London at roughly 11:30, The trip to the museum was mostly underground via the tube, so by the time I surfaced it had stopped raining. I think I have gotten pretty good at navigating London's underground. It is so much simpler and better planned than NYC's, and I managed to navigate my entire trip without any assistance from the internet. I would like to think I don't look like a tourist anymore...but then again I was going to a major museum so who knows.

The museum was free of course. Actually free. Not like the ones in NYC that have a "suggested" donation and you have to walk up to a register to get in. Unfortunately for me, I didn't notice any maps (although I was later informed they were everywhere...must have missed them), so most of my time in the museum was aimless wandering. I followed the signs to the dinosaur exhibit, because Andrea had warned me that the line to get in there could take hours. First I passed through mammal fossils. (I apologize for the not so great photos. I only had my phone on me)


That sign below the rather scary looking water animal told the story of a woman who single handedlly discovered most of the fossils in this collection. Her name was Mary Anning, and she discovered her first complete skeleton at the age of 11! I was sitting on my couch watching Lord of the Rings on repeat when I was 11.....

Eventually I found my way to the dinos, and thankfully there was no line to get in. However once inside it was like moving thousands of cattle through a very narrow passage. The passage took you past a couple large skeletons, and then up some stairs and down a platform over the main exhibit. For some reason people move through this section at one step a minute, and you have to weave through the crowd if you actually want to get out before you lose your mind.
There was some cool stuff though, and they had robot dinosaurs that moved which was pretty cool. My favorite thing on the sky walk of never ending shuffle walking was these two ENORMOUS arms that were menacingly hanging from the ceiling.
"Give me your first born child!"....sorry. It just looks like that is what the arms are saying. You can see one of the robots down in the corner of that photo. Could you imagine how large the animal was that had been attached to those arms? DINOSAURS MAN! LOVE EM!

*Ahem* At the end of the hall there was a big robot t-rex! That was unexpected and really neat.
It didn't do much. Just moved it's head around and made grunting noises. Still cool! After I left the claustrophobic dinosaur exhibit, I went through the mammal section. The most interesting thing about seeing taxidermy mammals is always seeing the extinct ones. The rest are like...well I could go to a zoo and see examples of this animal that aren't dead. The large animal section was interesting though. It was a giant hall with plastic (I assume) whales and dolphins hanging from the ceiling, and the large mammals on the ground floor.
I of course went for the orca, because they are my favorites. This hall actually reminded me a lot of the Natural History Museum in Edinburgh....and when I say that I mean they look exactly alike. I don't think the one in Edinburgh had a blue whale though.

On the other side of the museum was the geology section, which had the coolest entrance to anything ever. It was a giant suspended earth, lit up all red, hanging in a completely black hall with ethereal music playing. An escalator went straight up through the middle. Of course I rode it.
It was pretty awesome. Unfortunately at this point in the day there were about a million tourists overtaking the museum, and I had to leave for the sake of my sanity. I headed up to Regent's park pretty quickly.

I have been to Hyde Park a few times, and I have to say Regents Park is wwaayy better. It was so beautiful. If the weather had been better I could have stayed there all day (still no rain yet).

However I was out of water and hadn't eaten since breakfast, so I was pretty desperate to stop somewhere. Before I did though I dragged myself up Primrose Hill. For those that don't know, Primrose Hill is basically the only hill in London, and from the top you can see the entire city. It is also famous for being a good place to see celebrities, as many live in the area. I didn't see anyone famous, but I did see a bunch of dogs, which is almost the same.
Here is the view from the top of the hill. Pretty nice. I didn't stay long though because there were too many cuddling couples for my taste. I walked down the hill and down Primrose Hill Rd looking for a place to eat. I eventually found a place that had a menu that didn't repulse me (seriously what is it with rich people and weird food?) and went in. It was a cafe, so this shouldn't have been weird, but the wait staff seemed very taken aback by the fact I was alone. They were very awkward about it and it made me a tad uncomfortable. I tried to be friendly and charming though, and wrote in my journal a bit. The food was delicious. A salad with lettuce, chicken, avocado, and pumpkin seeds. Absolutely perfect. After leaving that place where the waiters looked at me funny, I walked back to the park and sat down for a bit....until it started to rain. I took that as my queue to head for the train station. The walk back was rather pleasant, mostly due to the fact that there was no tourists anywhere. I was pretty much walking through neighborhoods, a complete stranger. It kind of made me sad.

London, although I quite enjoy it there, was not my home. I knew it much better than the average tourist, but it was not home to me. Then I thought about it, neither is Birmingham. I have lived the last year in a place that was not home, a place where I am an outsider, and although I will be back in the States shortly I will be moving across the country to be in another place where I will be a stranger. Will Seattle be my home? I don't know. It is a depressing thought though...

Other than that moment of melancholy walking to the train, on this trip I really handn't gotten emotional about being in London for the last time. It didn't hit me until I was on the train heading back to Birmingham. I glanced back after about 15 minutes and realized I couldn't see the city anymore. That is when it hit me. A horrible grief mixed with fear. I wanted to cry but I was surrounded by people so I held it in, and the feeling eventually passed. If that is how I felt leaving London, I can't imagine how I am going to handle leaving the country in a few days. Probably actual tears. I cried when I left Scotland four years ago. This is probably going to be much worse...

So yea, that was my last day in London. Sorry if this post has been touched with sadness. I am not very subtle about the fact that I don't want to leave the UK. I want to make a home here. But sadly circumstances have not allowed it. Maybe I will be able to come back in the future, but who knows. For now, all I can say is goodbye London. You are a far greater city than I expected and had ever given you credit for. <3