At The First Clear Day

Contrary to its title, this post is nothing like a surrealist painting.

BUT, we finally had a nice sunny day in London and I had quite an adventurous afternoon. I had planned to get up early and explore on my own, but I ended up sleeping until past noon and just went along to London Bridge Station at two in the afternoon to meet up with my friend Alex, a Skidmore student who's originally from London. We went to Borough Market for lunch (which also happened to be breakfast for me) and to look at all the lovely food stalls and smell the lovely smells (really, it was magnificent. And so here is a photo of my first ceremonial plate of fish & chips (it's cod from fish!, a vendor that Alex insisted sells the best fish & chips in London):

...and here is a photo of what they looked like after I was done with them - minus the handful of leftover chips that I somehow managed to spill on the street (because, as you will learn, I am obsessive compulsive about documenting things like this):

But Borough Market really was lovely - they had all manner of breads and cheeses and meats and olives and spices, even smoothies and a vegetarian stand or two. Here are just a few pictures I took of some of the stalls:

 These fellows were quite nice and even smiled for my photo (that would never ever happen in a Parisian market...):

 Apparently ostrich meat is quite popular here:

After the market, we walked across the Millennium Bridge to St. Paul's Cathedral (although of course we didn't go in - what with the lines and the crowding - it's easier to appreciate from outside):

And on our way to the Cathedral we saw Shakespeare's Globe Theatre:

And the Tate Modern:

And then we went to Covent Garden and saw a fellow on a unicycle who was juggling dangerous things in his underpants (pictured below he's got knives, but later on in the show he had chainsaws):

And then I went on my own to Trafalgar Square:

And after that I had an absurdly long walk home, on which I saw Westminster Abbey (albeit from across the street:

And the London Eye all lit up for the night:

And the long walk was made a bit more pleasant when I saw this restaurant: 

Which was interestingly RIGHT ACROSS from an Alice in Wonderland billboard featuring Johnny Depp as the Mad Hatter. But now I think I'm going out someplace or other, as it is Saturday night, so I shall leave off here and post more when I have more adventures and corresponding photos to share. Cheerio!