and after all this can you give me a smile?

london is a foggy city. the houses are petite fours and stone (mind you i was negating the other aesthetic preferences of london including red, blue, and white – behold the union jack!) from here i spiral into a love fest for the neat city of london. it is beautified with the most brilliant greens of ample gardens and long, blissful parkscapes. the lush, black (white) swan yet totally sexy (vaguely central park-esque) hyde park leads to green park which leads to buckingham palace (which i was intent on not seeing, in lieu of the museums). my route was south kensington to sloane street (harvey nichols and yo! sushi) and then up to the southern-most edge colliding at the river thames. I frequented picadilly circus, oxford circus for the floral, woodland fairy palace of liberty and regretably, a cornucopia of shops. i furthermore explored every museum i could get my hands on: the tate britain, where i fell in love, the tate modern (where i minutely died at malevich), the national gallery, the imperial war museum, the tower of crowned jewels, a gallery called the unit (fantastic!), the v & a. before culturally climaxing with my undying love for the v & a, i must note that the million-tiered department stores are like museums in and of themselves. pristine, in an inviting yet untouchable (in a way wholly inspired by the sheer expensiveness of the items) way that allowed pure unadulterated observation sans consideration, these elegant, bustling meccas served as museums in a sense as well. i spent the days either wandering london town in a state of blissed-out solitude, or chatting with claire, eva, and edwina in their fabulous flat, feeling quite at home by the frenzy of warm personalities and wine-soaked evenings. as for the victoria & albert museum, i can’t stop raving about the alexander mcqueen exhibit that i saw with claire… it was a multimedia nightmarish extravaganza. the beautiful, overwhelmingly haunting biography of alexander mcqueen was presented in an unforgettably dark exhibition (holograms, bdsm and the like). finally, i kissed the forever easter streets and shops and cafes goodbye, and left my beloved london.