Easter Weekend Vol. II

On Easter, my flatmates, Jackie and Jordan, met up with one of my colleagues, Elena, for church. We decided to brave the crowds and attend service at Westminster Abbey. It was packed! We waited in line  in the freezing cold for a good hour before the doors opened. It was definitely worth it, because the service was so beautiful!

After the service, we headed to Elena's place in Richmond for an Italian Easter meal. Elena is from Italy, and some of her friends (also Italian) came over to join us. We talked and laughed about our cultural differences while eating some of the best pasta I've ever had. The Italians learned about the Amish, and they were completely fascinated by them. And somehow I got dragged into their debate about which is the better city: Milan or Bologna. Still, no answer on that one.

^^Jordan, Jackie and I^^

^^Elena and I^^

On Monday, my other flatmate, Claire, and I took a day trip to Oxford. We walked around and visited a few of the colleges for several hours. Regrettably, we only got to see a fraction of the town. We didn't have a plan or a list of places that we wanted to visit, so most of the time we were wandering around aimlessly. But, we did make it to the Oxford Castle and mound, Christ Church College and cathedral, Bodleian Library, Trinity College, the Covered Market, and a few other places. Oxford is a really nice place, so I'm sad that I didn't get to spend as much time as I wanted to. 

And then… well, we just couldn't resist. 

 

Easter Weekend Vol. I

I celebrated my Easter this year with some good friends here in London. This was the first time I've celebrated Easter without my family, so it felt really strange. But, I will have to admit that it was pretty awesome. Since Good Friday and Easter Monday are bank holidays here in the UK, I had a nice long weekend to relax and tour more of the city. You know what that means: multiple blog posts about Easter for the rest of the week. Hurray! 

On Friday, my flatmate, Jackie, and I woke up early to explore Hyde Park. This park is another one of those Royal Parks here in London that I keep mentioning. We walked, talked, and took lots of pictures. This park is so big that you forget that you're smack dab in the middle of a busy city. Most people use the trails that go around the perimeter, so it felt like we had the park all to ourselves when we ventured towards the middle. I'm sure when the weather eventually warms up, the parks will be packed with people.

^^Starting to look like spring over here!^^

^^Jackie has some weird obsession over all animals. She was in bird heaven here.^^ 

^^The swans are gorgeous, but they can definitely get aggressive.^^

^^Don't be fooled by these pictures. It was only sunny for like two hours.^^

Later that evening, I went on the London Eye with a few of my flatmates. When it's nighttime, the Eye and the park below are all lit up in blue, which looks pretty awesome against the dark sky. Taking pictures inside the glass capsule was a nightmare because of all the reflections.