www.mattmunson.com

February, 2009

My niece Saskia offered to show me around london, Student Style, for a day. I ended up having a really fun time, and saw a TON of London. Now, don't get me wrong: I've been to London a couple of times before. But usually it was either on business, or I was short on time. This trip was all about having fun. I spent about six hours exploring the city on foot before I met up with Saskia and her friends, who showed me around East London. A lot of the stuff here is just the typical tourist fare, but I must confess, it's much more fun to see London on foot than by a tour bus.

May as well start big! Here's the tower that contains Big Ben. Naturally, most people just refer to the thing in the picture as "Big Ben", but experts will tell you that this is actually the name of the bell that resides within this tower. I don't really know what the name of the tower is, now that I think about it.

During my multi-hour foot tour of London, I stumbled on their own little China Town! It was recently the Chinese New Year, so things were in full swing.

Saskia and I went to a Vietnamese restaruant for dinner. I ate baby squid!

On the topic of fish, this was a crazy fish market I found over in Notting Hill. I just thought that big guy up front was so cool, so I had to take a picture. I swear, I'm SOO avant-garde!

Hey look, it's the Gherkin! Sort of a famous building in London.

Food Hall was a crazy little market just up the street from Saskia's flat. A few of us went there for breakfast.

The building on the left has been featured in a number of James Bond movies as MI6, the headquarters of the British Secret Service. I'm told that this is the function it serves in real life too, though you'd never know it. It's not like there's a big sign out front that says "Spies Inside".

Buckingham Palace! This is the first time I've seen the palace this close. I passed by it a few times on the double decker bus tour I took last time, but this visit I had time to get a better look at it. It's big!

Look kids, Parliament!

Trafalgar Square. There were all kinds of things going on here, most importantly were the students climbing all over the giant statues in the square. Those crazy London kids! I tell ya!

This marked the end of my journey. I took the London Underground a couple of times, the last trip dropped me here. Right after this, I hopped on the bus back to Oxford.

	May as well start big! Here's the tower that contains Big Ben. Naturally, most people just refer to the thing in the picture as "Big Ben", but experts will tell you that this is actually the name of the bell that resides within this tower. I don't really know what the name of the tower is, now that I think about it.		During my multi-hour foot tour of London, I stumbled on their own little China Town! It was recently the Chinese New Year, so things were in full swing.
	Saskia and I went to a Vietnamese restaruant for dinner. I ate baby squid!		On the topic of fish, this was a crazy fish market I found over in Notting Hill. I just thought that big guy up front was so cool, so I had to take a picture. I swear, I'm SOO avant-garde!
	Hey look, it's the Gherkin! Sort of a famous building in London.		Food Hall was a crazy little market just up the street from Saskia's flat. A few of us went there for breakfast.
	The building on the left has been featured in a number of James Bond movies as MI6, the headquarters of the British Secret Service. I'm told that this is the function it serves in real life too, though you'd never know it. It's not like there's a big sign out front that says "Spies Inside".		Buckingham Palace! This is the first time I've seen the palace this close. I passed by it a few times on the double decker bus tour I took last time, but this visit I had time to get a better look at it. It's big!
	Look kids, Parliament!		Trafalgar Square. There were all kinds of things going on here, most importantly were the students climbing all over the giant statues in the square. Those crazy London kids! I tell ya!
	This marked the end of my journey. I took the London Underground a couple of times, the last trip dropped me here. Right after this, I hopped on the bus back to Oxford.