As you may or may not know I’m back in Canada now as my UK visa was up this summer. It was really tough to leave, but c’est la vie. Anyway, knowing I’d be leaving for good I spent the last few weeks wandering the city, seeing friends, and eating delicious food!
(The photos aren’t great as they were all taken on my phone.)
Around the neighbourhood
I can’t even begin to express how in love I fell with South London this year. I was living around Elephant & Castle station in Southwark and it was fantastic. I could walk or bus almost everywhere I needed to go, there were parks galore, it was a multicultural hub, and just generally an endless amount of things to do.
Burgess Park – We had several weeks of gorgeous weather and I spent a lot of time here:
Buddhist centre – On one of Saira and I’s weekly adventures we wandered into a spiritual centre down the road from my house and discovered this beautiful meditation room:
Dunning Library – I walked by this building daily on my way home from work. It’s stunning:
On the walk home:
St. George’s Circus – Nothing exciting, but I walked or bused through here several times a day. Each side of the column stated the distance to a major landmark:
Finishing my post-grad
I also spent my last few weeks in London finishing my final paper for my post-grad. Many afternoons were spent writing in the park:
Star Trek Live @ Royal Albert Hall
A friend told me about a screening of Star Trek at Royal Albert Hall. As I’d never been, and love Star Trek, it sounded like a great idea! And icing on the cake- When I arrived one of the ushers upgraded my ticket, putting me in a much better seat, and I found a program (selling for £10) under my seat. Score!
Inside RAH:
FREE THING:
The film played on a large screen while the orchestra and choir performed the entire film’s score live. It was incredible:
And guess who showed up to introduce the film? Simon Pegg (!!!), JJ Abrams (*bows*), and Michael Giacchin0 (score composer):
Playing tourist
I, of course, needed to play tourist one last time around the city.
Trafalgar Square:
Cleopatra’s Needle (1st year of uni memories!):
Oxford Circus:
River Views:
Piccadilly Circus:
Leicester Square:
One last gig
I saw a ton of incredible concerts while in London, so the last one needed to be epic. Lucky for us Arcade Fire were in town:
Not-so-lucky for us, we missed the last couple of songs because I was booted in the head by a crowd surfer and blacked out from a minor concussion… But some hilarity ensued at the doctors, so that’s something, right?
Urban exploration
For our final adventure Saira and I wandered around an old eerie hospital in south London, which had a derelict sanatorium on site. It was also raining and dusk, aka perfect ambiance for such an adventure.
It was definitely a great last few weeks, but I was still so sad to leave. It was hard to say goodbye to everyone, to pack up the last 2 years and head home (minus the time home for sickness last year!) without knowing what was coming next. It’s been a couple of weeks and I still have no idea, but in London I finished my post-grad, gained a ton of fantastic experience, and met the most incredible people. It was a great experience, and at the end of the day that’s all that matters!
Sloane Square | Being Alive 