For those of you familiar with London, Green Park is basically right in the middle of the city. It's bordered by Buckingham Palace, Hyde Park, Picadilly Circus and St. James Park. My initial thought was to just sit on the grass and read to enjoy the remaining bits of daylight. It wasn't until I plopped myself down that it occurred to me it had been raining earlier today...a wet butt reminded me of that. No biggie...wrapped my shirt around my waist and continued walking.
I should point out that the reason you're getting this little tale is because I DIDN'T have my camera today. And so I'm going to try to be a verbal camera supplemented by google pictures (thank goodness!) and fuzzy cell phone pictures. But I had to share!
Okay...so I was walking. I wandered around Buckingham Palace. Nothing unusual there except the funny way the guards walk...which they have to do so actually very...usual. In St. James was where I first wished I had my camera. There is a little lake/pond thing that weaves its way through the whole park which means lots of ducks, pigeons, swans and geese. But I saw some geese I'd never seen before that have this really cool pattern on the back of their head. Turns out they're called bar headed geese...totally uncreative...but they're pretty. Here's a google pic of them:
Then, a bit further down the pond, there were three pelicans that appeared to be ready to hunker down and sleep for the evening. In the middle of the path! If you've seen a pelican up close...you know they're big dudes. So...big dude birds...little path...photo-op. (In my head..."What was I thinking? I need to have my camera surgically attached!") So...google photos to the rescue:
Later, as I was walking near the London Eye where all the human statues are, I saw one I hadn't seen yet. A guy who looked like a bobby up top (police guy) and a ballerina on the bottom. Don't ask me why...didn't make sense...but funny nonetheless. Google images was stumped on this one.
The best photo op - rather video op - I discovered rounding a curve along the Thames. I came upon a bunch of people looking over the railing and music with musicians I couldn't locate. I walked to the railing and peeked over...and there were 5 guys...3 sitting on a sofa made of sand playing music...and 2 dressed like pirates carving more amazing things out of sand. They had already carved a sofa, coffee table, skull head (cause they're pirates of course) and treasure chest and were working on an octopus and something yet to be identified. It was really stinkin' cool. They had a little bulls eye laid out too for people to toss coins down...which I did of course cause they had mad skillz. The only pictures I got were with my cell phone though so you'll have to imagine it through the fuzz.
At the end of my day, I was walking home from the tube station and New Cross was all aglow with the sunset. Everything looked like it was lit with gold from the inside out and the sky was amazing shades of purple and blue. I think even if I'd had my camera it wouldn't have done it justice. I don't think I've ever seen new cross look so pretty.
So there you go. A few hours out of my day and a big lesson learned. The lesson...you never know what experiences or moments will catch you off guard, make you smile and have you wishing there were someone with you to see it. When all else fails though...google images, adjectives and blogs to the rescue.
Goodnight :)
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