St Patrick's Day in London

After staying around campus Saturday, I felt the need to get out and do something this weekend. And so, I ended up going to the St. Patrick's day Parade in London with a friend. After taking a train to London that nearly stopped at every little station between Brighton and London Bridge (believe me there are a lot) and then hopping on the tube (my first ride on the tube! It wasn't very exciting though) we made it to Trafalgar square just in time for the parade. It was crowded but I managed to wedge my way through to a decent spot eventually and had an "OMG I'm in London" moment.



As the parade went on things started to look a little mardi gras-esque. Instead of Mardi Gras they celebrate pancake day on Shrove Tuesday in the UK. British pancakes are a lot like crepes and they often eat them with lemon juice and sugar. Here at East Slope, we celebrate with American pancakes (thin pancakes seemed to ambitious for my cooking skills) and then some of my flatmates made British pancakes. It was certainly a pancake-ful day! Anyway, it almost seemed like St Patrick's Day is the British go wild, drinking in the streets, spring event that makes up for their lack of Mardi Gras. I don't really know who these costumed people and puppets were but they sure spiced up the parade.




There were also all day events and performers in Trafalgar square but it was completely packed so Kelly and I decided to move on.



So we headed off for the tube station near Abbey Road and followed some other touristy looking people to the site itself. It was hilarious. A small crowd was gathered around the street and took turns dashing across the road and posing in between traffic. It was so funny to watch. Of course we had to take our turns risking life and limb for the required pictures too.



Photos taken, we were off to the final site of the day, Kensington Palace. Again, we weren't quite sure how to get to this from to tube station but inferring from a couple passing tour buses and finally judicious use of a map (the only time all day! I call tat success), we found it. Part of Kensington Palace was closed for some kind of work but some of the State rooms were open and they had an exhibit called the Enchanted Palace going on. It was slightly creepy. The rooms (no pics inside) were done up in creepy ways (large puppets, tree branched, creepily projected shadows) so that you couldn't see that much of the rooms themselves and the exhibit focused on seven unhappy princesses that had lived in the Palace. Really it was very weird and creepy but innovative at least, and we got a sticker for finding the names of the seven princesses. Score! The princesses of Kensington Palace were: Queen Mary II (1662-1694, married to William of Orange), Queen Anne (1665-1714), Queen Caroline (1683-1737, married to George II), Princess Charlotte (1796-1817, Daughter of George IV who had the Royal pavilion in Brighton built), Queen Victoria (1819-1901, grew up in Kensington Palace), Princess Margret (1930-2002, man she was glamorous!), and Diana (1961-1997, not quite as glamorous looking as princess Margret, maybe we should blame the 80's). The exhibit was good despite the creepiness and it was cool to learn about the inhabitants of Kensington Palace, which was originally built/ became a palace under William and Mary. The ground around it were lovely too.