October 12-14, 2011 - Pradeep came to visit!

I apologize for not having daily posts for the past few days, but it's been pretty crazy and things will finally calm down a little now. I'm just going to do one major summary post for all four days since I'm already forgetting the details.

Firstly, take a look at the gift Pradeep got me from Copenhagen! I was so excited about finally having a decoration in my room! I was going to build it and then take a picture, but I decided that I would rather build it once I get back home since taking it apart would be too difficult....If you can't tell from the picture, its basically a rotating candle holder which will make shadows on the wall :)

Pradeep spent most of his time in London, and I was busy with class, but I did get a little bit of time to show him around on Friday. Apart from tours later at night, we went punting on the river, which was very easy to arrange since St. John's has many punts available at a reasonable cost. I was pretty much useless being so weak although in theory I knew how to punt, but I had a lot of difficulty explaining it to Pradeep. He ended up just rowing along the river for most of it. We looked absolutely ridiculous :P Unfortunately, one of my friends actually saw us... Nevertheless, we got some amazing pictures and had a really good time. I still have to get the pictures of me attempting punting from Pradeep :) I couldn't pick which one so I uploaded all three.

We really wanted to go up to the St. John's chapel tower, but we didn't end up getting the chance too since someone else was up there during the only time we had. I also took Pradeep to Formal Hall at St. John's, which was actually a French-themed Superhall (basically a lot more food than normal Formal Hall). More pictures on this coming eventually.

Anyways, our bus ride was pretty early in the morning, and London at night is simply gorgeous. Even though I already have lots of pictures like this from the last time I was in London, I figured that more couldn't hurt. There are winter decorations all over the place in the shopping district of London. It's really nice to walk around London while its dark, and it feels so different from when I traveled around with my parents...

I got some delicious hot chocolate from Cafe Nero, probably some of the best stuff I've tried anywhere around here. It's a little disappointing though because Cafe Nero is a chain, so I'm still looking to find that perfect, quaint coffee shop hidden away somewhere in Cambridge. I've tried about 4 places already :)

And this is Piccadilly Circus. Not as amazing as Time Square I have to say, even at night.

Here's the London Eye, located next to County Hall. I remember riding it with my parents! Although I guess it wasn't all that long ago...

Last time I had these night views were from a cruise on the River Thames. This was a somewhat different experience, but still really nice :) The parliament looks really strange since there's a portion that isn't lit. It was also not all that cold for some reason, which is pretty surprising for London in mid-October...

And finally, Buckingham Palace! I never realized how easy it was to walk to all these locations in London. They're surprisingly close to each other, but with my family, we relied entirely on the tube and so I just assumed the public transportation system was amazing.

And then we were off to Edinburgh! More details on that to follow.