Day 3 - London, continued

Started off the day by purchasing a "bacon and egg baguette" and tea for (3.30 gbp for sandwich + 80 pence for tea), from a food truck right outside the apartment. The "bacon" wasn't what I was expecting, and resembled more like a salty ham. Also, it seems like the Brits love their sauces. The cook asked in a heavy British accent what sauce I wanted on my sandwich. Of course, I had no idea, and I didn't even know what my choices were, so I responded, "whatever is the most popular." She said something about a brown sauce, and I was like "sure, that sounds good." Then she said something else in really heavy British accent, which I couldn't quite make out, and I just said "yeah..." and I ended up with ketchup in my sandwich. -_-

"Bacon" and egg baguette, with ketchup

Rest of the day was pretty straightforward. Went to see the Changing of the Guards at Buckingham Palace. Got there around 11 AM, but it was already packed, and I barely managed to get a decent area at the far end of the area. To be perfectly honest with you guys, I don't see what the big deal is, but everyone was clawing their phones out to take as many close up photos as they can, and even videotaping the whole 15-20 minute ordeal. I got out when the bands started playing, and took a nice panoramic shot to show the crowd (on a Monday morning!).

The Old Guards marching out -- see, nothing special. Did I just offend a lot of Brits?

About good 10-15 minutes after the Changing of the Guards. The band was still playing, and you can see people lined up outside the gates to watch the guards.

A nice walkway from Buckingham Palace to Westminster

Next, I revisited the British Museum. I was planning on doing three tours there today (Medieval Europe, Ancient Rome, and Assyrian Relief). These are so so wonderful, and if I stayed here long enough, I would try to do all of them. The first talk on Medieval Europe was really good. Sometimes reading the descriptions and the poster boards gets old, and you don't fully take in everything that you read in those, but when you have someone who can talk to you about it personally, you become more engaged. The last two I planned on doing was canceled, for some reason. I shall return again tomorrow!

On Westminster Bridge

I also did a self guided audio tour from Westminster Bridge to Trafalgar Square, visited the National Gallery, and visited a cafe and a bakery -- got a flat white for 3.30 GBP (a British thing), a Cinnamon bun and a walnut roll. Can the male baristas stop drawing heart shapes in my coffee? Both the pastries were good, but also set me back 4 GBP.

Flat white, from Valerie Patisserie

Later in the evening, I met up with Soj, had fish and chips for dinner, and we walked around the city, eventually coming back to Chinatown for some glorious bubble tea. Pretty good day!

"What if they run away with your phone?" "I can run pretty fast, too."