Versailles & London

wandering through the beautiful grounds of the chateau de versailles including l’orangerie, le petit and grand trianons and le domaine de marie antoinette, laying in the grass under a tree reading steinbeck and the smell of lavender all through the grand trianon, the queen’s chamber and the galerie des glaces (hall of mirrors) in the palace, dessert from angelina before heading home.

there is never any ending to paris and the memory of each person who has lived in it differs from that of any other.
we always returned to it no matter who we were nor how it was changed nor with what difficulties nor with what ease
it could be reached. it was always worth it and we received a return for whatever we brought to it.
hemingway; a moveable feast

booking the wrong check in date for my hostel but somehow getting to stay the first two nights in a double bed on my own instead of my regular dorm room bunk, making friends and meeting some lovely bloggers at the lily & anna picnic, buying underwear with molecules and little stars and planets and lots of frilly socks from primark, drinking a butterbeer at the warner bros harry potter studio tour, catching up with the lovely zoe who i last saw when i was in london in 2010, getting ~street style snapped~ on carnaby st, having a bit of a moment when the guy at the british museum cafe asked how much milk i’d like in my tea because for the first time in months someone cared that i got my tea the way i like it, buying books and records at camden markets, wandering through the national gallery and national portrait gallery, a friend from back home announcing a surprise gig in london while i was there, hanging with him and his friend while they found backline to borrow a couple of hours before the show, seeing him absolutely kill it and hearing his music and feeling like i was at a gig at home because it was so wonderful and familiar, getting back to the hostel at 5am and realising i’d left my key in the room, but by a divine miracle someone was awake and let me in through the back, and then i managed to open the fire escape door from the outside to get to my side of the building and into bed, sitting front row on the top deck of a london bus, buying hogwarts and beastie boys t-shirts from primark, catching up with a friend from my egypt tour group, having the best time at the michael jackson thriller musical, running into a friend from sydney at portobello road markets without even knowing he was in the country, the museum of broken relationships at the southbank centre’s festival of love, buying records from spitalfields markets, the utterly fantastic tate modern museum, finally visiting big ben and buckingham palace on my second last day in london, going to a back to the future themed secret cinema screening with my friend from back home, seeing thousands of people dressed up like it was 1955 with a whole town set up and cars driving around and actors playing out scenes from the movie and lots of delicious food and everyone dancing and then sitting on astroturf to watch the movie, having far too much fun to take more photos.