Day 7 the last day started off with a big breakfast, bacon, 3 scrambled eggs, sausage, and ham. Our first stop of the day was the TATE Briton, unfortunately, we were only there for an hour and nothing really caught my eye there. The next stop was the British Museum which was huge I could have spent a whole day there and not seen everything. One exhibit we had to see was the postcard exhibit, it was about postcard old and new that was really interesting.  There were 3 cards that caught my interest, The first a card with a businessman taken a selfie smiling with a huge fire or explosion in the background, the card was made by kennardphillipps called Photo Op from 2005. The second card that I was interested in was a yellow card that had the same word (wordswords) repeated 5 times in the middle in red. The card was just very clean, and I know that I stop and looked at it because of it’s in your face yellow and red colors. The card was by Stuart Mills and was called a homage to Wyndham Lewis created in 1969. The third card that I looked at was a dark green card with big bold white text in the middle saying “I will paint your floor green”. I think I liked it because it was funny but also because the text was a sans serif in all caps. The card was by Ruth Ewan called I will paint your floor green created in 2008.

Day 6 was our free day so I slept in till 10 and got breakfast late. There was a group going to abbey road so I deiced to go with them and see the historical crosswalk. I had no idea that the studio where they recorded was right next to the rode. Also on the wall surrounding the studio, there was a lot of graffiti of people signing their name and writing beetles lyrics, I always carry a sharpie and I put my name on the wall. After that we went into the gift shop that was next to the studio, there were a bunch of infographics about what music was recorded there and the famous people who had visited to record. Jay-Z, Kanye Westnd Pink Floyd where some big names that stood out to me, also the soundtrack for the James Bond movies had been recorded there too. After that, we went to see platform 9 and three quarters from the harry potter movies. We ended the day at Buckingham Palace with our leg/feet hurting.

Day 5 started at 9:00 with our group catching a train to TATE modern museum. The TATE building was the first thing that caught my eye with us walking inside was basically was a man-made crevasse. With 10 stories, 6 on the right 10 on the left, it looked like the building had been used to make boats before being converted into a museum. There where a bunch of cool peace being displaced like Pablo Picasso’s weeping woman, Andy Warhol’s self-portrait and Haegue Yang’s blind installation. That same day we went to the national galleries where I saw some more history art piece. The first peace that I went to see was Jan Van Eyck’s portrait of Arnolfini and the man in the red turban. Both peace where painted in the Flemish style in oil paint and are also surrounded in mystery. After spending too much time staring at those paintings I made my way to the DaVinci and Vincent van Gogh piece. I took photos of all the peace that I studied for art history and sent them to my classmates to get a reaction. Seeing the actual paintings in person adds a whole new perspective to the art.

Day 4 was the first day I finally got into the right sleeping pattern and woke up for the day rested and ready to go. unfortunately, it was raining out and I hadn’t brought my raincoat or umbrella so hoped from awning to underpass until getting to the Design Museum. The museum had opened up in 2002 and was very up to date with their collection of computers and other electronics on the latest models. There were a lot of cool installations there inducing one called making memoirs which was about building being and already built that have to do with something in history. Thwholele exhibit went into details about what the building was representing and how certain part of the building where directly attached to parts of history or the culture they were made for. After we all made our way to the Victoria and Albert Museum. There where 2 exhibitions advertised there, the Dior exhibition which was sold out and the video game exhibition which was closed. The most interesting room in the museum was the plaster room of famous statures like a Lifesize cast of Michelangelo’s David and the column of Trajan. There where other casts but those are the two that stood out.

Day 3 I started off my day late walking up at 8:30 and rushing to breakfast before we left at 9. We all hopped on the underground and took the hour-long ride to Kew Royal Botanic Gardens. When we got into the garden I was shocked to find out how much there was to do, there are over 300 acres and they employ over 700 people. I could have spent the whole trip day there was just so much I wanted to see like the color tower and the tree top walk which was closed. While there we mainly walked off the path and explored on our own, walking we got to see lots of ducks and peacocks. We got to visit a lot and take amazing photos as well, hopefully, one day I will be able to go back and spend a day there.

Day 2 of the trip I woke up at 8 and made it downstairs for breakfast, I had a 3-egg omelet. After that the day got off do a slow start, first it was extremely windy out, second, there was the London half mile going on which made our plan to use the bus tour harder than expected. Eventually, we made it onto the bus by Saint Paul cathedral and made it to the London Transportation Museum. I honestly thought that the Museum was going to be a waste of my time, I didn’t really care to learn about the history of the double-decker red buses but I was surprised to learn a lot of cool stuff. I found out that the Underground was built in 1863 and they used a dig and cover techne, first digging a deep trench then creating a half circle out of brick and cement then covering the trench. There also was an exhibition, “London Stories” an illustrated poster exhibition. One of the posters on display stood out and caught my eye, it was called “The Blitz and Ravens of the Tower of London” by Dawid Celek. The poster only used a very simple graphic with a hand full of colors, it was about the bombings that happened during WWII and depicts six silhouettes of ravens around Big Ben while a blimp drops bombs. The poster really stood out because of its dark blues and vibrant yellows/reds. Not only was the poster eye-catching the story about the six ravens interesting as well.   

Day one we landed at 7 in the morning in two groups, we meet up by the parking lot and got the bus to the Apex City of London hotel. We grouped up putting our suitcases away and headed to the pub which was a 5min walk down the street. I had already been to London so I knew of the street signs and how the driving sides where switched, but I had a hard time understanding which way the traffic was coming. Ireland also drives on the right side of the road and most of the cars sold in Europe have the steering wheel on the right side. I’ve been to Ireland and driven in Europe but even today 3 days into the trip I still am questioning myself on what way the traffic is coming. Fortunately, London is an international city so most of the roads have signs telling you what way the traffic is coming. I think that with time the driving style over here will click with me, but Because of the jet lag and me not knowing where to do that first day was a bit overwhelming.