Beauty, Culture and Tradition

Busy busy last two days. Yesterday I woke up and headed over to Kensington in the late morning to meet up with an old family friend from Valencia: Layhing. Unfortunately her daughter Natalia was out of town for a concert (she is in a youth orchestra) in the north of England, but Layhing and I had a lovely time together nonetheless.
I first dropped by her house in a very cute neighborhood near the Olympia station

Soon after, we headed to Brompton Road on our way to lunch. We passed by Harrods, which, at first, seemed like an overly large department store

but once inside, I was proved wrong...

Harrods is such a massive, enormous thing that it can't even fit into the category of "store". I felt like it was a mix between a very very very gigantic Bloomingdales, mixed with a grocery store, a cafe, several restaurants, an amusement park and a lot of steroids.
The highlight for me were the laborynth of food stores, decorated with tile mosaiacs and chandeliers.

To get to the second floor we took the "Egyptian Staircase" where a sphinx was waiting for us at the top of the umpteenth level, and manikins and an opera singer (yes, the music on the escalators was coming from a live opera singer) stared down at us through balconies on the sides of the moving staircases. 

After we got out of the maze of extravagantly decorated "luxury rooms" on the first floor and tore ourselves away from the plethora of beautiful jewelry and accessory displays that looked like they belonged in an art gallery, we heading over to an actual museum, The V&A, to have lunch.

 The Restaurant area of the museum is also incredible eye candy, with tile all around the walls and floors, huge lounge chairs, high ceilings with incredible molding, stained glass windows and chandeliers.

We followed lunch with a look around the fashion exhibition, where they were displaying clothing from a large span of decades, from the 20's, 60's and even 1800's. My favorite was this dress from the late 19th century:

Following the museum, we met up with a longtime friend of Layhing's and went to see a summer BBC Prom concert at the Albert Memorial Concert Hall.

The concert hall was incredible on the inside, seating over 8,000 people. As "promenaders" for the Proms, we were standing in the center, and were very close to the orchestra. The symphony for the night was Beethoven's 1st and 2nd. It was such a great experience. I felt like I was wreaking culture by the time it was over.
This morning we headed out to Notting Hill. We passed by some extremely beautiful, fancy houses...

 ...through a park in Hillsborough...

Which had birds like these walking around....

 ...we passed by restaurants with cool cars in the display...

 ...and finaly met up with Sophie and Adam at the Portobello Market, a huge street fair. There, I said goodbye to Layhing and Sophie, Adam and I wondered around the many stalls and cute antique shops, browsing and picking up a few gifts for those back home.

 We eventually stopped for lunch in the food stand section of the market. I had a cumin chicken wrap.

 Once we were filled with yummy street food, we made our way to the posher side of town, to see Buckingham Palace. I made a new friend at the gate who had an awesome hat,

 and discovered my talent as a royal horse whisperer.

Since the Queen was busy for the afternoon, we walked around SOHO in search of somewhere for tea. We passed by some pretty incredible pastry shops, like this cake shop/cafe, where cakes were a mere 2800 pounds ($4374)...

but settled for a more affordable New Zealand cafe called Milkbar, were we enjoyed dunking banana break and pain au chocolate into our cappuccinos, tea, and "long blacks".

 A few hours after resting at home we walked through Stoke Newington to Rasa, a traditional Indian restaurant with a very colorful outlook

 We had the  most amazing dinner, starting with street food crunchies dipped into an array of chutneys and dips...

...followed by a main course of curries, Indian breads and rice.

Once again, I am ending the day on a full stomach, full mind and exhausted feet. I will no doubt be waking up with exhausted everything in a few hours, since my flight to Nice leaves at 7am. However,  I cannot wait for the next part of my travel adventures in France!
So long London! I have so much enjoyed my stay! Stay tuned for many aventures extraordinaires to come.