England

This Alpha just went on a two week trip to England to see her sister graduate and tour the amazing city of London! So different from the US and Japan, where most people are extremely polite and quite posh. They aren't afraid dress themselves boldly either! Here are a few places I went to (or passed by and wish I went to).

Royal Holloway, University of London (in Egham)

Although this is a little far from the city (about a 30minute drive), this University is the most beautiful one I have ever seen. In all honesty, it looks more beautiful than the Buckingham Palace. The building shown above is called Founders. It is shaped like a square and is hollow on the inside (where the quad is and where the picture is taken from). Not only is the outside of the building beautiful but the inside as well! There is a chapel, a picture gallery, a pub, classrooms, dorm rooms, faculty rooms, and probably more.

Al Sultan Restaurant

One of my favourite restaurants my family and I went to TWICE over our entire trip. Al Sultan is a Lebanese restaurant. What I found quite interesting was in the very beginning, they presented us with a place of raw vegetables. I love raw vegetables, but the peculiar thing was that there was a whole tomato and green pepper (first picture). The second picture is of our starters (from left to right: hummus, fried fish, aubergine, rice wrapped in vine leaf). It is located just off of Shepherd's Market.

The Saatchi Gallery

The Saatchi Gallery is a contemporary art gallery in London, located on King's Road. There are rooms and rooms of different works and everything inside the gallery is so different. Let me show you a few of my favourite works. 

This one is a bit strange... Richard Wilson had the amazing idea of filling a room with simple features such as windows, a pole, and ceiling designs with OIL. Yes, the dark part you see is about one meter of oil. It smelt very funky in there but I could not take my eyes off of this. The white windows you see on the bottom and the dark pole and the two dark rectangles you see on the bottom are all reflections. 

This piece was interesting and creepy at the same time. The people sitting on the tree trunks looked possessed, yet this is certainly an innovative piece. The tree trunks you see there are all completely hollow and painted all the way inside. 

Bar Shu Restaurant (in China Town)

Bar Shu is a Chinese Sichuan restaurant. Sichuan food is always spicy, but flavoured well. The asparagus, cucumber, jelly fish, and chicken were my personal favourites. There are many options to try this amazing cuisine!


The Royal Courts of Justice

This is where the founder of WikiLeaks, Julian Assange, went for his extradition appeal. Although I'm not familiar, I'm sure many famous criminals or alleged criminals went to court here. This one is also a beautiful building and I would have loved to go inside, but I was on a double decker bus.


Hyde Park Stables

At Hyde Park Stables, you can ride all the way around Hyde Park. Depending on your ability they let you do different things. For example, I can canter, but since I haven't ridden for 6 months all we did was walk and trot. The horses are well trained, especially because we have to walk by cars and walk through busy roads.

Other places this Alpha went to include St. Paul's Cathedral, Trafalgar Square, British Museum, The National Gallery, Covent Garden, Hawksmoor Steakhouse, and the Tower of London. 

Love,

ALPHA