Bank Holiday in London

Yesterday was a Bank Holiday in the UK. And it seemed like every resident of the country decided to spend the day in London. It is just coincidence that it fell on Memorial Day, but the freezing cold winds and constant downpour we experienced here were probably far from the barbeques and lake days many of you were having back in the US!

Even though it was raining, we decided to get out and take advantage of our day off. We started off at the Mind, Body, and Spirit Festival. Nisa, a Diorama employee, is also a masseuse and yoga instructor and she got us in with her exhibitor pass so we wouldn't have to pay the 14 quid fee! There were exhibitor booths set up all over- tarot card readers, herbal remedy stores, psychics, spiritual healers, astrologists, life coaches- almost every form of alternative medicine and healing had some sort of representation. It was eye-opening, and had everything not been so insanely expensive we may have purchased more than just organic smoothies. Who knows when a color photograph of my aura would have come in handy?!

After the festival we headed to the Museum of Natural History. It was enormous, but we only stayed an hour because it was exploding with children in strollers, screaming children, running children, children on leashes, children that should have been on leashes, and their exasperated parents. Apparently schools observe the bank holiday, too! We will definitely be back when we can actually get into exhibits without waiting in line for 45 minutes. The Victoria and Albert Museum was right across the street, so we stopped there before we went home. It was an amazing and diverse collection that, once again, we will be back to visit when it isn't so crowded!

For dinner, Sally and I met up with our friend Brett who is a law student at TU and his friend Wes, who are in London for the week. We went to Chiqitos, which is the only real Mexican food restaurant they have here. Let me tell you, it was an abysmal imitation of what we call Mexican food back in Texas. Word of advice: Don't eat Mexican food in London. But you live and you learn, right? Afterwards, we went to a comedy/improv show on Leicester Square, which turned out to be pretty entertaining. The comedian took advantage of the fact that the four of us were Americans sitting in the front row, but that was to be expected...at least he didn't call us Yanks! It was nice to see familiar faces and spend time with people that don't laugh at you for saying y'all!

Today was a long day at work, and tomorrow we are moving completely out of the old Diorama building, and it will probably be another long day. That means I am off to bed! And for those of you that have requested our address it is:

Westburn Place, 2b Kilburn Park Road
Maida Vale
London
NW6 5UY

Goodnight!!