I am off to visit my brother. I left on the night train last night and will only be back to London on Monday morning. Stay tuned for more posts on my trip. Woohoo

Hyde Park is one of the largest parks in central London, England.The park is divided in two by the Serpentine Lake. The park is contiguous with Kensington Gardens; although often still assumed to be part of Hyde Park, Kensington Gardens has been technically separate since 1728, when Queen Caroline made a division between the two. Hyde Park is 350 acres (140 hectare/1.4 km²) and Kensington Gardens is 275 acres (110 ha/1.1 km²) giving an overall area of 625 acres (250 ha/2.5 km²), making this park larger than the Principality of Monaco (1.96 square kilometres or 485 acres), but still smaller than Central Park (3.41 square kilometres or 843 acres). To the southeast (but outside of the park) is Hyde Park Corner. Although, during daylight, the two parks merge seamlessly into each other, Kensington Gardens closes at dusk but Hyde Park remains open throughout the year from 5 am until midnight.

The park was the site of The Great Exhibition of 1851, for which the Crystal Palace was designed by Joseph Paxton.The park has become a traditional location for mass demonstrations. The Chartists, the Reform League, the Suffragettes and the Stop The War Coalition have all held protests in the park. Many protestors on the Liberty and Livelihood March in 2002 started their march from Hyde Park.On 20 July 1982 in the Hyde Park and Regents Park bombings, two bombs linked to the Provisional Irish Republican Army caused the death of eight members of the Household Cavalry and the Royal Green Jackets and seven horses.

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If your so blessed to have a bright sunny day in London, with nothing really to do, then I totally recomend going to Hyde Park. Its a beautiful place filled with open spaces, trees, a lake with swans and pellicans, squirels, kids and people taking their dogs for walks. I arrived at about 10:00am in the morning and noticed there was an event of sorts going on. A charity run I think, with the finishing point in the park. I walked and walked and I was really having a good time taking photo’s of people, animals and trees. I spotted a squirel and as I was trying to take its picture ran out of batteries. I brought spares in my bag, and so I put down my bag and sat on the floor to change batteries and within seconds I had squirels climbing all over me thinking I was going to feed them, which is illegeal by the way. They quickly noticed I had no food and all ran away from me. Its a photographers wet dream this place. Do come and spend the day, especially if you have kids.

The British Museum is a museum of human history and culture in London. Its collections, which number more than 7 million objects, are amongst the largest and most comprehensive in the world and originate from all continents, illustrating and documenting the story of human culture from its beginning to the present. The museum is a Non-Departmental Public Body sponsored by the Department for Culture, Media and Sport.

The British Museum was established in 1753, largely based on the collections of the physician and scientist Sir Hans Sloane. The museum first opened to the public on 15 January 1759 in Montagu House in Bloomsbury, on the site of the current museum building. Its expansion over the following two and a half centuries has resulted in the creation of several branch institutions, the first being the British Museum of Natural History in South Kensington in 1887. Until 1997, when the current British Library building opened to the public, the British Museum was unique in that it housed both a national museum of antiquities and a national library in the same building. Since 2001 the director of the Museum has been Neil MacGregor.

As with all other national museums and art galleries in Britain, the Museum charges no admission fee, although charges are levied for some temporary special exhibitions.

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This place came highly recomended by my co-workers. This place is huge and has tons of things to see. Don’t waste your time and see everything, as you would be stuck in the museum for 4 full days. Since its free, just come back again another day if you want. This maybe called the British Museum, but its actually filled with things from all around the world, perhaps because the Brits stole the treasures from the places the invaded and shiped them back to England. Maybe thats why they can’t charge for entrance. Hehe.

Portobello Road Market draws tourists. The main market day for antiques is Saturday. However, there are also fruit and vegetable stalls in the market, which trade throughout the week and are located further north than the antiques, near the Westway Flyover.

The market began as a fresh-food market in the nineteenth century; antiques dealers arrived in the 1960s.

The market section of Portobello road runs in a direction generally between the north-northwest and the south-south-east. The northern terminus is at Golborne Road; the southern end is at Westbourne Grove, to the east. The market area is about 3,080 feet (0.58 miles or 940 metres) long.

About one third of the way from its north end, the market runs beneath adjacent bridges of the A40 road and the Hammersmith & City line of the London Underground.

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Read about this place in the guidebook I bought and since I didn’t really have much plans on a Saturday, I decided to venture there. I took a train from Croydon to Victoria, and then took the Tube to Noting Hill Gate. When I arrived, I got out of the Tube station and was totally lost as to where to go. There was one sign, but after a while, I got lost. My guide book said all I had to do is follow the crowd, however there was none to be seen. “Perhaps I had the wrong station”, I thought. I asked around and somebody told me to just walk down the road and turn right. I did so, and then I saw it. Tons of shops, selling things from antique watches, old medals and all things British. By 10am, this place was crowded, with tons of tourist and locals alike. This place is awesome.

No, I am not going into hidding, that was the title of the play I watched last night at Southwark Playhouse, not far from London Bridge.

A brilliant metaphysical tragedy about the search for happiness … ingenious, Lorca-like … an unsettling dangerous play … makes you wonder how much other gold dust falls between the gaps of British theatre.

The Guardian

We reached the place at about 7:20pm and promptly found a seat in this small yet very cozy playhouse. The stage was not more than 5 metres away from me, and the place could seat a maximum of 50 people. Almost 15 of them where from my company, including a few spouses and ex collegues who brought some friends as well. Suddenly the lights go off, and the play starts.

Its a story of an advertising executive in London, who suffers a break down. Too many long nights at work, a death of his mother, a cocaine addiction was finally too much for him. He gets himself into a spot of trouble with the law, and then tries to change his identity.

Its a 5 actor play, with Luke Noris, playing the role of Charlie, the executive. There is Sophie, played  by Katarina Cooke, who is the only other actor who plays one role. All other roles are played by Richard Bremmer, Becci Gmmell and Steve Hansell.

A briliant play! I loved how they explored the theme of exsistance. Who are we? Are we the things we own? The things we do? Are we just a name? The writer manages to capture the dilema of life brilliantly. Luke Noris, was just amazing to watch! Only GBP 8, playing from 8 October - 1 November 2008. Go watch it!

Read more about it :- here