I wrote this blog last week, but forgot to post it! Here it is now 🙂

Last week I made a list of all the weekends I have left in London, all the things I still want to see, and all the musicals I still want to go too. I realized I needed to get cracking or I wouldn’t be able to fit it all in! There is so much to do in London that even after four months here I know there’s going to be a lot of things I still won’t see. However, in the last week and a half I’ve been to a palace, a museum, 2 musicals, and 2 shopping trips, so I think I’m making good progress!

Last weekend I took the train out of London to Hampton Court Palace. It’s one of 5 historic royal palaces that you can visit in London and it was really nice. The palace is interesting because it was originally constructed as a tudor palace for Henry VIII, but in the 17^th century William III had Christopher Wren (Architect of St. Pauls) transform it into a baroque design. Unfortunately, Wren never completed the changes and the palace is now half tudor, half baroque!

However, he best part of the palace for me was the gardens. When you leave the back of the palace there is an enormous garden that goes for acres in all directions. There’s dirt paths leading all around it with these triangular-shaped trees everywhere (see my facebook album soon for photos). It was a beautiful day when I went, albeit quite cold, so I spent a lot of time walking around the gardens. I finished off the trip by completing the Hampton Court Palace hedge maze!

This week I’ve also seen two musicals; Mamma Mia and We Will Rock You. Mamma Mia was fantastic! The musical is just as upbeat and fun as the movie, with the added bonus of it being a live show. At the end of the show the actors all stuck around and sang Mamma Mia, Dancing Queen and Waterloo again for the audience and everyone was up dancing and singing along!

I was supposed to go to We Will Rock You with Rocky and Grant, who were supposed to visit me in London this weekend, unfortunately they’re not coming for a few more weeks yet though. But I went to the show with a friend and although the plot was really weird (pretty much expected), the music was fantastic! There was the added drama of having the fire alarm go off in the middle of the show and having to evacuate the entire building. Luckily it was false alarm and they were able to finish the show.

I’ve been doing some more shopping as well and last weekend I checked out one of the local markets. It’s just this huge open space with dozens of booths set up throughout where people are selling everything from clothing and jewelery to vintage furniture to international cuisine. The highlight of the market for me was finding a booth that was selling all of these hand-sewn dresses made out of African fabrics! As soon as I saw the bright colours and patterns I knew it was African cloth and had to buy one!

Anyways, I’m off to Norway on Thursday to go skiing with Rocky and Grant!!!

Maria