Abri's Walking Tour of Beautiful Places

Hello all :)

Pictures added to Album II from Walkabout and of my dorm area:
http://wlu.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2012659&l=62f42&id=19000059

My photographic adventure: http://wlu.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2012903&l=a1992&id=19000059

Today was a lovely day. So lovely that I got to wear a tank top and flip flops and walk around the city taking pictures and embracing my creative side. I was in heaven. After sleeping in, I sadly woke up to an empty flat. Everyone else is gone this weekend to various locations around Europe, but I've decided to stay to see Caelah and to go to the worship conference tomorrow. Caelah arrived in London around 6 am, but she did not get to her flat until around 1:15 or so. I know because I went there to wait for her. :)

Caelah's flat is only about eight minutes walking distance from mine. I went around noon, figuring that they had to have arrived by then, but no. A plane was late, or something like that. So I ran some errands and then came back an hour later in time to meet her as soon as she arrived. :) And carry some of her stuff upstairs. She had to start her super busy orientation weekend pretty much right away, but we still managed to get four or five hugs in during the ten minutes we were together. As Rachel says, we are the "huggy family."

I spent the afternoon walking around London taking pictures. It was such a beautiful day that I knew I couldn't waste it. I decided to start in Russell Square, a park closer to Caelah's flat than mine that is really pretty. After that I took the tube one stop up to Kings Cross because I just had to find Platform 9 3/4. :) It's so close, but it's kind of confusing. There's a lot of construction around it. I did manage to find it, though, as the pictures will attest. :) After that, I took the tube all the way down to the Tower again because I wanted to get some pictures along the Thames. Along the way a musician hopped on my

I wasn't planning on walking all the way from the Tower Bridge to the Millenium Bridge, but I did. It took me about an hour. It's a pretty long walk, and parts of it are a little sketchy because of construction, but it was really pretty and I enjoyed it. What I did not realize was that the Millenium Bridge is literally right by St. Paul's Cathedral. I was very pleasantly surprised to see it when I turned around on the bridge!

It was around 4:40 by this point. I headed over to the church and took some pictures in the courtyard, and then made it inside for Evensong at 5:00, the evening service at the cathedral every day. It is a combination of Vespers and Compline written by Thomas Cranmer, the first Archbishop of Canterbury. It is a sung service, so it's more of a listening thing than a participation thing, but it was still really meaningful and I enjoyed it a lot. The ten or so men who sang the liturgies blended really well. I was one of forty-five people who got to sit in the front of the church near the choir, where everything was going on. :) So that was really cool. I also got to go into the church for free because I went for a service! Very exciting.

I was really hungry by that point so I came back to the flat, made some dinner, and then did picked up a bit. Talked to the family and Brian for a while, and now I'm going to get a good night's rest before my worship fun tomorrow! Wonderful day, sweet dreams to all...