Broken Social Scene and London at Night

London at night is incredible to view because all of the famous buildings and locations that you are already in awe of from having seen so often in pictures and in films are completely lit up and glow from miles away. Starting at the Westminster Cathedral, we walked around central London until our hands were freezing and our faces were flushed from the icy winds coming off of the Thames River. Its' dropping to the low 50's and 40's here so when looking at these pictures you may want to turn up your air con to get the full experience...!

This was the first place we visited so it was still light out. Westminster Church is the leading church in Britain and the Pope was here a few months ago!





Valet boxes in England are a little more traditional looking than just a plain box! I had to take a picture because I thought it was so cute...

Westminster Abbey

Big Ben at night is really a London landmark. You can see it from miles away and the way it is framed by the London Eye and the Parliament Houses makes the setting even more perfect!

If you walk out along the Thames River at night you can go aboard different dinner cruise ships that have full bars and restaurants floating on the water. The nights can get chilly with the breeze coming off of the water but it is worth a go every once in awhile for the view.


The next night we headed out to Covent Gardens for Broken Social Scene. We stopped at a little Japanese restaurant for dinner and I took pictures of all the origami for my cousin Logan to see because he is the origami master of the family. The rock fountain at the front was covered along with the walls and the sides of the stairs. All the little bright colors you see are different origami pieces!


The music venue for Broken Social. The venue was called Koko and was one of the largest I have ever been to. The giant disco ball made the red walls sparkle and even the guys in the band were impressed by the four storeys and size of the building.

Sunny Thoughts

This weekend tossed ideas I had about glum English weather out the window and gave us sunny skies with warm breezes. It was perfect, in fact, for a day at the beach. There were a couple brave individuals out in the water but it wasn't quite warm enough for a swimsuit and a tan...Even so, it was great being out under blue skies!











Jesse taught me how to skip rocks the right way! My way didn't really get any skips...




Nights are always the best when you can end them with a walk to the beach and some fish and chips wrapped in paper (the traditional way).

Tate Modern

After move in and orientation at Sussex I had a few days on my own so I went to visit Jesse in London. While I was there we discovered all different parts of the city, including Bricklane, Tate Modern and the nightlife in Soho.

The local art adorning the sidewalks of Bricklane, which is apart of the Bengali district in East London. On Sunday Jesse and I went to an outdoor market and went through tons of local vendors. There was also a lot of food stands that had everything from Spanish to Indian to Japanese. We both had fun walking around and feeling like locals...!

This was an old bus that was made into a food stand! It was called the RootMaster and there were all fresh organic soups with an upstairs on top of the bus that you could either dine out of or order from the wine bar.

Later in the night, Jesse and a friend of ours bought tickets for dinner and a show at a theatre in Soho. This was a pub we stopped off at to kill some time before we ate. I thought it looked like one of the conventional pubs you would expect to see in England.

Dinner was at a restaurant called Tiger Tiger Bar but it was just mediocre. The play made up for the ok dinner and was at this great little theatre. We saw 'The 39 Steps,' which is a comedy/mystery that is supposedly based on an Alfred Hitchcock film but I'm not exactly sure which one. The whole play was performed by only four actors and they did a wonderful job; even Jesse was glad that we dragged him along!



A lot of the streets around Soho look like Times Square in NY with the exception of the many historical monuments and classic architecture in certain spots.


This was the front of the theatre we went to; it was only one of about 15 different playhouses in the West End.

China Town was right around the corner from where we were and so we walked over and discovered that on the weekends you can get Chinese food at 1:30 in the morning at a great restaurant...Unfortunately, we had already eaten so we opted for a pub called O'neills. I was looking forward to hearing British music in the clubs but the DJ at O'Neills played Rihanna and Gwen Stefani all night...

By the Beachside

After a lot of sightseeing and venturing around the city I finally hopped on the train to Brighton and moved into my tiny flat. I am basically back in the dorms but things aren't so bad because we have two kitchens and single rooms. The city makes living a bit outside of London worthwhile because there are loads of fun restaurants, small shops and pubs/clubs to visit. Take a look at the first glimpses of my new home...

The first night we found a Spanish restaurant that was in a trendy part of Brighton and had tapas and sangria. It was a great way to spend the last night that my mom was in town.

This is the famous Brighton Pier during the day. It is really quite nice but I don't think I would go on any of the carnival rides...

As international students that are new to the school we are grouped with the 'freshers' at University of Sussex. Every year there is an annual initiation for the freshers called the 'Pub Crawl' and one ten pound ticket will gain entry and inexpensive drinks at numerous clubs and pubs. These are some pictures from the places we visited that night...

This was a traditional pub called Ye Old King and Queen and was my favorite that night. Tuesdays are Karaoke and we got there in time for a Spanish exchange students rendition of 'Your Song' by Elton John. We were with a lot of other international students so we also got to see a lot European girls go crazy when a girl sang the Maquerena (spelling?). It made the whole night worthwhile!

This was the Spanish Elton John. Can anyone read the drinks on the signs behind him? And would anyone order the one in the middle? I hope not...




The Brighton boardwalk all lit up at night. This is the view we have from most of the clubs.

The beach here doesn't have one grain of sand. Instead there are huge and rounded smooth rocks covering the shore.



Cheers!